DIBIASE:  Yep.  I'm doing great, man, who are you?

SLAGLE:  Great!  I want to thank you for taking some time out of your schedule and joining us here today, we really do appreciate it.  First of all, I wanted to ask you, Ted, if you could fill our listeners in on what you've been doing since the last time we saw you on television?

DIBIASE: Oh gosh, my entire life has become my ministry.  I was ordained in the gospel ministry and  full-time evangelism in February of this year (2000), and I travel all over the United States and Canada, and over to foreign countries on mission trips, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It has become a passion, and a vocation, and my way of life, my way of living.

SLAGLE:  That's tremendous.  Now, I was wondering...last night, the Republicans had their convention, and I was wondering, did you get to see the Linda McMahon & Rock deal on that?

DIBIASE:  No, I didn't.  But, I turned it on, and tuned in to see The Rock seated in front of former President Bush, and was pretty amazed.

SLAGLE:  Yeah!  Did you ever think you'd see the day when something like that could happen in wrestling?

DIBIASE:  No, I really did not.  Way back when I was wrestling...right prior to my going to the WWF, I know that George Bush, while living in Houston, when he was Vice President of the United States under Ronald Reagan, there was a night when we were wrestling there in Houston that the word came around that the Vice President was possibly going to drop by and pay us a visit.  It didn't happen, something came up, but he was good friends with a gentleman that was very famous in wrestling promotions, probably one of the more reputable promoters in the business, whose name was Paul Bausch.

SLAGLE:  Oh yeah, sure...

DIBIASE: He and Vice President Bush were very good friends.  So, I don't know if that had anything to do with The Rock and the connection between wrestling and Mr. Bush.  I know that Ernie Ladd is another one who goes around and campaigns with the former President.

SLAGLE:  Actually, I heard that he was at the convention, too.  I don't know if he made it on camera or not, though.  Now, Ted, you're a second generation wrestler with deep roots in the sport of wrestling.  I was wondering if you could give our listeners some history on your legendary father, "Iron" Mike Dibiase, and maybe the story on how you first broke into wrestling?

DIBIASE:  Sure.  My late father, Mike Dibiase, was not only a professional wrestler for twenty years, but he was also an amateur champion.  Actually, he won the AAU National Heavyweight wrestling title in the early forties, wrestling for Navy.  And, then he went on and wrestled and played football at the University of Nebraska, where he was from, he was from Omaha.  He was one of only four athletes in the history of that school, at that time, you know, I don't know if it still stands, but there were only four athletes who ever lettered eight times in each one of them.  So, he was a phenomenal athlete.  He was a national champion as an amateur and the World's Jr. Heavyweight champion in professional wrestling at one time, and had a storied career.  He was well-respected amongst his peers as not only a very good real wrestler, but a very good professional wrestler as well.  I looked up to my dad, very much, and wanted to be just like him.  As many who follow wrestling know, there's only been a few people who have actually died in the ring, and my father was actually one of them.  in July of 1969 he had a heart attack during a match in Lubbock, TX., and as a result of that heart attack, he passed away.  I wanted to follow in his footsteps.  I finished high school in southern Arizona, and went off to play football on a scholarship at West Texas State University.  Then, I started my professional wrestling career in the summer of 1975, twenty five years ago.  And, I guess as they say, the rest is history.

SLAGLE:   Actually, you brought up West Texas State, which is one of the questions I wanted to asked you; what was it about West Texas State University that led to so many top pro wrestlers coming out of that school?  I mean, you had so many -- Tully Blanchard, Stan Hansen, Dick Murdoch and Dusty went there, so many...what was the story behind that?

DIBIASE:  Well, basically, it was the influence of the Funk family.  Dory Funk Sr. and my father were very good friends, and that was the territory my father was wrestling for at the time of his death.  Upon finishing school, for me personally, I had already accepted a scholarship to play football at the University of Arizona.  Then, I turned the TV on one day, and there was wrestling.  It was out of Texas, and it was the Funks.  I went to visit them, and they said, "Hey, why don't you come back and take a little recruiting trip?  You already said where you're going, and that's cool, just take the recruiting trip, you know, you may decide that you want to go here."  So, I did, I went to Texas.  But, it was basically the influence of the Funk family...

SLAGLE:  Who, uh, did...

DIBIASE:  Tully Blanchard, myself, and Tito Santana all played on the same team.

SLAGLE:  Wow!  Now, did any of you guys wrestle, or was it strictly football?.

DIBIASE:  We were all in football, we were all on football scholarships at West Texas State.  At that time, I don't know if anything has changed, but at that time, there was no amateur wrestling program at West Texas State.

SLAGLE:  That's amazing, because they had so many World Heavyweight champions that came out of there...

DIBIASE:  Basically, it was because of the influence of the Funks, and their history at the school.

SLAGLE:  Now, as a very young fan, my first exposure to Ted Dibiase was in Bob Geigel's Central States territory.  You feuded with guys like Col. Buck Robely, "Bruiser" Bob Sweetan and Bobby Jaggers and you were the Heavyweight champion there a couple of times.  Do you have any memories or stories that you could tell from that period of time in your career?

DIBIASE:  I just remember that Bob Geigel and my father were friends, Pat O`Connor, who was also there and from that same era as Geigel and my father, "Big" Bob Orton and those guys, they were all from the same era.  But when I started my career, these guys went out of there way to take care of me, treat me right, and help me learn the business because of their relationship with my dad.  Oh gosh, who was the other one...he just recently passed away.  Bob?

SLAGLE:  "Bulldog" Bob Brown?

DIBIASE:  "Bulldog" Bob Brown, yeah.

SLAGLE:  A staple of that territory...

DIBIASE:  Oh yeah!  And, they were very good to me.  I can't say I had one particular match...you know, I wrestled Harley Race, who was a partner in that territory, I wrestled Harley at the...what's the building there in Kansas City, KS.?  Memorial Hall. I wrestled him there for the World Title.  I also wrestled him downtown at the Kiel in St. Louis on another occasion, and it was my trip there that led me to my first couple of times of doing television at The Chase in St. Louis.  And it was there that I really got my first big break in the business.  St. Louis was a very good town for me.  Sam Muchnick, the promoter, liked my father, liked me, he liked my work.  Plus, Harley Race, Harley and my dad were good friends.

And there were some at that time, the jealousy in the business, some guys would say to me, "Because your dad was in the business, you get all of these breaks, and here we are, we're working and starving, and you're making all the money."  And, I said, "Guys, it might be...certainly there is some truth in that, in saying that I may have been given an opportunity or I may have been given a look because of the relationship of one of these guys and my father.  But, I also know this, and in life in general, if you go to apply for any job, oftentimes, it's not what you know, but who you know.  But, once you're given the opportunity and you can't run with the ball, you're not going to have the job.  So, apparently, I'm doing something right because the only way I can continue to be a headliner is if I have the ability to put people in seats and sell tickets."  So, that kind of shut them up.

SLAGLE:  And, you had that ability, there's no doubt about that...

DIBIASE: I have fond memories of...well, I can't say that I have totally fond memories of the Kansas City territory, because it was very tough, it was not a territory that was doing phenomenal business.  But, nostalgically speaking, and in my opportunity to learn the business and kind of polish my trade, it was a really good experience for me.

SLAGLE:  .Now, most fans are very familiar with the history of the WWF Inter-Continental championship.  But, a lot of people are not so aware that, before there was the I-C belt, there was also another attempt by the WWF to create a secondary championship, and that belt was known as the WWF North American Heavyweight title...

DIBIASE: (chuckles)

SLAGLE:  And, back in 1979, Ted Dibiase was the first WWF North American champ.

DIBIASE: That's right.  And what a lot of people don't realize is that the Inter-Continental belt is basically that same title.  What happened was this...

Vince McMahon, Sr., when he brought me in, he said, "I'm going to bring you in as the North American champion."  And, he did that.  Well, I got there, and I don't know how long I was there, but somehow he found out that down in Bill Watts' territory, which was Mid South, that the main champion was the North American champion.  And, there was a lot of respect between territories in those days, and he didn't want to step on any one's toes.  So, he said, "We can't have a North American champion here and a North American champion there."  So, what they did is, I lost that title, I dropped it to Pat Patterson in a televised match.  Well, then, what they did was, they created a story.  They said that Pat Patterson went off to some foreign tournament somewhere...

SLAGLE:  (chuckling) Rio De Janeiro...

DIBIASE: And basically, all of those different local belts were "put up" and he then, in turn, "won" what they called the Inter-Continental title, which represented more than just North America.  So, they made it a bigger thing.  But, that's I get upset when they say that Pat Patterson was the first I-C champion, because in reality, it was me.

SLAGLE:  Now, in addition to the character of Mr. Perfect -- I always liked Mr. Perfect, I thought that was a great character -- but I think my all-time favorite 'gimmick wrestler' or wrestling character from the WWF during the eighties had to be, hands down, the Million Dollar Man.  If you take the wrestler out of the equation, just the character of the Million Dollar Man has no problem standing on its own.  And then, when you add in a performer as talented in the ring, and behind the mic, as Ted Dibiase, it's just a truly legendary character in wrestling history.  So, can you give us the story on how you became the Million Dollar Man, and any fond memories you have from that period?

DIBIASE: Oh, there's a lot of them!  It was a lot of fun.  It was a dream come true, becoming the Million Dollar Man, and it was the cherry on top of the sunday in terms of my career.  I had done very well, and when the WWF took off and went nationwide, there was a first wave of guys who went through there, and it was time for a second wave.  You know, Paul Orndorff had been very strong, and he was leaving.  The Samoans, some of those guys had been through there and were very strong, and there was the guy who was always going to be there, Hulk Hogan.  So, it was time for new faces, some new heels.  I was brought to New York by Vince McMahon, Jr., and he laid it out for me.  He said, "Ted, we want to make you one of the biggest heels we've ever created.  We've got an idea, and it's a gimmick that's never been done."  And that's really unusual, because everything's been done.  I had to agree to come onboard before they would give me the idea because, you know, they didn't want to tell me what it was and then me go try to do it somewhere else.  So, I agreed, of course, because if it's Vince McMahon's idea, at that time, well, you did it.  So, basically he laid it out, and said "We want to make you wrestling's Ebineezer Scrooge.  You're going to be the guy with all of the money, and if there's one thing everybody hates, it's a man with a lot of money who's always throwing it someone's face."

SLAGLE:  Yeah, exactly...

DIBIASE: And he's saying, "I've got more than you, pal, and by that equation alone, it makes me better than you!"  And that's what the Million Dollar Man was.  And, we created this bigger-than-life character, you know, with the big laugh, 'everybody's got a price, there's nothing I can't buy...'  And, the ingenious thing was that when they marketed the character...there's nothing that spreads faster than word of mouth.  So, they said, "Ted, we're going to give you a pocket full of money."  And as opposed to going out and marketing this character...well, I suppose they marketed it in other ways as well, but they said, "We're going to give you money to spend.  Now, you go out and make this character come to life.  You go into a restaurant, you have a pocket full of hundred dollar bills, and you say, 'Hey, I'm the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, and I'm picking up the tab for everybody.'  Then, you drop the cash and walk out."

SLAGLE:  Man...

DIBIASE: And I said, "Vince, what do I do when I run out of money?"  He said, "Come back and get some more."

SLAGLE:  (laughs)

DIBIASE: So, yeah, it was pretty great.  And, I'll say one of the biggest highlights of that was not so much any one match after I started wrestling, but the incident, the night that really launched the career of the Million Dollar Man was the night that...well, Hulk Hogan and I had wrestled each other for the first return bout since WrestleMania III.

I had boasted that I would win the title, not by wrestling Hulk Hogan, but by having Andre beat him and then simply buy the belt.  That was the night of the twin referees, which was probably one of the greatest gimmicks ever pulled in wrestling.  And, it was an awesome night also because it was the first time since the early days of wrestling -- and television -- that professional wrestling was on national network television.  So, it was a very big night for me.

SLAGLE:  Oh, I still remember it to this day!  Now, I was going to ask you...you did a lot of classic skits as the Million Dollar Man.  I was wondering, could you pick one that stands out in you mind as being, you know, highly entertaining?  I mean, they were all very entertaining, but...

DIBIASE: Probably the one that got the most recognition and that got the most heat was in Milwaukee when I told the little boy that if he could dribble the basketball fifteen times -- without missing -- that I'd give him five hundred bucks.  Of course, he dribbles the basketball, and he dribbles it fourteen times.  And, before he got to the fifteenth time, I stuck my foot out and kicked the ball out of his way.  And it was like, "Ooops, you missed!"

SLAGLE:  (laughing)

DIBIASE: I mean, I jilted this kid!  And I told him, "Hey, man, you didn't get the job done, and therefore, you don't get the money!"  And, then, I laughed at him.  I'll tell you what...the people wanted to kill me!  To this day, I have people come up to me and say, "Did you really do that to that kid, that little boy?"  Well, of course I didn't.  He and his family got the money before the show ever went on.

SLAGLE:  Yeah, that was a great one...

DIBIASE: That was the one that gets the most, um, that's the one that I still hear about, to this day.

SLAGLE:  Right.  Now, another one that I'm sure you still hear about sometimes is the infamous Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous episode.

DIBIASE: Oh God...

SLAGLE:  For our listeners who are a little bit younger, can you tell them what that's all about?

DIBIASE:  Well, I mean, the show Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous was a very popular show on television for years.  And, it would highlight the lifestyles of rich and famous people.  You know, Hollywood stars, rock stars, movie stars, athletes.  Basically, people who lived very wealthy and lavish lives.  They would take you to their homes, and show you what they do, tours through their homes, and show you these peoples' very lush hobbies they had.  And so, they said, "We'll have you do the Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous with Ted Dibiase!"  So, I was the featured celebrity on an episode of their show.  Of course, what was funny was that when we did the show, I said to Robin (Robin Leach, the host of the program) "Now, Robin, you realize that we're doing this just to enhance a character.  This isn't really where I live..."  And he just kind of looked and me and laughed and said, "Oh, don't worry Teddy, we do this all of the time!"

SLAGLE:  Really...

DIBIASE: Yeah.  That's kind of funny.  So, I was actually on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous with Robin Leach...

SLAGLE:  That was a true classic...I think you had the dog eating caviar!

DIBIASE: (laughing)  Yeah, the dog ate caviar!  And, a kid came in, doing a raffle.  So, I bought a raffle ticket and had Virgil pop out a hundred dollar bill.  And, he looks at me, and then the kid looks at the $100.   I said, "Hey kid, you want that hundred bucks?"  He says, "Yeah!" And I said, "how does it feel to want?"

SLAGLE:  (chuckling) So, I mean, how fun was that, to really get into character like that?  Was it...

DIBIASE: Oh, man, it was tremendous, it was a lot of fun!