Ted DiBiase Discusses Value of Traveling With Veterans, Early Training Experience

On the latest episode of Everybody’s Got a Pod, WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase talked about his early in-ring training experiences and more. You can check out some highlights below:

Ted DiBiase on his early in-ring training experience: “Well I mean, hitting the ropes is something that you learned to do. And actually, I think I got a little bruise on my side, because it’s not a natural moment. But once you’ve done that over and over and over again, it’s — you don’t even you don’t even realize it anymore. I learned how to take all the bumps, to do an arm drag, and who you take a turnbuckle the right way. And, you know, just all the basics. And I pretty well knew all that stuff when I started.”

On the most difficult thing about first learning to wrestle: “There was never anything I didn’t look forward to. I mean, we didn’t get in the ring every day, like the Japanese guys. Those guys, they put their young guys through hell, those guys do. Oh, my gosh, Hindu squats and doing all kinds of stuff. I basically started by getting in a ring and having a match in front of a live crowd. It’s old school. But you know, again, the guy across from the rig knows that I’m a rookie; he’s got to lead me. And you know, because we have our own language out there, we talk all the time. And so, basically, I picked it up fast.”

On the value of traveling with veterans: “Well I mean, you learn a lot there. I mean, it’s kind of like — of course, you didn’t do it every night. You didn’t get into — you’ve already traveled a long trip getting there. And you wrestled the show, and now you’re gonna stay over or you’re gonna go on to the next town, or you gotta go back to wherever your home base was. And so a lot of times, we talked about the show, talk about a match, and I would ask the guys that I really respected. I would ask them, I said, ‘If you have time, I would appreciate it if you watch my match and let me know what you think.’ And there were a lot of guys who were more than willing to do that. And that’s how you learn, but you really learn by doing it. Because when it’s in the moment you feel it. I can’t even explain that. It’s something that’s intangible. You know when it’s time to do something.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Everybody’s Got a Pod with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.