Booker T recently spoke to the This Is Awesome Wrestling Show about WrestleMania 32, if he wants to get back in the ring and more. You can check out the full interview here along with some highlights below.
If he gets the itch to return to the ring:
“Not at all, man. I’m one of those guys that lives in seasons. I don’t like to get stuck in one season or anything like that. It’s cool to get the pop of the crowd and go out there and do it for night. I’m sure, for those guys, for one night, like Mick Foley, it’s pretty much enough. It’s nostalgic. But for me, I have so many other irons in the fire right now. I got a bunch of students with my wrestling school. I love actually training with those guys and see them actually go out there and do it. I got a couple of guys, hopefully, to get signed here pretty soon. That’s all about them now, not about me.
You know, that part of my life, I’ve pretty much put it behind me. I still feel great. I still train everyday in the gym. You know, trying to make it to my daughters graduation, to see her wake down the isle one day, that’s my biggest match these days. As far as getting back in the ring and performing, you know, we got a lot of young guys at NXT, we got a of young guys on the roster. Going out there doing their thing, man. It’s their time. It’s their time to fulfill their dreams. Their time to perform at WrestleManias, the grandest stage of them all. Their time to live their Hall of Fame dreams. I’ve done it. I have nothing to prove in the business anymore at all. And it’s up to me to give those guys the reigns and let them go.”
Almost getting fired from WCW:
“Almost got us all fired the first night. You know, Sid Vicious is the one that got myself and my brother into WCW. He let us stay at his house. Made sure we got raises on time. Sid was our guy. He’s the reason why we made it to WCW. Him and Rob were really, really good friends. They stayed in this apartment complex in nice part of Atlanta. Rob used to be out at the pool every night drinking his Natural Light, a case of Natural Light every day.
Sid has this great idea. And Sid wanted to be an office guy too. Sid wanted to actually be in the office. We were his first project for WCW. If we make it, we make Sid look good. And Sid would say, ‘We got a guy, we are going to put you with Colonel Robert Parker. And we will make you guys the Chi-town Heat. Two brothers that just got out of prison.”
Normally when you get out of prison, they give you some “getting out of prison” clothes. But they didn’t give us any. We came straight from the yard to WCW with our prison gear on and the number still stenciled on the shirt. The only reason we got out on early-relate program was because of Robert Parker. He was the whole plantation owner. It was the craziest gimmick you could have ever imagined. It was our first gig, let’s see how this thing play out; don’t say nothin.
Man, Human Resources, the powers that be, the dirt sheets back then, which was Meltzer, and man, they wrote about this stuff. Next thing you know, they brought us in the office. Ole Anderson, he tells me, “First thing I think I should send guys back to Texas.”
I go, “Wait a minute, what are you talking about? This was your creation. Sid and you guys sent us out to do this. Ball and chain and everything. We worked it out, and they said, “You can work.” They ended up keeping us around. Dusty Rhodes, God rest his soul, revamped us. Came up with the name Harlem Heat. Took the Kane and Kole off of us and gave us our old names back, which was Booker T and Stevie Ray, that “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert had started us with back in the Global Wrestling Federation. And the rest was history. It was a rocky start. But we weathered the storm and you know, cream always rises to the top.”
