Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T recently took to an episode of his “Hall Of Fame” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including his WCW World Title win at Bash at the Beach and Hulk Hogan’s creative control.
Booker T said, “I spoke about a lot of things that happened to me, now. And that was me winning the WCW Championship. And the thing is, I still think about it to this day as far as, you know, the landscape of how my career could have been changed that one night. Because yeah, creative control was pulled the night that I was winning the World Championship. And my thing is, you know, somebody having creative control can mess things up or really, really start changing the whole name of the game, and the narrative of someone’s career and someone’s future.”
“Say for instance, Hulk Hogan wins the World Title. Okay, Hulk Hogan wins the World Title, let’s just rewind. Hulk Hogan wins the World Championship that night. What did that do for Hulk Hogan’s career? What did that do? He was a multimillionaire at that point in time. He had done movies, he had done everything, he had been a world champ everywhere. What would that have done for Hulk Hogan’s career? I mean, would it have saved WCW? Would the company had not gone under if Hulk Hogan had won the World Heavyweight Championship? Now on the other hand, it was a moment for me that Hulk Hogan came in and was almost took away from me.”
On Bischoff being in the know about the title change:
“I knew I was winning the World Championship at least two or three days before that night. Somebody called me and told me. If I knew that, Bischoff knew it, Hogan knew it, and everybody knew it. And Bischoff, why I’m so disappointed. Bischoff and Hulk Hogan were willing to take away my moment that night. And if I wouldn’t have won that night, who knows if I ever would have won the World Heavyweight Championship. Who knows where my career would have went? I could have went by the wayside just like everybody else in WCW if I wouldn’t have won the World [Title]. As well as, I went on to have a hell of a run as the World Heavyweight Champion, besides all the antics and stuff that I had to do with the title, you know what I mean? You know, stupid angles; that’s neither here nor there. But what would Hulk Hogan have gotten out of winning the World Heavyweight Championship on my night?”
On being disappoiinted in Bischoff:
“Yeah, I’m disappointed in Eric Bischoff. Because he was an accomplice to the crime as far as I’m concerned… Whatever Hogan said, he was going to follow along. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. And I had a lot of respect for Eric Bischoff for many years. But after finding out some of this stuff? Man, it totally lowers the bar as far as I’m concerned. Yeah, I’m the one who should be disappointed in somebody… My thing is, Eric bundled me in with a lot of other people and said, ‘Booker’s copping out, just like everybody else in WCW that don’t like this, don’t like’– Don’t bundle me in with everybody else. I know what I say, and I know when I say it. And the thing is, he should have known it was taken out of context. He should have known that.”
On his appreciation for Bischoff:
“Let’s just say this: Eric Bischoff did a lot for me in WCW. He did. He was the guy that is one of the reasons why I excelled and got so far in WCW. You know, he paid me appropriately, maybe even better when I was in WCW. But that’s not going to make me sit back and not tell things the way they are. I’m always telling it the way it is.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
