WWE Hall of Famer and co-host of the Hall Of Fame podcast Booker T recently made some incredible remarks regarding the end of his full time in-ring run in WWE. The former WCW Champion left the company back in 2007, and was in TNA (now IMPACT) Wrestling until 2011, before returning to WWE at that year’s Royal Rumble.
Leaving in 2007
“I left the company. I said, Man, I gotta get some fresh air” Booker began. Discussing why he left WWE originally, following his King Booker run. “I gotta get out of that man. And I was away for a long time and I never called. I never went around and there was no doubt about it. I honestly thought it was finished [with wrestling].”
Detox
Booker T elaborated further, saying “I needed to get away. I needed to get away because I needed to just, you know, just detox. My schedule was killing me. I knew something’s going to happen to me if I stayed, I was coming off the King Booker run I was all over the place and I knew if I would have kept going, I was going to die, I really did. I mean that’s serious. I’m serious. I really did, I really felt like something was gonna happen to me if I, if I didn’t leave the company at that time.”
All The Stress…
Booker then discussed how the decision to leave WWE at that time was imperative for him. Whilst in TNA Booker went from working 300+ dates to just 70 dates a year. “For me to walk away was probably the best thing for me that I could have ever done. Because you know, Sharmell and I were trying to have kids. And, you know, all this stress, you know we couldn’t even have kids. Immediately when I left the company Sharmell got pregnant.”
Booker now works for WWE as co-host of the WWE Backstage show on FOX.
You can listen to the Hall of Fame podcast with Booker T and Brad Gilmore via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Player FM.
If you use any of the quotes from this article please credit Eric Bischoff/ with an h/t to Wrestlingnews.co for the transcription.
