WWE Hall of Famer Booker T says AEW Dark is a demotion to some wrestlers.
Booker discussed the importance of wrestlers not focusing on just wins & losses during a recent episode of his “Hall of Fame” podcast. He noted that he was happy working in different positions on the card, but he did not want to work on shows like WWE Velocity or WWE Heat.
“If you’re so focused on winning and losing, being in the main event, being the guy, you’re going to miss out on a whole lot that’s going on,” Booker said. “I say for me, I loved being in different positions at different times. It gave you a different reason to work. So many different reasons to work in those positions. Mid-card guy, I’m cool, opening the show, I’m cool, main event, I’m cool. The only thing I wasn’t cool with was working Velocity, or Superstars, and I never had to work any of them shows. That’s when you should start getting worried, the syndicated shows, Heat, Velocity, Main Event, stuff like that. I never worked one of those shows.”
Booker then gave his thoughts on AEW Dark, but admitted he doesn’t know much about the weekly YouTube series.
“Hell yeah, it’s a demotion,” he said. “I know that’s going to get picked up, but hell yeah it’s a demotion. Damnit, I’m not working on Dark. For me, working on Dark, which is a show that is only on the internet should be for the young guys coming up. I didn’t come from the big how, no pun intended, which I am talking about WWE, I didn’t come from WWE to come to AEW to work Dark. I don’t even know what Dark is, I don’t know who’s on it, I don’t know when it’s aired or anything like that. So, for me to be on Dark, it would make me feel a certain way, me personally.”
Booker did admit he would’ve worked Velocity if WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon needed him to, but he feels like Vince respected him enough to not put him on those shows.
“If Vince came to me and said, ‘hey Book, I need you to work the Velocity show, we need to bump the ratings on that show, we need some star power on it, do you think you can do it?’ What do you think I am going to say? I am going to say, ‘yeah.’ But my boss, he respected me enough not to put me on those shows,” Booker said. “He respected me enough as far as to keep my star power at a certain position. He kept me working around the main event guys. If I wasn’t with the main event guys I was doing something.”
AEW has received some criticism as of late for booking top stars on Dark and Elevation, such as The Hardy Boys, Keith Lee, Toni Storm and Ruby Soho, among others.
Stay tuned for more.
(H/T to WrestlingInc for the quotes)
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