During the latest episode of the ‘Hall of Fame’ podcast, two time WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T criticized All Elite Wrestling for signing Old School Wrestling Legends “The Big Show” Paul Wight, Christian Cage & Sting recently, claiming that Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling made the mistake of focusing too much on older wrestlers as well.
Booker T is usually very knowledgeable about the professional wrestling business, but he’s very one-sided and biased when it comes to the ‘young talents vs. old wrestlers’ topic, due to him getting his first ever main event push (including his first World Title win) by Vince Russo in 2000, who was known to prefer young talents over established old timers.
In this case, we can clearly see that Booker T doesn’t see the big picture on this subject, because from a business point of view, and pro-wrestling is first and foremost a business, it’s 100% necessary for AEW to sign big names that will draw and bring in fans who have watched wrestling in the past, but haven’t checked out their product yet.
That’s how it works and always has, because the young guys can not get themselves over by beating each other, but with them being in a storyline with a Big Show (Paul Wight), a Sting or a Christian (Cage), they would evolve ‘to the next level’.
With that being said, here’s what Booker T had to say:
“Right now it seems like they’re pulling a revamp of WCW, as far as signing veteran talent, guys well past their better years of their careers. Guys that young guys could take either one of two ways, either these guys are here to help us or these guys are here to take our spot.
I was one of the young guys on the WCW roster back then, I was coming up. I must say, a few of those guys came in, Hennig, Bret Hart, I got a chance to work with them and they gave me some good feedback and I felt a lot of energy from a few guys that came over. But, the majority of those guys that came over from the WWF, man they were just coming to get a check, they were coming to get paid.
If it’s a company and they’re opening and they’re writing big checks, we better get in on this because this thing might not last too long. I remember when I left WWE and I went home and then TNA called, I can remember feeling resentment in the locker room, you could cut it with a knife. It was that big, I could tell these young guys didn’t trust me, I could sense it.
I called a meeting with the guys and I gave those guys a little talking and said ‘Hey man, I know there’s a lot of guys that have come here and say they were here to help. Honestly, actually, I’m here to help you. I’m not one of those guys that comes in here, put myself over. I want to bring you guys to my level and surpass it.’
*Go to the NEXT page to continue reading this article
