Ted DiBiase (19 page)

The first thing they did was ice my ear down, numbing it real good. They then stuck a needle in the swollen part of the ear and drained out all the blood and fluid. My ear felt better. But the next night, my ear hurt even more and it was much larger than before. Jack and Jerry once again drained my ear. The next day my ear was even bigger. What I later found out was that after draining the ear, it had to be packed with gauze. If not, a cauliflower ear would just get bigger and bigger! My two friends had just given me a very painful rib.

That weekend, I had to go to St. Louis for a TV match. When I got there, I told the jobber that I would call the match and not to worry. I was going to make sure he got his spots but asked him to please make sure he didn't touch my left ear. I reiterated it and even pointed and showed him my swollen ear. He agreed. After starting the match, the first thing the kid did after we locked up was give me a forearm to my left ear. The pain was unbearable. It also made me mad. I immediately shot on him and beat the living tar out of the kid. The match was over in about three minutes. The next day I flew back to Atlanta and went straight to see my physician. He drained my ear
and packed it tightly with gauze. To keep everything in place and maintain pressure on my ear, he wrapped my head. I looked like one of those characters in the painting
The Spirit of '76
.

Although Melanie was very mature for her age, I was still concerned about her being alone and pregnant. While on the road, I would call her four or five times a day—oh, how I wish we had cell phones back in the day. One evening after my match in Lake Charles, I telephoned Melanie to check in. She wasn't feeling well and wanted me to immediately come home. I grabbed my gear and headed out of the arena. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I ran into my friend Chuck. He was a Louisiana highway patrolman. I told him that I thought Melanie was going into delivery any minute. He said, “Ted, don't worry. I will send out a message giving you a green light all the way to Baton Rouge.” I did that hundred-and-forty-mile drive in about an hour and a half! A few days later, November 8, 1982, Teddy Jr. was born in Baton Rouge.

With a new infant at home, I finally decided that it was time to once again leave the grueling Mid-South territory. I told Bill there was more to life than money. I had been through one divorce, and I was making my family a priority. Bill couldn't believe it. “But Ted, you are leaving so much money on the table.” I thanked Bill, and after I lost a Loser Leaves Town match, I headed back to the Georgia territory.

I went back to Georgia because the trips were shorter and I was able to be home almost every night. I didn't make as much money, but at least I was home with my family. Georgia was also where Melanie was raised. She had lots of friends and family in the area and there would be someone there for her when I was on the road.

MELANIE:

We moved to my parents' home in Clarkston, Georgia, because Ted could work in a territory where he could be home almost every night. Plus, I was homesick. I missed many of my friends. After a few weeks in Georgia, it quickly dawned on me that all my old friends were
single and they lived a different lifestyle. As a new mother and wife, I had other priorities. My parents had moved back to Mississippi a few months prior to Ted and me relocating. After a year or so, to be closer to my parents, we decided to move to Clinton, Mississippi.

In Georgia, I initially wrestled as a babyface. Tommy Rich and I had started teaming again. I then turned heel and feuded with Tommy. We ran an angle similar to what JYD and I had done in the Mid-South territory. After I beat JYD in a Loser Leaves Town match, he went back under a mask and called himself Stagger Lee. Everyone knew it was JYD, but I could never get the ref to see it. Then, after I beat Tommy in a Loser Leaves Town match, Tommy went back under a mask and called himself Mister R.

BILL WATTS:

What made Teddy so important to me was that he wasn't selfish in the ring. No matter who he was working with, Ted would make sure it was an excellent match. He would always make the match the top priority, not him. He would get the match over, rather than just getting himself over. That was huge because many guys were selfish. Getting them over was more important to them than the match. Ted had that special something that if he was in the match, no matter what, he would make the match work.

That Christmas, I invited my mother to come spend the holidays with us. She agreed and the entire family went to the airport to pick her up. As she exited the jetway, she looked so frail. Mom reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke. Still, I was so happy to see her. She had a blast with her grandson, Teddy. After a few days, however, she became quite ill. We rushed her to the emergency room at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. After she had her vitals checked, Mom was hospitalized. The doctors told us she had bronchitis, emphysema, and
other problems that were related to her excessive drinking and smoking. She was dying.

MELANIE:

When my mother-in-law got off the plane in Atlanta, you could hear the alcohol bottles jingling in her purse. She was told not to drink or smoke; she was doing both. A few days later, we had to rush Helen to the emergency room. She had got so bad that Ted's grandmother was flown in to be by her side. I took her to the hospital twice a day. While in ICU, I will never forget watching Ted's grandmother praying for her daughter. For weeks, she sat at the end of Helen's bed every night just praying for her.

Helen was eventually put on a ventilator. She was in very bad health because of her drinking. Her pancreas had swelled and she had caught pneumonia. Her kidneys soon shut down and she then passed away.

Mom remained in the hospital for nearly two weeks. My grandmother flew into town and stayed with us. Melanie brought my grandmother and Teddy to the hospital twice a day. My grandmother cried and prayed, hoping my mom would recover. But it was too much for her to overcome. She died on March 4, 1984. As I entered my fourth decade of life, both my father and mother were now dead. With my two brothers at my side we buried her in Willcox.

Because of all that had happened in my personal life and the Atlanta business being down, Melanie and I decided to move back to the Mid-South. Jim Duggan had called me and said that Bill wanted me to return. I returned in October of 1984 for my final run in Mid-South, which lasted through the summer of 1987. We moved near Melanie's parents in Clinton. It was a perfect move for both my career and my marriage.

BILL WATTS:

Teddy always tried to better himself and learn more. By going from territory to territory, he learned from a lot of different people. That is why Teddy was such a great wrestler. To me, the true measure of a Superstar is that they get over everywhere they work. And Ted got over everywhere he worked.

I continued to wrestle as a heel and had started a grudge with “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. In early 1985 we entered into a very hot angle coined the Best Dressed Man in the South feud. We had a contest to see who the fans thought looked better in a tuxedo. I cut promo after promo where I degraded Jim by calling him, among other things, a slob. When it came to the actual showdown on TV, I lost the contest.

The fans overwhelmingly cheered for Duggan. I didn't agree with the results. So with the cameras following me, I headed out to the parking lot to argue with the guys in the TV truck. After degrading all of them, I headed back to the arena. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jim's car. I took the baseball bat that I had been carrying to protect myself and smashed the windshield. My intention was to smash only the windshield. But for whatever reason, it didn't shatter the way I expected. So I began to smash the headlights and windows. The cameras were rolling the entire time and it made great TV.

JIM DUGGAN:

I probably worked with Teddy more than any other guy in the business. We wrestled in Georgia, Mid-South, and even World Wrestling Federation. In March of 1988, Teddy and I wrestled against each other at
WrestleMania IV
in Atlantic City. Virgil and Andre the Giant were in his corner. After Andre interfered—breaking a few of my ribs with his big hand—Teddy stole the win from me at
WrestleMania.

In one of my favorite interviews that I used to give, I'd rib Teddy, saying, “DiBiase may be the greatest technical wrestler in the sport today, but he can't fight a lick.”

In all seriousness, Teddy is a true friend and was a great wrestler. As a second-generation wrestler, he was very polished in the ring. He was a good-looking young guy and worked very hard in the ring.

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan is one of my good friends. Along with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, he was one of the strongest men in the business. He wasn't a great technical wrestler, but he had energy, personality, and character, which made him one of the best workers in the history of our business. Jim and I were good friends and we shared lots of good times on the road. We also had some great matches. I will never forget our angle in Tulsa.

Jim is a man's man and strong as a bull. But I never met anyone so afraid to blade. For a period of weeks working the Best Dressed Man angle, Jim kept guzzling me. Not only would he not sell for me, but he wouldn't draw color. Bill Watts and I finally smartened him up. In the next match, I told Jim that I was going to throw him into the ringpost and that he should blade when he hit. Jim hit the post, and there was hardly any color. I told him to do it again. That pattern repeated for what seemed like five minutes. Finally Jim asked, “Hey, what's going on?” I just laughed.

Jim and I wrestled in what I call the mother of all gimmick matches. It was a Loser Leaves Town match, inside a ten-foot steel cage, with us dressed in tuxedos and a loaded coal miner's glove attached to a twelve-foot pole. Back then, there was no Internet to advertise the results of a show. We ran the match throughout the entire territory, starting at the Superdome in New Orleans. About twenty thousand fans witnessed Jim Duggan beat me. After that, I wasn't able to return to Bourbon Street for about three months.

Later, I teamed with Steve “Dr. Death” Williams. Bill Watts thought it would be good if I took Doc under my wing. We became a heck of a tag team. We worked with every tag team in the territory, including Hector and Chavo Guerrero and the Rock 'n' Roll Express. In fact, in 1985 we were voted the
Tag Team of the Year by
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
. We had good chemistry. He always wanted to learn in order to get better. He was probably the strongest guy I had ever been with in the wrestling ring, other than Andre the Giant. He was naturally strong and I really don't think he knew his own strength.

Doc was an All-American in both football and wrestling at the University of Oklahoma. He went on to work in every major wrestling promotion in the United States, as well as New Japan and All-Japan. Even though he was a Sooner, and I'm a huge Cornhusker fan, we were the best of friends.

One Saturday afternoon, Doc took me to an OU game. We had a great time and I met a lot of the coaches and players. After the game, we had to leave Norman for the evening matches in Tulsa. It was about a one-hundred-twenty-five-mile drive and the traffic was at a standstill. Doc had a van and it was loaded with beer. After not moving for about ten minutes, Doc looked over at me with this childish grin. He then floored it and headed down a oneway road that had been blocked off for traffic control. A university police officer blew his whistle for us to stop. He even hit the side of the van with his hand. But what could he do? There were way too many people and there was too much going on.

About fifteen miles down the road, two guys in a sports car were preventing Doc from passing on the two-lane highway. As Doc tried to go around them, they sped up, preventing us from passing. This continued for about ten minutes, pissing both of us off. We could see the guys' facial expressions. They thought it was funny. They weren't about to let two guys in a van pass them. Doc finally took an opportunity and passed them on the median. With that childish grin that only Doc has, he looked over at me and said, “Put your seat belt on, I am going to teach these guys a lesson. They'll either stop or smash the rear of my van.” Doc slammed on the brakes and the guys stopped just inches from the van. We both pulled over and they got out like they were going to kick our butts. Then Doc and I got out of the van, and the two nerds quickly ran back into their car and locked the doors. Doc began cursing them out. I just stood on the passenger's side with my arms crossed. They sat there scared to death. Right as we were walking away, Doc slammed his arms on the roof of their car, leaving an indentation shaped like a birdbath. The guys never said a word.

To this day, Doc and I speak on a regular basis. He is a born-again Christian. I hope that I had some influence on him changing his life for the better. He is also a throat cancer survivor, and he attributes his survival to the grace of God. He has a hole in his throat and relies on a stoma—a surgically created opening in his throat that allows him to speak. Doc is committed to giving his testimony to people from the wrestling ring.

“DR. DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS:

When Ted came back into the territory, Bill told me to watch him real closely. I was to study how he conducted himself as a professional both in and outside the ring. Bill was right. Ted was not only one of the classiest guys I had ever met, but he was one of the best ring technicians. Ted taught me so much about the wrestling business and life in general.

We had many great times on the road, from the football games to racing throughout the territory in our new Nissan 300ZXs. Ted became a close friend. Even to this day, we remain the best of friends. He was a big influence on me with respect to my salvation and I deeply appreciate everything that Ted has done for me.

In late 1985, Ric Flair came to the territory to defend the NWA world heavyweight title. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to go against Ric for the title. Prior to the start of the match, with Ric and me both in the ring, Dick Murdoch came to the ring. He was still one of the most hated wrestlers around. On TV, he got on the microphone and said, “Look, Teddy. You and I go way back. You aren't ready for this match. Tonight is my night. So just step aside.”