Teddy Long Discusses How to Properly Take a Bump

Teddy Long is likely best known to WWE fans from his favorite role as General Manager on SmackDown, when he’d invariably force one or more of the heels to have an impromptu match with the Undertaker. Old-school WCW fans, however, remember him as a crooked referee who became a manager, including for a pre-Taker Mark Callous. As a heat magnet who was called “Peanut Head” by fans, Long often faced the wrath of a wronged babyface, and in a conversation with TMZ, he revealed he still feels the pain of that sometimes.

“When I was managing Butch Reed and Ron Simmons, the team of Doom,” he recalled, “a lot of times I had to get in, you know, and have matches, because I had more heat than them. And so the people really wanted to see them beat me up, and not [Reed and Simmons] so much. So I had a chance to take a few bumps back in the day. I’m paying for it now because I was taking bumps back in the day when I didn’t know how to take bumps. So then that way I’ve messed my back up. So I’m dealing with that and everything now. But it’s been real great, all in fun.”

Teddy Long noted that the business was very different then in terms of training managers how to take a hit. “Now, you know, first when you start to train, when you get in the ring, they explain to you how to take bumps,” he said. “You know how when somebody slams you, don’t land flat, you tuck the neck like that. So when you tuck your neck, that keeps you from hitting the back of your head and knocking yourself out. So that’s why you see a lot of times some guys land wrong, and they lay there for a minute because they didn’t tuck their neck, the chin, and that way they landed, they hit the back of their head. And so that’ll shake you up a little bit. I’ve had that happen to me, too.”

When the business was more protected, Teddy Long recalled, some wrestlers didn’t pull their shots. “I got slammed by somebody. I don’t remember. You know, been a while!” he said. “But I knocked myself out there. I had to lay there for a minute till I got myself back together cuz I didn’t, like I said, I didn’t know. And back in the day, you know, you had guys that wouldn’t tell you because they wanted to see you get hurt or they wanted stuff to happen to you. You know, it’s just part of the business.”