Theodore "Ted" DiBiase Jr. was born on Noember 8, 1962 and is the son of the legendary "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, former King of the Ring and multiple Tag Team Champion. Ted began his career training with his older brother Mike with Chris Youngblood in Texas before moving over to train at Harley Race's Wrestling School. He made his debut in July 2006 with World League Wrestling. He won  FusionTag Team Championship with his brother in Feburary 2007. He also wrestled in the Japan based Pro Wresling NOAH organization before signing a development deal with the WWE in the summer of 2007.

While in Florida Championship Wrestling, he became a member of the Next Generation Hart Foundation but quickly separated from the group and added Maryse as a valet. In December 2007, he became FCW Southern Heavyweight Champion but was unable to defend the title to an injury so he awarded the championship to his tag team partner Heath Miller. Throughout his time in FCW, he stugggled through numerous injuries and wrestled sporadically over the next few months.

DiBiase made his WWE debut in May 2008 to challenge Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly for the World Tag Team Championship. At Night of Champions, DiBiase won the Tag Team titles after Rhodes turned on Holly and joined forces with Rhodes, another son of an legeandary wrestler Dusty Rhodes. After losing the tites to John Cena and Batista in August, they won them right back the next week. They began associating with Randy Orton and began the Legacy faction with himself, Orton and Rhodes.

DiBiase and Rhodes went on to help Randy Orton win the WWE Championship at Backlash 2009 and was involved in a major feud with D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels and Triple H).  They picked up their most important of their young careers after beating DX in an Submissions Count Anywhere match at Breaking Point.