Original subtitles

- For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil,

[organ playing]

and some, by longing for it, have wandered away

from the faith-

-and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Everybody's got a price for The Million Dollar Man.

Including you.

[laughs]

- Let's take a review of how Ted DiBiase has developed

into one of today's top stars.

- When Vince met with Ted.

He says-- goes, "I've got an idea.

I think you'd be the perfect guy for it."

- I'm rich, you're poor, and that makes me better than

each and everyone of you.

He said, "I think you'd be one

of the hottest heels I've ever have."

- It was so well done.

It just fit him perfect.

- He was actually giving away $100 bills everywhere.

I was like, "Yes, this is gonna work."

- You're all a bunch of suckers.

- Everything that he did was horrible.

- Let's hear a big bulldog bark.

- Woof woof.

- And people ate it up.

- Ted was just the consummate heel.

- One of the greatest characters of all time.

- [laughs]

Is that enough?

- I always likened it to selling your soul to the devil.

Temptations were endless.

- And I got caught up in the lifestyle.

- Ted ran hard, I mean, partied and ran hard.

- I think he got himself in trouble.

- We had to share with the- you know, the rest of the world.

We want dad.

We a want dad.

We want him.

- How do you make that transition

to go from superstar to home?

- Well, this is my office.

Well, all of these things have a special meaning to me.

If you throw them all together, it's a history of my life

in professional wrestling.

This is the first action figure of me, and I-I could still

remember the first time I walked into whatever store it was,

and I was like, "Wow."

A little piggybank, Million Dollar Man piggybank.

- There were we go.

[laughter]

- And this picture right here is my mother.

Now, there's a lot of my peers, who like myself or second and

third generation wrestlers, who can say,

"My dad was a wrestler, too."

But there aren't too many that could say,

"My mom AND dad were wrestlers."

I was born Theodore Marvin Wills.

My biological father was a professional singer.

Had a beautiful deep bass voice.

Sang with guys like Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Now, I have a very deep bass voice, but I couldn't carry

a tune if it had handles on it.

My mother and he divorced when I was two.

My mother was an entertainer.

She did, uh, what you call stage show dancing, and I'm not sure

how she transitioned into being a lady wrestler, but she did.

When I was really little, the deal was she says,

"Whatever you do, you sit right where I put you,

and you don't get out of that chair."

She goes out and has this match and, uh,

she getting beat up really bad.

I'm, you know, "That's my mama up there, you know."

So I went running up to the ring, right, when she caught me,

if looks could kill, and all it took was that look on her face,

and I literally turned and ran.

Well, I tell ya, I never got out of my seat again,

that's for sure.

And when I was five, my mother married Mike DiBiase.

Mike DiBiase's wrestling name was "Iron Mike."

- Introducing Iron Mike.

- He was not only a professional wrestler, but 1946, he was the

AAU National Heavyweight Amateur Wrestling Champion.

I wanted to emulate him in life, and of course, the one thing

that he didn't want me to be, uh, was a professional wrestler.

And it wasn't about the wrestling,

it was about the lifestyle of wrestling.

Wrestlers put miles and miles and miles on their vehicles,

having to stay in hotels.

Of course, none of that was covered.

You know, everything was paid out of their own pocket.

He would take me with him every now and then,

and I had probably some of the greatest conversations

of my life with my dad on those trips.

You know this is the guy that-- in the most formative years of

my life in the age of 5 to 15 was the inspiration of my life.

And when I say 15.

that's when I lost him, July the 2nd 1969, in Lubbock, Texas.

- Some people came to the house.

I know they were wrestlers and people we knew,

but it was late at night.

I immediately knew something was wrong.

- One of those great relationships in his wrestling

career was with the Funk family.

- There's not a bigger name in Texas than the Funks.

Everybody came through West Texas in that territory up there

in Amarillo because of Dory Sr.

- Terry Funk's mother, uh, took

me out on the hall and looked me straight in the eye and said,

"Teddy, your dad had a heart attack tonight and died

on the way to the hospital."

And that's how I found out that he was gone.

I remember the, uh, shriek that went out

when they told my mother.

She just lost it.

Terry Funk showed up, and he had my dad's wrestling bag,

And I remember opening that bag and, uh, my dad's, uh--

his wrestling tights were still wet with his sweat,

and I buried my face in that.

I could smell my dad.

It's funny the things you do in situations like that.

And it was just one of those moments in my life

that I'll never forget.

- Teddy became the father of the family, and Teddy would

do everything, and that was a tragic, tragic time,

and they moved to Arizona.

- As a young man, I didn't go to church that much,

but I prayed a lot for my mother.

She started drinking heavily.

And so I stayed there in Willcox, Arizona

with my grandmother.

Football meant the world to me at that time.

I played offensive guard and tackle.

My driving force was to be good enough to earn that scholarship

to play college football.

I graduated in 1972 from Willcox High School.

I had initially signed a letter of intent to play football at

the University of Arizona.

I'm watching TV one afternoon and wrestling comes on,

and it's the wrestling out of Amarillo, Texas, The Funks.

And they're promoting that they're gonna bring a show

to Tucson, and I-I hadn't seen any wrestling for three years

since my father died.

So I went to Tucson to see the Funks, and that visit turned

into a visit to West Texas State University.

In the back of my mind as a kid growing up,

I always wanted to be a wrestler.

I always wanted to be my dad.

So going to West Texas State served two purposes.

Number one, I was there on a football scholarship,

and number two, it would be the lead into my professional

wrestling career and my family's relationship

with the Funk family.

You know, I'd basically known them all of my life,

and I knew that they would help train me to get into wrestling.

- I knew he was gonna be in the business.

I wanted him to be in the business, of course.

I just wanted him to not go in as early as he did.

- I heard Mom and him talking about a career path

in wrestling, and it was always,

"No, that's not what's gonna happen."

- 1974 in Lubbock, Texas, I had my first match in the ring where

my father had his last, and I didn't even think about it

until after it was over.

- Weighing 247 pounds, Ted DiBiase.

- Ted DiBiase, like many others,

became a honed and skilled wrestler in Mid-South.

- The Figure 4 Leglock by Ted DiBiase.

- It was a big territory of Oklahoma, Arkansas,

Louisiana, and Mississippi.

I was exposed to so much great talent.

- Ted DiBiase, who was just a teenager,

dedicated himself to someday honoring his father's memory.

- It's DiBiase after Flair.

- Great work ethic, really good performer, and-and, uh,

he was-was trained and hung around the-the-

two of the best ever, Terry and Dory.

- Dropkick by DiBiase.

- I had one year of college left, and I didn't go back.

People were telling me,

"Kid, you got it, and you're going places."

- And it's funny because he never really had a gimmick.

- No ring wear or anything like that.

Yo, he was a wrestler.

He was a tough 6'4", 265-pound wrestler.

- Piledriver.

DiBiase just teed off.

- And one day I got this call from Ted.

He says, "Well, I got a call from Vince.

Do you think I should stay here in Oklahoma or go to New York?"

I said, "Get your ass up to New York," is what I told him.

- The first time I wrestled Ted DiBiase was

in Madison Square Garden.

- The Incredible Hulk Hogan.

His opponent, Ted DiBiase.

[bell rings]

- Ted DiBiase had made quite a name for himself

and was considered a great technical wrestler.

And that was the type of wrestler that

Vince and James McMahon wanted.

- During the territory era, a-a wrestler would come

into a wrestling promotion, work for a few months,

and then usually lose to whoever the next top good guy might be

on his way out.

- [indistinct] armdrag.

- I remember Ben Sr. coming to me and saying,

"Hey, we got a lot of high hopes for this guy."

- Nervous wreck.

Ted made me look great.

- Now he has a little bear hug and it could be over.

[bell rings]

- It's over.

- You know, I was wrestling that night in The Garden

and then I was going back to Texas.

Terry Funk called me and he said, "You need to get to

Georgia because there's three names in the hat for the--

who possibly would-- might be the next NWA World Champion.

And the three names are Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes,

and Ted DiBiase."

To be number one in professional wrestling,

you gotta be a winner, and you gotta go where

the action is and where the best is.

- For all the regional territories that existed,

no championship meant more at that time than

the National Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Championship.

Ted DiBiase had the skills to be an NWA champion.

- When I went to Georgia, that was when Melanie and I

met in Atlanta on April the 26th, 1981.

- We actually met at a swimming pool,

and the guy that I was friends with said to Ted,

"This girl over here wants your autograph."

- And I said, "Okay, what's your name?"

She goes, "Melanie.

But everybody calls me Mel."

So, I put,

"To Mel, the best-looking girl at the pool for sure."

And I said,

"I don't even know you, and I'm gonna sign this love."

And I did.

"Love, Ted DiBiase. 4/26/81."

- I looked at him, and I was like,

"Well, what number are you?"

- "What number am I?"

- "You gotta be a football player."

- She says,

"So you play for the Falcons, don't you?"

[laughs]

I said, "I'm a professional wrestler."

- DiBiase, oh.

- "Do you mean like that stuff on TV?"

- Toehold into the, uh, figure four.

- [laughs]

She wasn't too impressed with that.

I don't have to stand here and give you my credentials.

Everybody knows what I can do.

- He did ask me after that if we could go out on a date.

And I said absolutely not

because how am I gonna defend myself?

I don't know this guy.

He's huge.

So, I said, "Let's just meet at the pool."

I needed to know who he was before I was alone in a car

with him somewhere.

And we ended up just having a really close connection

right from the start.

- That was the beginning of it.

And so New Year's Eve 1981 with JYD as my best man,

Mel and I got married.

- Three months after we got married,

I found out I was pregnant.

- There was a lot of talk of Ted DiBiase becoming the next NWA

World's Heavyweight Champion, but, uh, he was passed by.

And so, uh, Ted DiBiase looked at his options

and he left the Georgia territory.

He spent time with his family.

But he was always looking for that next big thing.

[crowd cheers]

- Look at this.

- He slammed him.

- He slammed the Giant.

- I don't believe it.

- Hulk dropping a big leg.

Over for the cover. It's over.

- He got him.

- I opened the hotel room door, and I pick up this paper

and the front page says, "World indoor attendance record.

93,000 people at the Pontiac Silverdome

for WrestleMania III."

I mean, my mouth dropped open.

I was like, "Oh my gosh."

All I remember thinking is that I'm going to have to ultimately

be working for that company.

- Ted DiBiase, and I had been together in Mid-South Wrestling

and I had made the move.

I was coming to New York to work for WWE.

While I did that, Ted was on a tour in Japan.

- So I get this call from Bruce, and Bruce says,

"Vince McMahon is extremely interested in you."

- I had just had a baby.

I was a full-time mom.

I could see it on his face.

This was a really important conversation he was about

to have that could possibly change his life and mine.

- When Vince met with Ted, he says, "I've got an idea.

I think you'd be the perfect guy for it."

Ted had the look and Ted had a bit of the swagger.

He says, "If you wanna come up here, I can guarantee you that

you'll make more money you ever dreamed of.

We'll have more fun than you could possibly imagine having

in this business."

- Then he laid it out for me.

The one thing everybody hates is someone,

who by virtue of their wealth, they bully people.

That's the essence of this character.

And he said,

"I think you'd be one of the hottest heels I've ever had."

Off the cuff, I said,

"Well, he-he sounds like a million-dollar man to me."

For all you people out there who aren't familiar with me,

let me introduce myself.

I'm Ted DiBiase.

I'm The Million Dollar Man.

Money can and does buy you anything or anybody.

- 100% Vince McMahon's vision-

-Don't you wish you had money?

Just throw it away.

- -to create this character that exploits the fact

that everybody has a price.

- Everybody's got a price for The Million Dollar Man.

- What a great gimmick to be given to you.

You-you're basically playing Vince McMahon, you know?

- In the 1980s, American pop culture was all about greed

and excess and how much money you could actually make.

One of the biggest movies in theaters was Wall Street.

One of the biggest television shows in the world was Dynasty.

The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase,

embodied that in the WWE.

- What would it take to make this a private pool right now?

- I'm afraid I can't do that.

- It was just a fun ride.

He had-- He was having so much fun he loved it.

- I pay more taxes in a month than these people

make in a year, Virgil- [finger snap]

- He was actually giving away $100 bills everywhere.

I was like, "Yes, this is gonna work.

This is brilliant."

- Virgil. [finger snap]

[finger snap]

Virgil.

[bell ringing]

- As a Million Dollar Man, you're not gonna

do things yourself.

So, you have to have a man that is going do the dirty work that

you don't feel comfortable doing.

- Come on you little -- get out of the pool.

All of you.

Fall out.

- Oh, Virgil was, uh, key to this, I think, you know?

- Virgil takes care of all of life's little problems

that I don't have time to take care of anymore.

- Million Dollar Man would snap his finger,

"Hey, Virgil, get this,"

Virgil was right there with it.

- I'm rich, you're poor, and that makes me better than

each and every one of you.

[crowd boos]

- Ted would use his money to make people do things

that they might not ordinarily do, but for the right price

maybe they would.

- Let's hear a big bulldog bark.

- Woof woof.

- The vignettes were great.

- The vignettes.

- Now, get down, and give me 10 push-ups.

[crowd counting]

- Doing your best just ain't good enough

for The Million Dollar Man.

You're all a bunch of suckers.

[laughs]

All those things that we did all those people got the money.

- Everything that he did was horrible, you know,

how he treated people.

How dare he?

And people ate it up.

- If you can dribble this basketball 15 times, look here,

I'm going to give you $500.

- And realize the heat is you offer somebody money

to do something,

they just about get there-

-and then you take it away from them.

- 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Oops.

Aww.

- That child learned a hard lesson that day,

that if you don't do the job-

- You don't get paid.

[laughs]

- The laughs was- was diabolical.

- [laughs]

- The laugh made it.

The tagging, every vignette with that laugh, was like,

"What are you going when Hulkamania runs wild?"

You know, the laugh was the same thing.

[laughs]

- That's an exaggeration of my regular laugh.

Vince just happened to be walking by, and he heard it and

he goes , "That's The Million Dollar Man.

I want to hear that laugh at the end of every interview."

[laughs]

And I tell people that now, all the time, I say you know,

"I had almost a 20-year career but what am I remembered for?"

[laughs]

- Who wouldn't want to be The Million Dollar Man?

Who wouldn't want to live that way?

And Ted, he lived that character.

- You know, you've done a lot ofthings.

What's the nicest thing you've done?

[laughs]

- Gee, that's a $100 bill.

- You want that $100 bill, kid?

A little flash cash was Vince's idea.

We were going to try to make the public believe

you're really this guy.

So I says,

"If you go in and buy a cup of coffee, throw down a $100 bill.

- Ted also was able to live the gimmick in real life.

Had stretch limousines pick him up at the airport to and from

the arena, stayed at the finest hotels paid for by the company

to protect the gimmick.

- He also has to fly first class, everybody else

in the back, but not Ted, he's The Million Dollar Man.

Got to live the gimmick.

- Oh, it was- it was a blast.

- Oh, there it is, the Million Dollar Dream he slapped it on.

- You know, I would beat my opponent, and I'd take a $100

bill, shove the 100 in their mouth and, you know,

when they got back to the dressing room I'd say,

"Cough it up."

[laughs]

It was like a fairy tale at the beginning, and I go from

working, like, every wrestler used to work, you're-

you're putting the miles on your car and, you know,

none of that is paid for.

I go from that to Learjets and limousines.

While all the wrestlers are out there beating each other

to pieces, I'm sitting back relaxing contemplating

my next move.

- He didn't need the competition.

He didn't need the sportsmanship.

He didn't even need to win.

He was willing to use his money to get the WWE Championship.

- Everybody has a price for The Million Dollar Man.

I'm going to prove it to you in the biggest way I know how.

I'm going to buy

the World Wrestling -- Heavyweight Championship.

- He got so much heat because people were like,

"He could b-buy the belt?

He could buy a championship?

Is there no integrity in the WWE?"

It immediately elevated him.

- That's right, baby, it's going to be mine.

Lock, stock, and barrel.

The Million Dollar Man always gets what he wants.

I went out, and I bought André the Giant.

This man will beat Hulk Hogan and the Heavyweight Title

will be mine.

[crowd cheers]

- Welcome to the largest television audience

in World Wrestling -- history.

- The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase, purchased

André the Giant with the intention of André winning

the WWE Championship, so he can hand it over to DiBiase.

- And it was also the first time that wrestling had been

on prime-time network television in many years.

- Here comes the Hulkster.

Oh my.

- I saw something the other day

it's still the largest viewed audience for that time slot.

- That was a smart move by André.

- Championship is on the line, and the unthinkable happens.

- Suplex right on top of him.

- He's on him

- One, we got two.

That's it.

Well, no.

Hold on.

- He got him.

[bell rings]

- He got him.

- No, he didn't.

- The referee counted three.

- A fast count that doesn't even acknowledge that Hogan's

shoulders were up.

Ted DiBiase has not just paid off André the Giant.

- The one in the ring took the money.

It had to be-

There has to be some chicanery going on.

- Ted DiBiase bought him off.

- Some guy named The Million Dollar Man

helped the Giant just a little.

- The loophole there was once André won the championship,

he surrendered the championship to

The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.

- I surrender the World Champion-

Championship to Ted DiBiase.

- Wait a minute.

Hold on.

André, what are you saying you-

- There was a big fuss about that.

[laughs]

- Million Dollar Man with a championship.

That's not legal, I don't think.

- Because of the circumstances surrounding the title switch

a decision was made by WWE.

- Ted DiBiase is also not the

World Wrestling -- Champion.

I now declare the title vacant.

- And there was going to be a tournament at WrestleMania IV

to determine a new champion.

- Hi, WrestleMania IV.

- The very short list of people who have gone on last

at WrestleMania, there's a reason Ted DiBiase

found himself in that spot.

- Savage in deep trouble.

- It was because Ted DiBiase was the best villainous wrestler

on the WWE roster.

- Suplex delivered.

- WrestleMania IV, the idea was I would somehow

become the champion.

- Oh, look at that shot.

- But now, Vince is marketing toys and games to children.

It's about making that money.

You know, if you're the champion, and you're a heel,

you're not going to be a champion long.

- Oh, he clobbered The Million Dollar Man

- Because all those kids want to see the championship belt

around their hero.

[crowd cheers]

- Oh.

- The flying elbow.

Hooks the leg.

It's over.

[crowd cheers]

[bell rings]

- We have a new champion.

- Ted DiBiase should have been a five-time world champion.

Easily two or three.

Easily, but he didn't need it.

He could draw money.

He was believable as hell.

His work was off the charts.

- It's The Million Dollar Man.

- Oh, wow.

Gosh.

- So I said, "I don't need your stinking belt

I'll create my own title, I'm The Million Dollar Man."

You are a designer of fine jewelry.

Are you not?

[chuckles]

Oh, wait, of course, you are. I wouldn't have come to you.

- The Million Dollar Man wouldn't have just

a regular championship.

- I want gold, I want diamonds, and spare no expense.

- And Terry Betteridge in Greenwich, Connecticut

was a jeweler that Vince knew that created

this championship belt for us.

- It's mine.

It's mine.

Oh my gosh, it was amazing.

I give you, Brother Love,

The Million Dollar Championship belt.

There's 700 stones in the face of the belt.

Well, those are all cubic zirconium.

I asked my wife, "What's a cubic zirconium?

She goes, "Almost a diamond."

And I said,

"Okay, it's almost a diamond, so it's worth something.

The real joke is in the back of the belt,

there's three real diamonds.

I said, "Why?"

"Well, if anybody asked you, are the diamonds real?

You can say yes, and you won't be lying."

Nothing means more to me than money.

So nothing means more to me than this championship belt.

- Back then, if you were a main player in WWE,

that meant you were a character very familiar to the mainstream.

And I would say every person in Western society at that time had

heard of and probably seen The Million Dollar Man.

- And it seems to me that I should have been out here

about 30 minutes ago.

And since I wasn't, I think you owe me a little money.

- It moved so quickly into that-

-limousines and room service and

suites and private jets, and I'm at home with three boys.

You're just rolling along and trying to survive

all the bumps that come along with it.

- We, as his kids, we had to share him with the-

you know, the rest of the world.

And so our time actually together was very, very,

very minimal.

Really at the end of the day, we want Dad.

We want a dad, we want him.

- Hey?

How y'all doing, huh?

I was putting the future and the stability of my own

children at risk.

I was out 3 straight weeks, 21 days, 21 cities.

I'm really only off six days in a month.

- Fun.

But at the same time, uh, you know, we missed Dad a lot, too.

Part of my life growing up, I would see Dad, you know,

maybe a couple of times a year.

- It was just a fantasy out there that I cou--

I needed reality.

I was raising three boys.

I could not live in that.

- The Million Dollar Man lived that character

in and out of the ring.

And I'm sure the-the other-- the boys didn't like it

[laughs]

because, you know, they're sharing rental cars,

and he's traveling around in limousines '

cause he's The Million Dollar Man.

- Separate dressing room, coming in a little later than normal.

And it just felt a little different sometimes,

staying out, uh, a little late sometimes at some of the bars

and partying and having a good time.

Where before, the old Ted DiBiase really

didn't do it, you know.

And so I think that really had a change

in his home life and his life.

And I think it affected everything.

- Ted ran hard.

I mean, partied and ran hard.

- Maybe we partied a little too much sometimes, you know.

I think he probably had a problem with that, too,

and I think he got himself in trouble.

- I always kind of likened it to selling your soul to the devil

because you're gonna make a lot of money.

You're gonna be more famous than you could have ever imagined.

There's no, really, relationship.

I don't know how you keep a relationship going,

not only with your spouse but your children.

The temptations were endless.

- And I got caught up in the life- the lifestyle to a degree.

- I did everything at the house, took care of the home,

took care of the kids, and I was paying the bills one time

and I noticed some charges that were a little suspicious to me.

And so followed up with that and just found out

that Ted had been unfaithful in our marriage.

- And, uh, she confronted me with what she found.

And I said, "I don't wanna talk about this on the phone.

I'll be on the next plane home."

- I said, no, you won't.

You don't live here anymore.

- Click.

That was the worst day of my life.

- I was unfaithful.

When my wife found out and confronted me with it,

it was immediate remorse for me.

"How could you be so stupid?

How could you put something so precious at risk like that?"

And quite frankly, I didn't deserve her.

- So you have to make a decision.

I'm gonna keep this.

I'm gonna grow bitter.

I'm gonna divorce.

I'm gonna make my children's lives hell, uh,

and be gone with him.

Or you can do what a Christian would do.

And that's work through the pain.

- I had accepted that I was gonna lose the best thing

that ever happened to me, that I was a fool,

that I was an idiot, the whole- the whole nine yards.

And, uh, that's when my, uh, journey, I call it back to God,

really began.

During that time, we were counseled

by one of my best friends, Pastor Hal Santos.

- One night, Ted calls me, he is going through a tough time

and he said, "I need your help."

I said, "Let's make a plan how we can get you all here."

Ted and Mel came, and then the boys came.

- We joined him, and went with all of his kids from his church

to this thing up in Chicago.

"There's Ted DiBiase. There's The Million Dollar Man.

What's he doing here?"

Good question.

I went to my knees, I put my nose in the carpet, and I laid

there and cried like a baby and didn't care what a soul in that

room thought.

- And all I could think of was,

"Melanie, God loves Ted as much as He loves you.

He still does."

- And I looked at Mel that day and I said, "If you'll give me

this chance, I'll become the man you thought you married.

And God willing, one day, I'll regain your respect and trust."

That was in March of '92.

- We were stronger because of it.

We probably had a healthier respect for each other than we

did before because you kind of take for granted your partner,

but you shouldn't, you should treasure it.

- His whole life was gonna end for what he knew it.

And to him, that was too huge a price.

And it- and it snapped him back into reality.

- Who are you?

- Hulk Hogan.

- Hulk Hogan?

- The change was immediate.

He waited till it got to a tough place,

but then he found God's grace.

Kept his marriage together, raised kids.

- Well, give me the other monies.

- Give you the other monies?

I don't have any more, that's all of it.

I'm going to get you.

[laughs]

- How do you make that transition to go from superstar

to home where you're expected to just be dad?

He was really good with them in that-- the first few hours, that

first day that he would be home,

he did nothing but play with them.

- Did you get this for daddy?

- And then the next day, he and I would have a kind of a day.

That would be our time.

And then the next day, he was back on the road.

If your dad is playing a character that flashy and fun,

you know, uh, they would try to imitate the laugh.

I would catch them playing with each other, uh, in their rooms

when they didn't think I was listening.

They loved it.

- That's everything to you.

Everything.

Um, and you wanna be just like him.

[laughs]

- Even to this day, I'm 45 years old and I still, um--

it chokes me up because, uh-

-I love my dad.

[crowds cheers]

- When you work the type of competitive style that

Ted DiBiase had been working his entire career,

those injuries are gonna pile up.

And by 1993, Ted DiBiase had accumulated so many neck

and back injuries that, really, he-he made the choice

at 39 years old that he'd be better off retiring.

- My dad, Mike DiBiase was 45 years old-

-had a heart attack in the ring and died.

I remember I made a promise to myself that

I wasn't gonna to stay too long.

And I remember telling Mel, I said, "I'm-I'm done."

If you gotta step on people, if you gotta be a little bit

cutthroat, then that's what it takes.

- And he was a commentator, he was a manager,

but in the meantime, he wasn't taxing his body

the way he had throughout his in-ring career.

And that allowed him time to be with his family and do the other

things he enjoyed doing.

- I was starting to do some of the ministry work then.

'Cause every time I see an invitation and every time I see

the altar full, it takes me back to that moment in my life

that was life-changing.

- The man, you know, changed so much.

I think it saved his life.

- Ted has two legacies, really, that overlap.

Not many people get to say that,

but he had a career in wrestling that is legend worthy.

The second half of his life, he's left a legacy.

To me, it's much more powerful

than being a legend in a wrestling ring.

- You might have made choices that were bad choices,

you can't do anything about your past.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

- He really believes what he's saying,

and he does walk the talk.

He's not gonna shove it down your throat,

but if you want to talk about it, he will.

- There's a lot of haters out there, I don't believe the hype,

I judge people by their actions.

So I judged Ted on who he is and how he treats people,

and I think he's, uh, a great man.

- Lord, I pray that You would touch those lives tonight

and that You would give them freedom.

- So many other guys that I'd worked with, uh,

their lives didn't end up so well, and so many of, uh-

of them are gone now.

And, you know, thank God that Ted found that path,

- Ups and downs, whether, you know, good or bad,

the main thing that sticks out in me in dad's legacy,

he said--

Dad was always-always been consistent.

Whether he's wrestling or speaking,

Dad comes from the heart.

- The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase.

[applause]

- Ted was excited to get that recognition

to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

He had a great career.

He worked hard.

It meant everything to him.

In his work life, that was his passion.

I mean, he gave literally blood, sweat, and tears

to that business.

- I guess as The Million Dollar Man, I-

I hate to admit that there are some moments in time and

some things in life that just really can't put a price tag on.

And for Ted DiBiase, tonight is that priceless night.

I feel so fortunate to have been chosen to be this guy.

- I think that Ted will forever be known as

The Million Dollar Man.

It was a great gimmick, and I think Ted wore it well.

- I think one of the greatest characters of all time.

- 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Oops.

- People know who The Million Dollar Man is, you know, and

it-it goes from the laugh-

[laughs]

-to the theatrics,

to just being the guy, Ted DiBiase.

- People ask me, even now, they go,

"Well, are there times when you miss it?"

I love the business, I thank the fans all the time.

I'm satisfied.

You know, I- I'm satisfied with where I am.

And I certainly have to thank my wife.

You put up with a lot of garbage you didn't have to put up with.

You-you forgave me for a lot, and you gave me a second chance,

and I'll never forget you for it.

You're my rock.

What you doing?

Oh, okay, you gonna go to Honey first, aren't you?

- He is the best grandfather ever.

We literally do not miss an opportunity to be with them.

- I don't want to be remembered as being a great wrestler,

but a man who truly loved and served his family.

And you know what?

- What?

- You cannot escape the tickle monster.

[laughs]

This is one of those moments in my life

when I wish my dad were here.

And I think that he would pat me on the back, and he would say,

"Job well done. I'm proud of you, son."

There's nothing more that I ever wanted.

Before I go, just in case there's any doubt

left in your mind.

That what I have said for so many years is true

because you see,

everybody's got a price for The Million Dollar Man.

Including you.

[laughs]

- I'll be the richest wrestler that ever lived, Ted DiBiase,

The Million Dollar Man.

I don't know why-

why Vince didn't call him the Billion Dollar Man.

♪