VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring recently returned for a fifth season and the second episode of the new season focused on Buff Bagwell. Booker T famously faced off against Buff Bagwell in his only WWE match back in July of 2001 after WWE acquired WCW. The former WCW World Heavyweight Champion was asked to appear on Dark Side of the Ring, but he recently explained on his Hall of Fame podcast why he decided to turn the opportunity down.
“Dark Side of the Ring, they reached out to me to be part of some of these series and episodes, but I turned it down just because, anything that happened with Buff Bagwell and I, anything I have to say about Buff Bagwell, it’s private. It’s something that’s internal, it’s something that him and I know and I’m not going to expose it or put it out there or anything like that just because I don’t think the world really needs to know what happened with Bagwell and I, and that night, or anything like that. The way it’s written is the way it’s going to be told from here on out. I won’t have anything to say about it.”
Booker T went on to add more context to his infamous bout with Buff Bagwell on Raw when he talked about the instructions they were given, and why he believes they were set up to fail.
“Let me speak on one thing, just to clarify. That night Bagwell and I had to go out and work, it was the first time it was two WCW guys in the main event,” said Booker. I do remember agents talking to me and telling me exactly what they didn’t want me to do. They told me to look straight at the camera, go out, and work. Don’t shake nobody’s hands. That was my thing, going out happy, shaking hands, high-fiving. They told Bagwell the exact same thing. Go straight out and go to work. Don’t even think about the fans. That was something that I found very odd, kind of suspicious.
“We weren’t put in a position to succeed back then in WWE. None of the WCW guys were. We were put out there to fail. We were put out there to get our asses beat and for WWE to plant that flag and say, ‘We won this war.'”
H/T Fightful
