Bully Ray Critiques Booker T Appreciation Segment From WWE NXT: 'I Wanted To Love It'

This week, "WWE NXT" celebrated the career of a two-time Hall of Famer and "NXT" commentator Booker T, with the show even being dubbed "Booker T Appreciation Night." In the midst of Booker's heartfelt speech, however, Keanu Carver came out to crash the festivities and through anyone who got in his way.

Overall, fellow WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray enjoyed the tribute segment, which included additional appearances from Booker's wife Sharmell, children, Reality of Wrestling students, and broadcast colleague Vic Joseph. Still, there were some elements Ray would have changed if given the creative booking pencil.

"The general consensus is everybody liked it. Uncle Bully agrees. I liked it. I thought it was good. I wanted to love it, and I thought it could have been great," Ray said on "Busted Open After Dark." "They missed a couple of beats here tonight. The front end with the video package, everybody paying their respects to Booker, Booker in Houston, Sharmell, the kids, the Reality of Wrestling students, loved it, loved it, loved it. That's the easy part. That's showing the appreciation to Booker. Coming out of the package, showing Booker emotion in the ring. You can see that Booker genuinely appreciated it. And just as the love is filling the room, out comes Keanu Carter to ruin the moment. Here's where I had my first issue with it."

According to Ray, Carver's disruption would have been better served by the subtraction of his entrance music and words altogether. Instead, Carver emerged with a microphone in hand, repeatedly yelling for the audience to "shut up" after his theme song faded out. Carver then laid out Booker's Reality of Wrestling students before turning his attention to the legendary wrestler himself.

In Carver's role as a disruptor, Ray also believes he should have destroyed more things in his path, such as the announce desk. "Shut people up with your presence alone," Ray suggested.

With the ring eventually cleared of everyone except Booker, Carver stared him down, teasing a physical confrontation. As quick as that moment came, though, it went as Jasper Troy immediately charged down to save his former "WWE LFG" coach.

"Here's your moment for the simmer to turn into a boil and your boil to boil over because Keanu is now in the ring with Booker," Ray said. "Booker has the look of concern on his face. Even though Booker knows that he can hold his own, he's still 60 and this is a young monster ready to make a name for himself by ripping his arm out at the sockets. And just as Keanu turns around, boom, they hit Jasper Troy's music. Holy s***, why? Why so quickly? Why did you not give me that animosity and tension? Why did you not have Booker paralyzed with fear, just standing there as Keanu stepped forward and forward, one step at a time, and then hit [Troy's] music and make Jasper, the hero with the strong save?"

In Ray's eyes, Troy was the right person to protect Booker in that storyline situation considering that Booker helped train Troy in season one of "WWE LFG." Moreover, Troy went on to win "LFG" and earn an "NXT" contract. If the staredown between Carver and Booker had spanned a little longer, however, Ray believes that moment could have been "great" instead of just "good."

Once Troy hit the ring himself, he managed to overpower Carver and dump him back to the floor, where security guards then guided him to the backstage area. The "NXT" locker room poured out onto the stage to issue their respects to Booker and end the segment.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open After Dark" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.