Original subtitles

(intense music)

- Let me tell you something folks

everybody's got a price for Ted DiBiase.

- If I've said this once, I've said it a million times.

Money isn't everything, it's the only thing.

And everybody, everybody's got a price

for the Million Dollar Man. (laughing)

- He's got money, he's got fame.

Everybody's got a price for Ted DiBiase.

- I've had everything

that most people think will make them happy.

I know what it's like

to travel around the world in first class,

to ride in limousines and Learjets,

To stay at first class hotels,

to have my likeness made into

action figures and be on television and be famous.

They say that the love of money is the root of all evil.

Hogwash, with enough of this you can buy anything.

I can buy stuff, cars, houses.

- The problem with the people

in the entertainment industry, and just in that world,

is they've got everything the world can offer.

You've got money, you've got power, fame, you get stuff.

- I can buy love, I can buy a good time.

But you remember this most of all, I can even buy you.

- Everybody's got a price for Ted DiBiase.

- And like so many others, I began to fill that void.

Out there on the road, away from my family.

And I would go to the bar with the guys, you know.

I didn't want to go to that empty hotel room.

What was God in my life, was me.

And on that day as I looked into the mirror,

I saw a man, a man who had been blessed with so much.

Blessed in his career,

blessed by a wonderful wife, blessed with children.

I was looking at a man who had been willing

to put at risk the future, and for what?

To stroke his ego.

To stroke his ego.

- Ted DiBiase, making the most of his money.

Using it to his advantage.

- Every one of you, remember one thing.

Everybody has a price for The Million Dollar Man. (laughing)

Right now, you've got everything

you thought you ever wanted.

You're famous, you've got money, nice house, big car.

But what do you really have, son?

My friends, you know what the answer is, nothing.

Nothing, nothing, nothing!

By the grace of God, every day I try

to be a man of strong character

in integrity, a man of God.

A loving husband and a caring father.

And like that old character,

The Million Dollar Man always says,

- Everybody's got a price.

Everybody's got a price.

- Everybody has a price.

The price of fame is high.

(dramatic music)

Well I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, Shawn,

if you can dribble this basketball 15 times consecutively

without missing,

look at here, I'm gonna give you $500,

and I know you and your family could use $500.

I can tell by looking at you

that you could use a lot more than 500 bucks.

Ready go, two, three, four, five

six, seven, eight, nine

10, 11, 12, 13, 14, whoops!

(crowd yelling)

Aw, we didn't get to 15, Shawn.

You didn't get to 15, did you?

No, he didn't make 15.

And you know what that means?

What that means Shawn, is you've got to learn

a hard, cruel fact of life.

When you don't do the job right, you don't get paid.

(laughing) - Yep,

that's my dad, The Million Dollar Man.

I definitely had an interesting childhood to say the least.

I mean, growing up the son of a wrestler

I found myself running around the locker room

with guys like Hulk Hogan,

Andre The Giant, The Ultimate Warrior, Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

I mean these guys were larger than life.

They were superheroes.

My house on Saturday mornings

was a very popular place to be.

My friends would come over

and we'd back the couches back

climbin' up on the side table

dropping' elbows off the top

like macho man Randy Savage

and quite often, breaking a lamp or two.

It was cool watching him on TV.

But that was the only place I got to see my dad,

'cause he was with you.

300 days out of the year, when I was with him,

everyone wanted to meet him

because he was The Million Dollar Man.

And me, I wanted to be just like him.

I followed in his footsteps.

I became a third generation superstar for the WWE

and I traveled all over the world.

I main evented pay-per-views

and wrestled in Wrestlemania.

I even starred in a movie.

With or without you, I'm going on.

Oscar worthy, if you ask me, but nobody did. (chuckling)

But even when everyone told me that

I could never achieve these dreams

I chose to follow my dreams anyway.

Alright, yep.

Well I'll see you in Willcox soon.

Several hours, me too man.

Love you, bye.

And I would soon find out,

as John Maxwell says, the dream is free.

Love you buddy.

But the journey is not.

(train horn blaring)

(train rumbling)

- One of the questions I'm often asked,

having been a professional wrestler

for almost 20 years, is why?

Of all the things I could have

chosen to do in life,

why did I choose such an odd occupation?

The answer to the question in a word, is Dad.

I was very fortunate to have

been raised by a very loving step father.

My biological parents divorced when I was two years old.

And when I was five years old

Mike DiBiase came into my life.

I had a dad that was worth admiring.

I had a very good role model.

I was one of those kids who said,

"I want to be just like my dad."

- Mike DiBiase was a very, very tough guy

all through his period in wrestling.

- Iron Mike DiBiase was very well respected

within the business by his peers

because he was a legit athlete.

He was a nice man.

He was a multi-sport letterman

at the University of Nebraska,

which is a major division one university.

So he had a great pedigree,

really a stellar reputation.

And no one ever said any bad things about Mike DiBiase.

- He was a great one, he was great to me.

He always had time for me, you know,

He would pick me up and we'd ride to towns together.

I'd say, "Mike how much money do I owe you?"

And he'd say, "Terry, you don't owe me nothing."

Always had great advice for me too,

"Keep your nose clean," and,

"You've got a wife at home

"and you take care of her

"and you take care of your family first."

That's the kind of guy he was.

- All I knew when I was five

was that this man showed me his love.

And, I loved him.

It's great that you were able to come

on this trip with me, Teddy.

You know, I've talked to you boys

about where I grew up and where I lived

and everything most of my life.

But you know, you've never seen it.

But you know, I want my kids to know,

- Where it all started. - Where it all started.

We're gonna drive by the high school.

I used to run these bleachers.

- The old stomping grounds.

- The old stomping grounds.

- So that's where you won your...

- [Ted] That's when I earned a scholarship.

- Scholarship to West Texas State.

- Yep.

- [Ted Jr.] This is the house you grew up in?

- [Ted] This is the house I grew up in.

- Should we go knock on the door?

(laughing)

I guess it feels pretty good coming back

to a place like this you know?

It means even more now.

I hold you on on pedestal,

but now seeing this firsthand, it's like, wow.

I don't know that I would have

had what it took to get out of here.

- For all the fond memories

that I have here, what was I gonna do here?

I mean, you know, my dream was to be like my dad.

My dream was to be like my hero, and my hero

had been a national amateur wrestling champion

and could have been a pro football player.

And you know as you look around this town,

you can see how I felt, can this happen here?

Is it possible for me to make it here?

- It's actually just really cool hearing the stories

for the past 30 years and now actually,

it's like putting a face with a name.

- Let me go on out to

the cemetery, which is pretty close.

- Came a long way, a long way.

- [Neil] That's one small step for a man,

one giant leap for mankind.

- In the summer of 1969, the same month, by the way,

just about two weeks later,

that we'd put a man on the moon for the first time,

on July the second 1969,

my dad had a heart attack

in the ring during a match and he died.

And my whole life changed that day.

- Iron Mike DiBiase's in-ring death was kinda,

and maybe coldly so,

categorized in the list

of wrestler deaths that happened in the ring.

He was such a big star in that era.

- The minute you hear a crowd

go completely dead silent,

you know something drastic has happened in the ring.

- He went in for a pin on a press,

and Man Mountain Mike throw him back and out,

and he went between the second and the top rope

and never touched a thing, and hit on the floor.

Harley tried to resuscitate him.

- (sighing) The heart thing,

just different things, you know,

tryin' to bring back

not only a good friend but a great person.

It just wasn't meant to be.

- My father asked me to go down there

and substitute for that match,

and I said, "I'm not going to do it, Dad.

"I've been on the road all week."

Well, Mike had been on the road, too,

and I just totally refused to do it.

And he called Mike up.

Mike says, "Sure."

And I always felt a little bit,

(birds twittering)

nobody knew what was going to happen,

but I always felt like I should've

possibly made that trip

and life would've been different for everybody concerned.

- We had lunch together as a family.

It's the last time we ever ate together.

He took a nap, and then his ride came to pick him up

He got his bag and he kissed us all and said,

"I'll see ya tonight."

And, as he drove away,

it was the last time that I ever saw him alive.

I was just hanging around on the steps

and two people showed up,

and I go and I tell my mother to get up.

"What's goin' on, I can tell you been cryin."

And she backed me up against the wall,

almost like, to brace me,

and she said, "Teddy,"

I mean just tears rolling down her face, she said,

"We came here tonight to get your mom

"to take her to Lubbock

"because your dad had a heart attack

"in the ring during his match,

"and we were gonna take her to him,

"but I just found out that he died."

And, I mean, it took the wind right outta my sails.

I mean, just like, I just felt everything go.

15 years old and I've gotta tell my little brother

that he's never gonna see his dad again.

And, even now, that was hard.

Why did this have to happen now?

Why now, why him?

- Ted was only 15 years of age

when his dad passed away,

and it really shattered the family.

- Many, many nights, I would drive my grandmother's

old rambler out to the desert cemetery

where my father's buried,

and I'd park the car and I'd

put the lights on my father's grave.

And I'd go out there and I would

pace back and forth in front of that grave.

But, on my tough nights, this is where I'd come.

(somber music)

- You know, now, I'm 30 and I'm a father of my own,

and I remember at times bein' like,

"Oh, yeah, I've heard the story,"

you know, you comin' out

and spendin' these nights with your dad,

and I would always picture

what it looked like, or I had an idea

in my head and because of your commitment

and your success I wanted to follow in those footsteps.

I understand now.

(quiet music)

- I had heard a lot about Ted DiBiase prior to meeting him.

Second generation wrestler,

the guy had a talent like you wouldn't believe,

plus he was a hit right off the bat.

- Ted DiBiase, maybe one of the greatest

technical wrestlers in the sport,

but he can't fight a lick, (hard rock music)

and when you're in the ring

with Hacksaw Duggan, DiBiase, it's gonna be a fight!

- [Announcer] Hello, everybody,

and welcome to the Mid-South Coliseum!

- Everybody I knew said,

"Kid, ya only got one year of college left, go back!"

But, you don't understand.

I was in love with wrestling

since I was old enough to know what it was.

- You know, I'd always wanted him to be a wrestler,

but what you have to do is you have to get an education.

- And the DiBiase name, thanks to his father,

opened a lot of doors

to provide him the opportunity.

Now, those doors would've been slammed shut in his face,

if he had not respected his elders

and followed the advice of

guys who were tryin' to make him better.

Because they saw that he had great potential.

Teddy was really a natural,

as far as getting the mental aspect

of performing and being athletic.

- [Ted] I've been ranked in the top five

wrestlers in the world

for as long and as far back as I can remember.

- He had the talent,

he could connect with an audience,

he could get that audience engaged in your story

so that they will either love you or hate you.

- Ted's a great mechanic in the ring.

If you ask him to do something, he can get it done.

- Teddy is a wrestler's wrestler.

First of all, he's a great man.

Right across the board.

You can only tell that if you know somebody like 30 years.

- Going back in the history of

the professional wrestling business,

you had the United States of America,

and in the United States of America

you had several different territories,

or booking offices, all throughout the country.

- You start out in a territory as a young guy,

nobody knows ya,

and you're on the opening match all the time,

and you pay your dues.

Ya know, you get beat every night,

but you're in front of a live crowd,

you're learnin' your trade,

and you're developing your own character.

- Ted was through being trained,

and the Funks felt like he was ready to leave the nest.

They called Bill Watts, who they were friends with,

and Bill booked Ted in the Mid-South territory.

- Mid-South was a huge territory!

- [Ted Jr.] Say, based in Oklahoma.

- [Ted] Arkansas.

- [Jim] Mississippi, Louisiana.

- [Ted] Parts of East Texas.

- People would call you and say,

"How you guys doin' over there at Mid-South?"

We'd say, "Oh, man, doin' 2500 a week!"

They'd go, "Wow, that's great money!"

"Nuh-uh, 2500 miles."

You drove every day,

and you drove a lot of miles over there,

sometimes 3000 miles in a week.

The good thing about Mid-South

was you learned and you learned quick!

- Just to make sure that this is what he

certainly wanted to do,

and if it was to follow

kind of in his father's footsteps,

he wouldn't have a problem

if he could accomplish that.

- Ted was a top star wherever he went.

- That Ted is easily in the top five of all-time villains.

- Ted DiBiase is the upper half percent

of the world in the business of professional wrestling.

He's one of eight, 10 maybe,

guys out of the billions of people

and the millions that come to wrestling,

and for him to have that, he's in the top .5 in the world!

You know how hard that is?

- Fact, he did great in the Oklahoma area

and he continued in that area

until he got his chance to go to New York.

- This was the lot where everybody gathered on the weekends.

Soon as I got what I kept asking God for,

"Give me the strength, give me the talent,"

I get the scholarship, ya know,

and an old buddy goes,

"Hey, I know you don't drink, but

"you just got a scholarship to put you through school.

"Maybe celebrate a little bit.

"Let's just have a couple glasses of wine."

- I know where a couple goes.

- Yeah.

The sad thing is I did such a great job

of avoiding it for all those years.

- It's funny how we both have a

lot of similarities in our stories.

You know, it's like when I went to WWE

and signed that contract,

and I'm the hot commodity

and the next thing comin' up, and you weren't there.

I didn't have my accountability group down there

and I was in this lot, but it was in Tampa, Florida.

But it was this lot.

That was the temptation.

That's where I fell into drinking heavily,

and made the decision to drive one night after that,

and almost, I coulda cost somebody their life!

God saved me from that, and I paid for it.

Lord knows I've learned a valuable lesson there.

- The first person that you got to speak to was your mother.

- Yeah, that wasn't fun.

- And, I said, "What did he say?"

She said, "I couldn't understand him,

"he was crying so hard."

I said, "That's all I need to know."

'Cause that said everything.

- It was disappointing you guys that hurt the most.

- My temptation here in high school was this lot,

this gathering place for all the parties,

and your lot was Tampa, Florida.

By the time I was 26 years old,

I failed in my first marriage.

That's right, at the ripe old age of 20,

I got married the first time.

My first son, Michael, was born on September the 10th, 1977,

and I was failing miserably as a father as well.

Oh, I love my son.

I couldn't be him except on weekends

and special occasions and I couldn't even do that

because as a wrestler I'd travel

so much I was gone most of the time.

I had no business gettin' married.

Sad to say, there was no male role model.

There was no dad there now to caution me,

to tell me, "Hey, look, pal!"

He was gone.

As I started to climb the ladder in wrestling,

I believe God blessed me in spite of me

by crossing my path with

this wonderful Christian woman, Melanie.

- [Melanie] The first time that I saw Ted,

I was at a swimming pool.

- So, I'm at the pool one day.

- In Atlanta, Georgia.

- I'm gonna wrestle at The Omni that night.

(fans screaming)

Things come to those that are patient and wait.

Well, I've waited patiently for five weeks

recovering from this injury.

Nobody's gonna take my career away from me.

- It's gonna be one of a night at The Omni!

- He lived in the apartments where I had some friends.

- This group of people come in,

and there's this one girl that just strikes me.

- As I was oblivious to wrestling,

the world of wrestling, at the time.

- She was obviously, seemed to be with a guy.

'Course, you know,

"Well, is it a boyfriend, is it a date, whatever?"

- He came back to the pool,

he says, to look for his watch, which was on his arm.

- I'm talking to myself out loud, I said,

"Ted, this is the most childish thing you've ever done!"

And I parked the car and I get out,

and I'm walking around this pool,

and I'm lookin' around like maybe I left something,

like I forgot something and I'm searching for it.

All I'm doing is trying to get another look at this gal.

- Three of the guys, I think, that I was with

got together and schemed and said,

"We'll go tell him that

"that girl over there wants his autograph."

Well, that girl over there was me.

- There's a girl over here that wants your autograph!

- I thought he was a Falcon football player.

- She had a white visor hat on,

and she took it off and she handed it to me to sign.

Well, it was all wet.

- "Sign my visor."

Well, it was wet.

- I said, "I'm sure over there in the office

"they've got some office stationary

"and I'd be happy to do that."

- He slyly moved me away from the group.

- So, I write on this piece of paper,

"To the best lookin' girl at the pool, for sure."

- That was how we met!

- I said, "I'm even gonna sign this love."

I signed it, "Love, Ted DiBiase 4-26-81."

That's the day we met.

- [Dick] Four, three, two, one, happy new year!

- New Year's Eve, 1981, we got married.

- It's definitely good versus evil,

and there's nothin' like it in the world!

- Number one, it went mainstream, very much so!

- It's my second time, and I'm hooked.

- [Reporter] Part showbiz and part circus,

but it's called professional wrestling

and millions of Americans are obsessed with it.

- 1980, ooh, I'd say '83, '84,

things started to change in the WWF.

We started bringing in some new people

from all the different territories and it just took off.

- [Reporter] Many got turned on first

by turning the television on!

Wrestling is on TV more now, than ever.

- Wrestling all over the world

had started to get a cult following

that the MTV really kicked in,

and so it was ready to be tapped as an oil well.

- In the mid '80s it kinda ballooned.

- It was just bigger, louder, brighter, faster.

- McMahon made connections with NBC, with Dick Ebersol.

Wrestling went back on network television

and it reintroduced the genre to the national audience.

- [Reporter] The print media has also

recognized wrestling's popularity

from the front page of the Daily News

to the cover of Sports Illustrated,

a usually serious magazine.

- It was insane.

We were goin' to major cities every night.

He was sold out!

Everything was sold out,

didn't matter where you went, it was sold out.

- 310 days on the road.

Was at home maybe 3 weeks out of the entire year

if ya take the travel out, too, ya know.

And it was grueling.

- I mean, it exploded,

where people were comin'

out the woodworks comin' to matches, man.

We were runnin' like, three towns a night

and they were all sellin' out.

- I mean, there was, ya know,

drugs, booze, broads,

whatever town you went to,

I mean, I miss the old days! (laughing)

- [Reporter] Pro wrestling might be

at its peak in popularity and could fade,

but for now, it's an American made success story.

- But, it was shortly thereafter that

Ted and Virgil arrived

and they took this organization by storm.

They really did.

- For all you people out there

who aren't familiar with me,

let me introduce myself.

I'm Ted DiBiase.

I'm The Million Dollar Man.

- [Announcer] DiBiase made his WWF debut in 1987

bringing with him

a seemingly endless supply of cash

and a philosophy that he can

have anything or anybody he wants!

- What would it take to make this a private pool right now?

- I'm afraid I can't do that,

it's a public pool

and there are taxpayers and - Public pool.

- I'd have a lot of problems - (laughing) Taxpayers.

- with the mothers and fathers.

- Listen, mister.

I pay more taxes in a month

than these people make in a year.

Virgil. (fingers snapping)

(cash rustling)

I think we can find something

wrong with the pool today, don't you?

(sharp whistling)

- Alright, everybody out!

The chlorine level's too high!

We're gonna close the pool.

- Well, lemme give ya a little history lesson.

I've paid a little boy to dribble a basketball.

Aww!

I've paid people to kiss my stinky, sweaty feet!

I've paid people to bark like a dog!

- Ruff!

- It's not a question of if.

It's just a question of how much!

- [Announcer] That's ridiculous!

- The next thing I know

is I get this call from Vince McMahon,

and I'm sittin' in his office in Stanford, Connecticut.

- Vince had a vision of having a wrestler

called The Million Dollar Man.

- And Vince had this idea in his head.

And he had the idea for a while,

he just had to find the right guy to portray him.

- If Vince McMahon was going

to be a wrestler, this is his gimmick.

This is Vince's persona.

- He'll be riding in limousine every night,

he'll be throwing money at people,

and Teddy was just laughing.

He didn't believe this was happening, ya know what I mean?

- Vince had a stretch limousine for him.

I think he sent him out to shows,

sent him out to dinner,

a night on the town, first class all the way!

- Limos, hotels, Learjets, the whole nine yards,

and he told me, "I never want you to crack a smile."

- He knew how to be a bad guy.

He knew how to talk.

He knew how to do all the things

that would make that character work,

and all of a sudden,

that one dimensional character

started growing and it became very real.

(driving rock music)

(lever rumbling)

(driving rock music)

(booming)

(driving rock music)

(coins clattering)

- [Announcer] Please welcome to WrestleMania Four!

(crowd cheering)

(soft intense music)

(footsteps creaking)

- The Center.

This building brings back a lot of memories.

This is where WrestleMania Four took place,

which was my first WrestleMania.

- [Ted Jr.] That was a pretty awesome WrestleMania.

- For me, personally, this WrestleMania

I think was my finest hour.

It was the highlight of

the beginning of The Million Dollar Man character.

I mean, we started with the vignettes and all that stuff,

and then, at Market Square Arena,

the 20 athletes.

- I surrender the World Championship to Ted DiBiase!

- [Announcer] Wait a minute,

hold on, Andre, what are you saying?

- Threw Hogan out of the title

and then they stripped me of the belt

and we're gonna have

WrestleMania Four and it's a tournament.

You know, people, "Well, have you

"ever wrestled at WrestleMania?

"Yeah, how would you like to wrestle at

"WrestleMania the first time three times in one night?"

When I come here, not only do I think of that,

but I go all the way back to how this whole thing started,

takin' that trip up to Stanford to the office,

and so I went home and talked it over with your mom

and made a call to Terry Funk and Terry said,

"If Vince McMahon has an idea tailor made for you

"and it's his personal idea, you're a fool if you don't go!"

He laid it out there, ya know, the whole thing.

Everybody hates a guy, who by virtue of his wealth,

looks down his nose at people

and we're gonna try to make the people

believe that you're really rich.

And I go, "How ya gonna do that?"

"We're gonna fly ya everywhere First Class.

"You're gonna have limousine service every day.

"You're gonna stay in first class hotels."

- [Ted Jr.] We're gonna make you rich.

- Like, pinch me, is this really happening?

- What was the crowd like here?

'Cause they're different everywhere.

- Ah, it was a great crowd!

It was a real, ya know, everybody was into it.

It's real easy for me to remember,

all I have to remember is how old your brother is,

'cause Brett was born 11 days before WrestleMania Four.

- [Ted Jr.] So I was five.

- Yeah, five years old.

Now, how was that for you?

- I mean, it was a big deal.

It was your first WrestleMania,

and you were gonna be in there with

Savage, and Hulk Hogan, and Andre the Giant.

It hasn't even hit me as a kid, 'cause I'd grown up in it.

- I didn't really get on the big stage WrestleMania

in a huge domed--

- I did. - stadium.

How many people were at your WrestleMania?

- 74,000.

- Okay, try 80,000 at Wembley Stadium.

I gotcha beat, kid.

- Two words, Marine Two.

- Yeah.

- Three, Netflix.

- Three words.

Hall of Fame.

- You got me.

(crowd cheering)

- [Announcer] Welcome to Indianapolis, Indiana!

(crowd cheering)

Welcome to the Hoosier Dome! - So, he's gone from being

a big fish in a little pond

to a shark in the ocean,

and it happened overnight for him.

To digress, Ted isn't one that could turn it off.

Ted had to be The Million Dollar Man in public!

- When you're out there on that road

and you don't have somebody to say,

"Hey, Teddy, straighten your blankety-blank act out,"

when you don't have somebody

that's gonna go ahead and tell you

to keep your life straight

it's a tough road out there.

There're so many pitfalls out there.

- You guys don't understand,

you'll be like eight hours on a plane,

ya know, whadda ya got?

Well, all the booze you can drink.

Ya got a movie, a what?

You know, I'm a little tired.

Drink myself to sleep

or feelin' a little antsy,

I think I'll go out, and it turns into

gettin' into a little bit of trouble and debauchery.

- Wrestlers were never superstars before,

and here you are,

and you really are somebody!

- There's a lot of opportunity on the road, yes.

I mean, whatever you want.

Women, drugs, booze,

you gotta guy come up

give you a eight ball of cocaine.

- He'd fly into a city

and there'd be a limo there to pick you up.

He didn't ask for it, it's a fan.

And, he'd open, he'd say,

"No, ya know, I'd better not go."

He'd open the door to the limo

and there'd be three naked

girls inside and a pile of cocaine.

The next morning, you haven't slept.

This guy drops you off at the airport.

He's gonna go home and sleep for two days now.

"I have to go to another city."

- Everybody in the bar would

stop and turn, look, and go, "Who's that?"

He just had that aura, he had that presence.

Now, you add to that, he's gotta be The Million Dollar Man.

He was a magnet.

I mean, every beautiful woman in the place

would come up and literally,

in a lot of respects,

throw themselves at him.

- [Ted] Because we all know,

everybody's got a price

for The Million Dollar Man.

- WrestleMania Eight took place in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And on that night, after the big show,

dressed in my tailor-made suit,

and sportin' a gold Rolex watch,

big gold chain around my neck

with a dollar sign, (laughing)

and a beautiful girl on each arm!

- [Melanie] Taking care of the kids,

we had soccer practices.

- In my limousine I go to all the hotspots in Indianapolis,

all of the bars that are cool,

the places to go and be seen.

- [Melanie] Cooking, cleaning,

and sat down to pay the bills.

- [Ted] I didn't go to bed that night,

I'd partied into the wee hours.

- And that was the first time that I was aware

that there was anything amiss, because I trusted Ted.

- I had that limousine take me to the airport

about six o'clock,

caught an airplane to Detroit, Michigan.

- When I found that out,

it was like two o'clock in the morning,

I mean it was late,

I had lots to do, so I didn't sleep much that night.

- Checked into the Marriott Hotel.

- When I discovered that Ted

had been cheating in our marriage,

I had to hold it together for my children.

I didn't believe that they needed

to be involved in that at this point.

He was a good dad.

I didn't want to destroy that,

and being a mother is one of the things

that is most important to me in the whole world.

- And then, I walked to a payphone

in the lobby of that hotel

to call home and check in with my wife.

What a nice guy, right?

No, what a jerk.

- [Melanie] And then the next morning when Ted called,

- "I don't wanna talk about this on the phone,"

I remember saying.

"I'll be on the next plane home."

- "Oh, I'm on a plane home."

- In response to that, my wife said,

"No, you won't, because you don't live here anymore."

- My first reaction was,

"No, no, you don't live here anymore."

- Click!

My wife, who was totally committed to me,

my wife, who had borne two children with me,

my wife, who had accepted my son from a previous marriage

and loved him and raised him as her very own,

my wife, who never called me

anywhere in the world to check up on me,

'cause she trusted me,

that wife had now discovered that I was committing adultery.

Oh no. help me.

- [Ted Jr.] Hey, big guy!

- [Ted] What's up, kiddo, how ya doin'?

- I'm good, how are you?

- I'm awesome, love ya.

- Love you, too.

What's goin' on?

- Hey, well, the old man's losin' some weight.

- (chuckling) You are!

I was about to say, you've slimmed up, man!

- Started at 340, I'm down to three, so I've lost 40 pounds.

40 down, 40 to go.

- Okay, so, how much more do we need for,

- Game weight?

- Yeah.

- 40 pounds.

I wrestled at 260.

- So, we can get you back in those tights?

- Don't get any ideas.

- You and I could make

- Yeah, you're right. - a tag.

Well, ya know, everybody's got a price.

(laughing)

WrestleMania may be the battle royal.

- Well, yeah, we'll get on the DVD

and, ya know, the video games, that'd be good.

- Are you hungry?

- I'm starving!

Do you have a steak--

- You know me and the steaks.

Steaks are on the grill.

Let's go. - All right,

mine better be big.

(soft music)

- Hey, baby!

- Hey, babe!

- [Ted Jr.] How are you?

- [Melanie] I'm good, how are you?

- As you know, I've been kinda followin' the story.

And, you know, my dad is my hero.

But, what a lot of people don't know

is the real hero,

(exhaling sharply)

(sighing heavily)

and that's you.

- I'm not any more a hero than your dad.

- [Ted Jr,] Wow.

- Or anyone else

that turns to God in a crisis.

- Yeah, I mean, we've never really talked about this.

- No, no, we haven't.

Oh, you're old enough now.

I'll tell ya whatever you wanna know.

You've heard it.

We've spoken in front of you.

It was important to me at the time

that y'all didn't have a disruption in your life.

- That's the thing, ya know,

people ask me all the time,

"What was it like growing up

"the son of The Million Dollar Man?"

But, you know, I've been asked,

"What was it like during that time period?"

They asked me how it was for Brett and I, and Michael,

and I said I don't know,

like, I didn't even know it happened.

If you don't mind me askin',

what was it like when you found out?

What was your reaction?

- My reaction, really, Teddy,

wasn't any different than

anybody else would be at that moment.

It was a complete surprise.

It was nothing expected.

Then you have to process it.

And that takes just a minute,

and then you think,

"Well, this is true!"

I was so hurt, then that hurt turns to anger.

Then that anger turns to, "What's next?"

And, one thing I'll tell you

is that I knew that I loved your dad very much.

I didn't want to have things

work out in our marriage for the sake of y'all.

In my prayers that night,

just talkin' to the Lord,

I said my heart has just been broken repair.

So, if I'm gonna get through this,

you're gonna have to give me a new heart.

The thing that I came to realize

when I was personally hurt so deeply

is that there is no partiality with God.

He does not care that my sin is small

and your dad's sin is large.

Now, I have large sins in my life.

- [Ted Jr.] We all do.

- He doesn't care if I had

been the best mother on the planet.

It still wasn't gonna keep me from being hurt or harmed,

I just have to know that

when I'm walking through those

I'm not walking through those alone.

Really there's no relationship

that I can control on earth but mine.

And it really is only

my relationship with the Lord, and it's a choice.

So, I had that choice of, "Where do I go?"

When I couldn't go there alone,

I called in reinforcement.

And I called in people who knew this, who believed this.

That was truly the saving grace for me, at the time,

to be able to wake up in the mornings and say,

"Okay, boys, let's get ready.

"Here's your breakfast.

"Whadda ya gotta do today?

"I'll see ya after school."

- [Ted Jr.] With a smile on your face.

- And then, when you left, I lost it!

I mean, there were days in the beginning

when I would take you to school

and I would come home and I would get in the bed

and just cry and be so angry, but I didn't do it alone.

I didn't stay there.

I just am thankful for those women, every one of them.

You're working out your anger.

You're working out your trust.

You're working out all of the things

that you go through just naturally.

- Yeah, healing.

- Healing, a healing process.

And I'm not saying that it happened overnight.

It did not.

- I think you've done a pretty good job

of living what you believe.

- Well, thank you, I have a long way to go.

I do love the Lord,

and I do try to make that first in my life.

(soft music)

- [Ted] And when it's all over,

well, we'll just put on our finest

and we'll just go out on the town in that limousine

and all over Indianapolis,

we'll have ourselves a real good time,

because everybody's got a price for The Million Dollar Man!

(laughing)

(soft intense music)

- [Ted] Hey, man.

- [Ted Jr.] Hey.

- [Ted] Ya okay?

- Yeah, yeah!

You got a sec?

Yeah, I talked to Mom earlier

and I've always known.

I know why you do what you do.

I know the story, but,

it was interesting,

'cause I've never really heard from Mom herself.

We've never had that conversation

about what happened

and how she felt and what you did to her.

It was weird 'cause it was the first time I felt--

- Angry?

- Angry, and this is out of love, Dad, you know that,

but, how, when you have such a wonderful woman

and a wife and a family,

and children, - How could I possibly

do that to my wife?

- Yeah.

- But, to answer your question,

I lived my life on the road.

I was gone 300 nights a year or more,

and the culture of wrestling back then,

you've heard me say this,

and basically Jesus said it, He said,

"The eyes are the lamp of the body."

He said if your eyes are good,

your whole body would be full of light.

If your eyes are bad,

your whole body will be full of darkness.

If, then, the light within you

is darkness, how great is that darkness?

I lived so much of my life

on the road with a bunch of guys,

and again, I'm not casting blame.

I take full responsibility,

but I lived at a time in our business

when it was normal, and it was the escape.

It was, in anything that you do,

any sin in your life, you rationalize.

You rationalize it at the time.

There was never a question,

and Teddy, I want you understand that,

there was never a question of how much I loved your mother.

It was an escape.

It was an ego thing.

I look back from where I am now,

and I say the same thing,

"How could I possibly do something like that

"to the one person I love the most?"

You know, I was never in love with anybody else.

It was all about the moment.

Sometimes you could separate yourself like that

and you think,

"Well, you know, this really isn't

"hurting anybody but me,

"and what my family doesn't know won't hurt them."

And, you and I both know that's a lie.

- Yeah, I wanna know, how did you feel,

when, like the first time you saw Mom?

You know, after she told you

you didn't live there anymore?

- I've never felt so empty in my life.

In a moment in time,

it's like all these things flash through your mind

and I saw her for all of the good that she is.

It's so easy to take for granted the ones you love.

- So when you saw her the first time,

- Teddy, I was so ashamed, I couldn't look at her.

I could not look at her.

I mean, I walked through that door,

at Hal's house, beaten, put my head down, sobbing.

I could not look at her

because of the guilt, because of the shame.

That's the lowest I've ever felt in my life.

I mean, it really was a turning point,

because I can remember saying to God,

I don't ever wanna feel like this again.

I don't ever wanna be this person again.

- I know that one night, he come up to me, he says,

"George, I gotta go home."

I said, "Why do you have to go home?

"We got a show tonight!"

He said, "I just got a phone call from my wife.

"She's heard about all my shenanigans

"and carrying on with

"the wild women and the drugs,

"the booze and all that stuff,

"and she's gonna divorce me."

He had tears comin' down his eyes.

I said, "Well, we'll take care of that."

He said, "I think she's changin' the locks!"

I said, "Oh, we can't take care of that,

"you'll have to handle that,

"but we can get you home real quick."

- And, the next phone call that I made

was to a guy who, today, is my closest friend.

When I met Hal Santos, he was a youth minister.

He walked up to me in a gym one day in Baton Rouge.

He introduced himself.

He said he'd seen me on television wrestling.

He said, "You know what, Ted?

"I just wanna know one thing."

I said, "What's that, pastor?"

He said, "Do you know Jesus Christ?"

Pastor Hal Santos committed to pray for me

and over the course of the next 12 years,

every now and then I get a phone call from Pastor Hal.

"Hey, Ted, how ya doin'?

"What's goin' on?"

He never gave me the third degree about,

"Are ya goin' to church,

"are doin' this, are ya doin' that?"

What he did was, he showed me unconditional love.

Whenever I would come to St Louis, he would come to see me.

He'd just sit down to have

a cup of coffee with me, and you know what?

In my darkest hour,

in my darkest hour Pastor Hal

was gonna do everything he could to help me.

He made arrangements for Melanie and I

to fly to St Louis,

and I took the longest 30 minute ride of my life.

- [Ted Jr.] What's going on?

- Everything's good.

Good to see ya.

- How are ya?

- [Hal] Good, you have a long ride?

- [Ted Jr.] Yeah!

- They take ya all over the place

to just come to St Louis, huh?

- [Ted Jr.] Yeah!

- I said, "Hal, what do I say?

"What do I do, what do I tell Melanie?"

He said, "Ted, Jesus said the truth will set you free.

(upbeat music)

"The truth will set you free."

- [Ted Jr.] Yup.

- [Hal] Yep.

- [Ted Jr.] Yeah.

- [Hal] (laughing) Yeah.

- Hal, you know, you guys did such an incredible job

of disguising that there was an actual problem.

It hurts now, and I've had maybe

one conversation with my dad, just recently,

where I had to ask,

"Why, would you risk it,

"with such an amazing woman, the mother of your children?"

What was my mom's reaction?

- I can remember taking your dad back to the hotel.

He was makin' some calls from there

that he shouldn't have been makin'.

And, of course those are all

recorded on the phone records that your mom had.

He said to me,

"Hal, you know, everybody wants to meet me,"

and it became such a cold, distant stare.

"Everybody wants to meet me

"because I am The Million Dollar Man."

- Ha, that's right, and you can bet your bottom dollar

that the victory celebration plans are well under way,

and when The Million Dollar Man throws a party

it's only the best,

the finest wine, the finest champagne, caviar!

- And there was just some kind of, the niceties,

all that was all of sudden became a wind of arrogance.

So, to answer the question, "Why,"

is that when we let our lives,

no matter what it is,

become so arrogant that it's about me,

then life will change

because, really, idolatry is who we make our God.

So, we can become a little narcissistic

and a little bit demi-gods of our own selves,

and when I got back with him

I had a quiet moment with him.

I said to him,

"Ted, you know, we're friends,

"and I'm gonna tell ya the truth

"'cause I'm committed to the truth,

"but you better be careful,

"'cause it seems like you're doin' stuff without God."

- Because the old saying stands right here, right now.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall!

- Now, you fast forward it to the night of that call,

in March of '92,

and they drop off Mom, go get your dad,

and put him in a car,

but when we're in the airport,

we're pickin' up this gold briefcase thing,

and a Rolex watch, and a whole thing!

Those were not evil or wrong!

But, what happened, is it was this image

that two weeks before was that,

"Everybody wants to meet me."

Now, we're in the airport,

and people were comin' up wantin' to meet him.

He didn't have enough

emotional strength to even speak to anybody.

He was hunched over, had these suitcases,

and we rolled 'em out to the car,

and it was a brokenness of,

"What I have done to the most

"important people in my life, and I can't fix this."

So, when your dad was sayin',

"Everybody wants to meet me

"because I'm The Million Dollar Man,"

and then the trademark laugh,

all became now, the laughter was gone.

- If I were to say that it doesn't hurt still,

when I think about what he did to my mom, it does.

- After they went to a counselor,

found a counselor there in your city,

they would go to counseling while you guys were in school.

It became something of,

that the counselor paced it-- - Really?

See, I didn't know that.

- Yeah, the counselor paced it

that they should talk to you about it,

then they would, if they agreed on it.

And, so it became a real strategy of healing, not fixing.

I walked through a lot of stuff with your parents.

Is it about Hal?

No, it's about being available.

- When could you tell that

that man had changed,

that Ted DiBiase was a new man?

- Your dad became changed when he became broken.

Was he perfect?

No, not by no means,

but he was movin' away from the old Ted.

- I've said it a thousand times, now,

but I'll tell ya for the rest of my life,

literally for the rest of my life,

how grateful I am for you takin' the time

to mentor my dad, to actually care, genuinely reach out.

If you wouldn't have done that,

I don't know that I would be who I am today.

An entire generation might be different.

My family's stronger than they've ever been.

My mom and dad love each other

more than they've ever loved each other.

I have amazing relationships with my brothers

and now, I care more about bein' a dad

and raisin' my son in a godly way,

in a godly home and bein' a spiritual leader.

- It all connects.

It's really the grace of God.

To think that God would use us

to share the Gospel with somebody,

and bein' famous doesn't give it another edge.

It does give another point,

but the point of the Gospel is

He accepts us who we are and the way we are.

'Cause I was a kid at 15,

and a guy came by and talked to me,

a guy named Richard shared the Gospel with me,

and I accepted Christ at 15 and I haven't looked back.

- Hey, baby, hey.

Yeah, yeah, I'm good.

Hal was amazing.

He's just a great guy, ya know.

(soft music) (car revving)

- [Ted] I can remember bein'

on my knees, one time, cryin' out to God!

This is before I really got right with Him, and saying,

"God, I'm never gonna do this again.

"I'm never gonna do this again.

"I'm never gonna do this again!"

Ya know, and I mean, literally walkin' out the door

and goin' down and sitting down in a restaurant

in the hotel where I was,

and then the devil takes that gal and puts her right there.

You know, and before the end of the day,

I've already gone back on the word I gave God.

So, it's a sickness, I guess.

(upbeat music)

(indistinct chattering)

(panting heavily)

- You gotta push, Brett!

(laughing)

(upbeat music)

(thudding)

Can you handle that?

- I can handle it.

Can you handle comin' off the road from seein' Hal?

- I dunno.

- How was your trip?

- It was good.

It was good.

You know, Hal's amazing, but, it was tough, man.

I had some deep conversation with Hal.

I'll be honest with ya, I've heard,

the whole time I was on the road,

of course I've heard stories about dad

from some of the veterans and the old timers.

You just hear it, how he was a partier,

and some of the stuff,

you hear stories, I'm like,

"Man, I'm tired of re-livin' this,"

and then, I get to Hal's

and he basically tells me that

the week before all of this went down with Mom,

and he literally told Hal how much he

loved the fact that people

knew who he was and he loved bein' famous.

- So, ya know, let me stop you there,

'cause what really frustrates me is,

first of all what you're sayin' is

Hal's sayin' he put fame and bein' The Million Dollar Man

in front of you, in front of me,

in front of Mom, in front of his marriage,

and here you are flyin' to Hal's.

You know, I've heard it from his testimony.

I've heard it from Steve Keirn.

I've heard it from all his buddies

about how Dad had a revolvin' door,

and you get to hear it to your face from Hal.

I've never had Dad.

I've always heard it through

other people or through his testimony.

Am I gonna have to initiate Dad

comin' and tellin' me sorry to my face?

I mean, it's never happened. - Maybe.

- I know him and mom are over it

and they're through it, but dude!

- Well, I confronted him about a week ago

and it's the first time, man.

It's the first time he told me to my face.

I can call, you want me--

- Let's do this.

Why don't you call him

and just tell him that you want him

to come over and have dinner and chat

and don't even tell him I'm comin'.

I'm gonna put him on the spot!

(upbeat music)

(clattering)

- [Ted] Hey, man, 'sup?

- Speakin' of the visit with Hal,

I'm at the gym with Teddy today, Dad,

and I'm gonna get straight to it.

- Brett.

- Hold on!

- Calm down. - You know,

I'm at the gym, Teddy's tellin' me

how you were at Hal's one time

talkin' about how you loved fame

and you loved how everybody just loved,

you loved the attention. - Brett, Brett, Brett!

- Hold on, let me get this out!

You know, I hear from all the guys you wrestled with,

how you used to go out and party all the time,

your door was a revolvin' door,

and it was all, ya know,

and here we are at home,

and you cared more about that

than you did Mom and us.

Dad, you've never, never

said sorry to my face, especially,

and I don't know how - Brett.

- you're sittin' over there all calm!

- Just stop, stop. - I've heard it in

your testimony,

I've heard it - Brett.

- from all these places--

- Brett, Brett, Brett.

Please, look, Dad, I did not,

I invited you over here, yes,

because I wanted to visit

and me and Brett talked earlier at the gym.

I wanted us all three to

come together and have this conversation.

You and I have already had a conversation, but,

- I understand.

- Look.

- Listen, you don't have to explain

and I understand. - I just wanna hear you

say sorry to my face.

- Brett, I understand.

Listen, here's what you need to understand

if you wanna know why you haven't heard this before.

The first thing your mother said to me

when we went head to head and all of this came out, was,

"Your children hold you on a pedestal

"and I don't wanna destroy that.

"So until they are old enough to

"understand and there comes a time

"when you can have that conversation

"with them, they don't know about it."

That's the main reason.

I've been speakin' for a long time

and you've heard me from the platform,

you've heard the testimony, you've heard the story.

My feeling was this,

as you've heard that and as you've seen

that your mom and I are

very much in love with each other and very happy together,

you know there's no conflict there,

but, I've always felt like the time would be right

whenever you got to a place where you felt like,

"I need to hear this from Dad."

and, by the same token,

why have I not just come right to you and to you

and said, "Let's have this conversation?"

Because it's like the conversation you never wanted to have.

I guess maybe hoping that when you heard it from the pulpit

and you saw the sincerity in me in my life and who I am now

that maybe that would be enough, but

I guess not, and it needs to be said.

It needs to be said.

I came to a place where I was

so caught up in the fame

and where I was and what I was doing.

I was traveling, I was on the road,

I was gone most of the time.

It was almost like a man with two different personalities.

- We all have our own demons and our own vices.

You and I both know we have our own stuff, Brett,

that we've dealt with, and ya know,

I love that we're finally havin' this talk.

Well, I said it to your mom,

and I have to ask both of you boys,

'cause I've never really said it.

Will you forgive me?

- Dad, I forgave ya a long time ago.

I mean, heck, I spent my life tryin' to be just like you.

(soft music)

- Hi, buddy.

I love you, man.

I love you.

- I love you.

- [Ted Jr.] How much do you love me?

- I love you this much!

- [Ted Jr.] And I love you this much!

Do you know where Jesus lives?

- Yeah.

- [Ted Jr.] Where does he live?

- Uh, in my heart!

- [Ted Jr.] In your heart, that's right, buddy.

You know, I'll see ya in the mornin' okay?

- Okay.

- [Ted Jr.] We'll get up in the mornin', we'll play, okay?

- Okay.

Don't leave me, Dad.

- [Ted Jr.] I would never.

- No.

- That's why daddy came home.

You're my favorite.

I'll see ya tomorrow, okay?

(smooching)

(soft music)

My dad has always been my hero and still is.

And like me, he's made mistakes.

I'm old enough to realize now

that we all do,

we all make mistakes,

but those of us that make mistakes,

we don't think about the repercussions.

We don't think about the people

around us that love us

and those that hold us on a pedestal.

Our children, that hold us on a pedestal,

our wives, or our husbands

that hold us on a pedestal.

(soft music)

- Hello, Teddy.

How ya doin'? - How's it goin'?

Good.

- Very nice to see you. - Good to see you, man.

Come on in.

(soft music)

- That's Shawn Michaels,

ladies and gentlemen, hold the fire!

- I've been on this journey, ya know,

followin' my dad's footsteps,

and really discovering the story

and hearing it first hand

and there was a different era back in y'all's era.

- Oh, yeah!

- But some of those decisions he made,

the infidelity and the adultery

that led to almost my family being ripped apart.

By the grace of God, and literally, my mother's love,

and God-like forgiveness and mercy,

we're as thriving of a family as ever

and our bond is stronger

and I didn't want to go through what he went through.

- Yeah, I mean, and also,

train a child in the way they should go

and when they get older they won't stray from it.

So, you were young enough that

you still got a very good portion

of the saved Million Dollar Man,

which I think makes a big difference.

- Right, well, that saved me.

- I have a couple moments with your dad,

and came at very different times.

The first moment, and it's from a pure wrestling sense.

There was a time, yeah, your dad and I

were sometimes in the same places

on a fairly regular basis, whether it be out doing whatever.

You know, I was just frustrated, and he said,

"Trust me when I say talent will always rise to the top.

"I mean, take time but it will always rise."

And, it was true, after I got saved.

I wasn't even really in the wrestling business at the time.

So, I was sort of all alone, by myself,

sort of, not floundering in a bad way, but not knowing.

This new experience had just happened to me,

and for me it was an,

* Ahh ahh

it was a huge moment.

Everything, you know,

I had a really, really bad, dark side

and all of that stuff, but, I mean all of it

lifted off me (fingers snapping) like that.

Trying to make sense of that was very tough.

Then I remembered,

"You know that's like that DiBiase, he got saved."

And, I'm thinkin',

"I wonder if he can help me figure this out?

And I hunted down your dad's number

and gave him a call

because I didn't think there was

any way these church people,

it's like, sure, I get that all your sins are forgiven.

- Right.

- But, you people don't understand what I've done.

(laughing)

One of the best things he said was,

"You're not gonna know this yet,

"but look, I've learned this,

"you're gonna find guys, even in that church,

"that have done some of the stuff we've done."

He said, "We think we're the only ones but we're not."

I went back, bein' saved, and all of a sudden,

for some reason, I'm the token Christian.

If I cursed or whatever, it was like,

it's not really happening.

You no longer can make mistakes,

it's like, "No, you don't understand.

"It's because I made so many mistakes."

The only thing that makes me a Christian

is that I've acknowledged and asked for forgiveness.

- That's right.

- Other than that,

the wheels are still gonna come off every now and then.

It's the greatest thing

the Gospel brought me, which is truth.

- Amen.

It was hard for me at first,

because we never really had the talk.

Like, never had the man-on-man, like,

"Why the did you do it?"

- The thing is, your dad is so not the same person he was.

- No, yeah. - You know what I mean?

His salvation, much like mine,

we don't even identify with the people we were.

We look at 'em and it feels like an out of body experience.

- Right.

- And, it's very hard for us to even get our head around,

it doesn't even seem like it's us.

That's why you just come back and you go,

"I'm sorry," you know,

and you do, you ask people to forgive ya.

And you need it.

You need it from those people to be able to move on.

'Cause now you can really feel--

- You can move on, yeah!

- Well, and the thing is, now you can really feel,

that was the thing, too,

I guess there was a shell, man, a shell over that.

- Wow, yeah. - You know what I mean?

And then, salvation peels it off

and then it's like

I gotta say that I'm sorry

and I need to know that you truly believe that I am.

- I never really heard it that way.

You know, you can feel,

but what was numb and what was just

meaningless encounters or experiences

and highs and lows, whatever they are,

that's a different perspective.

'Cause I see it in you, and I see it in my dad.

I don't know that guy.

I don't know whoever

those guys were way back when, you know.

I know who my dad is today.

The thing I'm most proud of, though,

is the man that my father has become,

A man of character,

a man of principle, and a man of integrity.

- It wouldn't matter to me one bit

if anybody ever saw it other than me

to hear my son say the things about me

that you said about your dad.

- Dad, we're so proud of you

and we love you so much.

Thank you for everything you've done for us.

(audience applauding and cheering)

- I just want my boy to look at me and say,

and my daughter to look at me and say,

"Old man, you did us okay."

And, again, it's comin' from a guy,

I lost my dad this year,

and I got to be there with him.

My father's the first person I've ever seen

and you know, as I've told people,

I watched him take his last breath here

and his first breath in eternity.

Ted DiBiase the father says, - That's right.

- "Heard my boys express their love for me.

"You can't beat that."

- I just had great conversation today.

I just wanted to kinda make a point,

somethin' that I left with.

Talkin' about our fathers.

He shared a really personal

experience that he had with his dad when he was there.

He was there when he took his last breath,

and it was just very emotional.

Even on the way up, I was talkin' to my dad

and he's just so interested and engaged

in what's goin' on in my life that

askin' lots of questions

and certainly giving, still to this day,

amazing fatherly advice

and never once do I talk to him and he doesn't

tell me how proud he is

and wants to just know everything.

And I just realize that I've really

taken that for granted

and, for what it's worth, dad, I'm sorry.

If your parents are here,

I don't know if your relationship's good or bad,

but if they're here, they're here,

and we just take for granted that

they're here today but they might not be tomorrow

and I just hope that I'll remember this,

that from this day, that time with Shawn

and seein' in his face that

you know, my dad's here today and I'm so grateful.

As a dad, I want my son

to be annoyed with how much I love him.

(quiet music)

- I certainly have to thank my wife.

When you and I got married, you were 20 years old.

I was almost 27, but then you waited

12 years for me to grow up.

You persevered.

You put up with a lot of garbage

you didn't have to put up with.

You forgave me for a lot,

and you gave me a second chance.

I'll never forget you for it.

You're my rock.

- How do you find forgiveness? (audience applauding)

Forgiveness can only come

if you're not in control of your heart.

If I had been the only person

in control of my heart,

I would not be married today.

And the one thing that kept me sane

through all of this

was my relationship with the Lord.

- I must thank Almighty God,

my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

- As his relationship with the Lord grew, mine kept growing.

We came together and at some point,

then we were back together.

- For if it weren't for His grace and mercy

and love in my life,

I don't believe I'd be here today.

- You just have to forgive and let it go.

The Bible says, "Forgive as God in Christ forgave you."

I was forgiven when I made the decision to follow Christ.

God forgave me of everything that I had ever done.

Everything that I ever would do.

He did the same thing for Ted,

and we are to forgive as God forgives.

We can't pick and choose.

"Well, that hurt me really bad.

"I'm not gonna forgive that.

"I did that to her, I can't forgive myself."

Too bad, so sad, it doesn't work that way.

You don't get to pick and choose.

When you decide to follow Christ,

you either do it or you don't.

(indistinct chattering)

- And, I'm sure I say this

just about every church I speak in,

but this is the last place,

and I don't mean your church,

I mean this place here at the pulpit,

it's the last place that

Ted DiBiase ever thought he would be.

But, God had a plan for my life.

It just took me 38 years to begin to figure it out.

- Any time any athlete or any entertainer,

anybody in the public eye makes a grave error,

normally in their personal life,

and they turn to God, or whatever their higher power is,

and they become immersed in that,

you're always gonna have people that are going to say,

"They're just tryin' to cover their."

- I mean, I sat down, had lunch with him one time,

and he told me a story,

and I just didn't believe any of it.

I thought he was just,

he got messed up by partyin',

was doin' drugs, and womanizing

like we all were doin' back in the day,

and that his wife caught him

and he was just tryin' to save his marriage

'cause it'll cost him a lot of money and whatever.

So I was like, "Whatever, Ted."

- There's always gonna be doubters,

and that's just human nature.

But, I've learned somethin' on my journey, man.

Don't point the finger at the other guy.

Take care of your own stuff.

Clean up your own back yard.

Don't worry about somebody else's.

- From someone like me who traveled with him

for so many years,

to go see him and hook up with him

and the first thing he does is open up his briefcase

and take out pictures of this family

and put 'em all over the room in the hotel every night,

it changed from, "Let's go out and have a drink,"

to, "Okay, let's go have dinner

"and if we're gonna have a drink,

"well, let's just come back here and sit in the room."

So, he removed himself from that temptation at that time

and it was just different, it was a different Ted.

- So, I was really a wait and see guy.

I was very skeptical,

even you can say cynical, obviously,

and over time, not knowing what,

"by his fruits," meant back then,

I could see that Ted was definitely a different guy.

- I think he's very sincere.

- Ted was definitely a father figure in my life.

He's the only person that I've

pretty much looked at as a father to me.

The time that he spent with me

in the hotel rooms or at his house,

or part of his family,

I mean, it goes beyond words, what that meant to me.

Especially me without a father.

You know, my dad died,

when I was young, so it was pretty powerful.

- Teddy was at this church.

It was outside, and Teddy just

basically told his testimony.

And when he started, I thought,

"Oh, boy, here we go, it's at work again."

It's not the real deal.

This is just another phony

using the Lord for his business.

As Teddy talked, and he told the story

that he had to get outta there

and I had been part of that,

the way he humbled himself,

I started to realize that this is the real deal.

This is really the real deal.

In fact, he was so convincing to me

that a couple, maybe six months to a year later,

it opened me up for my walk with Jesus Christ.

It touched me, so that Teddy's accepting of the Lord

actually played a role in touching me through it.

So, ya know, it's pretty personal, when it gets that way.

- I'm very thankful that Ted did that,

'cause it really, I think, broke ground

and some of our hearts as well.

But I can't imagine what that was like,

walking through that in our industry.

- The main thing that we're here for

is the man of honor tonight.

Give it up for Ted DiBiase, people!

(congregation applauding)

A lot of people know that

a few years ago I tried to take my own life

and I'm doin' really good, now,

but in one of the darkest hours of my life,

Ted reached out to me

and he's always shown me love.

He never judged me and Ted,

it just means the world to me

that you're a friend of mine

and I love you very much, Ted,

and thank you so much.

Thank you.

God is great!

I love you, Ted. (congregation applauding)

- [Ted] God loves ya.

- My mom is amazing.

She's an angel

and I don't know that I would have the strength to do that.

But I also know, even more so now, the man that he is.

And, I can tell you that a lot of people,

(clearing throat)

I saw Willcox, that little town,

and I know my dad's been workin'

since he was six years old every day.

He still works today.

He hadn't stopped.

I can't tell ya the last time,

I don't know the last time

my dad ever spent a dime on himself.

He is a servant of the Lord.

And that's my dad.

He made a mistake, we all do.

This journey in learnin' about this,

it's given me just the admiration I already had,

but now, understandin' just the pain

that you've gone through,

bein' away and then goin' through that,

and then literally livin' a selfless life,

that's the kind of dad I want to be to my son.

Following in your footsteps again, ya know?

Like, I wanted to be a wrestler,

now I wanna be that kind of dad.

I want my son to be proud of me

because of the man that I've become.

The character and the integrity that I exemplify.

The only reason I want that and desire that

is because that's the man you became.

- Whoo!

- Because you said, "Less of me, God, more of you."

I know you almost lost it,

but you built it even stronger,

and you took advantage of that

and I just wanna tell you thank you, and I love you.

- I love you too, man.

(slapping)

Love you, too.

- [Tate] I'm a wrestler!

- You're a wrestler?

(both growling)

Hey, what wrestler are you?

- DiBiase!

- [Ted Jr.] Ooh!

Are you the Romper Stomper?

(imitating whooshing)

- I am the Romper Stomper!

I come a-rompin' and a-stompin'!

- I think Ted's initial catch-phrase,

"Everybody has a price,"

opens up an interesting box.

I think it goes back to the days

of the Faustian bargain,

you know, what would you be willing to do to live that life?

And in a lot of cases, people pay too much.

The price of fame is too costly,

you know, comes at the expense

of your family, your relationships, your health.

So, it's something I deal with every day.

So I think it's a good question to ask.

There are some days when I tackle a flight of stairs

and think to myself, was it really worth it?

Some days when you get a headache

from five minutes of bright lights and things,

was it really worth it?

And, I think Ted has asked himself that question

many times over the years as well.

I think that's why his testimony is so valuable,

because I think pre-testimony Ted's answer

being no, it's wasn't worth the price of fame

and post-testimony I think the answer is

absolutely, it was worth it

that he's doin something bigger than the business.

- Yep, that's my dad,

who loved to lace up his boots,

(indistinct chattering)

who loved the roar of the crowd.

Who battled with giants (indistinct chattering)

and titans that were larger than life.

Yep, that's my dad, (indistinct chattering)

who said, "Everybody's got a price,"

and when it came to fame he learned that, well, it's true.

(soft music)

(car rumbling)

(door thudding)

- You know, Dad, it's been a long time

since my last visit,

but I always come back

and I'll keep comin' back.

I was only 15 years old

when I came out here way back when,

feelin' lost, not knowin' what was gonna happen to me.

Watchin' mom drink Herself into oblivion

and I came here for your help,

to help remember the things

that you taught me and instilled in me.

You know, Dad, I did pretty good at first.

I got that scholarship,

I went to college,

I didn't smoke and drink and go crazy.

But when I got to college

I let it creep into my life,

all those things that you warned me about.

The truth is, it controlled me for nearly 20 years.

You didn't want me to be a wrestler,

but I had to be just like you.

Then God blessed me with Melanie.

God blessed us with children,

but I came out here tonight

just like I did so many times before

to let you know I finally got it right.

I finally got it right, Dad.

All I ever wanted when I

was 15 years old was to make you proud.

And, now, I think that I have.

I think that you would be.

(sighing heavily)

It's been so long,

but it seems like yesterday when I come here.

I miss you.

I miss you very much,

but I'll see you again.

I have three good boys.

They're good boys.

I've tried to instill in them

the same things that you instilled in me.

Rocky road, sometimes, but they got it, Dad.

They got it a lot faster than I did.

I'm a grandfather, now.

Yeah, you're a great-grandfather.

I just wish that they would have the opportunity to meet ya.

I'm gonna keep going, I promise.

I'm gonna keep livin' right,

and I'm gonna keep livin' for God.

I hope you're proud of me, Dad, and I love you very much.

(soft music) (softly sobbing)

- And, yes, that's my dad,

that after all of this,

he left his dream,

the only thing that he knew how to do, for his family.

I know this is where you came, and talked to your dad,

and I just want you to know

I'm so blessed that I have you here to talk to.

And I'm so grateful for the things

that you have taught me over the years

and to dream big and go for it,

and never let anybody tell me I couldn't do it,

but with whatever I did to put character and integrity,

before everything, and,

- This is where it started for me.

- You know, if those walls could talk,

and if Mike was standin' right here,

I know exactly what he would say.

He'd say, "Good job, son.

"You did good!"

- I love you.

- Love you too, Dad.

- I just wish that you had

been able to meet him and know him.

- Me too.

- I came here for a lot of reasons.

When I was in turmoil, when I was

watching my mom drink,

and not knowing what to do,

and goin', "Dad, what do I do?

"What would you have done?"

But I found peace here, too.

God met me here.

God comforted me here.

(sniffling)

(sighing)

- Yup, that's my dad,

that taught me to be a man of character and integrity.

Yup, that's my dad,

who taught me how to be a loving husband.

But, probably most importantly,

how to be a good father.

(soft music)