Booker T Talks Injurying Steve Austin, Austin's Reaction, Producer Asking Him To Pack Austin's Bags
Recently on Talk Is Jericho, 'Y2J' Chris Jericho welcomed WWE Hall of Famer Booker T to the podcast. Among other things, Booker T talked about accidentally breaking 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin's hand and the infamous grocery store brawl.
According to Booker T, he was supposed to put Austin through an announce desk at the former's WWE debut. Unfortunately, the spot did not go as planned, as the table was not cleared off beforehand. Austin would suffer a broken hand from the incident. Apparently, Bruce Prichard told Booker T that he should apologize to Austin and pack his bags for him.
"My first night coming in [to WWE], I had to do some stuff with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. I'm supposed to dump him on the table. When guys in the ring are working, they're supposed to spill outside [the ring], take the table, take all the stuff off of it, take the TVs out and whatnot. Then, I was supposed to go out, get my cue, jump over, and nail 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Boom! Drop him on the table. Big debut match. That's the way it was supposed to have went. They give me my cue, 'go!'. Now, I go and all the stuff is still on the table, the television, the monitors, the top of it, everything, but I couldn't go take that stuff off. I had a spot to do. I go pick Steve up, dropped him on the table, he bounces off of it, and lands on the floor. My big night's over with and I'm on my way to the next town."
Booker T continued, "Bruce Prichard calls me [and says], 'Book, you've got to do something. I don't know. Steve broke his hand. You broke his hand.' [Booker T said,] 'well, give me his phone number. I'll give him a call! I'll apologize to him.' [Prichard replied,] 'I can't give you his phone number. I'll tell you what. He's at this hotel. If you just probably met him at the hotel in the morning, and just packed his bags on the way to the ring for him...' [Booker T interjected,] 'whoa, hold the hell up. I ain't packing no bags!' True story! I see Steve later on. [Booker T said,] 'Steve, sorry about your hand.' [Austin replied,] 'oh, no problem, Book.'"
As for the grocery store brawl between Austin and Booker T, Booker T said that Vince McMahon had to pay for the use of the grocery store, but gave no restrictions. The entire segment was shot it in one take and it was totally ad libbed.
"The grocery store fight with 'Stone Cold' and I, people talk about that every time I see someone. Somebody talks about 'the fight'! It wasn't a wrestling match. There wasn't one move. There wasn't one suplex done in that. Not one headlock. Not one top wristlock or anything! But it was a good fight and people go, 'wow, that was good entertainment'." Booker T added, "it was an actual grocery store and the thing was, I don't know how much the check was that Vince had to write, but they told us we had no guidelines. We could actually just tear the whole place up, so it was a one-shot deal, [and] we could only get it in one take."
In addition to these topics, Booker T talked about getting his start in WCW from Sid Vicious, wanting to put an end to the n-word, and more. To listen to the show, click here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho