Ted Dibiase recently talked about a wide range of topics on his Everybody’s Got a Pod.
During it, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about Kurt Angle making the transition from being an amateur wrestler to pro wrestling and more. Here are the highlights:
On Kurt Angle:
“Yeah. Kurt. Here’s a guy who was. He had also been an amateur athlete. I had a lot of respect for the guy right out of the blocks. I mean, because that kind of reminded me of my dad. I mean, my dad never went to the Olympics, but I think it was in 1946 won the AAU national heavyweight wrestling title. And then went back and he went to Nebraska, and I think he was in the Navy when he won that. And then, when he went to Nebraska, he lettered eight times for four years in football, four in wrestling, three years in a row. He was a conference heavyweight wrestling champion. And so. Yeah. But yeah, I have a lot of respect for somebody who can do the real deal and then come on. Because sometimes that doesn’t always mesh, right? I mean, if you’re, if you’re, you’re the real deal, and you’re doing real amateur wrestling, I mean, professional wrestling is, I mean, a far cry. I mean, it’s work. I mean, obviously, you got to be an athlete, but I don’t know that. Okay. I put it this way, knowing all those amateur moves is not going to help you as a professional wrestler. What is going to help you as a professional wrestler is your ability to perform. You can’t give anybody charisma. They either have it or they don’t.”
On Ric Flair wrestling at an old age:
“I promised myself that when I hit 40, I was out, out, out the door as a physical wrestler. My dad was such an outstanding athlete that he was at his peak in a wrestling match at the age of 45. And it ain’t going to happen to me. Maybe things were a lot better. I mean, there are a lot of differences. During the early years of wrestling, where my dad was, I don’t know, but. 56 and the amount of bumping. Yes. Guys, back, if you go and watch, if you go watch, watch pro wrestling televised matches from the 60s. A lot of that you don’t see. You know you don’t. They’re not flying all over the ring all the time. They’re on the mat. They’re having a wrestling match. And so that’s a big difference. So 56.”
On whether he tried to talk Flair out of wrestling:
“No. That’s not for anybody to tell a guy. And certainly not Ricky. No anybody knows Ric. You can’t tell you to talk to your blue in the face, Ric’s going to do what he wants to do. Personally, I love the guy. I love the guy, And he legitimately was one hell of a worker. There’s no denying that. But Rick wants to be the center of attention. I think I might have told you this too, but, you know, the deal. He comes in and almost waves it in there. And he says around for everybody on the Nature Boy. And so he, he’d buy them and everybody around. Right, right. And so I would do that too. And I got Ric over, and I said, there’s one big difference between you and me. And he said, what’s that, Ted? And he said, well, I said, when you buy that round, you’re spending your money. When I buy it, I’m spending Vince’s money.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Everybody’s Got a Pod with an h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.