Booker T On His King Booker Gimmick: “The accent just had to be stupid”

Booker T was recently a guest on Chris Van Vliet’s show, where he discussed a number of topics. Among them were working with Shane McMahon, his Mount Rushmore of wrestling, the King Booker gimmick, and more.

Below are some highlights from the interview:

On working with Shane McMahon:

“I do remember having a conversation with Shane. I can’t remember what it was but I knew I was like, his guy. I came into WWE, boom, him and I, boom, we were connected at the hips. We did so much stuff together. I had so much fun working with Shane McMahon and it was all because he wanted to work with me.”

“For me, having that happen, I don’t know why that happened. You know, sometimes a lot of guys came into WWE at that time, it didn’t work out for them. For me, I came in and I had a crappy match the first night, you know, with Buff Bagwell due to you know, circumstances and whatnot and there’s so many guys that didn’t have another one. For me, I always looked at it as you know, I was prepared for WWE. I remember in WCW, at the end of that run, so many guys was getting lazy. They were making so much money, it was like it was going to last forever. I can see the ship, like the Titanic, going down and I was like, let me really, really prepare myself.”

“I always tell my students, one of my best quotes is if you can’t make it in the locker room, you have no chance of making it in the ring. That’s one of my most famous quotes because the guys will break you in the locker room before you have a chance at making it in the ring. You gotta be likable and for me, I’ve always been likable. I’ve always been, you know, a man of my word.”

On the Mount Rushmore of WWE:

“I don’t know man. I don’t know. I really don’t look at wrestling like that. Of course you got Ric Flair. You know, he’s gonna be there. You know, of course, you got Hogan because when I look at Ric Flair, I look at him for a certain reason and the reason is the work Ric Flair put in there. He’s like a god. I’m talking about the young Ric Flair. He ran hard on both ends. In the ring, he performed at the highest level. Then you got a guy like Hogan who came along and changed the name of the game as far as how much money guys were making and then the Hollywood thing. Then the other two, probably, you know, Steamboat, of course, for being perhaps the best babyface that ever lived, you know, a guy that can go out there and perform at such a high level. Then you got a guy like Piper who could do anything but was such a major star, but the Rushmore thing is like, you know, up for debate. Everybody’s gonna have their own Rushmore.”

On the King Booker gimmick:

“The accent just had to be stupid. It didn’t have to be real but it had to be serious. I had to believe it and then I would break character and go street. But I will kick back into my character because, just like I talk to my students, working with the NXT guys, your acting has to be, you know, on another level when you’re trying to make fans feel a certain way because everyone knows when they walk in the door what they’re gonna get here. But when they walk out and they go ‘I can’t wait to get back and watch it again’, that’s because they felt a certain way and that’s what King Booker brought to the table. So much went into that whole thing. I couldn’t even do it for that long. I had a heel run and I left WWE after that run because I was so tired at the end of it because it was taxing, but it was great at the same time, the best work I ever did.”

[h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription]

 

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