Booker T On Roman Reigns' Shot At AEW, What WWE Should "Look Out For"
On the latest edition of The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore, Booker T and Brad Gilmore discussed the latest news of the week. They discussed Roman Reigns' shots at AEW and on CM Punk. Booker T explained what he feels has been missing with Punk in AEW so far.
"It goes back to the beginning when CM Punk came out, when the camera's rolling, you're always acting. That's what my job is," Booker T explained. "I'm an actor. I've never been Booker T. Huffman Jr. on television. I've always been playing a role, and every time I came out and grabbed that microphone, I was working and doing my job. It's just like when I came out and I won the world title and said, 'This was for the people.' Do you think I meant that? [Booker T laughs]. I had some emotion going with it too. A tear was almost about to fall out. I'm just playing, but when you're on camera, you're always working. You're always in character. Maybe that's what it. Maybe when CM Punk first came back, he broke character, and I was still waiting to see the character go out and work magic.
"What does the promo mean? You're promoting the brand. You're promoting the show. You're promoting who I am, who's ass am I about to go out and whoop in AEW because now there's a new sheriff in town. It's one of those type of deals right there for me. Eddie Murphy, every time he's on camera, he's working. He's always acting. You know who was the best at it, the guy who was better than anyone when they were on camera, Robin Williams. Every time you saw Robin Williams on camera, every time, he was always working. He was always entertaining you. You never saw the real Robin Williams on television, never. And that's my point guys. Not throwing shade on anybody."
Booker T then addressed Reigns' shots at AEW. He talked about what WWE should look out for when it comes to AEW.
"I agree with a lot of it, but the one thing I think even WWE, the company that I worked for, needs to keep an eye on, one thing that I've always noticed is, there doesn't have to be a whole lot of people there, but if you see it on television, and it looks like it's a lot of people there and it looks like that everybody's having fun, you feel like you missed out on something," Booker T noted. "You're like, man, I wished I had been there. Man, that looked awesome.
"That right there is fuel. As long as you got fuel, that's all you need to keep going. That's all you need to keep going if you got fuel. You're a human being, if you got water, if you got some food, you're good to go. You got a car, you got some water and fuel, you good to go. It can only be 20,000 people, 10,000 people, but if it looks like they are having a whole lot of fun, it's got fuel to get bigger. That's the one thing that you cannot discount as far as AEW goes.
"You know what it feels like, it feels like when The New Age Outlaws came out back in the day. The signs, everybody wanting to be a part of the show. In some way, shape, or form, or fashion, they want to be a part of that show, and I noticed when Adam Cole walks out, when he does the 'boom' and 'Adam Cole bay bay,' you can feel that. No matter what happens after that, that right there is something when you're watching it and you see it happen, you say, man, that was pretty cool. That right there for me is fuel, and that's something that you really got to pay attention to."
A fan later asked whether if Reigns has reached his peak of if he has room to get even better. Booker T discussed the work Reigns has done since he has been on the main roster.
"Roman has been taking what he's given and making the best out of it since day one," Booker T noted. "Every situation they put Roman in, he's gone out there and dealt with it straight up, whatever happened happened, and a lot of times, well, I wouldn't say a lot of times, but Roman has been put in situations to where the fans, the way they feel about him, it hadn't been his fault. When Roman first came out, it seemed like they were trying to make him The Rock. He was going out, and he was cutting promos and he was trying to be quick witted.
"That just wasn't Roman. You can't put me in The Rock's position and expect for me to be The Rock. It's just not gonna happen. That guy was an anomaly. He was definitely something that was just different than any of us, but Roman took that situation and bit down on it and said, okay, the fans hate me for trying to be like this. They're gonna hate me, but I'm still gonna go out and perform. That's the one thing that Roman has always been able to fall back on and that's been his performance. He's always been a guy that worked at a very, very high level, always there.
"Roman has always been one of my favorite guys to watch because everybody that works with Roman becomes a better worker. Everybody that worked with Roman had a best match of the year. Everybody that works with Roman, they don't have another match that good all year. I look at it a little bit different than most, and I think Roman is literally one of the top guys in this business, especially being a heavyweight and going out there and knowing how to work that style and still be able to entertain people at the same time because when you're a heavyweight and you ain't jumping around and jumping over something, you still having to entertain people. It can be a little bit hard."
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.