Booker T Talks The Issue He Has With WWE's NWO HOF Induction, Who Else Should Be Inducted
Recently on The Hall Of Fame With Booker T and Brad Gilmore, two-time WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T weighed in on the impending WWE Hall Of Fame inductions of Batista and the nWo, consisting of 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sean Waltman. Also, the five-time, five-time, five-time world champ named a few WWE legends he hopes will be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2020.
According to Booker, it is "really messed up" that only Hogan, Hall, Nash, and Waltman will be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame as the nWo when a revolving door of talent have claimed to be '4 Life'. In Booker's view, any performer who was in nWo, however brief, should get a WWE Hall Of Fame ring.
"You know what? That's my beef right there, man. Horace Hogan, Virgil, Scott Norton, Konnan, Buff Bagwell, [The] Giant, [Lex] Luger, Sting. Was Sting in there for a minute? Ted DiBiase, [Eric Bischoff], me. Me! Yeah, I should be getting another ring! Stevie [Ray]. Man, I've got to talk to somebody about this." Booker continued, "do you know what? That's wrong! That's wrong. Do you know what I mean? And we need to boycott this whole thing! I'm serious. We need a petition because I don't feel like it's right! If you [were] a member of the nWo in any shape, form, or fashion, you should be the recipient of a ring at the end of the day because you contributed!"
The Harlem Heat member went on to say that the nWo was important to professional wrestling during its time.
"Let me tell you something, man. The nWo was groundbreaking." Booker said, "the nWo created a movement, man. I mean, they stirred it up when they came into WCW. They got the fans riled up to a point where it became toxic and everybody wanted a piece of it, man. Everybody wanted to taste it. And it was cool. It was very, very cool. Do you know what? If I wasn't Booker T, I would've wanted to be a member of the nWo. I could actually say that because those guys were stone cold cool, man. They had a vibe about themselves that you wanted to be a part of that group."
With respect to 'Hollywood' Hogan, Booker noted that people forget that Hogan was a showman first and foremost.
"Well, I mean, you always wondered what Hulk Hogan would look like without the red and yellow on. Everybody always wondered 'is Hogan going to turn? Is he ever going to the dark side?' And Hogan, you go back to the Rocky movie, and Thunderlips, there wasn't a better heel than Thunderlips. And I just think Hulk Hogan, 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan was just Thunderlips in a totally different [genre], so it wasn't like he couldn't play the role. He [has] always been a showman. He [has] always been one of the guys who goes out and performs in the ring and out of the ring behind the mic." Booker added, "everything about Hulk Hogan was a performance and to tap into that, I thought it was pretty cool."
On the subject of the upcoming WWE Hall Of Fame induction of Batista, Booker claimed that Batista is definitely worthy of taking his place alongside WWE's most rocketstrapped Hall Of Famers, The Ultimate Warrior and Goldberg. Batista and Booker famously found themselves in a backstage brawl, and Booker T told Wrestling Inc. President Raj Giri back in 2013 that Batista "took a good beating, but he's a man."
"Dave is worthy of being in the WWE Hall Of Fame," Booker admitted. "He put in work. He's a guy that actually got in a lot sooner than a lot of people probably thought he would have got in because he started a whole lot later than I did in my career. But it just goes to how much work he put in and how he did rise on the totem pole in the short [time] span that he did. There [has] always been guys like Dave Bautista that have come along in the [professional wrestling] business and skyrocketed to the next level. And you go, 'wow, man.' You wish you were that guy. Guys such as Sting and Rock, The Blade Runners. Do you know what I mean? Ultimate Warrior, yeah, yeah. Certain guys, man, they seem to get the rocket put on them. Goldberg, like I said, Goldberg got the rocket put on him and [Batista] was one of them. So he's definitely worthy of being in the WWE Hall Of Fame. Yep, I'm looking forward to it."
Also during the podcast, Booker stated that he would like to see The Nasty Boys and Christian included in the 2020 WWE Hall Of Fame class.
"Hey man, like I said, The Nasties, man," Booker said. "The Nasty Boys, I'm lobbying for The Nasty Boys. The Nasties, man. The Nasties need to go in. Christian, Christian needs to go in. Christian needs to go in. The Nasties need to go in, man. We're lobbying. The [2020 WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony is] going to be in Florida, so it's the perfect place for The Nasties to finally get the nod. Guys, if you're out there listening, if you're out there listening with me, I need you to get the petition going for The Nasty Boys, Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags. The Nasty Boys is the nastiest team in professional wrestling history literally. Do you feel me?"
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