Booker T Talks WWE Backstage Being Dropped
Booker T on his podcast, The Hall of Fame, addressed the news of WWE Backstage being dropped. Booker T thanked everyone who worked on Backstage while also commenting how much fun he had working on the show.
"I just want to first and foremost thank everybody on my FOX family crew [for] making that thing work for eight months," Booker T stated. "It was an awesome eight months, and hopefully, now that the project is going to be different, it will be going to something digital. We don't know just yet. We're just waiting in a holding pattern right now, but I just want to thank everybody who had something to do with that show and everybody who made it possible for me to go out there to do what I love doing which is talking and having fun."
FOX Sports issued a statement saying that the show will be reworked with some positions in their production eliminated. Booker T talked about how he liked that the show revealed inside knowledge from people in the wrestling industry and reiterated his thanks for the people who helped work on the show.
"More than anything, in a show like that, I think it's something that is needed," Booker T said. "That stuff I did last week with Bret Hart, man, it really touched me because I never knew that if Bret Hart had the chance to do it all over again, he would've said, 'man, I'm staying here in the WWE. I'm not going down there.' Stories like that, for people to hear up close and personal from someone like myself and Bret who was in the game, I thought it brought something different to the table. Again, everybody in the FOX family, they treated me right. Hopefully, we'll be back on track real real soon and doing it again."
Brad Gilmore asked if there was anything that he would have changed from the show. Booker T joked about not changing promo school before referencing The View and how the hosts on that show discuss a wide-range of topics. Booker T wished that they were able to talk about topics outside of WWE like independent wrestling.
"Of course I would've wished I did certain things differently," Booker T reflected. "Of course "I wish we could have done things differently at certain times, but some things I wouldn't change at all, like all those suckas I ripped in promo school.
"I always thought about The View and that format and how they talked about a little bit of everything. To be able to talk about independent wrestling groups, for instance, NWA, EVOLVE, to talk about how those groups might be no more, that's news. These are stories that are prevalent in professional wrestling and stories that need to be captured. stories that need to be expounded upon as far as an inside perspective."
Booker T ended talking about how close he was with everyone on Backstage and how no one felt relieved or happy that the show was going to end. He shared that he would cry so much from laughing before the show started showing how close everyone was.
"There's still so much more out there to be done," Booker T said. "I'm like a chameleon. I'm always trying to change my spots. I'm just gonna miss the comradery of being the avocado room hanging out just laughing to the point where I would be crying so bad I would have to put Visine in before the show because my eyes would be so red from crying, but that was before the show even got started.
"When I got the phone call, we jumped on the call together, and you could tell [from] everybody in the room [that] nobody felt good about it. A lot of times with some of these shows I'm sure a lot of times they're like man, I couldn't wait to get over with that show, but this one right here felt so genuine and heartfelt."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.