On his latest podcast, WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T had a lot to say about the internet feud between Ryback and Mark Henry. For those of you that missed it, click here to catch up on what Ryback and Henry said to each other this past week.
Booker said the following on his podcast: “Ryback is back in the news. Ryback made some comments. I was just reading it a couple of days ago but I didn’t really pay any mind to it because when I hear Ryback talking, sometimes I feel like, man, Ryback, I always thought he was an ok guy. I never had any problems with him or anything like that. When you leave a company, sometimes, especially after it’s been your lifelong dream and things don’t work out, you can be really bitter. You can say, man, I hate everybody. I want to break something. I really didn’t think about it too much, but Ryback made a comment as far as wrestling being fake. The title, the championship is just a prop and nobody ever wins it and nobody ever loses it.
For me personally, I take a little bit offense to that because I know how much work I put in, but Mark Henry seemed to get really heated about it and went in on Ryback really hard, almost to the point where he is ready to fight. He is ready to throw hands. I kind of understand where Mark Henry is coming from in one aspect and in certain aspects, I gotta question it a little bit. As far as my take on this, wrestling being fake, that’s just not a term real professional wrestlers use. We just don’t use that term. We don’t degrade the business we put so much time into. We just don’t do that. People from the outside that play wrestler, they may talk like that, but the guys that really put in time, the word fake is never going to come out of their mouth because every time I went to the ring, it was as real as it could possibly be, When a 10 year old asks the question, ‘Hey Booker. Is wrestling fake?’ I tell that 10 year old kid that anything that puts a roof over my son’s head and food on my kid’s table and clothes on my son’s back, it’s as real as it possibly could be and that kid’s eyes wake up and go wow because it puts it in a different term. You look at it from a different perspective.
Anything that you do that is taking care of your family is real. Anytime you go out there and know you are doing something that you are putting your life on the line and one bump, it can be all over with, look at Droz. A guy who is in a wheelchair for many, many years for going out there and doing something that’s fake. That’s why saying something like that is something he should apologize for in my opinion. The title, I always said the title meant that you were the guy that was representing the company at that time. You were their champion. When we go out and perform, we perform at the highest level. Wrestling is to be embellished like the spinaroonie, the People’s elbow, is to be embellished because it’s professional wrestling. When I hear someone say professional wrestling is fake that I made money from, it pisses me off a little bit. Like I said, take Mark Henry off, but when Ronda Rousey said it was fake, Mark Henry said it was the greatest thing in the world. I think JBL even chimed in on it and said it was a great move. Why is ok when Ronda Rousey said it but not Ryback? I say in that situation right there, you have to be consistent as far as that term being thrown around by anyone who has made money doing what we do. There again, people can say they love this business, but I love this business. I’m never going to degrade the business. If you have an issue with a certain individual, you talk about that certain individual. Don’t try to throw the business under the bus just because you have a gripe with a certain individual or certain individuals.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Hall Of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
