Monty...do you thin Dibiasi was missing something that kept him from winning the WWF Title or was he soo over like Piper that he didn't need it?
( I am not directly comparing Piper to Dibiasi)
I think it's hard to draw many comparisons between performers in any industry. As such, it's equally hard to attribute certain shared outcomes amongst performers to the same reasons. My point is, while Pipes and Ted never held the big belt in the Fed, I honestly can't say if it was for the same reasons.
Piper will claim that he "didn't need" the belt. I think the old man was reluctant to put it on him due to Piper's known tendency to fly off the handle back then
(he's done his share of drugs). Also, Hot Rod has missed a lot of action over the years due to injuries, filming movies, and vacations. He didn't wrestle full-time after 1987. Granted, he came back to work programs that lasted >12 months, but it's hard to build a champion who is absent so much of the time. It did keep his face fresh, however, and he still gets a pop from even today's crowd.
As for DiBiase, I don't know if he was lacking anything, or if he just didn't fit in with the direction they were planning to go. He could definitely deliver, though. Surely, somebody within the Federation must have known and recognized what Ted could do because they signed him and put him in some major programs. I don't remember hearing that he was ever a "troublemaker." It may simply be a case of bad timing rather than him being undeserving. I don't think they could have asked any more of him, and I doubt he could have given much more than he did.