On a recent edition of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T discussed Paul Heyman’s upcoming WWE Hall of Fame induction at Friday’s ceremony.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Paul Heyman saying he will wing his Hall of Fame speech and his own approach: “I had my bullet points. Actually, I didn’t do the [telepromter] or anything like that. I just went out and just felt the room, felt the vibe and tried to just deliver. Had really no real direction, other than my finish. And it’s almost like a match. [laughs] You know, you start from the finish and work your way back. And so I pretty much kind of took that approach. I knew exactly my finish was gonna be all about Sharmell more than anything. And it was gonna be wrapped up after that. You know, we was gonna go home?
“So no, a lot of guys go out and read that prompter and I feel like that’s gotta be hard. Much harder than actually going out there and feeling it. I would imagine that it has to be much harder than going out there and just feeling it… I can read a ticker a whole lot better than a prompter. Going across the bottom, I mean, those are so easy for me compared to actually doing prompter. I can actually feel it a whole lot more on the ticker. So anytime I’m working, and if I can just like get — you know, WWE Biographies or something, if they a prompter, I was like, “Man, can you can you guys work the ticker? We can work that a whole lot better. [laughs]”
On what makes for a good referee: “A good ref, you’re not going to know he’s in the ring. You know, he’s always gonna be on his job, but you’re not going to really notice he’s there. He’s not going to be in your way ever. For me, the referee for me that probably reffed 85% of my matches was Nick Patrick. Nick Patrick in WCW. Then when he came to WWE, he reffed a lot of my matches too. But he was a guy that I could always go to. He was a guy that I could always trust. You know, when you’re in the ring — of course, it takes two to tango. But you really need three to really be able to get the job done. And for me, I would use Nick Patrick so much in so many different ways in the matchup.
“I remember Nick Patrick, he took the bump in my championship match against Rey Mysterio. And he did the biggest bump in that match. He hit out, went out, rolled, and then turned to flip and laid there until he had to make the three count. And everyone over on that side was looking at Nick Patrick because of the performance he pulled out. But that’s what I look for in a referee, a guy that can actually go out there and be seen but unseen at the same time.”
