Booker T Talks Recent WWE Talent Releases, Can See Luke Harper Signing With NJPW

Recently on The Hall Of Fame With Booker T & Brad Gilmore, the WWE Hall Of Famer shared his thoughts on the recently round of contract releases that have struck the WWE locker room. Notably, the five-time, five-time, five-time champ talked about the WWE departures of The Ascension and former WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Luke Harper.

With respect to The Ascension, Booker professed that 1990s monster tag team gimmick was difficult to execute. Moreover, the Harlem Heat member suggested that Konnor and Viktor should be pleased with the length of their tenure with WWE.

"I think it's so hard to try to duplicate something, try to recreate the wheel," Booker said. "It just can't be [done]. I mean, The Road Warriors did it better than anyone because they were the first ones to come out [to the ring] with the face paint, the should pads, and whatnot, the spikes. It was crazy. And then, Demolition came along and people said, 'man, they're kind of like a knockoff of The Road Warriors,' but Demolition was totally different and they had their own thing, their own flavor.

"To see Ascension come along, it's just kind of hard to fall into those footsteps and actually make that work. I mean, Ascension, man, they've been around since 2010, maybe a little bit longer than that down in NXT, FCW, whatever. Do you know what I mean? But those guys have been around for quite some time. Do you know what I mean? So for those guys to have a run as long as they did, that's a career. Almost 10 years, that's a career. 10 years? Nine years? That's a career for a lot of guys, so big ups. And right now, like I said, the [professional] wrestling world is as hot as it has ever been. It's hot, hot, hot, hotter than a Mexican plate lunch, man."

On the subject of Luke Harper, Booker claimed that he sees New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the former Wyatt Family member's future.

"Just me, personally, I didn't think the country, overalls, was never going to get over with me or anything like that. Was he talented? Oh man, very, very talented. Was he a guy that you couldn't wait to see next week? He didn't put himself in that position for that to happen. But what I see with Luke Harper is, when I look at that box and I look at that picture, what I see in Luke Harper is Stan Hansen.

"I see Japan written all over this kid. I see New Japan. I see this guy working over there for many, many years getting paid some long, long, long green duckets because they love big Americans like Luke Harper in Japan, so I see Luke Harper having a great career even after WWE, making perhaps more money than he ever made in his life." Booker added, "if Harper can turn out to be a Stan Hansen, this guy could make a whole lot of money throughout his career in Japan. I just see New Japan written all over him."

Finally, Booker had some words of encouragement for the recently released WWE performers, claiming that there is life after WWE.

"You will find yourself looking yourself in the mirror and saying, 'hey, what's next for me? Am I going to stick my head in the sand or am I just going to keep forging ahead and keep moving forward? Because life is not going to stop after WWE for me.' There are so many guys that are out there that have realized that after they've left like Chris Masters. Chris Masters is a guy, he may never work in WWE ever again, but he's a guy out there right now, still making money, still doing what he loves to do. He's going around the world, and somebody's paying him actually to do that, so there [are] a lot of guys out there like that and more power to them."

Check out the video above or click here. If you use any of the quotations that appear in this article, please credit The Hall Of Fame With Booker T & Brad Gilmore with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.