Exclusive Interview: WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase Sr. on the rise of women's wrestling, his troubled past and the state of WWE today

‘Everyone has a price’ is the iconic catchphrase of legendary WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase, who I was lucky enough to chat to during his recent visit to the UK as a guest of the For the Love of Wrestling Convention.

But ‘The Million Dollar Man’ has since shed his ‘rockstar’ ways and now has a rather humble undertaking as a minister.

We discussed DiBiase almost paying the ultimate price during his troubled past and how it has led to him helping others in similar situations now, as well as the WWE Legend’s thoughts on the state of WWE today, the length of WrestleMania and the rise of women’s wrestling.

You’re at For the Love of Wrestling with a lot of icons from your era of the business, I don’t know if you keep up with the product, or how much of it you see now, but how different do you really think WWE is now then it was when you were there?

Ted DiBiase: Personally I think it’s extremely different, I’ve had this conversation with a couple of people who are close to the industry, but at the end of the day Vince McMahon is the billionaire and we’re not. But this business is built on what the fans think.

And the fans will come to this event [For the Love of Wrestling Convention] and the fans who come to other events where we appear will often say it, you know, ‘wrestling’s not the same, there’s too much talk and not enough wrestling, and there’s not the quality of previous generations’.

I have to agree in some cases, because there’s six hours of television, of WWE wrestling on television a week. Even if it was all quality, even if it was the best you can put on, for me it’s too much, it’s overkill.

Do you feel the same way about this year’s WrestleMania, it was seven hours long, is that too long for a wrestling event?

Ted DiBiase: Yes, by the time they see the main event in the ring, nobody cares because they’re exhausted.

Speaking of the WrestleMania main event, what are your thoughts on the rise of women’s wrestling with Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair making history, do you think this couldn’t have come soon enough?

Ted DiBiase: Obviously yes! I don’t watch a lot anymore, wrestling was a part of my life, a very big part of my life, but I’m doing other things now. But I will say this – the girls, the girls brought it, it’s gotten so much better than it was.

I don’t know if people will remember this, but not only was my father [a wrestler], so was my mother. My mother wrestled with Moolah and all of those women, and girl wrestling back then was more like what you see guys do and that’s what the girls are doing now, and in some cases they’re doing it better than the guys! So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having the girls in the main event

But, by the time you get to the girl’s main event it’s like, this year, the people were exhausted, and I wasn’t even there. I’m just going on what I’ve heard from fans who were there!

I had the pleasure of seeing you a couple of years ago in Swindon for an independent wrestling promotion alongside former WWE Superstar John Morrison. Are indie promotions, and conventions such as For the Love of Wrestling something that’s important to you?

Ted DiBiase: For me it’s an escape, I do so many other things, I have a ministry, I speak to churches, I speak at prisons, and I speak at rehab centres, that’s what I do most of my time.

When I go to an Indy show, when I go to an autograph signing, it’s a way for me to just go back and relate again to a business that I’m very familiar with, that I love and will always love. And, of course, it’s at times profitable as well.

You mention your ministry and going around and talking to prisons and rehab centres. What made you want to do that, especially after having such a successful career in the spotlight with wrestling?

Ted DiBiase: You’d have to know my story and my story is too long to tell in this conversation. But, I was a kid who grew up in a Christian home and I had a very strong faith in God. God carried me through my father’s death when I was fifteen years old, he was forty five years old, died of a heart attacked during a match in the ring. And I watched my mother sink into despair and alcoholism, and the things that helped me overcome that were, I believe, my faith in God and the Christian principles that had been instilled in me by my father. They carried me and I was able to get a scholarship to play American Football in the United States in a little town that we ended up having to live in because that’s where my Grandparents lived after my dad died.

But then when fame came along in my life and I began to reap the benefits and the rewards of my hard work, well you know, it’s like when the WWF took off people say ‘you guys became like rock stars’ and we travelled like rockstars and we did all the things rock stars do. I got caught up in all of that and it very nearly cost me my marriage.

And it was along that way that I woke up one day, well I say woke up one day – I got confronted by my wife and it was a wake-up call, it was like ‘what are you doing?’ I was putting at risk the things that were the most valuable to me all for the sake of stroking my ego! The realisation of that hit me very hard, the realisation that I might lose my family was… I don’t know what I’d have done, that might have put me over the edge.

But I was able to salvage all of it, and that turnaround, now I didn’t know it’d take me where it took me, but it was something that happened over time. I’d get an invitation to speak at the church. ‘Tell your story’ and I’d tell my story. The more I did it, it was like a snowball rolling downhill, the more invitations I got and pretty soon I’m not just talking to people in church. I’m talking to guys that are down and out, I’m talking to guys that are either in alcoholism or in drug addiction and they’re looking for a way to get out of it and to find stability in their lives again. I believe very firmly that stability is found in God. Period.

What a wonderful thing to be able to do, to be able to help turn people’s lives around in the same way you were able to turn your own life around

Ted DiBiase: “I put God No.1 in my life, and my family next to that. I became what you would call a ‘servant husband.’ For Macho Man that’s pretty hard to say!

Thanks very much for talking to us today Ted, I’ll let you get off and enjoy the convention!

Ted DiBiase: “Thank you! I’m excited, I’ve been flipping around, I’m a Beatle fan so I’m going to explore and see where the Beatles got started!”

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Aside from this exclusive interview Ted DiBiase and several other WWE legends including Ric Flair and Bret 'The Hitman' Hart conducted several Q and A's over the weekend at For the Love of Wrestling Convention - which you can watch on Fite.

Tickets to next year's For the Love of Wrestling Convention are already on sale here!