Teddy Long Recalls Finding Out WWE Would No Longer Make His Action Figure
WWE Hall Of Famer Teddy Long would have liked more action figures of himself, but John Laurinaitis had other ideas.
In a recent conversation with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman, Long claimed he only had two action figures throughout his career — one saw him in a pack with Rey Mysterio, while the other placed him with Batista and The Undertaker. But thanks to a drunken conversation with someone from Jakks Pacific, the company that made the toys, Long found out that they had been told to stop including him.
"One night at one of the WrestleMania parties, the guy from Jakks Pacific, he comes up to me," Long said. "He'd been drinking a while and he said, 'Well, won't be seeing no more action figures of you, Teddy Long, we've been told not to make any more action figures.' I guess the alcohol told him to tell me that."
Long didn't argue with the guy from Jakks Pacific, but he did look for further answers, which led to a conversation with John Laurinaitis — who was a high-ranking talent relations executive from 2001 to 2012 — that, Long recalled, "stung" him.
"I went to Laurinaitis and I ask him about the action figure, you know, could I get one?" Long said. "He said, 'Well we talked to the consumers, and the consumers said that they would not buy your doll.' He told me that to my face."
"I had to hold my tongue and hold my peace a whole lot," Long continued. The only person he felt he could talk to was the Undertaker, who "was the kind of a guy that you could go to if you had problems with some people."
"If you were in the right, 'Taker would speak up for you, or help you out, or take care of it," Long said. "I told 'Taker what he just told me, and 'Taker looked at me and he said, 'Did he say that to you?' And I said, 'Yeah,' and he just shook his head. And I just walked away."
Long and Laurinaitis famously feuded on camera in 2012 — Long even defeated Laurinaitis in a singles match, though Laurinaitis won control of "WWE SmackDown" at Wrestlemania XXVIII. Behind the scenes, Long also "despised" Head of Talent Relations Mark Carrano due to the fact that Long was never offered a legends deal despite the fact he is in WWE's Hall Of Fame, which we exclusively reported. Laurinaitis replaced Carrano as Head of Talent Relations in 2021, and Carrano himself was fired shortly thereafter following an incident that saw former WWE Women's Champion Mickie James receive her belongings in a black garbage back after being released from the company.
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