[1990-11-10-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Ric Flair and Teddy Long

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Jim Ross and Bob Caudle have a gift for Teddy Long. They start by recapping the Flair/Long confrontation from last week. There's a video earlier in the week of Long checking out the limo and Flair's yacht, which is named MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, which Long promises to rename THE SOUL MACHINE, and promises to tour it with Oprah Winfrey, Arsenio Hall and James Brown, since Ole Anderson is incapable of booking anything involving black people without race baiting. Long puts Doom's entrance music on the stereo and tours the boat, despite being told he can't get on. Really funny. He's a riot.

 

Back at Center Stage, Long offers to take Bob Caudle on the boat after he wins it. As if Caudle would ever accept that invitation. Long refuses to open the gift, making him the smartest person in the promotion, but leaving us yearbook watchers without a payoff.

[PeteF3]

Long is awesome here, using the names of Reed & Simmons to bully his way into the limo and onto the yacht and going over all the decorative changes he'll be making. Brass faucets! "Teddy Long's Soul Machine!"

 

Graham's site says that when Long comes back out later to open the gift, Ross cuts him off and says we're out of time. I'm on the edge of my seat. Long is equally great on the set, quite sensibly wondering if the present is part of the Black Scorpion's "voodoo and hoodoo."

[soup23]

Is Abdullah hiding in that small box? I liked the segment of Long touring the boat but I sill don't like the way this angle has advanced very much.

[Kevin Ridge]

Teddy hanging out in the back of Flair’s limo. He doesn’t get a ride though as still Flair’s limo. Teddy walks to the docks to check out Flair’s boat. The Magnificent Obsession. Teddy likes the boat. He will be changing the name to Godfather’s Soul Machine.

 

Teddy Long has a present. He’s nervous about opening it. He walks off so we don’t see what is in the box.

[garretta]

Thanks for telling us what happened later in that show, Pete. In other words, they couldn't come up with anything to put in the box, so they pulled a bait-and-switch. How typical.

 

Teddy's really good here, using Simmons and Reed's names to bully his way everywhere, taunting Flair's employees, and talking about the changes he'll make to the boat once it belongs to him, including making some areas and features off-limits to Simmons and Reed. Why Flair wouldn't get a couple of wrestlers to guard the boat if he thought Teddy might try to come aboard, I don't know; the people he had working for him were barely bigger than Teddy, and the guy on the boat bailed at even the thought of tangling with Doom, though he did return later with help to evict Teddy.

 

Loss brought up Teddy name-checking Oprah, Arsenio Hall, and James Brown as another example of Ole's race baiting, but I don't agree. He's a brother from the streets. Who's he going to want to check out the boat, Pat Sajak, Vicki Lawrence, and Amy Grant? That's not to excuse Ole's earlier racist stuff for a minute, but I think this is just Teddy staying in character. Hey, he offered JR and Bob a tour of the boat too!

 

I'm going to watch the 11/17 interview with Teddy next to see if the box makes another appearance.