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Teddy Long recently recalled when he was fired by John Laurinaitis and WWE for making a refereeing blunder, which eventually turned out to be a set-up.
Before becoming one of the greatest on-screen managers in wrestling history, Long worked as a referee for WWE. He joined the promotion in 1998 after working for over a decade in Jim Crockett Promotion in various capacities.
However, only after he was appointed as the authority figure of SmackDown that Teddy Long became a prominent and well-recognized name by the fans. Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's The Wrestling Time Machine podcast hosted by Mac Davis, Long recalled refereeing a match between Christian and Test.
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He explained that things didn't go as planned as one of the performers didn't kick out in time, with the match ending prematurely. Teddy Long added that he was soon fired from the global juggernaut by John Laurinaitis over the blunder.
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"After I started refereeing there, I came to find out that John Laurinaitis was in charge then, too, at that time. He sends me up to Hawaii. I refereed a match in Hawaii between Christian and Test; god rest his soul. What I did, I went and made the count, 1-2- you know.... One of the guys didn't kick out, so I went on down to 3, so they tried to say that I screwed the finish up, so Johnny fired me," said Teddy Long.
However, the former SmackDown GM revealed that years later, he learned from Test that they had set him up to get fired by WWE.
"I had the opportunity to see Test before he died, and he said, 'Hey man, they set you up. I didn't know that they were trying to get me to help them to fire you,'" added Teddy Long. [1:44 - 2:35]
Check out the full video below:
WWE legend Teddy Long is not a fan of John Laurinaitis
Even last month, on an episode of Wrestling Time Machine, Teddy Long shared an incident about John Laurinaitis, which rubbed him the wrong way. He revealed that when he asked Laurinaitis why WWE wasn't selling his action figures, the latter responded by saying the customers weren't interested in buying them.
As expected, Teddy Long wasn't happy with Laurinaitis' words and requested The Undertaker to take the matter to Vince McMahon.
"I'll tell you story and I think that may be from John Laurinaitis because I remember going to him one time and asking him why didn't I have any action figure. They said they had already talked to the consumers, and the consumers said they wouldn't buy my doll. He had the nerve to say that to me. So that was the time I went to The Undertaker, and I asked him if he would go to Vince McMahon and speak about what Laurinaitis told me," said Teddy Long.
John Laurinaitis is no longer with WWE, as he was shown the door in August last year after a 21-year tenure.
What's your favorite memory of Teddy Long's WWE tenure? Sound off in the comment section below.
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