Ted Dibiase runs the gauntlet

[JerryvonKramer]

OJ, which of these matches did you watch? http://www.coreystapes.com/dibiase.html

 

THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN FEUDS WITH THE MACHO MAN !

 

5. Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage (GREAT MATCH! DiBiase and Savage were BY FAR the 2 best workers in the WWF

 

at the time. Just about everything they did in the ring together was GOLD .MSG 4/25/88)

 

6. Ted DiBiase v. Don Muraco (SNME 4/30/88)

 

7. Randy Savage v. Virgil (DiBiase of course, gets involved. Primetime 5/23/88)

 

8. Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage (YET ANOTHER GREAT MATCH! In the opening minutes of the match, Savage

 

DRILLS DiBiase with a vicious forearm, breaking his nose in the process. msg 5/27/88)

 

9. Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage (Cage Match - Watch as some idiot mark fan actually climbs the cage and attacks Virgil!

 

Msg 6/25/88)

 

 

 

Disk 4

 

1. DiBiase is the guest on the first ever Brother Love show. (Primetime 6/27/88)

 

2. Randy Savage is attacked by Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase. Savage issues a challenge to Andre and DiBiase in a tag match.

 

Savage will select his partner at a later date (but we all know who it will be. WWF TV 7/17/88)

 

3. Special Interview – Bobby Heenan, Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase (DiBiase & Andre accept Savage’s challenge. Primetime 7/25/88)

 

4. Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage (Spectrum 7/88)

 

5. Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage (ONCE AGAIN, A FANTASTIC MATCH! Savage even manages to score a clean pin

 

on DiBiase this time - WrestleFest 7/30/88, Milwaukee)

 

6. Special Interview – Randy Savage chooses Hulk Hogan as his tag team partner at Summerslam (Primetime 8/1/88)

 

7. Brother Love – Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase (Primetime 8/1/88)\

 

8. Ted DiBiase v. Jim Brunzell (Primetime 8/15/88)

 

9. Jesse Ventura talks about his role as referee for the Summerslam match between the Megapowers & the Megabucks.-

 

10. Brother Love Show – Jesse Ventura is interviewed and speculates on whether or not he’ll be an impartial referee. Ted DiBiase and Andre the Giant come out and place several hundred dollar bills in Jesse’s pocket, furthering the speculation (Primetime 8/15/88) or WC 8/21/88

 

as to whether or not the already heel oriented Ventura will help stack the deck in favor of the Megabucks and the Megapowers.

 

11. The Megapowers (Hogan & Savage) Ted DiBiase v. The Megabucks (DiBiase & Andre the Giant) - Summerslam 88

 

12. Ted DiBiase v. Hulk Hogan (Boston 9/10/88)

 

13. Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage (cage match) Spectrum 9/88

And did you ever watch any of the Blue Blazer matches?

 

I may have some time later to do the matches I promised I would but never did.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm pretty sure I watched all those Savage matches and the Hogan match. I wanted to avoid Saturday Night's Main Event so I didn't watch the Blazer match.

[JerryvonKramer]

Are you planning on an SNME watch through then?

[ohtani's jacket]

No, I much prefer watching the Boston/Philly/New York footage from that era.

[JerryvonKramer]

Always thought those Spectrum and MSG shows were stuck in a timewarp, and not necessarily in a bad way.

[ohtani's jacket]

Ted Dibiase vs. The Ultimate Warrior, The Main Event 11/23/90

 

This was brought up as a positive for Dibiase during the 1990 Yearbook. It's a decent TV match that's overshadowed by an awesome run-in from "The Macho King" Randy Savage. I would have dearly loved for Savage to have actually leapt over all those WWF officials. That would've been the spot that I would always remember Randy Savage for. The biggest thing the match had going for it was that it actually had a middle. It's a good thing too because it didn't have much of a finish, which made me wonder whether it had a middle because Dibiase knew Virgil was going to take Warrior's finish and there was going to be a run-in. Whatever the reason, Ted's offence was a lot more focused here. Warrior did some sunset flip attempts and a suplex oddly enough. His best matches always seem to be the ones where he tries different moves. I guess it impresses people. You can't say Vince didn't try to get him over either. He went to town at the end with his description of Warrior holding the living embodiment of the WWF to his chest.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF North American Heavyweight Champion Ted DiBiase vs Pat Patterson - 6/79

 

Thanks to the Titans of Wrestling for bringing this to my attention as it is the best babyface Ted DiBiase match I have ever seen and a really fun studio match. It is one of those great popcorn match with the babyface dominating and the crowd totally with him in lockstep. The crowd crescendos with those arm-wrenches and the boisterous chants during the knees to Patterson's arm. My younger brother has really made me a crowd reaction mark and I was a real sucker for this work. DiBiase, to his credit, was working with great energy and laying it into Pat's arm. Pat made DiBiase look like a million bucks with a really unselfish performance: bump to outside off dropkick, begging off and selling the arm work. They do a King of the Mountain for the heat segment, which ends quickly with a fired-up Ted (reminding me of Tito Santana) slamming Pat's head into the table and with lots of great punches. Patterson throws DiBiase into the ref and pulls the old knuckledusters out of the trunk to win the title by nefarious tactics.

 

This was a really inspired performance from DiBiase and Patterson both playing their roles in a studio match. However, I would have loved to have seen a MSG/Boston/Philly match with a real heat segment and so I could see the other side of babyface Ted. The fired-up offense is only one part of the equation and would like to see him sell. I am always looking for more Pat Patterson because he seems like such a great wrestler in my limited viewing.

--------------------------------------------------------------

WWF North American Heavyweight Champion Pat Patterson vs Ted DiBiase - MSG 10/79

 

This match is very much in a similar vein to the above match with DiBiase dominating the match with lots of fired-up babyface offense, but coming out on the short-end of the stick. Patterson with lots of stalling early on, which does get irksome because is in excess of 4 minutes. Finally, DiBiase, who is sick and tired of this bullshit, bum-rushes Patterson and goes after his arm again. The crowd seems hot, but not as hot as the studio crowd, but it is pretty similar offense. I like Patterson sell of being slammed into the mat. Patterson ends up eating the post with shoulder, which sets up some abdominal stretches as a possible finish. Patterson rakes DiBiase's eyes and does some choking before DiBiase fires up out of the corner with an eye-rake, nice little FU to Patterson. I love how DiBiase slams the match in frustration during his comeback, which was a really cool touch. He works some hot dropkicks, but whiffs on one. Here comes the kunckledusters, but DiBiase is smartened up to this and blocks it. He blocks that and grabs the knucks, but DiBiase waits too long to use them. Patterson grabs a double leg takedown to flash pin DiBiase. I would have liked DiBiase being so pissed he got DQ'd for using the knucks then you build up either DiBiase's last chance match or a no holds barred match, but maybe this was DiBiase's last match anyways. Booking aside, this was a very good match, but once again would have liked to see more of a heat segment. These types of popcorn matches can only rate so highly for me. They are fun to watch, but lack substance to me. I prefer these type of matches for TV matches or to set up angles. Still, I really liked both of their performances as it is just reinforced their work from the angle.

[Ricky Jackson]

Pat Patterson was fucking awesome in 1979.

[JerryvonKramer]

Don't know how much Patterson from before that 79 run is out there, but he feels like he could be a special kinda worker. Seems to me as if we had as much footage of Patterson as we did of, say, Bockwinkel, we'd think of him in that same bracket of guys just under the top tier GOAT contenders. He's been really awesome.

 

Anyway, babyface Ted was a revelation to me, my previous exposure was just that Hogan match and some Midsouth circa 82 before the turn and then after the Murdoch angle.

 

Watching him in 1979 it makes total sense why Meltzer, Matysik and others were so high on him, and why he had a rep as a technician. He's still more vicious than most guys in WWF at that time though. I look forward to seeing him in St. Louis even before this. If he's anywhere near as good as he is here in that stuff, then I think you can start to make a case for Ted being a really versatile worker giving us these three very distinct characters (fired-up technical babyface, nasty brawler with the black glove, Million Dollar Man) who each work with a different moveset and approach. The two things running through them all are fantastic selling and great intensity, perhaps he loses some of the latter in his MDM WWF run.

 

I think the main problem with Ted as MDM was not that any of his fundamentals declined, it's just what happens to a lot of guys in WWF: he established a certain easy match and then was able to just keep repeating it. The problem is, as OJ's run through matches in this thread demonstrate, that match structurally speaking isn't very satisfying because he doesn't spend enough time on offense and what he does do isn't all that focused. The key thing about the Ted I've seen recently in both 79 and in 82-3 has been that regardless of the style he's working, he's tremendously focused on a particular gameplan.

[JazeUSA]

.

[Sidebottom]

Money INC vs The Steiners in a cage a few days prior to SummerSlam 93 was an amazing match which doesn't nearly get mentioned enough.

[JerryvonKramer]

Primetime Wrestling 2/25/91

 

Ted DiBiase vs. Tugboat

 

I was just doing the Meltzers for the next WTBBP when I came across this: "Everyone in the WWF expects Tugboat to be leaving and heading to WCW as The Big Steele Man, which is probably why Tugboat was shown on television this past Monday doing a clean job to Ted DiBiase." Well this I just HAD to see and sure enough it is online.

 

Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes on commentary here in 91, as the team on the house shows they showed on PT and Wrestling Challenge. Mike McGuirk with the introductions. Ted is looking CLASSIC here in the black and gold with the Million Dollar Belt. This is after Virgil has left him but before Sherri, so a fairly RARE match in which Ted has no one at all in his corner. His hair a a lovely golden brown here, starting to transition to the darker hair we see in 92 but not there yet.

 

Tugboat has awful music. Mooney: "Well guaranteed that it is not money that brings most pleasure to the sailing superstar, Tugboat". I love that Mooney refers to him as the "sailing superstar"!

 

Tugboat has very little heat at this point. DiBiase tries to jump him but gets the short end of the stick and bails. Crowd busts out a spontaneous "Virgil! Virgil!" chant.

 

Ted can't do much but chop and punch Tugboat so he plays it smart and takes things outside the ring where at least he can do a few things that are more interesting. Back in with a series of chokes on the bottom rope breaking before the count of 5. Clothesline. Tugboat goes down. The SWEET diving fist drop now.

 

DiBiase was pretty hot in early 1991. They'd done a great job of rebuilding the character.

 

Lord Alfred for some reason pronounces "expertise" with a capital "I", to rhyme with ICE.

 

Crowd pop a bit more for Tugboat on his comeback now, which is testament to Ted's ability to work a crowd.

 

Million Dollar Dream!! Tugboat breaks it. Misses a splash in the corner and Ted rolls him up for 3.

 

Always nice to see him get a 3-count.

[flyonthewall2983]

Here's a Superstars match from April 1988 against a jobber:

 

He uses the Dream there. Vince and Jesse keep calling him a "master technician".

 

When he does the hold, Vince said "what is that?! ... I believe he said he was going to show us something new, that's the Million Dollar Dream!"

 

I'd be surprised if that isn't the debut of it.

 

Is that music during the replay his entrance music?

[JerryvonKramer]

No, pretty sure it's just the generic Superstars theme.

 

DiBiase didn't have entrance music till 1990.

[flyonthewall2983]

If that's true the placement of it is weird.

[JerryvonKramer]

Does anyone have the 7/22/88 DiBiase vs. Savage match that ranked #21 on the first DVDR WWF set results? Are we sure this date is accurate? Checking Graham's site this would be a 12-minute match that took place in Miami.

 

There's a Philly match on 7/23. Could it have been that?

 

OJ covered the major MSG and Philly Ted vs. Savage matches earlier in this thread, I'm scratching my head a bit as to why it was THIS one that ranked top 100 in the results (the others didn't even seem to make the set).

 

Just weird.

[khawk20]

I'm guessing it's the Philly match given how much Philly footage is available.

[JerryvonKramer]

Ted Dibiase vs. Chris Chavis (sometime in 1991)

 

When I came across this and it was 20 minutes, I was just curious to see why. Also sort of wanted to see what a 91 Ted would do against a complete dogshit worker in a longish match. French commentary.

 

Chavis's arm drags are so poor even Ted can't make them look good. Does a huge amount of stalling and then the standard Ted-WWF-transition the knee to the gut, forearm to the back, reverse knife edge -- same EVERY time. Match falls off a cliff as Tatanka applies a side headlock. Ted works extremely slowly, limiting his offense to basic stomps and strikes. Sits in a chinlock for a bit. I'm wondering if Chavis was so green he couldn't take any throws? Does take the scoop powerslam but even that doesn't seem as crisp as usual.

 

This was fucking abysmal. Jesus. Was like watching a 1977 MSG undercard match. Just awful and perhaps the worst Ted match I've ever watched. Makes me wonder if Flair could have got anything out of Chavis at this point, because Ted made absolutely no effort to even try to get a match out of him here. The twenty minutes moved like walking through molasses.

 

DUD

 

Ted Dibiase vs. Tito Santana (11/22/88)

 

The green suit for Ted here. The shade got darker from the earlier lighter green. He also wore purple sometimes in 88. This is from a Prime Time at the Cow Palace in LA. Early assignment for Sean Mooney with Lord Al.

 

Much much faster pace here. Ted stooges like hell for the fiery Tito. At one point he takes his trademark 360 bump from a straight right punch, which is a pretty cool visual. There's a fuck finish here with Virgil interfering (some of the worst slaps you will EVER see) and Hercules coming down for the save. I wonder if Herc was ever more over than he was here.

 

Decent match that did what it was supposed to do. Spirited performance from Tito, and Ted made him look like a legit threat while also ensuring he kept his own heat. Not exactly the match you want to see from these two though, since this was basically a vehicle for Hercules to run in.

 

**1/2

 

Ted Dibiase vs. Jacques Rogeau (10/1/87)

 

This is VERY early in Ted's WWF tenure. Pretty tacky black and purple suit, you can tell they haven't quite nailed the MDM design yet. From what Gorilla and Heenan are saying, it seems like this might have been his first competitive / non-jobber TV match in the company.

 

There's that transition again: knee to the gut, forearm to the back, reverse knife edge. Every time, lol.

 

Considering DiBiase was being pushed at main event level and as a possible future world champ, he gave Jacques an awful lot of this match. And didn't really get much time on top either. Extremely cheap win with Virgil interference. WWF really hamstrung heels by booking them so weak in the ring. Just a typical TV bout.

 

**

[NotJayTabb]

Ted Dibiase vs. Chris Chavis (sometime in 1991)

This was fucking abysmal. Jesus. Was like watching a 1977 MSG undercard match. Just awful and perhaps the worst Ted match I've ever watched. Makes me wonder if Flair could have got anything out of Chavis at this point, because Ted made absolutely no effort to even try to get a match out of him here. The twenty minutes moved like walking through molasses.

 

DUD

 

There's a Flair/Tatanka match from a year later on a CHV tape called "Grudges, Gripes and Grunts" that's perfectly acceptable without ever veering into "good" territory. It's the same tape that has a really great Bret/Savage vs Flair/Michaels tag match, so it's worth hunting down.

[JerryvonKramer]

Ted DiBiase vs Randy Savage (handheld 1/29/93)

 

Didn’t know these two had a match this late. Ted is tag champ here comes out with Jimmy Hart but not IRS. Savage was just a commentator? Crowds seems pretty hot for it considering it is apropos of nothing. After a slowish start action goes outside. They don’t seem willing to do much more than headlocks and punches in this match seemingly. Ted stats on top for a good few minutes until Savage gets a surprise nearfall. Then a backslide for two. Finally Ted hits a suplex in the first high spot of the match but then straight into a chinlock. Savage comeback now. Hits a double axhandle from the top to the outside. Misses the Savage elbow! Ted locks in the Million Dollar Dream! Savage breaks. DDT! And Ted eats the pinfall. Strangely awful match.

[flyonthewall2983]

On 1/16/2013 at 9:07 PM, JerryvonKramer said:

I've just spent more time than I cared to trying to find out when that Roma vs. DiBiase match is from. I refuse to believe it's from June 1990. Roma was in the middle of a push there and on the surrounding weeks of Wrestling Challenge has several wins over Buddy Rose. DiBiase just didn't wear that light green suit after early 1989, he had music and the Million Dollar Belt by 1990.

 

Why would they randomly show a 2-year old match on Challenge and even go to the trouble of getting Mooney and Hayes to dub it over? I'm baffled by it.

He wore the suit in a commercial for the action figures

[JerryvonKramer]

This popped up in my "notifications" and I noticed my ten-year old post saying that the Paul Roma match with Ted can't be from 1990. Well mystery solved. The June 3rd 1990 match aired on Challenge and he has the black suit.

 

The green suit bout is from January 1989 from this taping:

 

And it aired on the 1/9/89 Prime Time. It is simply mislabeled on YouTube. See, even ten years ago I knew.