came out to say Vickie Guerrero was named SmackDown's new general manager. After a backstage segment, with Guerrero, Long was escorted out by a security team. This marked his last appearance as a major authoritative figure. On June 12, 2014, after nearly a year of inactivity, Long was released from WWE along with ten other contracts, ending his long tenure with the company. Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2014–present) On October 10 for the 15th Anniversary of SmackDown, Long made a surprise appearance; getting into an argument with John Laurinaitis. This led to a 16-man Tag Team match, in which Team Teddy (Sheamus, Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, The Usos, Los Matadores and El Torito) defeated Team Johnny (Cesaro, Gold and Stardust, Bo Dallas, Damien Mizdow, Heath Slater, Titus O'Neil and Hornswoggle). After the announcement of the restored WWE brand extension, on the June 6, 2016 episode of Raw, Long returned in the opening segment between the Money in the Bank participants, requesting another run as general manager of SmackDown, only to be turned away by Stephanie McMahon. He would make several other appearances throughout the course of the night including his attempt of making a tag team match between The Golden Truth and Breezango before being escorted out of the building by security. On February 13, 2017 it was announced that he would be inducted in the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame. On the April 3, 2017 episode of Raw, Long made an appearance, thinking that Vince McMahon would appoint him to be the new general manager of Raw, but Vince McMahon said that it was not him; instead, Vince chose Kurt Angle, another 2017 WWE Hall of Fame inductee, as general manager. On January 22, 2018, Long made a brief backstage appearance during Raw 25 Years. Long also made an appearance on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw under the Raw Legends Night special wherein he announced that he booked The Miz and John Morrison in a tag-team match against The New Day, in which the latter won, He also appeared on the special throwback episode of SmackDown on May 7, 2021. On January 23, 2023 Long appeared on Raw is XXX, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Monday Night Raw. Where he booked a six man tag match between Seth Rollins with The Street Profits and Imperium, after Imperium disrespected D-Generation-X. Independent circuit (2014–present) In 2014, Booker