Teddy Long is famous for announcing matches involving The Undertaker on Smackdown.
He started as a referee in WWE, but found his calling as the general manager of Smackdown. Teddy Long held the position over a six-year period, between 2006 and 2012. This coincided with The Undertaker being the top star on SmackDown, regularly competing in main event matches.
This meant that seemingly every week, Teddy Long would interrupt a confrontation between the Deadman and the top heel that week. Invariably, it would end in one of two ways. Either he would make it a “Tag team match playa!” or the offending heel would go “one on one with The Undertaker.” These became his catchphrases and a highlight of Smackdown each week.
Teddy Long recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet about his WWE career. He was asked about who came up with the “one of one with the Undertaker” catchphrase, to which the WWE Hall of Famer revealed it was all his idea.
Teddy Long told the story of hearing Vince McMahon critiquing Stephanie McMahon backstage. He used that feedback in his next promo.
“One on one with The Undertaker, that was me! And the reason I put so much emphasis on that was, and people never know this… Vince [McMahon]… one night we were in Madison Square Garden. And Stephanie [McMahon] went out to introduce somebody, or something, I think. I don’t remember. But anyway, she come back, and Vince stopped. He was talking to her and he was saying ‘Stephanie! I want you to put emphasis on that. When you introduce the guy, I want to hear like JOHN WILLIAMS!’. And I was just standing back. I didn’t say a word. So next time i did Undertaker – ‘One on one with THE UNDERTAKER!’.”
Teddy Long: Vince Gave Me Free Reign To Say What I Wanted
Few people in wrestling can say what they want on the air, and Teddy Long is one of them.
He continued in the interview, being asked if the writers ever wrote his catchphrase into the weekly scripts. The former referee revealed that eventually they did, but that Vince gave him carte blanche to say whatever he wanted, so he would have said it anyway.
“When they caught onto it, and seen that it was catchy and people liked it then, they always wrote it and put it in there. But I was gonna do it anyway! Not that I’m not doing what I was supposed to do. But Vince didn’t mind me. Vince gave me free rein to say whatever I wanted to say. He knew I wasn’t gonna say anything that would get the company in trouble. And I never really said anything I didn’t want to say. They’d write stuff. I’d just add my stuff to it.!”
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