10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Teddy Long
6. The Angle With D'Lo Brown And Rodney Mack Had Racial Connotations
From late-2002 onwards, Teddy Long tossed away the striped shirt and stopped being a WWE referee. Before he was installed as General Manager of SmackDown, he returned to his role as a manager in the company. At first, he was aligned with D'Lo Brown, before later joining forces with the likes of Rodney Mack, Jazz, and Mark Henry.
At one point, Long even managed Christoper Nowinski for a brief period, but it was commonly African-American wrestlers WWE put him with. With D'Lo, Teddy began referring to their alliance as 'Thuggin' An' Buggin' Enterprises', the most notable connotation being that they were being held down in the company.
Naturally, this was an attempt to place racism at the forefront of people's minds. Race is a hard sell in pro wrestling, certainly in the modern era, but that didn't stop WWE from trying. Making the main purpose of the characters clear, Teddy regularly encouraged fans to get 'Down With The Brown' when managing D'Lo.
Looking to get away from the racial overtones, WWE drafted Long to SmackDown and had him manage Mark Jindrak for a short spell.