Booker T is not a fan of the way certain AEW talents are conducting themselves online.
On October 4, AEW's Sammy Guevara and Andrade El Idolo had a heated exchange over Twitter, which naturally, caught the attention of the wrestling world. Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T weighed in on the matter during the most recent episode of his Hall of Fame podcast, saying that the tradition of the wrestling business is almost completely gone.
"I was reading, Shawn Spears had made a comment and Sammy Guevara came back on and said, 'You're just a jobber. You were a favor hire. Be grateful.' When I hear stuff like that, 'A favor hire. A jobber,' when I hear talk like that, man, that's when we are really beyond professional wrestling. When I hear certain terms, you know, The Rock, he didn't coin the phrase or anything like that, but "jabroni.' That was a term to use towards a guy and still have it be in context. A "jabroni" might still be a pretty tough guy. When you call a guy a "jobber" or "favor hire," like you're actually the one who put the word in for them, that's when the lines are definitely not even blurred as far as what we're doing here. It has nothing to do with trying to give that fan that moment that they're going to remember for the rest of their lives from a perspective to where, 'Man, I was there when that happened.' This kind of talk, I don't think it does anything for the business. I think, more importantly, that the tradition of this business is almost gone. We're in a totally different place as far as the tradition of professional wrestling and the way I saw it and the way I felt being a part of it. It was real to me. When I watch it now, man, it's just making me sad to see what this business truly is in certain aspects," he said.
Booker T would continue on to say that this is not a work and that he knows one when he sees it. Furthermore, he believes that we're losing the perspective of what wrestling fans want to see.
"My thing is this, I don't know what kind of work it could be, other than working themselves. This is not a work as far as I'm concerned. I know a work when I see one. When I see something like this, it just gives a bad look on professional wrestling. It gives a bad look on that company more than anything. Who hired Shawn Spears and why, I don't know, but for him to be hired just as a favor, I don't know, like I say, some things are better left unsaid. For me, when I see something like this, I just only can imagine... I got a show, Reality Of Wrestling, and can you imagine two of my students saying something like this and then it being on social media. What do you think my response is going to be? It's a business, and when we start taking out our business to Twitter... Just say for instance that The Young Bucks did kick down CM Punk's door and then it's on social media, how do you think it got on social media? More importantly, why did it get on social media? That's the thing I'm talking about as far as we're definitely losing the perspective of what wrestling really is to the fans. The fans, they don't want to know about who's a jobber and who's not," he added.
Venturing off on a tangent, Booker T would take aim at AEW's use of foul language, suggesting they don't want to grow their company beyond the one million viewers they currently have.
"The foul language for me, that company, AEW, it seems like they're not even trying to expand their audience. ... The foul language for me, for my kids to want to watch that, I might tend to say, "Nah, I don't want you guys to watch this." Because you're going to be teaching my kids words that I don't really want them to be saying at school the next day. So when I see something like that, I just got to call it for what it is and I just don't think that company is trying to grow their audience past one million fans more so than anything," Booker said.
Returning to the Sammy and Andrade situation, Booker T concluded by saying that if someone had a beef with him, the only thing that would end up on Twitter is who went to the hospital.
"What's so crazy about this is that it's being done on Twitter. That's the stupid part right there. If I ever had a problem with somebody, it would not be on Twitter. If I got a beef with you, I'm not going to get mad and get my character hand out and start typing. That's not what I'm going to do. I'm going to run up on you. If we got a problem we're going to settle it and it ain't going to be on Twitter. Only thing that's going to be on Twitter is who went to the hospital. That's it. If they got beef, settle it. But don't make our business look bad on Twitter. This is grade school. This is not something men do. We settle it," he said.
AEW President Tony Khan recently revealed that Friday's scheduled AEW career vs. mask match between Andrade El Idolo and 10 has been canceled. Click here to learn more.
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