Teddy Long Calls for Accountability in Modern Wrestling, Citing Poor Storytelling and Lack of Selling – On a new episode of his Road Trip After Hours podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long shared strong opinions about what’s missing from today’s wrestling product. Long addressed several issues he believes have weakened modern wrestling, including inconsistent storytelling, a lack of selling, and unbelievable in-ring offense.
Long began by criticizing the way storylines are handled, noting how WWE often drops angles without resolution. “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.”
He then turned his attention to what he feels is a major in-ring issue: 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,” Long said. Co-host Mac Davis agreed, pointing out how finishers no longer carry weight. “I still am saying, name me one finisher that somebody has not kicked out of,” Davis added. Long echoed the sentiment, saying that wrestlers have lost the art of timing and anticipation. “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 show, Long proposed an old-school solution to bring realism and discipline back to the ring. He suggested appointing a veteran authority to oversee matches and confront wrestlers who don’t properly sell or execute believable offense. “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.”
Long even joked that the enforcer might need to make his point physically, adding, “Maybe you might punch him. Yeah, you know what I mean. Did you feel that? Okay, you know, give him a working punch.”
Davis closed the segment by agreeing that the product often feels too sanitized. “I want to see contact because I want to believe what they are telling me in the ring,” he said.
Teddy Long Calls for Accountability in Modern Wrestling, Citing Poor Storytelling and Lack of Selling
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