On his “Road Trip After Hours” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long was asked what he feels is missing from today’s wrestling product. Long provided a multi-part critique, focusing on inconsistent storylines, a severe lack of selling, and unbelievable in-ring offense, offering a specific solution to fix the latter issues.
Long first pointed to storylines that are started but never concluded, leaving fans unable to invest. “Well, I don’t know. I think story lines play a big part. And I see them, they’ll start something, and then they don’t finish it,” Long said. “So I don’t understand, how am I [going to] start to follow something, and then all of a sudden, it’s not there anymore. But now here comes something brand new that you want me to start all over again to see… I don’t think they give storylines a long enough time for the fans to digest and kind of see what’s going on.”
Long then shifted his criticism to the in-ring work itself, specifically the lack of selling. “I see a lot happening with the selling. Lot of guys ain’t selling nothing, man. I mean, it’s Jesus Christ,” he stated. Co-host Mac Davis expanded on this, adding that finishers are no longer protected. “I still am saying, name me one finisher that somebody has not kicked out of,” Davis said. Long agreed, noting the lost art of building to a match-ending move: “You made the people wait on it… and you had that signal right there. When it was time for it, you gave it, and the people knew it, and they all right, here it comes.”
Later in the episode, a mailbag question about poor working punches prompted Long to offer a detailed, old-school solution to fix the lack of believability in the ring. He suggested WWE appoint a single, respected veteran to police the matches and hold talent accountable immediately.
“What I think really needs to happen now… I think they need to designate one guy, just one guy to watch every match, and one… veteran guy, a guy that knows what he’s doing and what he’s talking about,” Long explained. “And each match he watches, and he’s like, when a guy don’t sell, he calls him to get on him right then, just as soon as he comes back through that curtain, you get on his ass right there… you’re not letting them know the importance of selling. That’s what’s gonna draw your money. Okay? So I designate one guy, and he has to be a badass, so let the guy know, hey, this ain’t how it goes. This is f**king how it goes. And maybe you might punch him. Yeah, you know what I mean. Did you feel that? Okay, you know, give him a working punch.”
Davis added that the lack of contact makes the product hard to watch. “I want to see content because I want to believe what they are telling me in the ring,” he said.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Road Trip After Hours with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can listen to the podcast on platforms like YouTube.
