Just some house cleaning here, but I’m going to schedule different formats for Forever Heel each week. It will go something like this; Profile, Top 10 List, Funny Heelish PPV Predictions, and then back to another Profile. I also wanted to do a profile based on the various weapons used by various villains. Maybe I could get an interview with Abdullah the Butcher’s fork?
Raw & Crap: I don’t really know why people think the WWE fan’s votes count? They tell us to our faces “We’re going to bury Daniel Bryan, and you guys will still cheer for him, and we will answer that by putting the belt on Mark Henry”, They know we won’t stop watching. Even if we stopped watching, I doubt any of this would change. Soon they won’t even be looking at the indy guys, to join WWE.
TNA & Fireballs: Impact seems okay. I wish they would keep Anderson as just a thug, and not a main event guy. I thought EC3 is an okay wrestler, and Earl should be embarrassed as much as possible until Gerald Brisco takes his place. Say what you want about Bret, but he never did the kind of bullshit that guys like HBK, Orton, and even Steve Austin pulled. If you notice after 1997 WWE began their swipes at Canada. Calling it Bizarro World because they cheered for a few heel native sons. …sorry went off on a tangent. Anyway here’s the profile…
Last week I named off some of my favorite heel team ups, and the best of those being Mega Bucks. I was thinking that Ted DiBiase deserved his own profile. If The Heel Hall of Fame was real, I would give him a whole wing of the building. From 1987-1997 he was a legit player in some of the biggest wrestling angles of all time. As a wrestler he was a formidable opponent, and as a manager he gave birth to his own Million Dollar Corporation in the WWE, and later managed various members of The NWO. Heel Street Credit doesn’t go higher than Ted DiBiase.
Coming to the WWE: Before joining the WWE, DiBiase was looked at for the NWA title. He would have been NWA champ eventually, but titles don’t mean much to guys that understand they’re in a fake sport. The story goes that WWE came to Ted with the promise of a main event push, and “opportunity”. He signed. His back story was that his stepfather, Iron Mike DiBiase, left him millions in his will. As he joined the WWE, he also brought with him his bodyguard, Virgil. Before main eventing, he would ask an audience member to come to the ring to do something humiliating for money, and then laugh at them. Usually they didn’t get any money. He also enjoyed stuffing money into the mouth of his opponent, after pinning him DiBiase was actually given a lot of money to throw around to make the gimmick look as real as possible.
Buying the WWE Belt: DiBiase didn’t even bother challenging for the WWE Title at first, and just asked Hogan to sell it to him. Hogan of course said no, and the feud was on. They fought for the belt on three separate occasions, that I know of. I’m sure there were many more at house shows. Hogan beat The Million Dollar Man each time. During a WrestleMania rematch between André the Giant and Hogan, referee Dave Hebner was accosted, so that his evil twin brother, Earl, could take Dave’s place and declare André the new WWE Champion. André almost immediately sold the belt to The Million Dollar Man, making Ted the new WWE Champion. That didn’t stick however because the WWE Championship Committee made up some rule saying that The WWE Title couldn’t be handed to another wrestler. In reality I believe some in the backstage worried about tarnishing the Championship, they were still competing with other feds, for wrestling viewers, so it sounds reasonable.
WrestleMania 4: A WWE Championship Tournament was declared for WrestleMania 4, and DiBiase was going to win and be the next WWE Champ, except for a backstage problem involving Honkey Tonk Man. Honky didn’t want to lose the Intercontinental Belt to Randy Savage, so the WWE let him keep it, but WWE also had a rule saying “that if one champ is face then the other champ must be heel.” Meaning that since Honky Tonk was holding the Intercontinental Belt then a face must hold The WWE Belt. This decision really had nothing to do with Randy Savage’s popularity and needing a belt. At this time popular talent didn’t really need championships, until they were losing steam. In the end Savage became WWE Champ at WrestleMania 4.
Mega Bucks: After losing the WWE belt again. DiBiase formed an alliance with Bobby Heenan, and with André the Giant created Mega Bucks. A tag team of The Million Dollar Man and André the Giant. They were the arch enemies of the also newly formed Mega Powers, that consisted of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. The two teams clashed at the very first Summer Slam. DiBiase had even paid off special guest referee, Jesse Ventura for this bout, and Mega Bucks still lost. The team was dissolved after that event, but not before Bobby Heenan sold Hercules Hernandez’ contract to Dibiase. Apparently the contract was to be DiBiase’s slave, and while that may lead to all kinds of hilarious and disturbing gay jokes, the feud ended abruptly with Hercules gaining his freedom.
The Million Dollar Belt: After losing numerous WWE Title bouts, DiBiase finally just made his own belt, The Million Dollar Championship. This was more of an accessory, but looked cool with his other ring gear. It wasn’t a recognized title in the WWE At one point Jack Tunney had ordered the belt be defended, like all other WWE titles, but those were few and far between, and around the time of DiBiase’s feud with Virgil. The only other men to hold the Million Dollar Belt where Virgil, Steve Austin, and Ted DiBiase Jr. The belt was also stolen by Jake Roberts.
The Story Continues: Next week I want to delve into DiBiase’s feuds with Dusty and Virgil, and finish with the loss of Money Inc.’s tag titles.
WWE Champ, Ted DiBiase & André the Giant vs Hulk Hogan & Bam Bam Bigelow
http://youtu.be/4DMPyTHPHhc
Debut of the Million Dollar Championship
