Teddy Long says referees in today’s WWE are “just dressing” compared to the role they played when he was one, and that the company should bring back the referees he worked alongside to train the next group.
Long, a WWE Hall of Famer who refereed for Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW before his run as a manager and SmackDown General Manager, made the comments on this week’s Wrestling’s Road Trip After Hours with Mac Davis. Davis asked him about Tommy Young and the referees of the 1980s.
“I’m not so sure of the referees today… I want to remember who the referees were,” Long said. “Where back in the past, you did, because the referees played a significant role in those matches back at that time, more so than they do now. Right now, I think they’re just for, it’s just dressing, you know. It’s just you need a referee.”
Davis raised a point he said has bothered him about current television: referees looking away from finishes that happen in front of them, or being in position to count and not counting. Long said that comes from the match being built around a predetermined finish that the referee has to protect.
“They know that they can’t go to three because they know that’s not the finish,” Long said. “So that kind of puts you in a bad spot when the guys do something in the ring there, and you know you’re not supposed to count that because that’s not the finish. But you got to go down, so you really caught in a bad place there.”
Davis asked how many times Vince McMahon would have let a referee do that before firing him.
“One time,” Long said. “Probably the front guys would get fired right then, that first time. You didn’t have no second chance.”
Who should train them
Long said he does not know whether WWE currently trains referees, and named the group he’d use if it wanted to.
“You got guys out there like Mike Chioda, Jimmy Korderas, Jack Doan. You know those guys that really know this business. Nick Patrick, another guy. Why wouldn’t you bring some of those guys down to NXT and just do something that nothing but train referees, so that they’ll know? But you got to get guys like those guys to train them because they come from the old school.”
Chioda was released by WWE in 2020 after 31 years with the company. Korderas retired in 2009 after 22 years. Doan refereed for WWE from 1993 to 2014. Patrick worked for WCW and WWE and last officiated for WWE in 2013.
Long also said the relationship between wrestlers and referees has changed. “The guys also needs to help him too. Hey, here’s what we’re gonna do, blah blah blah. Oh, hey, get over here, we’re gonna do this. So he’ll know what’s going on. But I don’t see the guys really communicating with the refs now much.”
Davis tied it to the reduced house show schedule, saying talent used to work every night and learned from crowds what got a reaction. Long agreed.
Vince and the picture
Long was also asked whether McMahon ever knocked down one of his promo ideas. He said no, and told a story from his SmackDown General Manager run about the one time he caught McMahon off guard.
Long said the segment was scripted for McMahon to come into his office and confront him about a picture on the wall, and that McMahon went off script by pulling the picture down. Long ad-libbed a response he said was “off the top of my head,” and McMahon walked out of the office without a reply.
“Taker meets me, and he says, come here,” Long said. “He says, I never seen anybody stomp him where he didn’t have no words. He says, well, Vince didn’t have no words. He walked away, he didn’t say nothing.”
He also said McMahon once stopped him mid-promo over the phrase “baby girl,” asked what it meant, and let him keep it after Long explained it.
Long turned 79 this week. Asked about it on the show, he said, “I’m not old. I’m seasoned.”
Wrestling’s Road Trip After Hours streams Wednesdays at 7 PM ET on YouTube, Facebook Live and Twitch.
