Booker T Recalls Interesting Story Of Ultimate Warrior Asking To Be Trained
On the Hall of Fame podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T discussed the Ultimate Warrior following the airing of Biography: Ultimate Warrior on A&E this past Sunday. Booker, who also was the subject of a recent A&E biography, recalled getting to know Warrior in the late 2000s when Warrior was training for a wrestling comeback. Booker recounted a story of Warrior calling him to ask if he could help get Warrior into shape for his return match.
"I was around the Ultimate Warrior for sure," Booker said. "I didn't really know him on a personal level, but I was there when the Ultimate Warrior wanted to make his comeback (in the 2000's). 2008, 09 and he was going to be coming back to do a show in Australia. He actually wanted me to help him out, as far as getting him in shape for that match. I was pretty excited that the Ultimate Warrior had gotten in touch with me to get him in shape for this match.
"So I was getting myself together to finally talk to him about it. He goes, it's kind of funny, he goes 'hey man. I'm going to be coming down to train with you. How about I come down on Thursday?' And the thing is I'm the only one who pretty much knows the story, so there's no way I can confirm it or anything like that. It's not a bad story. But he says 'why don't I come down on Thursday and train with you, start getting ready for this match? I'll come down, I'll land at probably 12, get there around 2, train around 4 and catch a flight around 6.
"He wanted to train with me for two hours to get ready for a match when he hadn't worked in over ten years!"
Ultimately the lack of time led to Booker declining to help Warrior out. The responsibility then fell onto Rob Van Dam, who Booker believes did a good job in getting Warrior into ring shape.
"I told him 'bro, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do in just two hours,'" Booker said. "I said 'it's going to take a little longer than that to work with you, to get you ready.' I think he was closer to California, so he went and worked with RVD for that match. I watched the match and they worked for a little while in that match and it seemed his cardio was there so it seemed like whatever. Whatever Rob did, Rob do things from a witch doctor perspective sometimes. If this ain't working, we may try that. It may be a bit unorthodox but he'll get you there."
You can watch the full clip below. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Hall of Fame podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.