Ted DiBiase Jr. Shares His Side Of The Infamous Cody Rhodes ‘Referee’ Story From Starrcast
“Where’s that referee. He was trying to f-ck on me!”
One of the more memorable exchanges at Starrcast II in Las Vegas saw Cody Rhodes share a story about the worst match he’d ever been in, a tale highlighted by his description of Ted DiBiase Jr’s apparent reaction after the bout.
Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Wade Barrett teamed up against Daniel Bryan, Ezekiel Jackson and Sin Cara on the June 14, 2011 episode of WWE SmackDown. During Starrcast, Cody explained how the match didn’t go according to plan due to a miscommunication that led to DiBiase not kicking out of a pinfall when he should have. He said they went backstage and expected Vince McMahon to chew them out for screwing it up, but Ted’s delivery of the infamous line led to a bewildered Vince putting his headset back on without ever discussing the match finish.
Ted DiBiase Jr. recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about the launch of his new branding agency called 16Creative, and the two also talked about his time teaming with Cody in Legacy. Noting the timing of the call (the anniversary of the inaugural Double Or Nothing event, the same weekend as the Starrcast story), DiBiase was asked about his own recollection of that story. DiBiase laughed and explained why things went down the way they did and chalked it up to Cody being a great storyteller.
“Look, I’m just going to say this—that dude will say something and beat a dead horse with it. I may have said ‘he tried to f— me’,” DiBiase explained, “but I don’t know where he got the ‘he tried to f— on me’. Sorry, I’m trying not to curse in front of the kids, but look—that dude knows how to blow something up.
“I think it’s hilarious and it’s probably a shot at me, but he’d do that all of the time. He’d make something up that somebody said and scream it non-stop in the locker room, and then everybody would adopt it. So, I was pissed because I did kick out. You can go back and watch it, but we had a meeting that day where [they told us] ‘The referees are going to count you out if you don’t kick out!’ I did kick out, and I don’t remember his name, but anyway, I was hot [about it]. I was pissed, I said a lot of cuss words when I came through there,” DiBiase stated, “but Cody can tell a story. He can fabricate one too.” [laughs]
DiBiase also talked about how his time in Legacy helped him in the wrestling business; check out the full audio interview at the top of this page and read more about his new branding agency by clicking the link below.