Teddy Long Calls Brodie Lee's Passing "A Tragic Loss For The Industry"

WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Face2Face Wrestling's Richard Borger recently sat down with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast where Long discussed his future projects coming up. He talked about his work with a local promotion down in Texas as well as his media projects including his own podcast.

"Well, the only thing I'm not doing is I'm just not making that many appearances as I was doing because I was just involved basically with Face2Face," Long said. "I'm still involved with Face2Face. If Face2Face needs me for anything, I'm there for them. I have a lot of other things going on right now. I'm the general manager for SWE that's out in Texas. We're on Fite TV, Title Match, a bunch of CW stations, and we're doing real good there.

"And so these guys have made me a great deal there so that basically keeps me busy. Also, I'm launching my new own podcast. It's called 'Hold On A Minute Playa', and it's going to start dropping in January. The guy that's behind all that is old school legend rapper Lil Flip. He's behind the podcast, and I also had the opportunity to step into the rap world.

"I just finished doing a mixtape with a Lil Flip. I'm on the mixtape. It's called 'The Undisputed Flip Mayweather, The Black Badge.' So I'm just doing a lot of other things, but my heart is still with Face2Face. Rich and I have always been friends since day one, and so anytime he needs me, I'm available. I'm there for him."

Borger discussed the wrestlers that have come in to help out his students at Face2Face. He talked about the invaluable experience that guys like Xavier Woods and Jonathan Gresham bring to the students.

"We've been really fortunate that we have a lot of friends, and Teddy being the catalyst for a lot of this. Heath [Miller], who isn't with the school anymore, was a catalyst for bringing a lot of people in and helping out," Borger stated. "We were fortunate enough that Jey Uso would come in every once in a while and spend a little bit of time with our guys. It's invaluable, one of the top tag team guys ever and now singles run, what a run.

"Jonathan Gresham has come in and given some advice to the students, and hopefully, we'll get a chance to work with him in the future, at least get him to stop by and put some knowledge, and that guy is amazing in the ring. And we had Xavier Woods I believe stop by one time, watch the students, critique them, gave them some advice. It's really great, and we're fortunate enough that when Xavier was there, I actually shot a video I haven't put out yet where he went ahead and plugged our head trainer.

"He's like, 'This is the guy that taught me how to do less with more, basically get in the ring and be a character and how to get out there and do a 10-minute match with eight minutes and nothing.' It's one of those amazing things, and you just can't give those times up. I would much rather have the students have people like that come in and drop some knowledge on them periodically than anything else. It's invaluable time."

The news of Brodie Lee's passing has affected everyone in the wrestling industry. Long and Borger have their thoughts on his passing noting that Lee was always nice to them in their small interactions with him.

"I got a chance to meet him right before I left WWE but never had a good relationship where we always sit down and talk, but the time that I did have to spend with him, he was such a super nice guy. What a nice guy," Long expressed. "The thing is, it ain't just about Brodie Lee. It's about any Superstar, anybody that loses their life. We go back to Shad Gaspard. He was another guy that it unfortunate to lose his life.

"Anybody that has been a part of professional wrestling, any part of our sport that loses his life like that, it's a real tragic accident and my prayers and my family, everybody, we're praying for his family. Unfortunate something like this has to happen, but this is in God's hands. So there's nothing we can do about it. All we can say is, just continue to pray for his family and hope that God continues to bless them.

"I only met him in passing once backstage at WWE, really nice guy, really friendly, said hi to everybody, which is more than you would expect from some of the guys when they have such a little time," Borger added. "Just a great guy and everything I hear from everybody in the industry is he was just amazing, and it's really a tragic loss for the industry."

Borger also talked about AEW star Jade Cargill's reaction to Lee's passing as well as the recent tributes that have been done by WWE and AEW. AEW held a tribute show for Lee while WWE Superstars were expressed their own tributes for Lee, and Borger noted that Vince McMahon would not have allowed that to happen if he did not see Lee in a positive light.

"Jade was down Monday," Borger stated. "She knew him just a little bit. She had been down with AEW a little earlier than before he had gone, but she had met him a couple times, and she was like, 'He was such a nice guy.' Well, the good thing is they'll put a little bit of time into it. A lot of people are going to look at it like it's not a WWE package, but it doesn't have to be, just has to be something that's a tribute to him because everybody's so used to the packages that WWE puts out there for people. How often do you see Vince go out and say anything about anybody. He obviously liked the guy because he wouldn't have said anything about him if he didn't."

You can find out more about Borger's Face 2 Face Wrestling Academy at Face2FaceWrestling.com. Borger and Long's full interview aired as part of yesterday's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.