Ted Dibiase or Tully Blanchard?

[HBKperfect23]

I do enjoy Tully and think he is great in the ring, but Ted Dibease is one of the greatest of all time. He could make anyone look good in the ring. The Million Dollar Man character was the greatest gimmick of all time and Ted was such a good fit for it. Dibease was involved with arguably the best angle ever with Andre "beating" Hogan for the belt and then "buying" it from him. Best WWF heel team of the 90s with IRS. Also great mouthpeice for his Million Dollar Corperation and the NWO. So Tully was great but Ted was better.

[Lowdown]

This is kinda a toss up but I'm going with DiBiase on this one. Tully Blanchard was great in regards to being with the Horsemen and later with Arn in WWF. But Ted stood out with me more due to the fact that he came into WWF and garnered a ton of heat as the Million Dollar Man. Probably the best heel talker next to Bobby Heenan. The man could wrestle and make anyone look good to boot. He was still getting the same kind of heat when he started the Million Dollar Corporation as well. I don't think a lot of people think much of what Tully has done post Horseman.

[yoshi_doce2006]

Originally Posted by Lowdown

This is kinda a toss up but I'm going with DiBiase on this one. Tully Blanchard was great in regards to being with the Horsemen and later with Arn in WWF. But Ted stood out with me more due to the fact that he came into WWF and garnered a ton of heat as the Million Dollar Man. Probably the best heel talker next to Bobby Heenan. The man could wrestle and make anyone look good to boot. He was still getting the same kind of heat when he started the Million Dollar Corporation as well. I don't think a lot of people think much of what Tully has done post Horseman.

Tully went into a semi-retirement in 1992, wrestling only sparingly after that. Never wrestled a full schedule again after leaving the WWF. He instead focused on getting clean and on his religion. Tully's career in all only lasted a little over a decade as a full time performer. So Ted also has the Longevity factor.

[Lowdown]

Originally Posted by yoshi_doce2006

Tully went into a semi-retirement in 1992, wrestling only sparingly after that. Never wrestled a full schedule again after leaving the WWF. He instead focused on getting clean and on his religion. Tully's career in all only lasted a little over a decade as a full time performer. So Ted also has the Longevity factor.

I didn't mean he did nothing mind you. I know he battled drug addiction, which is what got him fired from WWF. But usually when someone brings up Tully, they focus on his time in GCW and with the Horesmen as opposed to his WWF tenure with Arn and Heenan.

[yoshi_doce2006]

Originally Posted by Lowdown

I didn't mean he did nothing mind you. I know he battled drug addiction, which is what got him fired from WWF. But usually when someone brings up Tully, they focus on his time in GCW and with the Horesmen as opposed to his WWF tenure with Arn and Heenan.

He didn't get fired from the WWF, he and Arn at that time were traveling as a team and Arn had to put in his notice for family reasons. So they decided to leave together, go back to WCW, and reform the Horsemen. Long story short, he failed the drug test and lost out on a large contract.

At the time they felt as though they were the best team in the world, and the only team at that time who could touch them was Demolition who were just dominating. While they didn't know they were leaving WCW together, they knew that they were better together than on their own at the time of their signing their WWF contract as a tag team.

But yea, didn't mean to make it sound like you said he did nothing, my bad if I made it sound that way.

[FlairFan2003]

A lot of posters here are posting opinions pro DiBiase admittng they have not seen Blanchard's work. I did, Blanchard was better.

In the ring, it's not that close. DiBiase was very good mind you, he wrestled Cage Matches and bloddy brawls in his Mid South days (those matches were WAY BETTER than 99% of what he did in WWE when his matches wre typically very short and very formulamatic outside of his tilt's with Savage). Blanchard also could wrestle any type of match and was extremely athletic in the ring. As good as guys like Flair & Steamboat were in the 80s, Blanchard was right with them.

As far as being a big star, Blanchard was huge in wrestling in the mid 80s. When the NWA was making big money and killing WWE south of the Mason Dixon line (Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Carolinas, Texas, Tennessee etc) Blanchard was the No 2 villain and No. 3 overall character on the show (behind Flair & Dusty Rhodes). That's saying something considering that Rhodes is one of the most popular wrestlers EVER and Flair spent most of the 80s as The No 2 draw nationwide behind Hogan (according to Meltzer's research which spanned 1980 through 2007, ranking them each year).

Blanchard's fued with Rhodes was almost as epic as Rhodes battles with Flair. Blnachard routinely did over the top rope and off the top rope sunset flips, dropkicks, flying bodypresses, even though his reputation was that of a more grounded technical wrestler. His 1985 Great American Bash Cage Match with Rhodes is probably the highight of that feud, and was a prety big match on one of the biggest wrestling cards anywhere that year (sold out Charlotte Memorial Stadium). To this day people stil praise his brutal Steel Cage "I Quit" match vs Magnum TA from Starrcade 85 as one of the best gimmick matches of all time. This match is every bit as good as the WrestleMania "I Quit" matchg between Austin & Hart and better than much more famous Clash Of Champions "I Quit" match between Flair & Terry Funk.

Blanchard was clearly over as a hated villain, a guy Shawn Michaels himself has said was one of his inspirations and favorite wrestlers when he was getting into the business (right behind Flair). Blanchard was one of the first male wrestlers to clearly physically attack a woman (Baby Doll) on TV when such violence was completely taboo. His $10,000 plus my title if yiu can pin me gimmick was hugely over in 1987 (leading to his $100,000 vs TV Title Match with Rhodes, another memorable encounter).

Blanchard did as much to make Magnum TA a main event star as Flair did for Luger and Sting. With Arn Anderson, they had several memorable tag team matches vs Road Warriors and their bouts with The Rock & Roll Express in 1987 were every bit as good if not better than their memorable WWE tilts vs HBK/Marty Jannety.

Blanchard could wrestle long matches (often going 50 minutes or more in battles with the likes of TA, Rhodes, etc) and he participated in just about every gimmick match there was at the time (Bunkhouse Matches, Bullrope Matches, Taped Fist Boxing Matches, Steel Cage, I Quit/Submission,). Heck, he even wrestled in the first Ladder match in a major US wrestling company (vs Rhodes, 1987 Great American Bash) when such matches, at least outside of Canada, were non existent in the US (this is 5 years before HBK & Brett Hart would do them at WWE House shows). That match didnt have as many off the ladder highlights (Rhodes was a liitle old & heavy for such huge spots) but they made up for it in brutality by making it a "Barbed Wire Ladder Match" (this is the same time that WWE was promoting wrestling like Disney, a full decade before anyone ever head of ECW).

DiBiase could have wrestled better matches in WWE, it wasnt his own limitations but the limitations imposed on talent in general during the HulkaMania era where very rarely were more talented in ring oerformers allowed to showcase those skills (skills Hogan did not have). Honestly, DiDiase's matches outside of his 1988 series vs Savage seemed non special to me, where as Blanchard had great matches vs Rhodes, TA, RR Express, LOD, and was also very good in bouts vs Ron Garvin & Barry Whyndam.

In terms of titles Blanchard was more dominant, Tully & Arn being the 1st tag team to win both the NWA & WWE Tag Titles, and won tag team of the year in 1989 from Pro Wrestling Ilustrated.

Believe me, I was watching the NWA a lot back then and when Blanchard left that company lost a lot, both in the ring and on the mic. DiBiase was very good, his Millio Dollard Gimmick one of the best Vince creations ever (alongside Mr Perfect for Curt Henning & The Undertaker gimmick) but Blanchard was better.