Teddy Long Reacts To AEW's Focus On Swerve Strickland Being First Black Champion

Teddy Long has shared his thoughts on Swerve Strickland becoming the first ever Black AEW World Champion. On "The Wrestling Time Machine," Long explained that although he's thrilled to see Strickland win the title, he doesn't believe that he always needs to be referred as the "first ever Black AEW World Champion" going forward. "I just heard Mac saying 'as the first African American champion in AEW', Jesus Christ, come on. Let's just say the guys the champion, AEW champion, they know he's African American, they can look at him, he's Black." 

Host Mac Davis also provided his thoughts on Strickland defeating Samoa Joe at "AEW Dynasty", stating that Swerve winning the title reminded him of another important championship win in WCW. "I've been saying this for a while, I love Swerve. There's just something, there's money written on him and somehow someway, WWE let him get away ... I can go back to the days when Ron Simmons became the first Black champion in WCW, and watching that the other night with Swerve Strickland gave me a lot of those same feels. It felt real, it felt needed, it was right, it was the right thing to do." 

Long recently made two appearances on WWE television where he was part of both night one and two of the "WWE Draft", and had the opportunity to announce picks for both "WWE Raw" and "WWE Smackdown". 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Wrestling Time Machine" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.