Ted DiBiase Reveals Million Dollar Championship’s Actual Value, What It Was Made Of

On the latest episode of the Everybody’s Got a Pod, WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase talked about the Million Dollar Championship Belt that was created for him in WWE. The iconic title was designed for Dibiase, who only had one run as WWE Champion, and has been used for various wrestlers that Dibiase has managed. He noted that in 1988 when the title was created, it was worth $40,000.

On the creation of the title: “Just so all you fans know, because I get this question all the time, ‘well, how much is that? Is it real?’ I said, ‘it’s not. It’s not real diamonds. It’s not solid gold.’ But all the stones in that belt are what they call cubic zirconium. And that’s that they’re almost diamonds. I don’t know what. I don’t know what the difference is between a diamond and almost a diamond, but I know all those little diamonds in the face of that belt. The little ones back in 1988 were 50 bucks apiece.”

On the title’s value at the time: “The estimated value of the $1,000,000 belt in 1988 was $40,000. My goodness, yeah. And I carried it. What I did, what I did is I took a Halliburton briefcase and I gutted it and I’ll say I did, but what they did for me and they put foam padding in it and they made a ring box. Basically out of a briefcase and the $1,000,000 belt would sit right down there perfectly. You know, fold it up and that’s how I carried it around, and like I said, its estimated value is $40,000 and it was, insured.”

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.