During a recent episode of his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T spoke on his decision to leave the WWE in 2007. Booker cited burnout with being a top star, the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit having a tremendous impact on him and his desire to start a family. Here’s what he had to say:
It was a pressure cooker being in that situation, having to go out there and perform at that level each and every night. It was no nights off, I was working at the beginning of the show, and I was working in the main event, as well as I was working the dark match which was the advertised main event just for that town, for that city, and I tell you, I was so tired. At the end of that run, I was just like, man, please, somebody just beat me. MVP walked by me and I was asleep on one of the crates one day because I was just so tired. He woke me up and said, ‘Book, you OK?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ He just walked off because he understood the situation I was in.
We had lost Eddie, and when we lost Eddie, that was huge for me because Eddie was a really good friend, we’ve had a lot of good memories together, unspoken memories that none of the boys know about, which is Eddie and I and Sharmell, it was that kind of relationship. And then the Benoit situation, that was another guy, him and I had a really close bond, and then that happened, and for me not to know why, it shook me, it really shook me. Then I started thinking about life, I really started thinking about life.
More than anything, I started thinking about my wife. My wife and I, we were trying to have kids at that time too, and we couldn’t have kids due to a situation and then, I don’t know if it was stress or whatnot, but soon as we left the company, we got pregnant.
You can listen to the podcast below:
Credit: Hall of Fame Podcast. H/T 411Mania.