Having begun his career in the Atlanta area, Teddy Long has been part of some historical moments in local wrestling history dating back to his time with the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling in the ’80s. These days he’s usually keeping things in line on WWE SmackDown, but this weekend he will be part of WrestleMania Axxess, taking photos, signing autographs and meeting fans leading up to Sunday’s WrestleMania. Before that all gets underway tonight, he discusses his history in Atlanta.
When it comes to wrestling history in the Atlanta area, you probably have more history here than anyone else in WWE. How did you get your start in the business?
Well, I started out putting up the ring and taking the ring down. That was the first job I had. Along with that, I was also there to take the wrestlers’ attire and jackets from them as they got in the ring. When I first started, I wasn’t making any money. I did all that for free. The way I got the referee job was one night we had a show at the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta and the referee didn’t show up. The promoter asked me could I referee that night. I told her, “I don’t know.” We had no referee, so she sent out to the Varsity and got me a referee shirt and that’s how I started. The first match that I had was Ron Bass and Black Bart and it was a Texas Death match.
After that, I kept refereeing and when I got back to TBS, Dusty Rhodes was the booker and he hired me, giving me my first job refereeing. But I was still putting up the ring and taking it down.
How did you make the transition from being a referee to being a manager?
I started riding with Kevin Sullivan and “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert, God rest his soul. Growing up I was a disc jockey on a radio station in Birmingham, Ala. called WENN, then I worked at a radio station in Jackson, Miss. called WOKJ. When I started riding with those guys, we’d go down the road, get a six-pack of beer and when we started drinking beer I told them I used to be a disc jockey. They told me to start DJing, so I would turn the radio down in the car and start doing my thing like I was on the radio. Eddie Gilbert and Kevin Sullivan thought it was fantastic, so they needed a manager that could talk and Sullivan went to Jim Ross, who was involved in the booking, and told them I could talk. So they gave me that job and I started managing wrestlers.
The first team I remember you managing was Doom. Who did you manage before that?
I had some guys before I managed Doom. I had Norman the Lunatic, he was the first guy I started managing. I managed Johnny B. Badd, which is Marc Mero. In fact, I gave him the name Johnny B. Badd. Then I started managing Doom. Kevin Sullivan’s ex-wife Nancy, who was also Chris Benoit’s wife, God rest her soul, she was managing them at the time and they had the masks on. When they gave them to me, we took the masks off and that’s how I started managing Butch Reed and Ron Simmons.
When SmackDown was in town last June, Drew McIntyre was still giving you a hard time…
And before that, we did the thing where I was getting married to Kristal Marshall in Atlanta.
That’s right! I was there.
That was when I had the heart attack and Vickie Guerrero took over and I came back from that.
Then we did a show in Raleigh, N.C., which was when the Drew McIntyre story started when I laid down in the ring and he stepped on me and everything. When we did the show in Atlanta [last June], I was able to get my revenge back on McIntyre.
Right. During that segment in Atlanta, he sort of hinted at the possibility of you being inducted into the Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Do you think you’ll ever make it to the Hall of Fame?
I haven’t heard anything, so I don’t know. I don’t want to say I don’t think it’s going to happen because I don’t know.
WrestleMania Axxess. 6 p.m.-10 p.m. March 31-April 2, 8 a.m.-noon April 2-3, 1 p.m.-5 p.m. April 2, 12:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. April 3. $35-$96, free 3 and younger. Georgia World Congress Center, Building C, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. N.W., Atlanta. 404-223-4000, www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/wrestlemaniaaxxess/, www.gwcc.com.
