'Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase On Real Life Friction W/ Virgil

On The Difference Between He & Ric Flair:

Ric Flair and I – we’ve wrestled together, we’ve been friends for years. I teased Ric one time and said, ‘Hey Ric, here’s the difference between you and me. You’re spending your money. I’m spending Vince’s.’

On JBL:

JBL was the cowboy version of me. He was the same. He was the rich cowboy who talked real big, but he would do the same thing and you just never got tired of seeing him get his butt kicked.

On The Undertaker & “Stone Cold” Steve Austin:

I don’t think anybody foresaw what The Undertaker would become and I do remember that in watching Mark work and to work that gimmick and to have a match and move like he had to move to be The Undertaker, that’s not easy and for him to have lasted as long as he did. I know he took a hiatus and came back as a different character for a little while, but everybody wanted The Undertaker back. He’s just one of those characters that just got over. When I was with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, I saw the talent in Steve. I can remember telling him because Vince put him with me initially for the rub. It helps elevate him a little bit. I know some of the agents were telling him at the time that he needed to be doing more action, whatever and he said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I’m gonna tell you what I think. You keep doing exactly what you’re doing. You come across very realistically.’ I pushed that all the time. I said, ‘You know what, that’s the thing that, in my opinion, that sets guys apart because the more realistically you can present yourself, the better it’s gonna be. Now you won’t get over as fast, but when you get over, you will be over and once you’re over, then you can do anything you want to.’ That’s exactly what happened, but nobody nobody envisioned that Steve Austin would climb to the heights he did either, but you know it’s just being the right guy at the right place at the right time. People go, ‘Golly, Ted, did you ever envision?’ I say, ‘No.’ There’s a period of time in there where there’s a certain group; Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, myself, Undertaker, those guys in the 80s and early 90s where people/fans go, ‘You guys were the guys. You guys were the greatest era of wrestling.’ I’m not gonna judge that, but all I will say is, ‘I’m just lucky I was there. I was at the right place at the right time.’

On Today’s Wrestling & Bray Wyatt:

I’ll tell you the guy that came across the most believable to me and that’s who I am. To me, I always push this. I said, ‘You know what? It is show business and we’ve told the whole world that we are show business, but when you walk into a movie, you know it’s a movie, but the actors present what they’re doing in such a realistic way you get caught up in the story.’ That’s what wrestling should still be today. It’s my personal opinion. I don’t think it is what it used to be. There’s not enough emphasis on making it real and believable. One of the guys that came across the most realistic to me was Bray Wyatt. He presented that character so realistically. There were times I thought, ‘He’s a guy, I would have loved to have a program with.’

DiBiase also chats about his famous million dollar suits, a night drinking with Andre the Giant, fun times with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and more. Readers can listen to all that and more via The Apter Chat below: