Booker T Talks CM Punk, Indie Wrestling, Being a WWE Network Analyst

WWE Hall of Famer and master of the “Spinarooni” Booker T was recently interviewed by the Miami Herald to discuss various topics regarding the wrestling industry. Below are some of the highlights of conversation.

Booker gave his thoughts on the CM Punk “Art of Wrestling” podcasts that have gone viral over the past several days:

“With me personally, certain business should be between yourself and the person you’re doing business with,” Booker said. “You never know where you’ll have to go in the future. I’ve never been about burning bridges. I don’t know if he burned a bridge or not. I don’t know. It’s a personal thing more than anything for him to walk away. He had to have a certain feeling about something. It could be a lot of things, but it’s personal. For me, I can just say I’ve always looked at the business as a job. It’s never been nothing more than me getting a script and me going out there and performing.

Of course, I’ve always wanted to make a decent pay like everybody else. You have to realize where I come from and a guy like CM Punk comes from. That may be the difference. Hopefully, Punk finds his way back to WWE. Me, personally, I was one of the guys who noticed his talent when I first saw him. I brought him to a wrestling show down here in Houston when he was a kid and before he was this ‘straight-edge superstar’ and all that stuff. I saw talent in him. Then when he did the whole pipe bomb thing, I saw even more talent in him.”

He spoke highly of the independent scene, motioning it as a breeding ground for WWE Superstars.

“You have a lot of good talent,” he said. “Of course, there are not a lot of spots on the WWE roster for all of them at one time. They are essentially going to be out there for a while, which is a good thing in a way. They get a chance to travel around the world and seeing what it’s like out there and get paid to do it at the same time and hone their craft. So when they make it to the WWE roster, they’ll be ready.

I watched that kid Adrian Neville before he ever made it to the roster. That kid was awesome. This new kid, formally Prince Devitt, I saw him on the scene doing his thing way before he made it to WWE. He was awesome. Now you have other young guys who are going to have that opportunity to do that same thing.”

T also talked about being an analyst on the WWE Network, where he can put over young guys:

“It’s really cool,” Booker said. “During commentating, you have to be out there for two hours, three hours plus. It’s a hard job. So for me to be an analyst and talk about the situations the young guys are going to find themselves in. I love that part of the business. I’m love kicking it with Alex and Byron and creating that nucleus for what we have been doing, as well as playing my other role in WWE. Being a guy that tries to push these young guys, like a Seth Rollins and a Dean Ambrose. We want to take them to the next level and make them viable superstars that are going to carry the business for the next 10 years.

I’ve talked to those guys all the time. I let them know what they’ve been doing properly and what they’re doing wrong. A guy like Bray Wyatt, he’s one of the guys that I’ve gotten in his ear. He really liked all the stuff I was telling him. So it’s not about me. It’s about these young guys. They are the ones we are seeing moving forward.”