Why Money Inc.?

[The Brain]

Just to be clear, I didn't mean to imply Money Inc was a jobber team or even a demotion. I just found it curious that Dibiase was suddenly in a tag team. It's possibly though that the company may have looked at it as a step up. The division was weakening but the tag belts still meant something. Dibiase never had a singles title reign so a tag title reign may have been a promotion of sorts. After all they did work with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I said where I read it, it was years ago... and that was my understanding, read it again i you missed it.

As for the whys and wherefores of Ted and when things happened, it's somewhat academic. Money Inc was far from a jobber team or demotion as we've covered, it was simply a different way to use a talent, and one that WWE has used countless times since with talents who were main event but not any more or to keep them occupied. Everyone from Kane to Jericho to Shawn has been in one of these style teams. Perhaps from Vince's side it was as simple as they wanted to see if it worked (it did) and Ted got the added benefits in his own life.

Either way, Ted DiBiase's life and career are better because he was part of Money Inc. so that's where it ends really.

You said you read it years ago in an Apter mag, which I'm guessing would have been during their 100% kayfabe period if it was years ago and they were discussing Dibiase or his step father in any way?

I used to read them all back in the day, and honestly only ever remember one article about Dibiase and father. It was from his Mid-South days, and talking about 'the tunnel', and the fear he had every night before he stepped through the tunnel to go to the ring, because his father died in the ring. Complete kayfabe article of course meant to give his character depth. I don't have it anymore, but I don't recall it having anything to do with the WWF or McMahon at all.

I think you're misremembering though, because in Apter's kayfabe days, he never would have talked about anyone being on a promoters payroll, or any type of behind the scenes business arrangement like you mentioned. That was real life and had no business in the kayfabed reality of professional wrestling.

Either way, Money Inc did extend Dibiase's WWF career completely. Without it, he's purged a couple of years earlier because his run as a main event singles heel was done, and he would have likely done some tours of Japan with Hanson, while working a tweaked version of the Million Dollar Man character in WCW.

 

[Wald]

Looking at WWF pre-Yoko's title win you could argue that DiBiase was used as high up the card as any heel by Vince McMahon Jr. I've said this on here before and some (I think newer) fans have seemed surprised by it but go back and count the amount of times a heel was WWF champion before Yokozuna's reign.

From the time Hogan won the belt in January of 1984 for the first time you had:

Andre The Giant in 1988, he held it for a few minutes
Macho Man in 1989, held it for about a month as a heel
Sgt Slaughter in 1991, held it for three months
The Undertaker in 1991, held it for a week
Ric Flair, twice in 1992 for a combined total of about four months

That's it. Five guys holding the title for a little over eight months in the course of ten years.

Vince didn't do heel champions back then (arguably he has only ever booked lengthy title reigns by three strong heel champions of that title in Yokozuna, Triple H and JBL). So I'm not sure DiBiase would even have viewed him being moved away from a title he probably didn't really think he'd have a shot at getting a decent run with as a demotion.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

His dad was the same way.

Buddy Rogers - 22 days
Ivan Koloff - 21 days
Stan Stasiak - 9 days
Superstar Billy Graham - 296 days

From 1963 till Vince Jr. took over in 1982, that's it. And Graham's 296 day reign was pretty short considering the likes of Sammartino (2,803 and 1,237 days), Morales (1,027 days) and Backlund (2,135 days).

That was just the WWF model. Strong face champion who overcomes the unstoppable monster heels, and occasional smart, talented and evil scientific heel.

Thing you have to bear in mind is everyone knew this before they ever set foot in a WWF ring, and it didn't matter. If you were a heel, you were far more likely to get a run at the top of the card (and the payday that went with it), than as a face (unless you were lucky enough to be the chosen one). So they all flocked to New York knowing that they'd never get the belt, but would get the money... which was the only thing that mattered.

I think guys today care more about the number of championships they win, won loss records and all that. Back in Dibiase's day, that was the type of stuff that the marks cared about. The only thing Ted would have cared about was how many zero's were at the end of his paycheck.