.jpg)
Road Trip After Hours w/ WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Host Mac Davis
The Fastest 30 Minute Wrestling Show with WWE Hall of Famer TEDDY LONG and MAC DAVIS! It's FAST, It's FUN and it's FREE!
Road Trip After Hours w/ WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Host Mac Davis
Teddy Long Visits The Undertaker!
Listen as Teddy shares his unfiltered thoughts on being excluded from the Hall of Fame by John Laurinaitis and his upcoming chat with The Undertaker in Austin, Texas. We also dive into some wrestling industry gossip, speculating on the futures of Michael P.S. Hayes and Bruce Prichard after their recent leaves from WWE. If you've ever wondered whether a wrestler's physique defines their success, we challenge the norm by talking about iconic figures like Dusty Rhodes and Kevin Owens who broke the mold.
Join us as we share behind-the-scenes stories from the wrestling trenches, including the highs, the lows, and the downright hilarious moments. From an on-stage blunder that still haunts me to the time I forgot a key promo on live TV, these tales highlight the camaraderie and chaos that make wrestling unique. We answer your burning questions, like who we'd choose to be stranded on a desert island with (hint: it's not just about survival skills). With playful banter and unforgettable backstage antics, this episode promises to entertain both wrestling fans and those curious about the world behind the curtain.
Hello, hello again, everybody, and welcome to the Roseland what?
Speaker 2:Wow, there you go. Wow, you can open up the show. Welcome to the what.
Speaker 1:I have not done that in a while, man, and I knew sooner or later it was going to come back and bite me in the ass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what you get for sending me that turtle trying to make me think I'm slow. So now that's what you get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, okay, See, I wasn't going to bring that up and now that he's giving me hell for opening the show incorrectly. We are starting 30-something minutes late because Mr Slowpoke over here had to take his time getting to the camera. He had to make himself all pretty before he got here.
Speaker 2:Well, that ain't the case. You still be waiting. Yeah, I was about to say the same Thanks.
Speaker 1:This is Wrestling's Road Trip After Hours. I'm your host, mac Davis, and that is WWE Hall of Famer, teddy Long. Teddy man, to start off the show, I want to talk real fast. You're going to be leaving pretty soon. You head on the airplane to go see somebody in Texas, right?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I'm flying up to Austin, texas, to sit down with my good friend and mentor, mark Callis. The Undertaker so he called me, invited me, said man, you know you got to be here and do my podcast, so I'm real honored to be able to do that, and Taker and I will certainly have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:You know I'm going to put you on the spot here, Teddy, and I'll edit this if you don't want me to say it. But are you going to bring up the fact on his show that you weren't invited to the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I'll just have to talk to him and see how he feels about that. You know what I mean. If he wants to discuss it, then we'll talk about it have y'all ever discussed that privately? Well.
Speaker 1:I don't know. No, yeah, yeah, like I say, we don't have to worry about too much of this. I don't know, no, yeah, yeah, like I say, we don't have to worry about too much of this. I don't want to carry it into an area you're not comfortable with, but that is just something I kind of wonder, because I'm sure, personally, you've always wondered, because, let's face it, it probably wasn't up to him. He probably wasn't the one that made that call. That was probably somebody else at the time who just decided you didn't need to be there.
Speaker 2:Well, we don't have to beat around the bush. It was John Law Knight. That was his call. Okay for me not to be there. I already know why I wasn't there. You know what I mean. He's done so much to me in the past, so anytime anything happens to me, I know it comes directly from him and basically he had so much power there. They had Mark Arana who was in charge and supposed to have been the head of Talib Relations. All Mark Arana was was a stooge. All he did was just what Johnny and what everybody else told him to do. So, yeah, I already know why I wasn't there. So, like I said, that doesn't bother me. God will take care of me, and God will take care of him.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't think about this until we were just talking about John Laurinaitis, but with the news that Vince has got a new company out there, do you think there's any chance that John Laurinaitis would end up working with Vince again?
Speaker 2:Why would you ask something like that? That's just something that just kind of popped in my head. Well, that that needs to pop out of your head? I don't think yeah, yeah, you know, that was one comment that was made by vince during when the first this stuff come out, and that comment was that there was, he was afraid of lauren eyes because they knew he would talk. He talked too much.
Speaker 1:You remember reading that oh yeah oh, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. What are the chances he could end up in the same company?
Speaker 2:I don't see that coming. You don't screw Vince but one time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I certainly hope not. I just can't imagine that being good for anybody.
Speaker 2:Well, that ain't going to be good for business. Why would you team up with the guy that's? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:yeah, uh, wwe also teddy, has announced that michael ps hayes and bruce pritchard right now are on leave from the company. Uh, word being that pritchard is going for some kind of a family reason and michael hayes uh, we're not sure about that one, but there have been some speculation, uh reports online today, meaning rumors uh, that it could be a health issue where it comes to michael hayes. Hopefully both of them are fine and the families are fine. I just look at it as man. That's two creative heads in WWE. They're suddenly not behind the scenes right now.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, sometimes you know these companies, they have a kind of a different way of sparring you. So you know like I said you have to? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I hope that these guys are just maybe on leave because they were real good. Michael Hayes certainly did a great job there behind the scenes, especially Bruce Pritchard. Bruce, I had the chance to work with him through my career. Bruce was, you know, very good. So it's two good heads there that they're going to let go. But I mean, if that's the case, or hopefully they come back, we don't know, but you know it is what it is, yeah hopefully it's just a health and family issue, like they say, and that's all it is. But we don't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't, because I mean's we've been expecting some changes to take place around there since, uh, the company took over, really, uh, so maybe we're getting to the point where we'll start seeing some of that. But those are two creative guys that could be gone from wwe at least for a short period of time, uh, and it kind of makes you wonder who's behind them that can pick up the ball and be as creative and still remember the days of the attitude era.
Speaker 2:I don't think't think there's nobody that can step up to Bruce and Michael. I just don't think there is.
Speaker 1:I don't think you'll ever get another Michael PS Hayes in the back.
Speaker 2:They certainly know this business and they certainly know the creative part, and I just don't think so. But I mean, if they did, if those guys were, let go, just think what a good spot that would be, what good they could really do for AEW.
Speaker 1:Well, now you're seeing them there again. If you think it out in the long term, yeah, especially fantasy booking. If Tony Khan would be smart and they did become available, I would snatch them up in a heartbeat. I would let half my damn roster go and hire them Right because he's got people there now that are just.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, In my opinion. You know they're just. I don't see them doing anything. They're just staying old school, Old school, and they're just going to continue to stay that way. Nothing's going to change. So to bring those two guys in would be great and get rid of that old school stuff, Because now times have changed and you're going to have to change with the times if you're going to make money.
Speaker 1:You know, talking about great performers, chad Gable and Dragon Lee. You and I talked about this briefly on another show that we were doing, but that was one hell of a match, teddy. That was probably some of the best. I don't know if you remember this, but in WCW, when Nit nitro started, one of the things that made them so popular with fans were the kind of the mid-card uh players. You know, the luchadors would come out, the smaller guys and put on incredible matches. I got that feeling when I watched chad gable and dragon lee man. It took me back to a time like, man, this, this is incredible stuff. What did you think when you saw this match? Because I know you don't watch all wrestling, but I do know you seem to be impressed.
Speaker 2:Well, we talked about it. I just watched it from beginning to end. Sometimes, when I'm watching, if there's one that catches me and holds me, then I watch that. And those two guys caught me and they held me because I wanted to watch them. They had a tremendous match. They were, you know, just like uh uh, uh, uh uh, bron Breaker and uh what's brain fart there, Teddy? Bron Breaker. And um golly, what's the Samoan kid name?
Speaker 1:uh well, there's a lot of Samoans on the show. Uh, he won the title from him uh, I don't, don't put me on the spot, you're the one who doesn't remember. Let's see, there there's, uh, there's Tamu Timu or the, the Tonga guys. Then there's uh, jey Uso, jey Uso, jey Uso, okay.
Speaker 2:I watched Jey, uso, bron Breaker. They really caught me and I watched them both times when Uso won the title and I also saw the match when Bron won the title, yep. So yeah, they were really good guys. I watched the girls also. They came out, had a pretty decent promo, and then you know Adam Pierce. I love him to death, brother no be nice.
Speaker 1:I mean, don't be nice, Teddy. The promo wasn't that great at all. It was a horrible segment.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, in a way, but, like I said, you have to be able to cover that. You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean.
Speaker 2:And that would have been left on Adam Pearce, the GM, anytime that's bad out there. Then I knew I had to fix it. Ok, so I would have come out with a different attitude and, you know, different, some sort of made. The people get right on me and see exactly what I'm going to do here. But Adam was doing his best, you know, but he just I thought he was just talking just a little bit too fast, he was just running, you know, slow down, let the people believe you. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:One thing that I noticed, because I did compare it to how you used to come out on SmackDown and you would come down with the swagger. You didn't run down to the ring, you came down with the swagger when you got in the ring you took your time, took the mic and handled business. His presentation was far below what I'm used to seeing come from you. I guess maybe I'm spoiled in that way that I've seen it handled much better. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it makes a lot of sense. But you know, like you say, Adam is Adam, he does a good job. You know, like you say, Adam is Adam, he does a good job. I have you know, I've already said that to him and I spoke that to him in person. You know everybody in that position, in that GM position can get caught up. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Because basically you know you're running things.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, and if you ain't careful, then you get caught up with the talent. So you have to pay attention to what they say. You already know it's written and maybe you went over with them before they even got out there. Who knows? Sometimes that happens, sometimes it don't, but you have to watch them, and when they let drop the ball, then that tells me one thing I got my job to do. Now I got to get this back right. So once I walk out there, all my intentions are let me straighten out what has been messed up out here. Not so much as messed up, but it was kind of dry. So let me bring it, let me put some life back in it. You know what I mean and let the people believe what I'm going to tell them that this is what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Teddy, one of the things that I see that drives me crazy is the microphone is handed to people who don't belong to be holding a microphone and the time in the ring, like you mentioned in that segment there, if they had cut some mic time out in there and made it a little tighter, that might've come off a lot better, would it not have?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'm sure it would have. But you got to understand now. You know what I mean. It's a different era and a lot of people get the microphone. Now you know, like you said, shouldn't have the microphone, but you, you got to try things, you got to see if you are giving the mic, let's see can he talk?
Speaker 2:But anyway you should rehearse that too. You know, give him the mic when doing rehearsal and see how he recites that promo or how he does that. You know what I mean. I think the business is just moving so fast now to. I don't think they really have time to check and see if a guy can do this or that. They just throw you out there and it's on you Either you get it or you don't.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you one more thing before we get into Ask Teddy, looking the part in wrestling. That has come up a couple times in the last few weeks from different posts that have been hot online about people not looking like a wrestler. I want to get your thoughts on the physical aspect of a wrestler. I want to get your thoughts on, you know, the physical aspect of a wrestler. Do they need to look the part or does it matter at all? Because for me, if a physical appearance, if you're playing a role in wrestling, let's say you're supposed to be this character, that is big and bad, well, you better be big and bad, you can't.
Speaker 1:I don't know, teddy, I don't really know how to express what I'm trying to say, other than that I see people on tv that are supposed to be a threat, but when you view them on tv against the person in the ring, they look so scrawny and out of shape they'd never go to a gym. And there are certain ones are certain ones. I'll tell you one right now. Adam Cole in AEW is a scrawny looking guy in the ring. I know he's a fantastic wrestler and he used to have a great body, but he hasn't seen the gym, probably in two or three years. He doesn't look the part. Is that an issue in wrestling?
Speaker 2:Well, I would think so. So I mean, if I was a professional wrestler and I was on, you know they were pushing me and you know and doing pushing me on tv, then I would certainly want to look the part. Okay, I would certainly. And then you got to realize this it ain't so much as getting in the gym because you're a wrestler, you need to get in the gym period to take care of your health it's all about you, because you don't never know.
Speaker 2:I tell people all the time you don't know what's going on in the inside. All you can take care of the outside. So I think you know if somebody don't want to go to gym, that's on them, that I leave that up to them. I don't bother them. I know what I'm gonna do, but certainly I would look the part and I can. I'll tell you a little story here too.
Speaker 2:You know and this is kind of what I heard that best, he didn't care too much for kristen and that was the reason why he didn't care for kristen. Because kristen never dressed up. He had the world title. You never saw him in a suit or nothing. You know, he just looked like this, just bond. You know what I mean. So, but kristen was just dressed and being comfortable, but yeah that. But vince didn't like that and I like I, vince, I'm sure he could have told him. But some things you don't tell people. Once you get the title man, you're the world champion, you're the franchise of the company. Then you got to look like somebody. You know what I mean. You know, make it business.
Speaker 1:And I know there'll be people, teddy, that will say, well, but there was Dusty Rhodes and people like that, yes, and was Dusty Rhodes and people like that? Yes. And I don't want to say that everybody's got to be this muscled up hero looking guy. There are places where people like a Dusty Rhodes body Kevin Owens body belongs in WWE. You just don't want everybody looking like that, because then you don't look like the profession you say you're portraying on TV.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't about that back in the day anyway. You know what I mean. You know you didn't have to be all jacked up and all that. You know it was good for business. You know what I mean. But you know it just wasn't like that. And like I mean, and what Dusty did, dusty was smart. Dusty portrayed himself as the common man and that's exactly how he looked. That's right, common man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and look, I always go back to to a Harley race. Harley race was not a really muscle guy either. He was an average looking guy. In fact, I always thought maybe his real profession outside of wrestling was a truck driver. You know, because he just reminded me of this rough, tough guy that wouldn't come in any place. He wanted to and beat somebody's ass. It was believable. But you didn't need the entire thing because back then, like you say, it was different. It was more about good guy, bad guy Doesn't matter what you look like. Somebody's getting their ass handed to them next Saturday night. You know what I'm saying. Right, all right, are you ready to go into listener mail? No, okay, well, we won't do it.
Speaker 2:What do you want to do?
Speaker 1:Well, don't really make me tell you what I want to do. You've been doing that for the last week. I think you need to take a break. All right, here we go. Teddy, this is William in Arizona who wants to know if Vince McMahon were to approach you to work for him and his new company, what would you say? When do you need me? That much faith in him and respect for him for over the years and how he treated you, I can understand that.
Speaker 2:I became a brand and I became what I am today because of Vince McMahon.
Speaker 1:Yes, All right. Dexter in Cincinnati asks what was your best day in wrestling and what was your worst day in wrestling?
Speaker 2:All right, I think my best day in wrestling was the night I walked out and Vince made me GM of SmackDown. That was my best day. And one of my worst days in wrestling is I walked out one night and I forgot my promo on live TV.
Speaker 2:And I know I got crossed up. I went to say the word Vince had wrote this episodic, that was the word and that's what he wanted. If you didn't say nothing else in that promo episodic, that was the word and that's what he wanted. If you didn't say nothing else in that promo episodic, that was the word he wrote about the episode. Okay, this episode and I swear, episodic got caught up in my tongue. I called it everything but what it was. That was my worst day because I had to go back and I'm thinking now oh my God, this is going to really ruin me here now.
Speaker 2:So, when I did go back through the curtain, he started laughing at me.
Speaker 1:Okay Cause he knew, and if you go, back to that.
Speaker 2:They have that on YouTube and stuff. You can see my expressions when I screwed that up.
Speaker 1:You could see I'm like God, I'm sitting there when you did that, cause I remember when that happened and and I remember watching and going. Oh, I feel so bad for him Because you know how it is in our business, even in radio, there are times where you can't say something, for whatever reason. It just doesn't come out and then it gets harder and harder every time you try to fix it. So I felt real bad for him. I kept thinking he's gonna get his ass in the back. So I'm glad to hear he was just laughing, oh yeah well, he knew, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:He knew I wasn't the guy that threw up, you know, and so he knew it's something happened like that that got me I wouldn't put it.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't put it past him to throw in a line just to see if he can screw you up when you went out there.
Speaker 2:He would do that too, you remember.
Speaker 1:I told you.
Speaker 2:One time I had remembered all my. They wrote something for me. I remembered all of it. I got ready to walk out. He calls me and he tells me I don't want you to say that, I want you to say this. So now I got to remember, start remembering what he's telling me and forget everything else that I had to. It took me 30 minutes trying to get all this in my head, so he did that to me, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh God, ariel from Facebook wants to know if you could have married anyone from over your years in wrestling, who would it have been?
Speaker 2:Are they talking about like a female wrestler?
Speaker 1:Well, just like a fantasy person you worked with over the years in wrestling, I would imagine a wrestler or somebody that publicly people would know, just fantasy kind of saying stuff, I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know, because I never really thought about any of the divas or marrying any of them. I never wanted to go that far, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that's true. She did say married. I just saw that too. Yeah, that'd be kind of difficult. But, let's change that question. Let's change the question.
Speaker 2:I'll be straight up with you, it had to be two. It would either be Nia Jack or either it would be Tamia Snuka.
Speaker 1:There you go. There's the answer. I knew we'd get it out sooner or later because I was about to change it up to get that answer Well, those two girls are certainly.
Speaker 2:they are great.
Speaker 1:They're just sweethearts man and I got a nice picture of me and Tamir Snooker.
Speaker 2:I might send that to you.
Speaker 1:You should send it to me. I can use it in the edit and everybody can see it. I send it to you, all right, let's see. Norm in texas writes you're stranded on a desert island and you and you get to have three others stranded there with you. Who are the three you choose?
Speaker 2:ron simmons would be one, jbl would be number two and godfather would be number three.
Speaker 1:All right now. See, I have a problem already with that. Godfather. I can understand. I can understand every single the ones you just mentioned. The only problem is you're stranded on a desert island with three other guys, so it's only four men living on an island and there's not a booty anywhere to be seen. You want? You want to change one of those members out with somebody else?
Speaker 2:No, I ain't looking for no booties. I know I'm stranded.
Speaker 1:So you don't care anymore, huh. Right, we're out of service now.
Speaker 2:Sorry, yeah, I don't need no booty right now. I need a way out and I guarantee you, out of those three guys, they will figure a way out.
Speaker 1:But you know, if one of them gets a little randy, we'll say you better run, Teddy, because you're the smallest of the bunch. Well, I guess I would have to. All right, See, I've got to quit that.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'll tell you something funny. I did see John and Bradford. Well, john, really Ron, was behind him, but they were chasing Howard Finkel, god rest his soul. They told Howard that they were going to fuck him.
Speaker 1:Oh God, I can see it. I imagine he was terrified too.
Speaker 2:He called his wife Howard, did he called Vince up, he called Linda. Everybody, everybody. Oh, they were, and they were serious with him too.
Speaker 1:They had to do it for them. Yeah, and especially at that time, jbl was known to be kind of rough anyhow in the back and he would pick on people. So you didn't know what would happen with JBL.
Speaker 2:They went at Howard that day. We was in Ohio. I'll never forget it. Let's see, we was in Ohio. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1:Let's see we got one more question here. We still got time. Alan from X writes referee manager or general manager. Which did you enjoy the most? I?
Speaker 2:enjoyed them all, every last one of them. If I had never been refereeing, I would have never been able to become general manager. And the one that I really did enjoy was putting up the ring, taking the ring down. I had fun doing that.
Speaker 1:When you were refereeing? Was there a match that comes to mind all the time with you when you go, man, I can remember back when I refereed this match. Is there one of those matches that just pops in your head?
Speaker 2:Well, one I truly remember is what I thought to me was a real big break for me was at the Chi-Town Heat where I was involved with the match with Claire and Steamboat. To be involved in that I thought it was really an honor for me and like a lot of matches that I did referee. When I first started in WWF, I was there. I mean, I had one with X-Pac and Mick Foley. That was really oh yeah man, I worked with some good guys there.
Speaker 1:You worked with in the early days, tommy Young probably correct.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Who were some of the referees that were when you were around working as a ref? Who were the other?
Speaker 2:ones. Well, tommy Young was around. Pee Wee Anderson. God rest his soul. Jackie Fargo.
Speaker 1:Did any of them help you in your style of refereeing or did you just do that on your own, just by watching and picking it up?
Speaker 2:I was on the job training Tommy Young every once in a while would give me a little bit of advice. You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean, if the stuff falls out, just tuck it back in. Huh, I will say, there's a video online where some I can't remember who the wrestlers were and their junk fell out of their shorts and Tommy had to reach up there and put it back into the shorts. Oh well, I'm sure he enjoyed that. Yeah, I can't remember who that was, but it was online somewhere.
Speaker 2:It was like I said, pee Wee Anderson was there, but the guy that really I learned a lot from was Nick Patrick. I had a chance to work with Nick for a long, long time and in fact me and Nick we wrote together and stuff. So I learned a lot from Nick Patrick.
Speaker 1:Look and congratulations to Nick too, his independent wrestling group that he works with.
Speaker 2:God Teddy, help me remember what the name of that group is now it's Deep South.
Speaker 1:all I know, yeah, deep South wrestling Uh, and they are just having some great shows. If you're up in the Atlanta area, make sure you check that out. Even in Knoxville, I believe, up in Tennessee, they've been doing some shows, uh, and their shows are getting uh, really, really good. Just recently, uh, the uh, the uh. Skrill of the Great was up against Brian Pillman's son I can't remember what his name is now that he's going by, but he's currently in NXT and he was on the show with him and had the match against Trevor I mean, not Trevor, but Skrill and those shows, from what I'm hearing, are really good. So make sure you stop by and check one of those out if you're in the Atlanta area. Nick, if you need something from us, let us know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:All right, Teddy, we're out of time. We actually went a little long today, but that's all right.
Speaker 2:That's what I do. I go a little long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what she says. All right, I'm Matt Davis. That's WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long, and this has been Wrestling's Road Trip After Hours. We'll see you again next week. Hall of Lance.
.png)