On a recent edition of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T discussed AEW signing Mercedes Mone and the impact that she will have on Tony Khan’s promotion.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Mercedes Mone’s expected AEW arrival: “Mone is about getting that paper, baby. You know, you saw the dollar signs, right? At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. If Mone couldn’t make a deal with WWE and the door’s there at AEW, I mean, why not do it? I mean, that’s — how many times have I seen it, man? How many times have I said? I mean, 1,000 times more. When we talked, we was talking about Mone going to Japan, right? And that’s what Mone was going to be. That’s where she was gonna be. And how many times have I said it, dammit? If you don’t have to work in Japan, you ain’t gonna work there. If you could work right here at home, you gonna do it. That grind in Japan is not like here in the United States. Those arenas are not like here in the United States. You can work the Tokyo Dome all you want, but it ain’t like being at home in a warm bed with a remote control in your hand.“
On working in Japan: “Everybody that says they go run over to Japan — bro. At the end of the day, it’s about getting paid. So if people do not understand when I talk about this kind of stuff, the only thing I’m relating this to is myself being in it and doing it. You know what I mean? I got a chance to go to Japan early in my career. Twenty-seven years old, still young and fresh and hot. ‘Ready to go!’ One tour in Japan and my a*s couldn’t wait to get home. I almost flew myself back after being there 21 days straight.
“So no, anybody who’s listening to me who has been through this and has done it one time, they understand exactly what I’m talking about. They say, ‘Wait a minute, I can get a big check at home? And I don’t have to do this? I don’t have to be on these buses going through these towns and doing all that?’ Boom, let me get back home as quickly as I can.’ So, for Mone going and doing the Japanese experience? Big ups. It’s a great experience. And I tell everybody, ‘If you’re young, you gotta have that experience at least once in your life.’ You know, but if you go and work, you want to do it right here at home if you can get paid to do it.”
On what type of version will fans get from Mone: “The last time we saw Mone, she went out and had an injury. She’s hurt. When she comes back, and goes out there and does it, what version of Mone? Are we going to see? No no, this will be pretty much the first version of Mone that we have seen on American TV. So I got to see how this thing plays out. Sometimes when you get out of a system, sometimes when you’re not working with guys within that system, everything changes. It really does, and I say that because I’ve worked with guys in WCW. I’ve worked with guys in TNA, ECW, WWF, WWE. I’ve worked with a bunch of independent guys all over. So many guys, so my thing is when you change the system sometimes… when I finally got a chance to work with ECW guys after watching them on television, thinking those guys could work. And worked with them one time — RVD [is] an exception, a couple of guys an exception. But some of those guys, you go, ‘Wait a minute, I thought these guys could work,’ and they couldn’t work at all. And so you really have to be very, very careful when you step into a different situation.”
