Teddy Long On Undertaker Getting Low-BaIled In WCW, Brock Lesnar's Unique Situation With WWE
WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long was recently a guest on the the Wrestling Inc. Podcast. Long spoke about his career highlights, his new reality show and much more.
During his memorable run as SmackDown general manager, Long worked with The Undertaker many times. But not many people know that their relationship goes all the way back to 1989, when Long managed The Undertaker in WCW before he even became The Undertaker. Long discussed his admiration for The Deadman and commended him for his career longevity. He said The Undertaker is loyal to WWE and even though he has his ailments he will continue wrestling until he can't anymore.
"It doesn't surprise me because he's a loyal person. He loves Vince, Vince loves him, he's been loyal to Vince ever since the day he went there. If you ever have the chance to meet The Undertaker you would understand, because he's one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He's one of the guys that would take his time; he'll come to TV and he'll take his time and walk down to the ring and get with the young talent and help them with their match. The don't ask him, and they don't have to because he'll come out and do it on his own. He was always a person that you could go to in the locker room and if you had a problem you could talk to him and he would straighten it out for you," Long said.
"'Taker is one of the nicest guys in the world, when I was managing him in WCW I had a great time with him then. The day that he left to come to Vince, me and him were in Jim Herr's office on the same day. What happened there was I think Ole Anderson was the booker and Ole Anderson told him that he was tall, he had red hair and he would never draw a dime, so Ole offered him low-ball money and 'Taker didn't take it. The next thing I know, he went to Vince and he was The Undertaker, so congratulations to him. He's a great guy. You can see him now, he's still out there hustling and bustling, and I know he's beat up and he's hurting, but he's loyal and he's gonna go until the wheels stop turning."
Long was also asked about the current situation between WWE and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar, the current Universal Champion, will make his first televised WWE appearance this Monday since last April. He looks to be on his way out of the company after making an appearance at UFC 226 and challenging heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier for the title. Long said he's not surprised by the situation because he thinks Lesnar knows he has a certain amount of leverage to do something like that.
"It really doesn't surprise me because sometimes you take a lot of guys and before they sign, they make a lot of demands on what they want and what they don't want," Long said. "I think Brock just understands maybe how valuable he is to the company, so he makes these demands and I guess he just shows up whenever he's supposed to or whenever they call him. I don't know, I don't know anybody else and I've never seen anybody else do that. But I'm just saying God bless him, if he's got it like that, then go 'head."
Long hasn't really worked with Lesnar on screen, but he said he had the opportunity to work with him early in his wrestling career. He had nothing but nice things to say about Lesnar.
"He's a nice guy, great guy," he said. "I worked with him before he even really got famous, back when he first started coming in and first started wrestling. So yeah, Brock's a very nice guy."
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.