How Ted DiBiase Almost Defeated Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania for the WWE Title

Ted DiBiase worked three house shows as WWE Champion in the winter of 1988 before his championship reign was stripped from the record books, but the “Million Dollar Man” almost had a chance at working many more shows as champion.

Andre The Giant defeated Hulk Hogan for the title on the February 5, 1988 edition of The Main Event. The broadcast ended up being the most watched wrestling show in the history of American television, drawing a 15.2 rating and 33 million viewers. The championship bout, which aired live on NBC, saw Andre and DiBiase steal the championship from Hogan by using referee Dave Hebner’s twin brother, Earl. After the match, Andre surrendered the championship to DiBiase.

As mentioned, DiBiase went on to work three house shows being billed as champion, including one title defense against Bam Bam Bigelow, before the WWE announced the reign was illegitimate and would not be recognized, resulting in a title vacancy. This lead to the famous tournament at WrestleMania IV to crown a new champion that resulted in “Macho Man” Randy Savage winning the strap for the first time.

During an interview with Bill Apter, DiBiase revealed that there were originally plans for he to defeat Hogan in the finals of the tournament at WrestleMania IV and embark on a title reign of his own.

“It was discussed that I would somehow underhandedly end up in the last match with Hogan and screw him to win the title,” DiBiase explained. “But along the way it was almost like, I think people expected that because, as it is in wrestling, Hogan obviously after beating Andre, he was the man and he’s the champ. WWE or WWF, you want primarily because you’re catering to the kids at this point because it’s family entertainment. You want your champion to be the good guy as much as possible.”

He continued, “But there was the thought of having me screw Hogan and then have the run with Hogan. Usually a heel champion in the WWE, back then anyway, was somebody who was transitional. He either gets the belt and he drops it to the new babyface champion, or he drops it back to the guy that he beat. It was Pat Patterson who approached me and he said, ‘Ted, here’s what we’ve been thinking.’ He ran all those things by me which I knew, which was the standard deal.”

DiBiase was one of the top heel performers in wrestling during that period and a championship run would have been incredibly memorable. Long time fans of wrestling have often felt DiBiase deserved a run with the WWE’s top prize and its interesting to find out that it almost happened with a victory over Hogan at the biggest show of the year. Ultimately, this will remain one of wrestling’s greatest “what ifs.”

[H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript.]