Trick Williams wants Booker T at SummerSlam 2027. Williams called out his former NXT mentor in a clip played on the Hall of Fame podcast, pitching a title match between the two and framing it around the fact that Booker and The Rock were the first two Black men to main event SummerSlam, which they did at the 2001 event in San Jose. Williams asked Booker how he would like to become a two-time SummerSlam main eventer against the man he built.
Booker’s answer left the door open.
“What I hate is getting called out, man, not being able to respond properly. But my thing has been, I never say never. I’m never going to close the book on any chapter or anything like that,” Booker said. “I feel like if I could will myself to do it, I will do it. If the body’s telling me, hey, go out here and get this done just one last time, I will go out there and get that done.”
The timeline is what gives him pause, and what gives him room.
“He gave me a time period, ’27, that gives me time to figure out what this year is going to look like for Booker T. As far as, can I really get in the gym and hang and bang? I’m talking about hanging and banging hard for just one more time. That’s the question,” Booker said. “Kind of like Conor McGregor. Kind of like Conor McGregor. Can I get myself, can I will myself to get in the gym and make it happen? And I think I can. So we’ll see how that plays out. I’m serious. I’m serious.”
Booker, a six-time world champion and two-time Hall of Famer who turned 61 in March, would be 62 by SummerSlam 2027.
Asked how much of his own influence he sees in Williams, Booker said the whole point was to build someone who could stand on his own.
“I see a lot. I see a lot of my influences on Trick Williams. That’s what it was all about. That’s what the game plan was, as far as talking to him, showing him exactly what it was going to take for him to go out there and be like a mega star,” Booker said. “You don’t hear Trick Williams saying anything that he wouldn’t say.”
He explained what he means by that, and why Williams picked it up faster than most.
“You’re gonna get the script, but you got to be able to change the script, and be able to say, hey, I can’t say this word, can we replace it with this word right here, or get to a point when you’re cutting a promo and slightly ad lib a little bit and then bring it back,” Booker said. “Trick learned that very, very quickly, and he’s a guy that’s really, really tapped into what this business is truly all about.”
Booker also used the moment to praise Chad Gable as Williams’ opposite number.
“People can talk about the great wrestlers all they want. We got some really, really great wrestlers in the company. People talking about how great Chad Gable is right now. Chad Gable’s always been that great. He’s always been that great. He just got the platform to actually go out there and let the world see it, and they say, wow, what the hell have we been thinking? We got to do something with this guy as well,” Booker said. “But a guy like Gable, totally the polar opposite of a guy like Trick Williams. But both of those guys are mega pieces on the board that’s going to make this thing work. So Trick is holding his own. He’s doing a hell of a job.”
As for the history Williams built the callout around, Booker said it never came up at the time.
“We never talked about that. We really never. I really never looked at it like that. I never really thought about it from that perspective,” Booker said.
He said that was by design, and pointed to a WCW conversation that stuck with him.
“I remember one of the agents back in WCW, something I never forget, he said, hey Book, we’re looking for a really, really good black babyface. And I go, a good black babyface? What are you talking about? How many times have you ever said you’re looking for a good white babyface?” Booker said. “And it was a big kerfuffle. But I never looked at myself just as a black wrestler. I always looked at myself as one of the best that ever put on a pair of boots. That’s the only way I wanted to be looked at. Am I going to be compared with the black wrestlers that have come up in the business? Of course. But that’s not my modus operandi, to be looked at as a black wrestler. That’s why I did things a certain way. That’s why I walked a certain way, and that’s why I talked certain ways.”
He was clear the significance was not lost on him either.
“Not that it was something that went over our heads or anything like that. But it was another job, and me and Rock had to go out there and perform, and we had to go out there and perform at the highest level, no matter what color we were,” Booker said. “Of course, two black guys out there, and you got the kids that’s watching it and looking at it. It’s something that they could aspire to, to want to be like it and want to do one day, like a Trick Williams. But I’m gonna tell you right now, none of that would be possible if Rock and I didn’t go out and put the work in. None of it. That’s what it boils down to at the end of the day.”
