Teddy Long Reflects on His Career in WWE

Holla Holla, playa.

That’s a name we’ve not heard in some time. Teddy Long hasn’t been seen or mentioned by many since his last appearance at the fifteenth anniversary “Supershow” of Smackdown.

However, some of us remember Long as a referee, a manager of the Rodney Mack and the “White Boy Challenge”. The majority of WWE fans are going to remember Teddy Long as the General Manager of Smackdown from 2004 through 2012.

The former GM of Smackdown had an appearance on the Two Man Power Trip podcast recently and discussed his time in WWE, being the GM of Smackdown, the running joke of the tag team main event, and much more.

The can hear the full interview right here. Below are a few of the highlights:

Being the GM of Smackdown for several years:

It meant a lot to me because I had been in Professional Wrestling for over 30 years and basically the longer you stay in this business the more you learn and the more experience you get. When I was in the NWA and WCW I had a few guys like Butch Reed and Ron Simmons (who were the first Afro-American tag team champions) and when you are always trying to get a break it looks like there is always something somewhere that just kind of stops you. That’s what happened with me in the NWA and WCW, every time we would get something good somebody would try to break it up or wanted to do something else or break the team up.

I was able to go to New York and work for Vince and once he found out what I could do then he was real pleased with me. He was the only person that ever gave me a break and I wanted to reward him for giving me that because I always wanted to show people that said I didn’t have any talent, that I had talent and Vince McMahon helped me prove that. My thing up there with him is that I am going to make this work and whatever he wants me to do I am going to do that and I am going to portray myself.

The running “tag team match” joke on Smackdown:

I never really thought about it and there was never any thought behind it. I was told what to do, I was told we were going to turn this into a tag team match and I just started doing it on my own in giving the emphasis on “tag team match” and doing my thing. But it actually got over and is all over YouTube. Everybody wants to see me make that tag team match.