Eric Bischoff Talks His Friendship w/ Teddy Long, Working w/ Him In WCW, Teddys WWE HOF Induction
The latest episode of former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s podcast Bischoff on Wrestling was released this past Wednesday and featured former WCW & WWE Broadcaster “Mean” Gene Okerlund!
You can find some of Eric’s comments regarding the announcement that Teddy Long will be inducted as part of the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame class transcribed below.
EB: I was really, really happy to see that. Teddy and I are still pretty close. We stay in touch on Facebook. We text each other around the holidays and things like that. Teddy was a guy that when I first got to WCW and was doing a lot of “batting clean up” on the announce team Teddy and I hosted a couple shows together and did a lot of work together. I’ll always remember this, on Friday afternoons was when Teddy and I were on the schedule to do wrap arounds and do whatever show we were doing together. I don’t remember which one it was because there were so many at the time. This is before I took over WCW. When I was just an announcer. We’d start usually around noon or 1 pm in the afternoon and we’d just go straight through until 5 or 6 or 7 o’clock at night. We wouldn’t stop to take a break or eat or anything like that. At the end of the night Teddy and I would go to a place just outside downtown Atlanta in Marietta called Casa De Lardo. Teddy and I would go in there during happy hour and they’d have these goldfish bowl sized margaritas and all the chips and salsa you could eat for like five bucks a gallon. We would sit there and usually I would wait for my wife to come pick me up at night. My wife would meet us there and we would hang out and Teddy became a good friend of the family. Teddy used to come to my house in Atlanta and he’d bring my son Garrett dew rags because Teddy was always wearing dew rags back in the day. It was up until Garrett was about fourteen or fifteen years old he had a whole collection of Teddy Long dew rags. We’ve got a long history and I’ve got a lot of affection for Teddy Long.
This week’s episode of Bischoff on Wrestling starts with Eric giving his take on a couple of stories from around the business of pro wrestling from this past week including:
- Brock Lesnar retiring from MMA
- WWE’s 2016 4th Quarter Financial Report
- Linda McMahon being confirmed as a member of Donald Trump’s cabinet
- The McMahon Family photo with Donald Trump in the White House
- Teddy Long joining the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame class
Eric then welcomes his guest for this week former WWE & WCW Broadcaster “Mean” Gene Okerlund! During his return appearance Gene and Eric speak candidly about:
- How Gene broke in to the business
- Their respective relationships with Verne Gagne
- The first time that Gene worked with Andre the Giant
- How Andre dealt with life on the road and visiting Japan
- Gene’s memories of Hulk Hogan debuting for Verne Gagne and the AWA
- Hulk struggling with promos early in his career
- Gene’s relationship with WWE Producer Kevin Dunn
- How Kevin Dunn came to work for WWE
- Gene’s Summerslam 1989 blooper where the set started to collapse around him
- How Vince McMahon and Verne Gagne are similar and different
- Gene’s 1993 exit from the then WWF
- Gene’s WCW debut and Hulk following him not long after
- Gene’s transition from WWF to WCW
- The reaction Gene had to Eric and WCW giving away WWE’s results on Nitro
- Mick Foley not being happy about the results being given away
- The night Hulk Hogan turned and joined the NWO
- Gene’s reaction to the way the NWO was being booked
- What Gene is doing now with WWE
- Their differences over the years
- Something we don’t know about Gene
- Who Gene’s “One Bad Cat” is
- More…
This episode wraps up with an extended edition of the #BischoffOnWrestling mail bag segment
You can listen to the full archives from Bischoff on Wrestling in the embedded audio player below:
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