On the latest edition of his Hall of Fame podcast pro-wrestling legend Booker T spoke about his infamous Hulk Hogan promo from his WCW days, when Booker accidentally called Hogan a racial slur. Hear what he had to say below.
I talk to young people about this all the time. You got to be able to change your levels. No matter where you’re at, you got to be able to change your levels. You know, just saying for instance, you’re at a cocktail dinner with some important people, you can’t roll in there with your pants sagging or anything like that. You got to go out there and play the part. And for the longest time in professional wrestling, a guy told me a long time ago, you to be able to be the champion in the ring as well as out of the ring all the time, and you got to represent. And I took that to heart. You gotta understand, I’m from the neighborhood. I’m from the hood, and back then when I was younger, when I was around my friends, I would say things like that, the n-word. And it was just a word I would use on the regular. As I got older, and I started realizing what I was doing as far as people that look up to me, but I just flipped out on television. I was getting hot. I was like a Baptist preacher! Good god! I was going to places — ‘Yeah!’ ‘Aww!’ ‘Yeah!’ And then it came out. And I was like oh my god, what am I doing? I got to back up here for a second because there again, I never wanted those people to see me in that light. I never wanted those people to hear me use that term because there again, if I used that word, what gives me the right to tell them they can’t say it? I just felt like I let a lot of people down who looked up to me, and I did not want them to think that that was something that was OK. Because it might mean the difference for them moving up the ladder at their job, or moving down the ladder or getting fired from their job. And it’s just real talk. It’s real talk. I caught myself in the moment, but it’s a moment that I wished I could’ve taken back.
Full episode of Booker’s Hall of Fame podcast can be found below. (H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)
