10 Successful Gimmicks You Forgot WWE Tried Again
3. Million Dollar Man (Ted DiBiase/Ted DiBiase Jr)
Sons and daughters of famous wrestlers face a hard ol' shift. Succeed, and critics will cry nepotism. Fail, and those same people will wonder why promoters even bothered trying in the first place. For every Cody Rhodes or Charlotte Flair, there's an Erik Watts or Ted DiBiase Jr. Living up to the family name and breaking free of that iconic shadow to forge your own legacy is hard to do.
WWE didn't help Ted Jr one bit by sticking his dad's legendary 'Million Dollar Man' gimmick on him in 2010. They even brought the old Million Dollar Title along for the ride in hopes it'd give DiBiase Jr the same heel edge his father had throughout the second half of the 80s into the early-90s. Was this worth trying? Maybe/maybe not, but it didn't really matter in the end anyway.
'Million Dollar Son' was never going to fly.
Ted Jr tried. He really, really tried, but he had none of the natural charisma Sr did. His suits weren't as flashy, his promos were unconvincing and his matches were nowhere near as solid as dad's had been. Enlisting Virgil flopped, and even sticking the glamorous Maryse by his side failed to elicit much of a response from crowds.
By 2011, DiBiase Jr had turned babyface to host parking lot tailgate parties before shows. That didn't really go anywhere either. He acknowledged that it had been a bad idea to try mimic his father's iconic character, then faded away before being cut loose from the roster in 2013.
Some fans might not remember he was a repeat of the 'Million Dollar Man' persona at all.