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

DIBIASE: Oh, man, it was tremendous, yeah, it was a lot of fun!  You know, it's role-playing, and I was the Snidely Whiplash of wrestling.

SLAGLE:  Right.  And, you were good at it, too!

DIBIASE: Well, I was the guy that the people.loved to hate.  And you know, the really good thing about it was, at that time, wrestling was being done...the story was being told properly.  Kids were given heroes and villains, and their heroes would ultimately win.  That was the deal.  As the Million Dollar Man, in the end I would eventually always get it.  I'd get beat, because that was my job.  My job was to tell the story properly, that good will eventually conquer evil.  Unfortunately, that's not the case today.

SLAGLE:  Yeah, it has changed a lot.  Now, another guy we know who really got into his character, even though it didn't necessarily represent who or what he was as a man, was "Superstar" Billy Graham.  I was wondering what your first memories are, both as a fan and as a wrestler, of "Superstar" Billy Graham.

DIBIASE:  Oh, I mean, they were awesome.  To me, Billy was bigger than life.  I was in New York in `79, and I think he'd just come back in there as I was leaving.  But, Billy was the first major bodybuilder of wrestling.  Billy Graham was the first guy to come on the wrestling scene with the phenomenal physique, and he set a precedent that has lived on.  I mean, up until that time...you look back before Billy Graham, and you won't see any wrestlers that were, I mean, they all looked like, most of them looked like athletes.  You'd have your gimmicks, the big farmers and stuff like that, but most of the wrestlers looked like athletes.  But, they didn't look like Billy.  And since Billy, how many guys have you seen that come out to that ring and are chiseled?

I'm gonna tell you what, though, very rarely will you see one that was in the shape Billy was in his prime.  He was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.  And, not only that, but, I mean, a lot of the guys today have that body, but that's all they've got.  I can give you a couple of examples...the Ultimate Warrior.  the guy had a phenomenal body, but can't work a lick.  He has nothing else to offer but his body.  He can't interview, and he doesn't have a wrestling style, and to me, it's kind of a shame that he was able to make the kind of money that he made.  He didn't earn it, but he was given a tremendous position for awhile.  Another guy that is around today that has the body, but no where near the character, is Lex Luger.  I mean, look at Lex.  Lex looks like a robot in that ring, and he just does not have the color or charisma.  Billy, he had the whole package.  And, if you notice, if you watch Hulk Hogan...Hulk Hogan, in so many ways, copied Billy Graham. I don't know if you ever noticed that, but...

SLAGLE:  Oh, absolutely!  A lot of fans haven't seen footage of Billy Graham, but there's no denying it...

DIBIASE:  (doing a Hogan impersonation) "Let me tell ya brother..."

You know?

SLAGLE:  And tearing the t-shirt off, the whole posing thing...

DIBIASE: Yep.

SLAGLE:  And that goes across the board, if you think about it, because guys like Hogan and Jesse and people like that who took a lot from Graham, but there's also guys like, you were saying Lex Luger.  People who were indirectly influenced, you know?

DIBIASE:  Oh, definitely.

SLAGLE:  Now, you never wrestled Superstar, did you?

DIBIASE: Oh, wow.  Well, Billy has his own style, and his style was unique to him.  That is something that not too many people in this business are able to do, because everybody is copying someone else.  So, in that aspect, you'd have to say that Billy was...he was the mold.  In other words, you make the mold, and then you make copies from the mold.  He was the mold.  He was the prototype of that style of wrestler.  And, we just said it...the guy that went on to become the all-time moneymaker in the business, the biggest name, is a guy who copied Billy's style, and that was Hulk Hogan.   I was good on the mic, but I never had a great body.  I had a decent body, but I never had the real chiseled-out look, that look.  "Superstar" Billy Graham had it all.