What Happened Next - 10 Wrestlers Who Were Cut In Epic 2014 Talent Releases

9. Teddy Long

WWE Hall Of Fame 2017 Teddy Long
WWE.com

Are we really sure that Teddy Long still isn’t booking SmackDown? Every damn week that show seems to end with some sort of tag match.

This release was actually pretty surprising considering that Long had been in the company for so...long. After a lengthy career in Jim Crockett promotions/NWA, Teddy joined the WWF in 1998 as a referee. He soon became a manager once again, guiding the careers of talent like Rodney Mack and Mark Henry. After that wrapped up he became the General Manager of SmacDown, a role he somehow held onto for eight years!

It’s not that Long was necessarily bad in the role, he just wasn’t that interesting. He never had the gravitas of Eric Bischoff or Paul Heyman who brought some credibility to the gig. Still, some people got a kick out of him and he’s kind of remembered fondly. However, his release wasn’t much of a big loss as his work as a GM had certainly played itself out.

Long is good for the occasional laugh now and then when he shows up on TV but not many are...longing...for him to return on a weekly basis. Still, he did enter the WWE HOF post-2014, which you certainly can't take away from the man.

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As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com