Teddy Long as General Manager of Smackdown
January 28, 2012
By Nigel Doughty
In April 2008 Teddy Long started his second tenure as General Manager of Smackdown, making him not only the first person to hold a GM role twice, but also the longest serving general manager, but is it time for a change?
Teddy Long has always been popular, especially since he is a ‘face’ general manager – probably to compensate for the ‘heel’ general manager that Raw has always seemed to have, however Raw’s general manager has changed several times will Teddy Long has been in charge.
Truth be told, it seems to be of little consequence who is actually the GM, as it is just a role to fill. Unlike on Raw, it is very rare for the Smackdown GM to get involved in feuds or storylines, he is merely there to announce matches, intervene in volatile situations etc.
Now we have Santino Morella as his assistant GM, and a love interest in Aksana. This is an indication that WWE want to freshen up the Smackdown GM role, but they are happy with Long in the position. It seems that we will not see a change in the position for a long time.
Fans don’t seem to mind either way too, afterall he is not overexposed on tv, and there are some weeks that Teddy Long is not even seen. Does this mean its time to go? The short answer is no, although not actively involved, it is good to have Teddy Long there just to project the image of a definitive figure of authority.
The reason the Raw GM has changed so much is that the Raw writers are insistent that the GM be involved in storylines, and when they run out of ideas, the simplest solution is to replace the GM. The Smackdown writers, on the other hand, do not have that issue as they try to remove Long from any active storylines.
So is it time for Long to go? Well, if its not broke, don’t fix it.