Theodore Long
Theodore Long 
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Data | |
| Ring name |
Teddy Long Theodore Long Theodore R. Long |
| Additions to names | T-Lo The Godfather of Wrestling |
| height | 170 cm |
| Fighting weight | 78 kg |
| birth | September 15, 1947 Birmingham , Alabama , USA |
| debut | 1985 |
Theodore Robert Rufus "Teddy" Long (born September 15, 1947 in Birmingham , Alabama ) is an American wrestling actor who was under contract with the WWE . He became known mainly through his activities as a manager , referee and general manager in the wrestling shows ECW and SmackDown produced by the WWE . Long has been married to Stephanie Keller since November 8, 1982, with whom he has three children.
Career
National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling
Long began his career as an errand boy for wrestlers Tommy Rich and Abdullah the Butcher . He was then used in 1985 under the name Teddy Long as a referee at the Jim Crockett Promotions . In 1989, Long was the reserve referee at the Chi-Town Rumble in Chicago , Illinois , where Ricky Steamboat won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship .
Shortly thereafter, he became a Heel character. On April 2, 1989, he ensured that Mike Rotunda and Steve Williams won the NWA World Tag Team Championship against the Road Warriors at Clash of the Champions VI in New Orleans through a pinfall that was intentionally executed too quickly . He previously denied a pinfall for the Road Warriors. He was then dismissed as referee within the storyline and became a manager .
Long became the manager of the Doom tag team , comprised of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed. In the Jim Crockett Promotions and the WCW , he then managed Marc Mero , One Man Gang , Norman the Lunatic, Sid Vicious , Dan Spivey, The Undertaker , Buff Bagwell , 2 Cold Scorpio, Joey Maggs, Craig Pittman, Jim Powers, Bobby Walker , Ice Train and Bobby Eaton.
World Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment (from 1998)
On December 21, 1998, Long made his debut as a referee on the WWF- produced show Raw is War . In 1999 he was a referee at the match between Owen Hart and The Godfather , in which Hart had a fatal accident in a failed stunt . He was also a referee when Darren "Droz" Drozdov suffered paraplegia in a failed wrestling maneuver .
He was then reinstated as a manager, including by D'Lo Brown, Rodney Mack, Christopher Nowinski, Rosey, Mark Henry and Jazz. When he went to SmackDown! was drafted , he managed Mark Jindrak .
General Manager of SmackDown (2004-2008)
In July 2004, Long replaced the sacked Kurt Angle as general manager. He was the first African American General Manager at SmackDown. Immediately afterward, he became the Face by imposing a $ 1,000 fine on Angle for not having his wrestling gear with him. In 2008 he moved to ECW , where a new New Talent Initiative was launched with him , in which wrestlers like Jack Swagger , Sheamus , Kofi Kingston , Evan Bourne , Tylker Reks , Trent Baretta, Caylen Croft, DJ Gabriel, Ricky Ortiz, Gavin Spears, Braden Walker and ECW referee Aaron Davis made their debut.
As part of the SmackDown vs. Raw -Fehde defeated Long the raw -General Manager Eric Bischoff at Survivor Series in 2005 with the help of The Boogeyman.
After Randy Orton cheated on Rey Mysterio for his title fight for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22 , Long Mysterio placed back into the match and turned it into a triple threat match .
At Judgment Day 2006, Long fired Melina and John Morrison . In the subsequent SmackDown! Edition, he fired JBL after losing the United States Championship to Bobby Lashley and the World Heavyweight Championship match to Rey Mysterio.
In April 2007, Kristal Marshall became Long's kayfabe friend. On May 25, 2007, Vickie hired Guerrero as an assistant so he could spend more time with Marshall. On the June 22, 2007 episode of SmackDown, Long asked Marshall if she would like to marry him. Marshall ran out of the ring, crying, but later put the question into practice. The wedding was scheduled for September 21, 2007 at SmackDown in Long's hometown of Atlanta , Georgia . The wedding could not be ended due to constant interruptions. Long had a heart attack the moment he was about to say "Yes, I do" within the storyline and then fell into a coma . The storyline never ended as planned, as Marshall left the WWE shortly thereafter. On November 30, 2007, he returned to SmackDown as Assistant General Manager. Shortly thereafter, he began a feud against Vickie Guerrero for the post of general manager. On May 16, 2008, he ended his role as assistant to the general manager.
General Manager of ECW and return to SmackDown (2008–2012)
On June 2, 2008 it was announced that Long is the new General Manager of ECW with immediate effect .
On April 7, 2009, he announced that he would return to SmackDown as General Manager and that Tiffany would replace him at ECW.
At Breaking Point Long started the World Heavyweight Championship match between CM Punk and The Undertaker again after Undertaker his forbidden Hell's Gate - Submission has used. On the September 18, 2009 SmackDown episode, he was kidnapped by Undertaker after Long got into his limo that Undertaker was waiting in. In the following episode of SmackDown, Long was brought into the arena in a coffin . Long then legalized Hell's Gate again . He then started a feud with Drew McIntyre . On May 7, 2010, he took the Intercontinental Championship from McIntyre after brutally attacking Matt Hardy , and then fired him.
On May 28th, Long received a letter from Mr. McMahon brought by McIntyre. It said Matt Hardy is suspended until further notice after attacking McIntyre at Over the Limit. If Hardy got closer to him anyway, Long would be fired from SmackDown's general manager.
On the June 11th episode of SmackDown, a frustrated McIntyre announced that there would be a match between him and Long next week. If Long does not start, he will be fired. McIntyre won the match after ordering Long to lie down and willingly lose, which Long did. The following week, Long hired Matt Hardy again to take on McIntyre. After Hardy won the match, Long came into the hall and stated that McIntyre's work visa had expired. McIntyre was then taken out of the arena by security guards. On July 9, McIntyre was reinstated and asked Long for forgiveness. He didn't make his apology for him, however, and instead put him in a Money in the Bank qualifying match against Kofi Kingston .
Long passed out on January 21 with a head injury in his SmackDown office. He returned on February 18 and revealed that Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler were behind the attack. Long fired Ziggler after his loss to Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship. He also fired Vickie Guerrero the following week after she lost a mixed tag team match .
On July 25, Triple H named Zack Ryder , the new Chief Operating Officer , Long's new assistant as General Manager at SmackDown.
On November 25, 2011, Long reversed the title change of the World Heavyweight Championships after Daniel Bryan successfully redeemed his Money in the Bank lettercase against Mark Henry , who has not yet received medical permission to participate in an official match.
According to the pay-per-view TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs , Santino Marella replaced Zack Ryder as assistant after he won his first United States Championship .
Feud with John Laurinaitis and Senior Advisor at SmackDown (2012-2013)
On February 21, 2012, Raw Interim General Manager John Laurinaitis criticized Long, so the two swapped shows for a week. Long took care of the May 5th episode of Raw and Laurinaitis took over the May 9th edition of SmackDown. Laurinaitis scheduled a match between him and Long. If Long lost, his girlfriend Aksana would have to play against Kane in a match . Long won the match after Randy Orton attacked Kane, thereby distracting Laurinaitis.
At WrestleMania XXVIII , there was a 12-man tag team match in which each show six wrestlers on behalf prepares its general manager. Long competed for Team SmackDown under the name Team Teddy and Laurinaitis competed for Team Raw under the name Team Johnny. Long selected Santino Marella to be the team captain. He also selected Kofi Kingston , R-Truth , Zack Ryder, The Great Khali and Booker T for Team SmackDown. One condition was that the general manager of the team that won take over both shows as general manager. Team Johnny won the match, removing Long as general manager of SmackDown.
On April 6, 2012, Long wanted to give his farewell speech, but he was interrupted by Laurinaitis because he wanted Long as his new assistant, otherwise he would set up his trust funds that he had set up for Long's grandson for his college. Long reluctantly accepted.
Laurinaitis humiliated Long for the next few weeks until Laurinatisi was finally fired at No Way Out 2012 and beaten up by John Cena in the subsequent Raw edition . On July 2nd and 3rd, Long returned to the post of Interim General Manager at SmackDown and Raw. On August 3, 2012, Long was promoted to Senior Advisor to the new SmackDown General Manager Booker T. After Long and Bookter T got along well in the beginning, Booker T was often angry with Long from March 2013 after he had scheduled matches on both Raw and SmackDown without his permission. From mid-April, he temporarily took over SmackDown on his own again after Booker T was absent for an operation . On July 19, 2012, Vickie Guerrero was named SmackDown's new general manager and Long was escorted out of the building.
On June 12, 2014, Long was fired from the WWE.
Long returned to WWE on the June 6, 2016 edition of Raw.
Theodore Long was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.
Awards
- Hall of Fame (Class of 2017)
- NWA Hall of Fame (2012)
- Manager of the Year (1990)
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Worst Worked Match of the Year (2005) against Eric Bischoff at Survivor Series 2005
Web links
- Theodore Long's WWE Profile: English | German
- Theodore Long - Cagematch.de
- Theodore Long in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Theodore Long - Broken Neck.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ WWE.com ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) Retrieved April 1, 2014
- ↑ Cagematch.de Retrieved April 1, 2014
- ↑ IMDB (English) Retrieved April 1, 2014
- ↑ Another WWE Superstar Dismissed, First Background on the Wave of Dismissals, Reactions of Affected Wrestlers , Retrieved July 7, 2014.
- ↑ De.wwe.com: WWE Hall of Fame 2017. In: de.wwe.com. Retrieved February 13, 2017 .
- ↑ Sport1.de: WWE Monday Night RAW: Surprising comeback causes confusion. In: Sport1.de. Retrieved June 7, 2016 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Long, Theodore |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Long, Teddy (nickname); Long, Theodore Robert Rufus (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American wrestling performer, manager, and referee |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 15, 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Birmingham , Alabama , USA |