WWE Hall of Famer Booker T appeared on Ring Rust Radio recently to promote his upcoming Reality of Wrestling show on FITE TV. You can see the full interview at this link, and submitted highlights below:
Ring Rust Radio: Starting in September, Reality of Wrestling will begin airing its weekly show on the FITE TV streaming service. As the founder of ROW, how big is this deal for the long-term future of the company?
Booker T: Aw man, it’s huge to actually have a platform and let the world see Reality of Wrestling as well as to be able to compete with all the other independent companies around the world. You’re only going to get better if you’re actually competing. It’s almost like the Monday Night Wars for me all over again. That’s the kind of feeling I get with Reality of Wrestling. My thing is we have a lot of young guys and I probably have the youngest roster in professional wrestling as far as our company goes. For me to actually let my guys get out there and show how good they really are is what’s important. For me, when I went to WWE, I wanted to compete with the best wrestlers out there and now Reality of Wrestling is going to be able to compete with the best indie wrestlers around the world and I’m really excited and looking forward to it.
Ring Rust Radio: As part of Christmas Chaos this year, Reality of Wrestling created a buzz by bringing in Jason David Frank, known as the Green Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. How do you think the fans attending live and watching on pay-per-view will react to Frank?
Booker T: You know it’s something different. Wrestlers, especially with WWE, the stars always want to be a part of what’s going on. Christmas Chaos is our biggest event of the year and to have the Green Ranger Jason coming in to be a part of it and we don’t even know really what capacity he is going to be playing. But just to have him be a part of the Reality of Wrestling roster for one night is awesome. My son who is seven years old and he can’t wait to see the Green Ranger. Our Facebook page pretty much crashed when people found out that he was going to be there. For us it’s going to be big and he is just the first guest that we’ve announced for Christmas Chaos. There’s going to be more guest to come and it’s going to be an awesome show. I am looking forward to seeing the dream match on Christmas Chaos as well as the stars of Reality of Wrestling going out there and giving 100 percent entertainment.
Ring Rust Radio: Last year, you announced that you would be running for Mayor of Houston in the 2019 election. How are you preparing for a transition into politics and how do you think your story of overcoming adversity on the streets of Houston will help you connect with voters?
Booker T: I relate with the majority of the voters, I think. Everybody is not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. There are only a very small percentage of those types of people, you know what I mean? I think I relate with more than a few. I’m talking to the young people here in the city of Houston, the millennials, the ones that feel left out. The ones that feel like older people think they’re part of the problem as opposed to being part of the solution. I’m one of the guys that say respect your elders, but we are in a time now with social media is such a huge thing and we have to know how to respect our young people and bring them in the fold. We have to let them be a part of the process and not be the silent majority. I think that’s going to propel me to City Hall more than anything. Just knowing what young people want. I walked in a lot of those shoes and they know that. I want to give them hope and inspiration to be bigger and better than they ever thought they could be and I think that’s why I will win.
Ring Rust Radio: Over the course of your career, you've enjoyed a ton of success both as a singles wrestler and as a tag team wrestler with your brother Stevie Ray. Looking back at your career, what phase of it have you enjoyed most between being on your own and being part of Harlem Heat?
Booker T: It’s hard to differentiate between the two actually. They all pretty much just lump together, every phase of my career. It was always about the entertainment and always about taking the role and no matter what the role was, making that role something special, making it bigger and better than anyone to have expectations to the match. That’s what my specialties always been in the wrestling business. Going out there and making my opponent look better than he can make himself look. It’s always about the entertainment and the show at the end of the day. Going out there and giving those fans that ultimate sense of entertainment so when they walk away they go, “Man I can’t wait to go back and watch Booker T do his thing again.” That’s where my head was the whole time. It was always about the entertainment.
