Ted Dibiase Sr. Talks Frustration With Son's Status Before He Announced His WWE Departure
As noted earlier, Ted Dibiase revealed that he decided not to re-sign with WWE and renew his contract. I recently interviewed his father, WWE Hall of Famer "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase. During the interview, which will be published in its entirety this week, Dibiase discussed his frustration with his son's status in WWE.
"Ted Jr. [initially] went there and did very well," Dibiase said. "Shot out of the cannon , did a movie and did the whole thing with him and [Randy] Orton and Cody Rhodes. It's kind of like everything seemed to go cold. That's kind of a mystery. He's also had a couple of injuries, but when you talked to the boys, when you talk to the guys producing the show, Arn Anderson and Michael Hayes and the guys that are helping the talent, they've all told me, 'your kid is one of the best wrestlers we've got.' Timing's everything, I know that.
"They kind of went off in the wrong direction, in my opinion, when they tried to make him an extension of me. That whole bit where I gave him the belt and he kept saying, 'I'm not my Dad,' but that's when he's starting to act like me. It didn't work... of course that's not what he wanted to do. It's really a mystery to me. People constantly come up to me, even now, and they go, 'your son is so good, why aren't they doing anything with him?' I say, 'you know, that's a good question. I don't really know.' I'm not really sure where my son is too right now, in terms of, he had an injury and while he was injured he was off during the last couple months of his wife's pregnancy and during the first couple months of his son's life. I remember when he was getting ready to go back on the road he called me and he said, 'Dad, I just want you to know, I get it now. Now I know why you didn't want me to do this.' He said it's really hard to leave this little boy. I said, 'well, I tried to tell ya, but some things you just have to learn that way.'
"Again, the business is just a business. There's people that have labored and labored and it takes them a long time before they get that break and then they get it. Then sometimes, I've seen guys with a lot of talent never get it. It's the nature of the beast."
The first part of our three part interview with Ted Dibiase Sr. will be posted on this site this Tuesday afternoon.