Some of you may recall that we posted an article last week where Rene Dupree commented on Goldberg being reckless and unsafe in the ring. Booker T later replied to Dupree’s comments on his own podcast, saying,
“I hate even commenting on stories like that because I try to stay out of the middle of, sometimes, just personal beef, professional jealousies. I always say, if I was any one of the guys in the locker room and I saw Goldberg coming in and getting a push and the next day, he’s freaking a millionaire and he’s the hottest thing on television, on late night talk shows, I’d be so envious. I’d want to be him knowing that he hadn’t put in the time that I have, but the one thing that I’m not going to do is hate on the guy. I can’t do it because like I said, I wish I would have got put in that position when I was coming up and got it, I wouldn’t say given to me, but placed in a position where all I had to do was grab it. I would have loved that, and then when I hear people like Rene Dupree, who had an opportunity, this guy had opportunities just like everybody else, and I’m sure he wishes that the company will bring him back at age he is and put him in an angle with one of these young guys and pay him a nice check for it. I would imagine so. I could be wrong, but when I hear talk like that, as far as, ‘He broke my collarbone.’ The time to speak up about that collarbone thing was back then and say, ‘Bro, what the hell are you doing? Are you about to hurt me? Hit me like that one more time and see what happens. We can fight.’ I’m just saying that’s what I would have said. I wouldn’t be talking 15 years later about how bad it hurt. I just hate to hear people talk like that. I’m sure he wishes he was the person in that spot where he was the guy in that spot. When I hear a guy like that disparage a guy like Goldberg and call him crap, like I said, I hate talking about stuff like this, but when you put yourself out there, Goldberg’s a friend of mine,” Booker T noted, “I’m gonna defend him on this. I’ve always been fond of Rene Dupree as well, but when I hear him talk like this many years later, I’m very surprised because this is the same guy Bob Holly beat up. I wouldn’t even call it beaten up, assaulted, and he didn’t even try to fight back, beat him to the locker room all the way out the back door out of the building. And he never tried once to fight back… Some people should just lay out when it comes to making comments like that. If you had a beef with Goldberg back then, you should have spoke up about it. I don’t remember one time Goldberg not defending himself or anybody saying, ‘Goldberg, man, I’d just walk all over him.’ I don’t remember anybody getting into Goldberg’s face and treating him in that nature. For someone to get treated in that nature and to throw dirt on a guy, Goldberg’s a tough guy. Anybody that walked on the football field that could play on that gridiron with those guys, you are damn tough.
Following Booker T’s comments, Dupree returned to the “That 90’s Wrestling” podcast and reacted. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Booker T taking issue with his comments about Goldberg: “We did this podcast and you gave me random names right and I gave you a random answer. You asked me about the gentleman Goldberg, and I told the only story I had. It’s 18 years ago and the only the reason I bring it up is because it still f**ks me up. I can’t lift dumbbells in the gym, I can’t press dumbbells. I have so much pain in this shoulder from 18 years ago. The reason I got through it is because, and don’t forget I’m still on a full-time schedule, I had to get a cortisone shot to get rid of the pain right. Well anybody who’s knows anything about cortisone shots will tell you that it does more harm than good long term. Listen I don’t follow the internet wrestling community, I had no idea that there was this big f**king thing against Goldberg. I had no idea. Like I told you, I have a business to run. You asked me a question and I gave you the only story I had about the guy.”
On Booker saying that Dupree wishes WWE would bring him back like they did Goldberg: “Okay Book, I was re-signed by the WWE in 2011, okay? Vince McMahon himself called me personally when I was living in Tokyo alright. I signed a 5 year deal, but because I was living in Tokyo I had actually gotten kicked out of the United States. And in order to get back I had to fill out a waiver to get clearance to get back in, because they accused me of being there illegally. So I moved back to Canada and I have had zero interest in coming back to the United States. But they had offered me a contract which was worth 5 times more than the one I had originally signed and that’s the truth.”
On Booker questioning why Dupress didn’t stand up for himself at the time: “How old was I back then? I was 19. I’m a young boy, you shut up and are told what to do and take a ass kicking. Everybody there to this day still walks around on eggshells and they can’t feel comfortable until they’ve earned it.”
