WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long shared an entertaining and somewhat unexpected story about smoking weed with Randy Orton during his wrestling career.
Teddy Long, known for his tenure as the general manager for WWE SmackDown, recounted the incident during an interview with Wrestling Shoot Interviews. He explained that he and Randy Orton were on Orton’s bus, relaxing and smoking marijuana before a dark match they had to perform.
As the time for the dark match approached, Long realized he was high and had to go out to make the match. During the match, held in Randy Orton’s hometown of St. Louis, Long found himself enthusiastically playing up Orton’s character, calling him “The Viper” and “The Legend Killer.”
After the match, Vince McMahon, WWE’s chairman, confronted Long about his in-ring commentary. McMahon asked Long if he was “in business for himself out there,” to which Long denied it but acknowledged that he had been playing up Orton’s character because of his high state.
McMahon scolded Long for overemphasizing Orton’s character traits, reminding him that the audience already knew Orton’s character and hometown. Long accepted McMahon’s criticism and assured him it would not happen again, and McMahon acknowledged that Long was better than that.
“So me and Randy, we’re on the bus, and we’re smoking. I think we were done, so we were high as a kite. Next thing I know, it was time to make the dark match. I ran out to make the dark match and Randy’s in the dark match. We were in St. Louis, his hometown. I’m so high, I’m going, ‘He’s The Viper, he’s The Legend Killer, he’s your hometown boy.’ So I’m just going crazy.”
“By the time I’m going through Gorilla and Vince is standing up. He’s waiting on me, and he’s telling me, ‘Come here.’ I walked over there, and I knew I was in trouble. He says to me, ‘You in business for yourself out there?’ I said, ‘No.’ He says, ‘Goddamn it, they know he’s the Legend Killer. It’s his hometown. They know he’s The Viper. Why in the hell you gotta keep telling them?’ I just caught myself, and I said, ‘ Sir, you’re exactly right. I was playing. That will never happen again.’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’re better than that.’ That was the only time I had a problem with him.”
It appears that this humorous incident of Teddy Long getting high before a match and enthusiastically promoting Randy Orton’s character did not result in any lasting issues, as it was the only time Long had a problem with Vince McMahon during his WWE career.
