On the latest episode of his “Hall Of Fame” podcast, Booker T spoke about the dip in AEW Collision ratings, the company booking CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe on the fourth episode of Saturday’s show, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk match on Collision: “I got a chance to see some of it. I’m going to reserve my opinion, because I like Samoa Joe. He’s a friend of mine. CM Punk, as I said, is a guy I have no ill will towards as well. But the match, it’s one of those types of things. I’m going to say this about the match. And you guys can go back and watch the match yourself and you guys can go back and watch [Punk vs. Joe] 3, 2, and 1. That’s what I’m comparing this match to. It’s so hard to go out there and recreate something that you did once upon a time, and top what you did once upon a time. Trust me. I say that — best of seven series when I did that in WCW was one thing. Best of seven series in WWE. My bones were like, ‘What the hell am I thinking?’ I’m going to tell you right now, that’s what it looked like to me. It looked like the guys were like, ‘Man, this ain’t like it was when we were in our 20s.’ So that’s what I saw when I watched that little bit of that match.”
On AEW Collision ratings for the third episode: “I think that almost proves my point again, as far as those AW fans, it’s a number on audience. And it’s around a million people, 900,000 that really want to tune in to watch that show. And that same number tune in to watch the debut of Collision…. Sometimes they just don’t feel like watching the show. Sometimes, you know, they might feel the same way everybody else does, but they still gotta support. [laughs]”
On the large amount of wrestling content right now: “It’s a lot of wrestling. But you know, if it’s something you wanna watch, you gonna tune in. I don’t care if it’s a bunch of wrestling or not. If it’s something that you really are into, it’s just like — let’s just say for instance, when something is good to me, I’ll binge watch it. I can’t stop watching it till it’s over with. You know what I mean? So that’s what I’m saying. If it’s something you like, you just can’t say, ‘Ah, we just got a lot of wrestling on and there’s so much. People ain’t gonna [watch].’ I don’t buy into that. Just because like I say, if it’s something that I am into and it’s capturing me? I’m staying with it to the end. Every episode, I’m gonna keep watching it. So I just feel like the star appeal has to be there, more than just the name of the ship.”