Teddy Long Opens Up About Issues With Former WWE Exec Mark Carrano
WWE Hall Of Famer Teddy Long has revealed that he despised former WWE Head of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano, over issues with a legends deal.
Long spoke with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman about our recent exclusive report that he does not have a WWE Legends contract despite being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, which caught many by surprise. This is a contract that, according to Long, sees WWE, "give you a check every week, some of them are different, some of them maybe $1,000 a week, $500 a week, they're different."
WWE has not given the former "SmackDown" General Manager one of these deals and he believes that was a result of Carrano, who thought that Long was, as he put it, "the dumbest black man on the planet."
"Once you get one of those deals they still give you a check every week whether they use you or not," he said. "But the way that they got their money back is you didn't get any royalties, they held all your royalty money and stuff, that way I guess that's how they get their money back.
"Mark Carrano was the guy that was in charge of that stuff ... He always would come to me with stuff and I would just look at him, and I never did smarten him up, I never did let him know I knew exactly what he was saying to me ... If you smarten him up it won't continue to happen and I wanted it to happen so I could see exactly how this man really felt about me."
Carrano didn't always have a top job in WWE though, as Long revealed he was, "running errands for Dave and Earl Hebner," at first, which saw him buying beers. At that point, he was one of the, "nicest guys you could talk to," and Long, "got along with him then," but that relationship changed when he was promoted.
Carrano ended up being released by WWE after the Mickie James incident after he sent her remaining WWE items home in a trash bag. Long believes, "Carrano should been dumped way before that happened."
"So, Mark Carrano changed once he got that job in talent relations and took John Laurinaitis' spot, he became worse than John Laurinaitis," he said. "I don't know what happened to him, man, but he just started just screwing a lot of people around ... He was treacherous."
When it comes to Long's WWE Legends deal, he is still not under one even with Carrano gone from the company despite his many years of service in multiple roles from being the GM to a manager, and a referee. At one point, Long even asked Carrano about the situation, and his answer summed up why the former WWE official, "despised him."
"I walked up to him, I said, 'Carrano I just wanted to know, do I qualify, do I get a Legends deal?' He looks at me and he says, 'you don't have one?' He's the guy that does this, he's part of the Legends deal, he has to take this to Vince for Vince to approve it, he knows the whole deal about the Legends deal," Long said. "He thought that I was just that dumb, that I didn't know that he was the guy that was part of that, and that he was the guy that was keeping me from ever getting one."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Wrestling Inc. Daily" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.