The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase set out to prove that money can get you anything, even a WWE Championship. After failing to win the title in the old fashioned way of actually defeating the champion, he used his (fictitious, yet vast) bank account to find a way around it. Originally DiBiase approached Hulk Hogan with an offer to buy the title, but Hogan being the boy scout he was, he refused. Ted then turned to the unscrupulous Andre the Giant, asking him to win the belt on his behalf. Andre did exactly that, pinning Hogan (albeit in a questionable way), taking the strap, and then sold it to straight DiBiase. Although DiBiase made three house show appearances with the title, and the billing as WWE Champion, his reign is missing from the official record books. He was stripped of the belt, and his time with it went unrecognised because handing the title over is outside of the rules - even though WWE would contradict this rule in later years. The title was vacated, and a tournament was held to determine a new one (which ironically, DiBiase reached the finals of).
