Ted DiBiase Says Selling Is Missing In Today’s Wrestling, Talks Rey Mysterio

On the latest episode of Everybody’s Got a Pod, WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase talked about what he thinks is missing in today’s wrestling, Rey Mysterio, and praise for CM Punk. You can check out some highlights below:

On Rey Mysterio: “I personally like Rey very much. And the thing about it is, I don’t even know if he comes up to me [height]. Yeah, at least if he comes up to my waist, but he’s not a big guy at all. So he’s got to have something different to offer. And what he had to offer was, you know, the high-flying stuff. But you know what? That’s good for Rey Mysterio. But the reason he got over is because Rey knew that for him to really get over and to do those fantastic things that he can do, he had to sell. He had to get himself in a position where the people watching the story were going, ‘Come on, Rey, you can do it, man. Get up, man. You can do it. Get it up. Get up.’”

On what is missing in today’s wrestling: “All you other guys out there, don’t go out there if you’re 6’4″ and try to do triple back somersaults. I mean it’s kind of, you know, it’s the bottom line with me. My whole objection with a lot of what I see on TV today is, the thing that has changed is the match. And I’m sorry, but I personally don’t believe that that should have changed at all. Because you’re telling a story, and sometimes it’s a short story because you may only have a six-minute match, and then it’s ‘Then what you can do or what you know?’ And I’ll be honest with you: it’s really hard to have a match in six minutes, but it’s just become all this high-flying junk.

“I’ve seen these guys take beautiful bumps. These young kids take a triple back somersault. And you know, if I ever took a bump like I’ve seen some of these guys take over the top rope to the floor, I’m not going to bounce up like a bunny. I’m going to stay down and sell it. That’s what’s missing. Sell it. And that’s what sells tickets. Before the fans can really get behind you, you have to do as much as you possibly can in the time that you have in the ring. Try to make them believe your story and make it as realistic as I can. Nobody tries to do that. Well, I won’t say nobody but very few try to do that anymore. One of the guys that I think has become very good and more of an old style — and again, by a lot of the people who influenced him, was CM Punk. He wrestles in a more old-school way. I’m going to die on that hill.”

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.