Ted DiBiase welcomed The Undertaker to WWE TV at the 1990 Survivor Series pay-per-view, but he says he can’t take any credit for what ended up being such a storied career.
DiBiase recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of his Virtual Signing Series appearance for ’80s Wrestling Con. The “Million Dollar Man” was responsible for introducing The Undertaker as his mystery partner at Survivor Series, a moment that still lives on in WWE history. While he might have been the one to announce The Undertaker’s arrival on-air, DiBiase says Mark Calaway impressed him and deserves all of the credit for getting so much out of the character and getting over by moving the way he did in the ring.
“Mark’s a wonderful guy and when everyone says that [I] introduced him, I did, but the people need to understand that Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man, didn’t ‘bring’ The Undertaker into the WWE. My introducing him was all part of the character and his character, and so at the time, I recognized his skill,” DiBiase said, “but I don’t think that anybody realized just how long he would go. It’s funny because in the last couple of years, the only time I would see him would be at WrestleMania since it’s the one time we all get together, and every year I go, ‘Well, Mark, when are you going to retire?’[laughs] That kept being the question, ‘when are you really going to hang it up?’”
“It’s to his credit that he’s gone so long, and the thing that always amazed me was for him to be The Undertaker and his movement, the motion, he’s like this ‘monster’ guy, and he’s moving around but he’s not moving around at the same pace as the other wrestlers. He’s getting over, he’s doing what he can do,” DiBiase said, “and he’s doing it basically at half the speed of everybody else. That was always remarkable to me, how he could always pull that off. The character is great, and not only that, but the individual is a wonderful guy and I wish him all of the best.”
Check out our full interview with Ted DiBiase below:
