On the latest “Hall of Fame” podcast, Booker T reacted to Dutch Mantel’s comments he made that said he felt Booker T was bigger than the brand when he was in TNA:
“He said he thought I thought that I had at that feeling that I was bigger than the brand. Just to go back, I was just talking about me admitting my faults. That’s all. I just wanted to get it out there as far as I didn’t go into TNA thinking that I was going to change the whole name of the game or anything, but I did go into TNA with good intentions. When things didn’t happen the way I envisioned them, I just said, okay, I’m gonna have some fun for these next two years, whatnot, whatnot, but, I never thought I was bigger than the brand.”
“When I first got to TNA they gave me a Legends Championship, one of the most beautiful belts I’ve ever seen in my life and I didn’t even know what the belt was for. No one ever explained it to me or anything like that. No one ever gave me any direction as far as what that title meant. That’s what I’m talking about as far as structure. The first thing I’m going to do as far as structure goes, if I’ve got a legend coming into my company and we’re creating a Legend championship for him, he’s gonna know about it. I was surprised by the Legends Championship myself. I was like, oh, are you kidding me? It was like a gift someone was getting. But there again, this is wrestling. Everything is supposed to be talked about and everything’s on the table. For Dutch to say that, I don’t know where it’s coming from.”
“He said the only reason I made my way there to TNA was because WWE was wrapping me up. They gave him his notice. I’ve never been fired from any job in this business from any company. I’ve never been fired, not once, and where he got his information, he said that’s what he heard. That’s hearsay. That’s hearsay. You might want to get your sources right when you say stuff like that because that was just blatantly false. He said WWE was not going to renew my contract at that time. Personally, I hate talking about business, insider business. If I’m not talking about it, nobody should be talking about it. But as far as my contract being renewed, I was at the top of my game when I left WWE. I don’t know if he realized that. King Booker was at the top of his game. I was at the main event status when I left WWE. There was no reason for me to leave WWE but to get my mind right. I was going through a lot of personal stuff at that time that I don’t even want to talk about. Trust me, Dutch Mantel has no idea about what I was going through in my personal life at that time.”
“He’s also said I was looking for somewhere after WWE let me go and I found it in TNA. TNA called me. I was on the beach in Newport Beach, California when TNA called me and asked me to come back to work. I was 20 pounds overweight and everything. I swear to God, I had to delay going to TNA because I had to go on a diet for a month straight. That’s where I was. I had no intentions of wrestling anywhere at that time, but the offer came. It was a good offer, you know, 70 days a year or something like that. I took it. It wasn’t like I was breaking the bank or anything. He said I felt like I was bigger than the company. Seemed like I would have been one bigger than the company money when I came in if that’s the case. I had a measly contract in TNA because it wasn’t about the money. I was just trying to stay in shape and keep myself motivated.”
“In the two years I was there, people thought I was retired. That’s not the point. My point is when people like Dutch Mantel speak about stuff like this that they don’t know about telling other people’s stories, they should keep their mouth shut. This is not a story for Dutch Mantel to be telling because he don’t know it. This is my story as far as me getting let go or me getting fired, or whatever the case may be. The thing is, that story, as far as what happened with me and WWE, there is probably a select two or three people who may know exactly what happened, and I’m one of them. So that kind of stuff irks me when I hear someone totally out of bounds talking about something that they have no idea about.”
On Dutch Mantel saying Booker T could be difficult to deal with in TNA
“Let’s get this straight, stuff that I’ve really never really wanted to talk about until I see stories from people back in that time in TNA saying Booker T was this, Booker T was that, and I’m like, none of that is true. The thing is, you know why it’s not true? Because you don’t hear none of the young guys who was relevant in that company say anything negative about Booker T. Ask Samoa Joe. Ask AJ. Ask Rude. Ask Jay Lethal. Ask Xavier Woods. Ask all those guys. That’s all you got to do. Don’t ask the upper echelon. Talk to the boys.
On Dutch Mantel saying that Booker T wanted to change plans and finishes in TNA”
“I may have had a few conversations with Jeff (Jarrett) when I was there. I had a few conversations with Vince (Russo) of course just because he was writing everything. As far as Dixie, I never had one conversation with her about a match one time. Not one time did I ever talk to Dixie Carter about a wrestling match in that company. Never. Not one time. Me getting bounced around like that, as far as you know, what’s the concept of this finish? You know, if it was something that I didn’t like, I was gonna say I didn’t like it. It was just that simple. It wasn’t like I was feeling like I was big-shotting anybody else or anything like that, but I did specifically want, I really didn’t care about what anybody else’s segment looked like, but I did want the segment that I was going to be in to look a certain way. I did. I did want that just because I’m a professional. I’m a perfectionist. I want the fans to be entertained. If I’m getting the hell beat out of me, I want the fans to actually really believe it. You know what I mean? So I need everything to be proper when this is going on. For instance, like I said I hate talking about insider business, but I need stuff to be right. At one point, I think I was having an ambulance match with Robert Roode. I think it may have been Robert Roode. It was before the ambulance match. You know, before the match ever happened, they had a prop out there. They wanted me to beat the hell out of Robert Roode and throw him in the ambulance, hit the door, and then the ambulance drive off. I go, ‘Wait a minute. He’s the babyface. Shouldn’t he be beating me up and throwing me in the ambulance?’ I say that because I didn’t care about me being beat up and thrown in the ambulance. I just wanted it to be right. If me speaking up on stuff like that makes me difficult to work with, good God, I feel for this business.”
On Mantel saying Booker T used a British accent in TNA and nobody knew why:
“I did start doing the British accent, but at one point Dutch said that he didn’t know where it came from. He worked in the office. So he went to Vince Russo. He said he didn’t know where it came from. That’s what I mean by structure. Jeff didn’t know where it came from. No one knew where it came from. Okay, now I get it. You guys are office guys. Maybe you want to go ask the talent, ‘Hey, man. What are you doing using this accent? We don’t want this on the show.’ That’s what I’m talking about as far as structure. No one was telling me what to do. No one was telling me what not to do. No one wrote a promo for me or anything like that. If I’m wrong here about something, let me know, but I think I’m 100% right about structure and that proves it.”
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.
