Booker T Talks Never Having A PPV Match With Steve Austin Despite Legendary Grocery Store Brawl
During his time in WCW, Booker T was one of many involved in the WCW/WWF Monday Night Wars. Booker T truly believes the reason why Triple H beat all the WCW competitors he faced, was not just to create a TV-based storyline filled with drama that would bring in viewership, but because it was an actual war between the two brands outside of the weekly televised shows.
"Let me just say, it was never about wins or losses," Booker T said during his Q&A session at the Rock N' Wrestling Rager this past week. "To be real about the questions of why did Triple H beat the hell out of all of the WCW guys? I honestly think that it was a real war. WCW versus WWF, I really felt like it was a real war. It wasn't about WCW coming over and making this big WCW vs. WWF (storyline), I don't think it was about that. I think it was about taking these guys down, taking them out, getting their a**es out of there, raising their flag, beating the hell out of those guys, and getting all the WCW guys to go back. I always believed I was on another level (he starts to chuckle)."
Once Booker T made his way over to the WWF, his highly acclaimed feud with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin began. Most remember their grocery store brawl and how legendary it was. Booker T expressed how fun it was for him and how a lot of the content he and Austin did was mostly improvised.
"It was magic, as far as two guys going out there," Booker T said. "That's what we were able to do back then, better than anyone, and that was to go out there and improvise, and more importantly, have fun. We did that (grocery store brawl) with no lighting setup. We had one camera. We looked over the store and said 'Action.' We must have done, I don't know, $10-15 thousand in damage. If they did that same shot today, they would have to rehearse it for a couple of days. They would have a lighting crew in there. The would have three to four cameras and they would have to edit it. Steve Austin and I, we did it in one take and we created some magic."
Another fan followed up on the Austin feud and asked Booker T if he knew why he and Austin never had a pay-per-view worthy match.
"You know, I can't say why they didn't do it or anything," Booker T addressed. "I must honestly say, I never got caught up into what the office was doing or anything. I never got caught up in storylines and whatnot. I must say, of all my active years in the wrestling business, I've never gone up to a producer or a writer and said 'Hey, what do you think of this idea?' Not one time...It's all been entertainment to me. It's all been about giving you guys everything.
"For me and 'Stone Cold' if we would have had an angle, that would've been great. I wasn't one of those guys going home and saying 'Man, why am I not having an angle with Steve Austin? Why am I not winning this match?' When you start thinking like that, as a professional wrestler, you get totally lost in the moment of what's happening. I've always been a great actor. You give me a script, and I'll make it as good as I possibly can."
Booker T went on the record during his interview by saying that wrestlers of this generation have amazed him. Even former students of his like Sammy Guevara. However, when asked about who would be his dream opponent of any era, Booker T went old-school on his answer.
"I've tried to remove myself from wrestling from a perspective because I did everything," Booker T started off saying. "I wrestled everybody that I could ever want to wrestle. When I watch these young guys wrestle today, I couldn't keep up with them. Guys from today, are from a totally different era. It's a totally different style and I love what they do. I can't really say if there's one specific guy, because I don't sit around and think about myself. I will say, the one fish that got away that I thought was one of the greatest, was Shawn Michaels. I never got a chance to wrestle Shawn, and I thought I was pretty good. I thought that Shawn and I could have done something that was really, really special, that would have left a memory for you guys."
You can listen to Booker T's full interview here. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Reality Of Wrestling with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.