Mark it down on your wrestling calenders.
July 6, 2009—the night Ted DiBiase took his first steps as a superstar.
Sure, he was part of the best stable going into professional wrestling already. Although the tag team championships had slipped from their grasp, he and Cody Rhodes have made an impact on RAW for the last few months.
However, DiBiase’s character has shown the need to step out on his own. You had to wonder why he never mentioned the boot from Randy Orton upon his return from filming his movie.
Those thoughts raised themselves at The Bash. DiBiase blamed Orton as being the reason he and Rhodes were not able to capture the tag team titles.
This was a beginning confrontation, but it would only be the beginning.
We fast forward to Monday Night RAW on Jul. 6. Ted DiBiase Sr. is the GM for the night. He comes out with Rhodes and his son to start off the show.
He cuts a promo hyping up the two and saying how well they were gonna do. He follows that by putting Rhodes in a one on one match against Henry.
He countered that by bringing up the obvious to his son.
“You’re just a lackey to Randy Orton. You do his dirty work. You are better than that. You can beat him.”
Lackey was the word DiBiase used at The Bash to describe how he feels he is viewed by Orton as a member of Legacy.
“I saw that fire in your eyes, son. You had not forgotten when Orton kicked your head off.”
In wrestling, we call this foreshadowing.
It is also the build up of a potentially great storyline.
The WWE left themselves with many options.
Orton, of course, asks DiBiase to lay down for him and not even make it a real contest.
This insults DiBiase.
He gets in Orton’s face and brings daddies into the mix.
“My dad made the match. Who, by the way, is better than your father ever will be.”
These are words that could stay with Orton and be used at a later date.
DiBiase then goes on to say he won’t lay down and not only would he wrestle Orton, but he would beat him.
The match happens and DiBiase is able to hang with Orton. There were times when it appeared he would have the match won.
Orton did a great job of selling him.
It ends with Orton getting his usual sneak victory with the RKO out of nowhere. He acknowledges DiBiase and walks away with the title after slapping him in the face gently.
DiBiase goes to his father and blames him for the loss. He says it’s always about The Million Dollar Man and not about his son. He says his dad wanted to embarrass him.
When DiBiase Sr. tries to explain his reasoning, his son slaps him very hard across the face.
I must admit watching it live, I was stunned at how hard he slapped him.
This is where the options the WWE has, that I mentioned, come into play.
DiBiase could continue with Legacy before finally snapping and going out on his own.
He could make the jump immediately and begin his rise now, which I don’t think is a good idea.
Or he could simply continue teaming with Rhodes and being a hitman for Randy Orton. Either way, the WWE has the ability to push Ted DiBiase from a mid carder, who fills a time slot and runs in to interfere on Orton’s opponents, to a superstar.