Teddy Long Planning To Write A Book, Says WWE Chose His Hall Of Fame Inductors
As noted, WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long was recently a guest on the Wrestling Inc. Podcast. The longtime SmackDown general manager spoke about his career highlights, his new reality show and much more.
Long has over 30 years of experience in the professional wrestling business as a manager, referee and authority figure. Even though he's retired, he's still involved in the wrestling world as a trainer at Face 2 Face wrestling school. He said he plans on eventually writing a book about his career, but he wants to wait until he's out of the business for good.
"I plan on it. I got a good friend of mine, the guy that built my website Jamie Cutter, he's gonna be working on that with me. The only reason I haven't yet is because I said to myself I'm not gonna do anything until I'm completely done," he said. "When I hang wrestling completely up and not go out and do indies or Comic Cons or anything involved with wrestling, then I'm gonna take that time and put the book together. I got enough stuff that I could write two books."
Long discussed his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2017 class. He said it's the greatest accolade he could achieve in his career and it is an honor he will forever cherish.
"That was really great for me. I look at the Hall of Fame like this: there are a lot of people that pay a lot of dues and they work real hard, and sometimes they don't get rewarded for all the hard work that they do. So being in the Hall of Fame and getting into something like that means that somebody appreciated all the hard work that you've done in this business for the many years that you've been in it. So the Hall of Fame was certainly a big surprise when they called me and let me know that I was gonna be inducted and it was the just the greatest feeling of my life to be successful because I can't go no higher than that. I'm not a wrestler, so I don't have to worry about trying to being the world champion, so Hall of Fame is the deal for me, playa."
Long was inducted by longtime friends John Bradshaw Layfield and Ron Simmons. He revealed that he didn't have a say in who would induct him, but he thinks the WWE made the right decision because of the long friendship he had with Layfield and Simmons.
"WWE made that decision, I didn't have anything to do with it," he said. "I think when they made that decision, a lot of people knew the stories about me, John and Ron when I was riding with them back when they were the A.P.A. so they felt like with John and Ron inducting me, that would be really fun. They were entertaining, too."
Long and Face 2 Face wrestling school co-owner Richard Borger are producing an upcoming reality wrestling series where independent wrestlers will compete for the chance to turn pro. The show is independent of the school, but the school will handle the training. Heath Slater, who also a co-owns of the school, is not involved with this project. The series is described as a cross between The Real World, Big Brother and Tough Enough. Applications are being accepted at ProjectIndieHouse.com.