Teddy Long Talks WWE SmackDown Moving To Fox, Says AEW Will Not Beat WWE

Ever since being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017, Teddy Long has made sporadic appearances for the company. But Wrestling Inc's Andy Malnoske caught up with Long recently where the Hall of Fame manager was asked what it takes to become a great pro wrestling manager.

"What makes a great manager is that you have to have a great mouthpiece. You got to be able to talk. If you can talk a good game and you've got some guys behind you that can back you up, that makes you even greater," said Long.

"To take you back to that, I managed Butch Reed and Ron Simmons back in the day as Doom. I've got two big monsters behind me and I'm a little guy about 90 pounds talking a whole lot of trash but I got the big guys behind me to back it up. So a manager needs to be a good talker, plus he needs to be a good strategist because sometimes he has to involve himself."

Long was the General Manager of SmackDown for nearly eight years across two separate stints. He talked about what it means for the blue brand to be moving to network TV and FOX.

"It's huge; it's a great move for SmackDown. It's certainly gonna expand the SmackDown brand and it's gonna do a lot for the WWE," stated Long. "I'm real excited about it and I can't wait and I know the WWE Universe can't wait to tune into the FOX Network for SmackDown Live playa."

AEW has arrived on the scene in recent months and WWE seemingly has more competition than it has in decades. But Long doesn't see that as a bad thing and proclaims that WWE will remain the top dog.

"It's always good to have competition. The WWE is always gonna be my home, but I wish much love and success to AEW, ROH, all these guys out there," said Long. "Everybody is trying to make money and I wanna see them make money. Competition is always good and they can do whatever they want but they are not gonna beat the WWE. You can believe that playa."

You can watch the full interview in the video above.