Teddy Long disappointed in the way New Day are used, why WWE called off a storyline due to a real life relationship, the wrestler he managed who was difficult to get along with

Pancakes and Powerslams Podcast with Teddy Long
Host: Chris Featherstone
Interview available at Blogtalkradio.com

What one black wrestler do you see right now having the potential to becoming a star and a world champion? I think it would be Big E. I think he’s just in the wrong road. I don’t see him being with this “New Day,” this group. You look at him, he’s got a great look, and plus those guys are young guys. You can get 10 more years out of him. He’s got a great attitude. I had a chance to work with him and he’s just as nice as you can be. He’s the kind of guy that a promoter would want to work with. He doesn’t give you any problems, whatever you ask him to do, he has no problem doing it. He’s a company man, and that’s what you have to be.

On not being a big fan of The New Day: I look at them and these are the WWE Tag Team Champions, and to me, I don’t think that they are portraying them as serious champions. There’s a lot of entertainment in the game, and there’s a lot of ha-ha from them. You know, I guess maybe times have changed. Maybe that’s what it is. As long as I remember, the world title and the tag team titles were serious positions to be in [and now] there’s so much comedy to it.

Why he was chosen for the Smackdown GM role: I really don’t know why [it] happened. I’m being honest with you. One time, I remember I came out, I did a promo on Tommy Dreamer when I walked out with D’Lo Brown, and I think that was the first time Vince had the opportunity to see my skills and see I could really talk. So I remember coming back into the Gorilla Position where Vince was sitting. He calls me over and says to me, “I can’t believe I had you right under my nose all this time.” The General Manager spot was something that they never [told] me ahead of time that I was gonna be. Nobody came to say, well this is the idea, this is what we’re thinking about, this is the direction we’re gonna go in, you’re gonna be General Manager. Nobody told me nothing. All I did is I walked in one day, and I guess maybe an hour before we got ready to go on, the writers came up to me and told me I was gonna be General Manager tonight; Vince is gonna make you General Manager. I was nervous as I could be, I was real nervous, because I’m like, Jesus Christ! I’ve never been in this position before! And I already understood working with Vince, you don’t play, you got to be able to get out there to perform. So, to me, I’m looking at it as this is a big responsibility, but I can’t say no! I can’t tell Vince I don’t want to be the General Manager and he’ll give it to somebody else. When they told me, I just thought about it, and was like, hey, I’m on and running. That’s exactly how that happened. I had no idea.

How was the Kristal Marshall angle originally supposed to go? What the angle was supposed to be is that after I had the heart attack, Vickie (Guerrero) and Kristal were supposed to take over. They were supposed to start running Smackdown, and I was going to be gone for a while. We really did it again, but we did it again with Vickie and Dolph Ziggler. Vickie and Crystal were supposed to be running the show, I was gonna be gone for awhile, and they were gonna run it in the ground. Then, I was gonna make a big comeback and take over Smackdown again. But what happened I think with Kristal, she was dating Bobby Lashley at the time. So, at the time, we’re doing this spiel on Smackdown, we were together and supposed to get married and everything is supposed to be real, so you’re supposed to protect what you’re doing on TV, and she didn’t do that. She started going to Raw and waiting on Bobby and then everybody at the end, when people were leaving, they would see her with Bobby Lashley. So she disposed everything. You’re supposed to marry me and, like I said, she didn’t really protect the storyline and what we were doing on TV. So that’s where it went sour.

Who is the best and worst person you managed? Everybody was really good. Butch [Reed] and Ron [Simmons], I definitely have to throw their names out there. But when I had the team of Danny Spivey and Sid Vicious, they were great. Marc Mero was great. The worst person that I managed probably was [Marcus] Bagwell, because he was hard to get along with at the time with me, him, and Scorpio. He wasn’t totally bad, but he was just hard to get along with.

Other topics include the most racist wrestler he’s interacted with, his worst time as GM, praising Vince McMahon for giving him an opportunity, working with Vickie Guerrero, and more.