Why can't Dibiase get over?

[theHeadliner]

He lacks charisma, he looks generic, sounds like a boring robot when he cuts promos, doesn't stand out, lacks originality but that's partly due to the creative direction of him, etc. you can go on and on with reasons. Yes the guy has a good physique, but every single wrestler today basically looks like that.

It also goes back to the present WWE formula though cus all of these new young guys all look the same and lack mic skills or the personality factor that draws fans to them. Thats an excuse to defend him with, but I personally feel its him and his personality that's the issue. He just doesn't have it. The Maryse valet and million dollar recycled gimmick seem desperate on the WWE's part, but he doesn't play the character well to begin with. He was boring in Legacy and now he's just as bland on his own, even with Maryse.

 

[The Holy One]

While he has the look, in-ring skills, and a gimmick that suits him perfectly although it's been used before. I think everybody has made the most important point in that he has no charisma. If DiBiase was anything close to his father in terms of charisma and mic skills, we wouldn't even be posting in this thread, but unfortunately he has not giving any remembrable promos nor can he excite anybody when he comes on t.v. I think having Maryse as his valet/manager can do wonders for him much like Vickie is doing for Dolph Ziggler right now. She can give him the much needed mouth piece and will be very influential in getting him noticed by the casual fans. I would like for DiBiase to improve on his personality b/c I never want to see any wrestler fail especially if they have such promise such as DiBiase.

 

[The Scarred One]

I think Ted Jr. has the same problem that others like Steve Austin, the Rock and Triple H have encountered in the past - he's not being himself.

Instead of trying something different, the WWE is pretty much giving him his old man's gimmick. The Million Dollar Man gimmick may have worked for his father, but Ted Jr. is not his father. So expecting him to try and relive the gimmick is ridiculous. As it's been said countless times before, talent get over best just by being themselves with the volume turned way up.

Last year, when they were teasing him going face and having him break away from Legacy, he got pretty over. Just look at his match with Orton where the crowd wanted so badly for Ted Jr. to just go bonkers and lay Orton out. It's a shame the WWE never expanded on that. But I think had he gotten the victory over Orton and Rhodes at WrestleMania, it would've made him look so much better than he is now.

I guess being the son of a legend can be more of a burden than a blessing. A lot of wrestlers tried to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, only to fail miserably. Guys like David Flair, Brian Lawler, David Sammartino, Erik Watts and Scott Putski failed because their father's were some of the greatest to ever step into the ring. So it's hard to follow that. But the reason why Randy Orton, the Rock and Bret Hart have gone on to be successful is because they pretty much outshined their father's careers.

I still have faith that Ted Jr. can find his niche. Also as is what with Austin, Rock and HHH, it took them years before they finally found what clicked. It just takes time. Who knows? He just might surprise all of us one day.

 

[Morpheus101]

Like everyone else has said, Dibiase is boring as hell. While Cody is out there on Smackdown forging a new image for himself, Dibiase is riding his father's coattails, wearing the Million Dollar Belt and putting crowds to sleep with his boring promos. Ted had his opportunity to shine, or WWE had the opportunity to make something of him almost a year ago, when they could have had him turn on Legacy and feud with Orton. The crowd would have been behind him at that point and Orton could have put him over and best of all, he wouldn't have needed the Million Dollar Belt.

I think that Ted is redundant on Raw. If anything, Ted should have gone to Smackdown as I feel that he could have been far better utilized. No 'Fortunate Sons' stable is going to happen on Raw while Nexus is there, that's for sure. Like I said, Ted should have been drafted to Smackdown.

 

[darbare]

wow....its funny so many of you guys are hating on him now when just a few months ago you acted like he was the second coming.....everyone figured Cody would get released and Ted would be main eventing.....I personally always felt Cody was better, but anyways......why cant he get over....he is doing a watered down version of his daddys gimmick......plain and simple.....he doesnt have the character and personality his dad has to pull it off....Maryse is making him look like a million bucks (no pun intended).....this whole gimmick just doesnt seem like him....i mean when he was in legacy he was basically a watered down version of Randy....wore the same outfit pretty much and tried to mimmick the same facial expressions.....now he is mimmicking his daddys gimmick.....i mean he goes from trying to act viper like one week, to wearing a freakin suit the next, it just seems like he is lost.....

 

[Viola Moonlight]

I made the call back when Legacy was formed that Cody would be the better wrestler once the tag team split up. An easy decision to make considering Rhodes' presence. There is something about him that makes him instantly interesting. He's kind of like his father with the swagger and weird body shape...

As for Ted, he's got nothing as a character and doesn't have style. When you think of a wrestler, one of the main things that pop up into your mind is how they wrestle. Orton slithers. Rey flys. Ted... I haven't seen it yet. As he debuted and formed Priceless, he was a tag team wrestler alongside partner Cody Rhodes. People started to buy into him... then the formation of Orton came and poof... he becomes Orton lite, a carbon-copy if you will. No-one wants to see the exact same wrestling style done twice, especially when the other person can do it better than you, was the original performer of the style and is your partner.

Once they split, DiBiase adopted the rich gimmick. Now, in theory, he's got the looks to be tailor made in this role. However, he hasn't captured the glory his father did as of yet... when he wrestles, I forget he is the Million Dollar Son. He does nothing to even show what his gimmick is. And his mic skills are very robotic. I'd rather listen to Jilian sing her entire Christmas Album than hear one word from his mouth.

Ted needs to find a style and work it into his gimmick. Once he does, the WWE Universe will eventually accept him.

 

[Morpheus101]

wow....its funny so many of you guys are hating on him now when just a few months ago you acted like he was the second coming.....everyone figured Cody would get released and Ted would be main eventing.....I personally always felt Cody was better, but anyways......why cant he get over....he is doing a watered down version of his daddys gimmick......plain and simple.....he doesnt have the character and personality his dad has to pull it off....Maryse is making him look like a million bucks (no pun intended).....this whole gimmick just doesnt seem like him....i mean when he was in legacy he was basically a watered down version of Randy....wore the same outfit pretty much and tried to mimmick the same facial expressions.....now he is mimmicking his daddys gimmick.....i mean he goes from trying to act viper like one week, to wearing a freakin suit the next, it just seems like he is lost.....

Well, you were right and as I was more of a Ted mark myself a few months ago, I was clearly wrong. I always felt that Ted had more momentum and more star power, but Cody has proved me wrong, along with Ted's failure to really make an impression for himself. Perhaps it's WWE's fault for trying to make Ted the character that they want him to be (a sort of clone of his father). Cody is a member of the Rhodes family, but he's not out there living off his father's legacy - he's making his own name for himself.

I'm not going to give up on Ted though....I think he has a ton of potential, but the gimmick just plain sucks.

 

[giblet55]

I loved the original Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase and used to get chills when you'd hear his laugh over the pa system...but his son just doesn't shine.

How many times does the WWE need to learn that rehashing old gimmicks never works? What doesn't make sense to me about it is how he tore into his dad and put his dad down but then...takes his dad's gimmick? Makes no sense.

Personally, if Ted Jr. was going to do this, I would have liked to have seen more time on screen with his Dad. Maybe vignettes of him and his Dad spending money, his Dad showing him the ropes and then when Ted Jr. gets up some steam, have something go horribly wrong in a match where his father is ringside, and have ted snap by putting his dad in the million dollar dream. Have his dad interviewed the next week on his response to what happened and have Ted blind side him during the interview and throw the million dollar belt on him...

Have Ted Jr. go on and on about how his Dad was never there for him and how he was always on the road being this selfish, and arrogant ass. Now have Ted tell his Dad that the difference between them is that Ted Jr., can do it better, but not by choice like his old man, but the absence of his old man made him this way...selfish...a loner...

Have Ted Sr. do a promo the next week about how he did what he had to do and he did it to put food in his son's mouth and so on...then after another attack on his dad, have someone save his dad and lead into a high profile feud...

Just a thought...

 

[Million Dollar Dream]

Because he's boring as shit?

DiBiase was dull in Legacy, and he's even more dull on his own now, because he doesn't have a HUGE Randy Orton/Triple H rivalry to hide behind. At least Cody Rhodes seems to be on to something with his new character, but DiBiase is pretty much mimicking his father's gimmick, and he just can't pull it off. The Million Dollar Man could cut some outstanding promos that were full of energy, and he was very underrated as far as in ring work goes.

I really don't feel Ted Dibiase was underrated he was the top heel for many years and the only reason people say that he is underrated is due to the fact he never won a title... but that's more due to him wrestling in the same promotion as Hulk Hogan... He must have been very content being in the role he was behind Hogan or else he would not have followed Hogan to the nWo...... As for his son though, lack of charisma, There was always something special about The Million Dollar Man's evil laugh and the suits he had and the way he was always a thorn in the side of a top face in the company... Ted Jr. walking out with just his simple tights each week and the lack of charisma just don't equal his father's legacy

 

[Da Prophet]

DiBiase can't get over because what he is doing has already been done by his father.And his dad did it better, the guy should have stayed away from the Million Dollar Belt and anything that went with it.It's boring and plus all his promos are about how he is the son of the Million Dollar Man, good on ya!If he stopped talking about his father maybe he would get somewhere and not be bring as shit.

 

[Tap.Out]

That whole "making it on his own" theory when it relates to Cody Rhodes, isn’t exactly accurate…the "Dashing" gimmick is pretty much a rehash of the "Ravishing" Rick Rude / "Narcissist" Lex Luger characters. I guess you could say it's like….looking in a MIRROR...
I don’t see WWE "ignoring" their past, I see them reliving it.
The fact that Cody can make that gimmick work, doesn’t make him "the fortunate son". nor does it provide depth or long-term interest in his wrestling persona. It puts him on the map, for the time being. That's it. The bigger question is – can he carry that gimmick all the way to the next level? because that's pretty much the 1 and only question floating around nowdays when it comes to younger talent, as the mid-card scene has been dead for years. It's gonna take a bit more than a digital mirror and a facial to do that. He's still very much categorized as "Potential" (have you..SEEN him in a lengthy/serious feud yet?), so I don’t think its right to compare the 2, at this early stage of their careers.
Which brings me to my next point - Both "Pricesless" and "Legacy" pretty much burried both wrestlers in the process. Case #1 presented us a tag-team with no ACTUAL TAG-TEAM DIVISION to work with or care about / ase #2 saw both Rhodes and Dibiase portrayed as ORTON'S troops..and that is exactly how they were lazily booked the whole time. They simply got lost and they need to find themselves again in a VERY demanding atmosphere and audience. It's a process. sometimes, a very long one, much like it was with Randy Orton. Need I remind you Orton's star didn’t start shining till late 2006? (He was either injured or flat for 3 years. We all know how his 2004 SS title win turned out) Same goes for the all mighty Chris Jericho, who only established himself as a REAL legend for the first time in his career during his 2007 feud with HBK? (they took the undisputed title off him back in 2001 because he COULDN’T DRAW).
Ted lacks charisma and in-ring presence. Agreed. BUT, I don’t think THAT is the problem. It's a problem that can be worked on and even vastly improved in due time. The main issue here is I think WWE's trying to build as many stars as possible while they still got active veterans / semi-veterans to put them over on their roster. The thing is, their lack of consistency in building future stars, and in some cases, like Nexus, for example - pure and simple momentum, which no member of the Raw roster has right now.
Look at Evan Bourne (wasn’t this guy supposed to be WWE's way to create main-event credibility in some of the "smaller" guys?), Dolph Ziggler (you know, Vickie Guerrero's manager), Kofi Kingston ("I remember" - the one who smashed Orton's car in his one night storyline stand?) Jack Swagger (wasn’t he WHC like..2 scripts ago? can anyone find Waldo?) and the list goes on and on.
What Ted NEEDS right now is a program with someone like Chris Jericho. He needs a veteran to guide him and get him over. This is exactly what Orton's feud with Undertaker has done to him, and that is exactly what Ted needs to step it up.

 

[Dyscord]

Ted Jr doesn't have the look. I mean, look at Ted Sr. He has this look that says "I'm better than you." Jr just looks like a generic suit. He doesn't do anything to make me thing that he's rich. Perhaps he should start his version of the corporation or something. Make people hate him. Having him job so damn much doesn't help either.

 

[KnowYoRole]

Because Ted Jr. sucks and is boring. He's just so damn uninteresting. He can't get people to hate him either. He's always going on about how rich he is....uhhh ok, great...make me CARE that you're rich. He doesn't make people HATE him and he doesn't DO anything to make people hate him.

 

[TheLoneCharles]

When a wrestler is made out to look like a buffoon, well you have the case of Ted Dibiase.

When he had Priceless going they were great. Seemed like legit contenders for the tag belts, then they ran into Orton. Literally every Raw had Priceless being pummeled while Orton looked like gold. To make it worse, Orton would berate his troops and humilate them. While it got Orton over to possibly Cena levels, it was at the expense of Priceless.

The only way to get Ted over is to actually have him win some matches while using his gimmick. Let's say he has a US title shot. In the middle of the match when he is losing, he hands the ref a 100 dollar bill and says to make it a no DQ match. When the ref does, BAM Dibiase cheats and wins. He needs to actually apply his "I'm rich" gimmick to get over with the fans, not just parade around and expect it. Strikes me as a lazy performer.

 

[gd]

His boring as hell, that's why. Cody has at least shown some personality and whatnot since they split up. What has Dibiase done? Absolutely nothing. There's nothing at all that makes him stand out in the ring or outside of it. Nothing, I tells ya.

The pairing with Maryse is the only semi-interesting thing he's been involved in, but that hasn't really went anywhere. Surely there's something they could do with her that would actually put Dibiase in a worthwhile angle that might help him out a bit, but really, why should they bother?

 

[Dave]

You know, I was thinking about this exact same topic for another thread that I was posting in and I think I eventually came to the realisation why he had failed to get over in all of his time in the WWE and that realisation is that he has literally no charisma whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, he has had times where he has showed some promise and I definitely thought that he was going to be the more successful one out of the tag team with Cody Rhodes. However, for now, none of them have set themselves apart from the other.

However, Ted DiBiase just doesn’t seem to have the “it” factor. I know that seems like a cop-out and not a real reason but that is as close as I can get to areal reason. He has had everything given to him so far and he has failed to rise to the challenge of it all. When he debuted, he was immediately launched into a feud with Cody Rhodes and then tagged with the aforementioned person. He is a multiple time Tag Team Champion and has been in a pretty successful stable with the hottest commodity in the WWE right now. Yet he has failed to show us why he actually was given those opportunities.

Now he is in “relationship” with Maryse and holds his father’s belt as if he has actually earned it and I just think that people are pretty sick of him. He hasn’t given us anything to get excited over since Legacy and he just bores people. At least Cody has tried to freshen himself up a little. Ted is just… Well… Ted.

 

[LOD FAN]

Teddy boy just simply can't wrestle.......I mean look at his matches, he takes a few bumps and has a couple of generic moves and that is it, I mean when has anyone seen this guy in a singles match more the a couple of minutes long??? Cut him from the roster!!!

 

[CrossRhodes]

I think the reason he can't get over because he is just simply boring. Cody rhodes went on and has a nice gimmick and push now because he can actually get a reaction, Ted can't. Ted should be moved to Smackdown he is just getting lost on RAW and is going to become nothing if he stays there.

 

[TimAH]

He just doesn't seem to have much charisma. I think he is tailor made for tag team wrestling, where personalities aren't quite as important and one teammate can feed off another. Unfortunately the WWE has decided that tag teams are nothing more than a stepping stone towards becoming singles stars.

 

[manstis1804]

You may have a very good point. This new generation of wwe fans have no idea who Ted Sr. is or was. So I think the comparision of Ted Sr vs Ted Jr may not be valid but this pg era fan base IS familiare with JBL & so perhaps that is the issue. The WWE needs to really start to educate its younger viewers on the history of the WWE. Quit ignoring the past. Maybe do some vingettes of Ted Sr both old & new & bring him in as Ted jrs manager. Hell, they can bring back a new version of the Million $ Corperation.

If he's good he's good, if he sucks he sucks, it has nothing to do with JBL setting the bar too high or any nonsense. Hell, Alberto Del Rio is pretty much doing a JBL gimmick on SD, difference is he has the facial expressions and the delivery to carry it. Dibiase has no facials, and his voice is like Bobby Hill without the accent.

 

[SpoodBeest]

Well lets start off slow shall we? Ted is as bland and generic as a wrestler gets. He has always been this way since he first showed up on WWE television. He is as dry and boring as it gets. I will admit he tries but in the end he always falls flat. They have tried to get him over by giving him a modernized version of his dad's old gimmick but it isn't working well because Ted doesn't even have a third of the charisma his dad had. He can talk about money, his privileges, his girl friends, and even his prop belt until the cows some home but in reality the crowds really don't give a shit.

He his in ring doesn't help to often too as he is quite slow and isn't really all that exciting to watch. So what we have is a boring in ring worker with no charisma, no wonder no one gives two shits about him. If Ted were to overcome his overall lack of charisma and get over his blandness than maybe he will have a chance in the WWE to become a bigger star, but as it stands right now his former partner Cody Rhodes has a freaking better shot at getting up the singles success ladder than he does.

 

[XXJJ]

I think him copying his father gimmick was a bad move. Ted doesn't have the same charisma his father had.

He hasn't had a standout singles match yet since legacy broke up. I think Ted is more suited to be a tag team wrestler. He is boring as a singles wrestler.

 

[Hardys4Life247]

I think the main reason Ted Dibiase can't get over is because there is lots of main event talent on Raw. Guys like Sheamus, Edge, Randy Orton, John Cena, Jericho, and all the Nexus stuff going on. Another reason is Maryse. Maryse and Dibiase make a good "couple" but when Ted comes out, I'm looking at Maryse, not Ted. So Maryse may be hurting Dibiase.

Credit to indestructable-desire.com for the signature.

 

[STL]

I really want him to succeed. I really thought that he would turn into a star after the Legacy breakup. I think he needs to show intensity and show that he actually cares. A few months back when Randy Orton slapped DiBiase and made DiBiase lose to him on purpose is when Ted showed some genuine intensity. He seems like an akward heel and the more I watch him to more I think that he may be a natural face.

I think a move to Smackdown and a Face Turn wouldn't be a bad idea either?

 

[martymcfly]

Honestly, I think it is bad luck. If he had moved to smackdown and cody stayed on raw, cody would have been the one buried. Now I see the point that some people have made about ted's lack of charisma but I don't really see that. I just think he hasn't gotten a chance to shine, and the main reason is because right now Raw is too full of top stars for anyone new to get a chance at the spotlight. Almost all of the usual main event players are on raw right now, and you have this big nexus storyline too. There just isn't really room for someone like ted to stand out right now.

And again, I think it's hard not to compare cody and ted, and in comparing I think ted definitely got the raw end (pun a little intended) of the deal.