Teddy Long has been around the wrestling business for just shy of thirty years and in that time hes been a manager, a referee and an on-screen authority figure. He was made General Manager of SmackDown in 2004 and would go on to be the longest tenured General Manager in WWE history. The problem with Theodore Long mostly was that he was a babyface authority figure, and that just doesnt create drama in the same way a heel General Manager does. He didnt carry the gravitas of a Vince McMahon or an Eric Bischoff and as such seemed somewhat neutered, even though he was given the fans what they wanted to see. Towards the end of his career as General Manager, he became somewhat of a running joke due to his predictable tag team main events made from four singles stars who got in an argument at the start of the jow. Were gonna have a tag team match, playa! became a meme that persists to this day, and even The Authority referenced it on an episode of Raw last year. Teddy Long was unfortunately released from the company last year along with ten others, as part of what became known as Black Thursday. He returned for one night as part of the SmackDown 15th Anniversary show and along with John Laurinaitis made his biggest main event yet, a fifteen man tag team match.
