Booker T wasn’t always willing to repeat everything Vince McMahon fed him through the headset during his days on WWE commentary.
During a new appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, the WWE Hall of Famer recalled one particular instance in which McMahon wanted him to use a phrase that Booker didn’t even understand at the time.
Booker was working commentary under McMahon’s regime when the former WWE Chairman suddenly spoke into his headset and gave him a specific line to use.
“I always tell the story of when I was doing commentary my first time around under the Vince regime, and he came into my ear and he goes, ‘Hey, Book, say “much to his chagrin. Much to his chagrin.”’”
There was one fairly significant problem with the instruction.
Booker had no idea what “chagrin” meant.
“I didn’t even know what that meant,” Booker admitted. “First of all, chagrin? I’m thinking about the chin area.”
With cameras positioned around the commentary desk, Booker knew viewers would be able to see him delivering the line. Ultimately, he decided against following McMahon’s instruction.
“I’m just saying, and I look at the camera, got those little cameras that’s looking at us,” he continued. “I knew if I said that, all my street cred would have been gone.”
Looking back, Booker believes the moment was indicative of a larger issue he had during his Raw and SmackDown commentary runs.
“I couldn’t really be myself on Raw and SmackDown,” he said.
That changed years later when Booker joined the NXT commentary team.
Instead of feeding him particular phrases or asking him to fit a specific broadcasting style, Shawn Michaels gave Booker a much simpler set of instructions.
“When I came to NXT, Shawn Michaels was just like, ‘Just be you. Whatever you want to do, just do it.’”
Booker immediately embraced the freedom.
After his first night behind the NXT announce desk, he returned backstage and received some memorable feedback from Michaels.
“I remember after the first night I did commentary in NXT, and I came back through the curtain,” Booker recalled. “Shawn goes, ‘Man, I don’t know what you were saying, but I liked it.’”
Booker’s reaction?
“So I was like, Oh man, I love this.”
Booker remains part of the NXT commentary team alongside Vic Joseph.
Also during the interview, Booker T reflected on infamous WWE TV F-bomb slip and Michael Cole’s reaction to it. He also discussed other topics, including funny memories of famous ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin WWE segments and teasing a WWE in-ring return for a Trick Williams match.
