WWE Hall of Famer Booker T made an appearance on the Chasing Glory podcast with Lilian Garcia to talk about a wide range of topics. Here are the highlights:
His spot on WWE Backstage:
“Rene Young was like, ‘Man, you all need to interview Book. You all need to bring him in, look at him,’ because me and Rene, we got a chemistry together. We’ve been doing the WWE kickoff parties. We realized we had a chemistry, and it was just organic. We just start having a party and people start loving it, like, ‘Wow, it’s really cool.’ They brought me in, they auditioned me in. Next thing you know, I get the gig. When I do stuff like this, not thinking that I’m ever going to get the gig, just go in there and do your best, do 100%, have some fun more than anything, because you’re probably not going to get the gig. Have some fun right there. At least you get something out of it, go have dinner afterwards… That’s the way I looked at it. My thing is I’m always having fun. If it’s not fun, I don’t want to be a part of it. If I’m not laughing, I don’t want to be a part of it. The thing is, I don’t care how much money is involved. If I’m not having fun, count me out. I’d rather be at home. I got kids. I would rather be at home any day of the week. To be able to do something like this, be a part of the Fox family, it’s awesome.”
Scripted promos in pro wrestling:
“It’s a different world now as far as the scripted promos. I think it takes away a lot of the originality of the guy actually being able to put himself against the wall and have to go out there and get over, the guy to have to think about it, opposed to when you just have someone writing it for you. You’re not going to take the time like I did to go and look in the mirror and pretend I’m cutting a promo on myself. You’re not going to do that. You’re not going to go and look in the mirror and just … Just to try to make your top lip move, to see how angry you can make yourself look. It’s just small, little bitty things. You’re not going to take the time to actually try to hone your craft, because you got someone handing it to you, unless you’re that driven.
“I remember back in the day, John Laurinaitis, he used to write a lot of my matches for me. Just the finish, he would write the finish for me. In the beginning I told him, I go, ‘Man, I don’t work like this. I’m an artist.’ He’d go, ‘Just look it over and just try it.’ I went out and I was like, ‘All right, I’ll try it.’ I went out and I did, and I was like, ‘Wow, man, I look like a million bucks.’ If I got someone working with me and I know they can make me look better and then they give me the liberty to say, ‘Hey, use it if you like it. If you don’t, throw it out,’ that’s going to make me a whole lot better, opposed to someone just telling me, ‘Hey, this is what you got tonight.’ For me, I had Brian Gewirtz, back when I was doing the King Booker.”
H/T to Pro Wrestling.net
