Booker T discussed his controversial promo towards Hulk Hogan during his latest Hall Of Fame podcast.
The promo was from WCW’s Spring Stampede back in 1997 where Booker dropped the n-word as he warned Hogan that Harlem Heat was coming for him.
“Yeah, it was definitely a learning moment, and I’m glad that you took it and used it, as opposed to taking it and using it. Just because I feel like I did make a huge mistake because I looked at myself as a role model. And a lot of young people followed my lead back then,” he said. “If they felt like it was if I was cool with saying it, you know it was cool for them to do it too.
“I always talk about young people and being able to change your levels. Of course, when you’re in the hood, you are going to talk a certain way around your boys when you’re at the ballpark, you know what I mean? It’s all fair game. But in certain places, you’ve got to know how to change your levels, and I was in that place.”
He confessed to just slipping up that day and views it as an educational thing.
“I had always thought about everything before I would do it. And that one moment, that one moment in time, I don’t know. I can’t tell you what happened or anything like that. But I slipped,” he admitted. “But, none of my peers had ever heard me use that word before, and none of them have ever heard me use it after.
“You know, so I just felt like it was definitely a moment for me that I wish I could take back. But every time I have the chance to talk about it, I try to use it as an educational moment. Say, ‘hey man, we’re people understandably, but we’ve got to be able to change our levels, man.’”
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcription