10 Things You Didn't Know About Teddy Long
4. Vince McMahon Didn't Know He Could Talk
Despite a storied career as a manager for WCW before ever entering WWE rings as a referee, Long was a perfect example of Vince McMahon's irregular naivety to rival products around him.
Making the switch from referee to low-level manager, Teddy was supposedly never earmarked for anything greater, but his immediate magnetism and experience on the microphone opened eyes with management almost immediately.
As Long has admitted in several interviews, it was on the strength of his first heel manager task after nearly five years with the company, accompanying D'Lo Brown that inadvertently opened the door to the role that would define his entire WWE tenure.
Following a powerful verbal takedown of Tommy Dreamer on Raw, Long was greeted backstage by an incredulous McMahon, who stated that he couldn't believe Long had been such an untapped resource the entire time.
He spent less than a year on Raw as a manager after that, before replacing Kurt Angle as the Smackdown General Manager following a largely forgotten stint on the blue brand managing Mark Jindrak.