Teddy Long Reveals Original Plans For His Heart Attack Angle On WWE SmackDown
WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long was a guest on last Wednesday's episode of the Wrestling Inc. Podcast. Long spoke to Wrestling Inc. president Raj Giri and Glenn Rubenstein about his career highlights, his new reality show and much more.
Long is best remembered as the longtime general manager of SmackDown, a position he held from 2004 to 2012. Giri asked Long about his favorite angles that he worked during his tenure and he mentioned his storylines with The Undertaker and Vickie Guerrero.
"The one that I really liked the best was the angle with me and The Undertaker where he kidnapped me, I thought was very good. Vince was livid about it, he loved it too. Also the other storyline with the stuff with me and Vickie Guerrero that I thought was very good because she was really a sweetheart. I helped her out a lot, a lot of the stuff she did to me I was very instrumental in that by telling her, 'Hey, do this, do that.' We had a great relationship. Man, I've just been involved in so much stuff," Long said. "The White Boy Challenge and all that stuff. Back with Jerry Lawler, I went to his hometown and at that time Elvis was the king of Memphis and Jerry Lawler said he was the king, and I told him he was just another cracker with a crown. That's on YouTube, you can find that. I've been involved in a lot of stuff and every one of them I enjoyed, I had a great time doing it. I think that's why I was real successful with it, because I enjoyed doing what I was asked to do."
Long was involved in an angle where he was going to get married to Kristal Marshall but he suffered a heart attack. Marshall was close friends with Guerrero and were believed to be plotting something, but the storyline was cut short when Marshall was released from WWE a few weeks after the wedding segment. Long discussed what was supposed to happen with the angle if it didn't end prematurely.
"I think her and Vickie Guerrero were gonna turn on me, and they were gonna become the general managers of SmackDown," he said. "It had finally worked out where they didn't do it, if you can remember they found me in my office and later on they found out that Dolph Ziggler was the one where they jumped me in my office and they took me away and then Vickie took over for a while until I came back. But that's how it was really supposed to go down."
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 co-owns 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. Long said he thinks independent wrestling is more popular than it has ever been and he is excited to be producing the shot.
"I think in my opinion indie wrestling has certainly come a long way, it's certainly really big right now and I really do believe that the indie wrestlers don't get what they're due," he said. "So we were just coming around throwing out ideas and we thought about doing this, and I think doing this with indie wrestlers, something that has never been done before, I think is gonna be absolutely fantastic."
You can watch the interview with Long in the video above.