Teddy Long Talks About Smackdown Memories, Being A GM, Racism In Wrestling, Managing Undertaker

Former WWE GM Teddy Long recently spoke with AL.com about his old gig, as well as his fond memories of Smackdown and several other topics. You can see the highlights below:

On being a General Manager in WWE:

"I had a great experience with that. It was the first time ever (a babyface played the general manager role). They talked to me a couple of times about turning me (into a heel, or bad guy) and Vince said, 'No.' He saw that people liked me. If the people like you, why turn? That's what Vince is all about. He's about money. My character was definitely me. Vince was the guy behind a lot of it, but I made the character me. That's how I got over. I wasn't being someone else."

Favorite SmackDown memory:

"I think it was the wedding. I had the wedding with Kristal Marshall and had the heart attack as I said, 'I do.' That was some good stuff. But I had so many memories. I had an opportunity to put Rey Mysterio in a big position one night so he could qualify for the world title. John Laurinaitis and Vickie Guerrero ? we had some good times. (Guerrero) was a sweet woman."

Managing a young Undertaker before WWF:

"Mark was one of the nicest guys you ever would meet. 'Taker is a business man. He's a lot like Vince. When you can, yourself, get involved in storylines with Undertaker and people like that, you don't let that go to your head. I never did that."

Racism in wrestling and Ron Simmons' WCW title win:

"I thought it was a significant achievement. There had never been a black world championship before. Back in the day, there was a little racism in our industry. You saw black guys get beat and they never thought they would be able to get to the top. But Ron Simmons was a brand. He was a former Florida State University football player. Putting the belt on him was no racism thing. They put the belt on him because (the company felt that Simmons could represent the company as champion)."