Booker T & Peter Not Mark

0:00Ladies and gentlemen, it's the world's number one sports and recreation podcast. Gee, Pete, I'm your forever 24-7 champion Peter Rosenberg currently standing on a balcony at Le Majestique. I'm forgetting the whole name of the hotel, but it's shout out to Amex Points. You know what I'm saying? Use some points. Got ourselves a nice room here in Cannes where we celebrated Bastille Day yesterday. it's an incredible firework situation I posted a couple things up on my Instagram and I think Ms. Haddon will as well but I appreciate everybody understanding that I'm taking a little break here little paternity leave, hang in Europe and we'll be back at it next week so I wanted to give you this message first of all we're going to throw up a Booker T interview that I did that was so fun it wasn't particularly timely just a good old chat about wrestling with Booker T and my man Brad Gilmore from a while back that was a Patreon exclusive we're going to run that for you obviously a lot has gone on between the Adam Cole news he'll be out Seth Rollins now out not sure the extent of that yet but super unfortunate moment there whenever the injury did occur now they're saying maybe it wasn't during the match to Saturday night's main event, but prior to that, either way, the timing could not be worse, it seems at least, you know, for Seth, who has the briefcase and the whole thing going on with Paul, and we'll see how long that affects him.

1:37Obviously, from a wrestling standpoint, just props to Seth, finishes the match, or maybe that was always the plan, whatever it was though, But LA Knight getting that win, I think could, even with it being an injury situation like that, I could see this being a moment for LA Knight. I really could see him turning this into something. And that would be cool to turn a negative into a positive, at least there for LA Knight. And from a wrestling standpoint, you know, I watched most of, while Natalie and the baby were sleeping, most of All In and had a good time watching it. I really enjoyed Mercedes and Tony Storm, not surprisingly.

2:19I thought that was an absolute banger. I enjoyed the tag title match. MJF getting the briefcase in the casino royal gauntlet match. And of course, Hangman Page and Jon Moxley being absolute lunatics for 45 minutes in a Texas death match. And the national nightmare known as the Jon Moxley title run has come to an end. and hangman page now with that title i'm excited to see what that leads to you see you see you now have hangman getting the title just as max gets the contract so some fun stuff potentially to do there and obviously mjf and the hurt business still rocking so that's a cool thing on that side then of course you know what many people are saying was the match of the weekend And Eoskye and Rhea Ripley just doing what they do, putting on a magical show at Evolution.

3:14I was, I can't say I regret not being there because I'm so happy to be here with my family. But I am bummed that I missed that one in person because it was a special match between two special, special performers. And it ends with another special performer, Naomi, getting another crack at the Women's Championship. Now I see we're going to get Jade Cargill and Tiffany Stratton at SummerSlam. I'm not sure how we got there because I didn't see. I didn't think that's where we'd go, but hey, we'll discuss that as time goes on. But yeah, shout out to Rhea and Io, a.k.a. Rhea, who just, they're so damn good, man.

3:53So damn good. And now we will see a Naomi title run and what that looks like. Again, I do think it's important that Naomi start gathering some wins. She got the briefcase win, of course, but she's got to beat people, man. And I felt that way for a long time. Naomi is a star, and this whole thing is working really well. Now can we get some W's for the champ? So we'll see how that plays out. And of course, the career of Goldberg comes to an end. And him and Gunther, you know, did what you expected. I mean, I saw Bully Ray on social media from Busted Open really praising that match. I'm not a pro wrestler, so I guess I didn't see the glory of it the way that he did.

4:32though I do think Gunther did a great job handling Goldberg, who really had nothing left in the tank. There was not a lot there. Goldberg was never regarded as the greatest natural talent. Pardon the wind here. But Goldberg was never the greatest natural in-ring talent, and now pushing 60 years old, three years of ring rust, and his last matches were not great. I was almost worried for Gunther in that match, and he just did a great job making it feel realistic. Shout out to Charles Robinson as well, who took the spear. And a solid win for Gunther and the end of the line for Goldberg, which we can analyze more and look back more on his career as time goes on.

5:17But I just wanted to hit you guys real quick with something. Shout out to Emilio, who's getting this up for you quick. We're going to get you a Booker T interview that, if you've not heard, is a real joy. Us just sitting around in Las Vegas having a chat about wrestling. I hope you dig it. we will be back with a new show next week and I'm going to try to get a Patreon done for our patrons later on I'm going to see if it's possible but either way you are so appreciated hope you guys who have been listening on Sirius have been enjoying the radio experience and stoked to get back and get things going and start this new era and we're going to have a lot of fun stuff coming up SummerSlam week so stay mage enjoy yourself and now my chat with Booker T and Brad Gilmore from Las Vegas earlier in the year.

6:24Stay mage and enjoy yourself. Hey, everybody. This is WWE Champion CM Punk. Straight-edged superstar CM Punk. This is WWE Champion Big E, and I'm with my guy, my man, the bald legend himself. Hey, everybody. Daniel Bryan here hanging out with Rosenberg at Rosenberg Radio. Do you want to hear him talk about wrestling? Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Hey, y 'all. What's up? This is Bianca Belair, the EST of WWE. The strongest, the fastest, the roughest, the toughest, the quickest, the greatest, the best. and I'm hanging out with Pete Rosenberg. Oh, oh! Hear that? That's a cheap heat. Ladies and gentlemen, the world's number one sports and recreation podcast, Cheap Heat, is back.

7:08This is fun. This is fun. I'm being honest with you guys. You guys are friends. This is a Patreon episode. You know what I mean? This is behind a paywall. So this is where we can keep it real. You know what I mean? Just give me my cut. No, no. So, Book, I have about$200 coming your way. I'm just saying whatever it is. I don't care what it is. We have from the Hall of Fame radio show, Brad Gilmore. Hey, Brad. What's going on, Pete? And the voice of everything, the Hall of Famer, Booker T. What's going on? How are you guys? Feeling good. Feeling good. Las Vegas, man. It's hot. It's hot as hell. You're hot.

7:43Now, Brad, you're on your way out like I am, right? Yeah, yeah. We're leaving tonight, man. We don't stick around for the fight. You know what I mean? I'm going to tell you guys right now. Sexy red hot. You didn't wait. You don't want to waste any time. You couldn't help but talk more about Sexy Red, could you? He loves her, man. You just love. You were so impressed. I love to shake it real fast, get a little mole. Who fed you? Who told you ski? Did you feed him lines, Brad? I told him about Pound Town. Pound Town. I told him about Pound Town. Oh, you did? I knew someone said it was sex. No one told me about Pound Town.

8:13I told you about Pound Town. I knew someone said something when you said. Did you say ski-eat also or no? Oh, that's the one right there. That's the big hit. Oh, they love skiing. Oh, I was just telling Brad about that. We were talking about it yesterday. I was just telling Brad about that yesterday. I'm serious. No, they love skiing and pounding. Did you get a chance? I saw you posted a picture with Sexy Red. Yeah, me and Sexy Red. Yeah, you guys get to have a nice conversation? Yeah, we'll talk. Yeah. What did y 'all talk about? She's a big fan. She was a fan. Let's just say that. First thing she said was...

8:47Let's just say that. No, no, no. Let's get that out of the way right now. The first thing she said was, I can dig that. Did she say that? That's all we need to know. She didn't say to her. She didn't actually say to you, can you dig it? Did she? She said, I can. Okay. She didn't ask you to, though. Oh, no. No, no. That could have had a different meaning. Her asking you. No, we've delved into that. Yeah. Can you dig it? Yeah. It means so many things. Now, by the way, you know who is a really big fan of you? Who that? Every time I see her in Mention Wrestling comes up, Cardi B. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've heard that.

9:20Yeah, I heard that on your show. Cardi loves her some Booker T. I killed it back in the day, man. A lot of people like Cardi. I know what I'm saying. Over like Rover. A lot of people like Cardi. You really were over like Rover. You know, they was digging it, man. Bad Bunny? Yeah. Now listen, if Booker, if Booker, if you go to the Hall of Fame for a third time, here's what I want them, the two things that I want them to put him in for, two performances. Okay. One, the performance when Sexy Red came out. The first and second time. Both times. Now, the first one, hands on your knees. Yeah, yeah. So on the video, I want them to show that part.

9:53And then the other clip they got to show is his incredible live performance when Bad Bunny performs. And Booker stood with his arms crossed. Are you kidding me? Just like that the whole time. Arms crossed the whole time. I need to get an award for that. I'm serious. There needs to be an award. You should get an Emmy or something, right? Now, how was the old bag, the old check-a-rooski for the Bad Bunny feature? Was that a... Not bad. It wasn't bad, right? Not bad. Not a bad paper. Do you get residuals off that, too? No, I don't. So it's just a one-time thing. It's a one-time. They say, he said, we want to name a song after you and have you in the video or do whatever.

10:31That's it. You just got paid up front. That's it. I mean, I don't talk, you know, bitch. Not details. Not details. I got a nice pay. You were okay. Yeah. Did you know at the time how hot... No, I didn't. I think I put you on game a little bit about Bad Bunny. You were like, no, this is a big deal. He's like the biggest artist in the world. No, but I didn't know how big it was going to be or anything like that. I didn't think it was going to win a Grammy. Yeah, what a Latin Grammy. I didn't think that. Yeah, yeah. That's so crazy. In hindsight, it was 2020. Yeah. Now, did you, let's keep it, because we obviously started somehow music here.

11:04Sexy Red. Yeah. Bad Bunny. Do you remember Master P in the WCW days? I remember that. Did you talk to them at all back in those days? Nah, man. Those guys were on their own little island. WCW actually rolled a red carpet out for those guys. And they had their own little wing. They had no limit soldiers? Yeah, yeah. They brought in their whole crew. All the soldiers. They didn't dress with us or anything like that. So, obviously, they had their own dressing room. But, nah, I didn't talk to Master P or anything like that. Big Swole. We used to hang out with him all the time. He was one of the boys who was actually trying to really transition into the wrestling thing, so we were trying to help him out.

11:46What about Insane Clown Posse? Oh, yeah, yeah, I like those guys. They were around. Yeah, yeah. I talked to Violet J recently, and, man, they seemed really like he couldn't believe that they were there. They seemed like so – could you tell that they were grateful to be there? Because it seemed like they were just like, oh, my God, they couldn't believe they got to be there. I think they seemed, it was a little out of place. But you could tell they was loving what they were doing. As well as they was willing to do anything. Yeah. Especially Shaggy, right? Yeah, Shaggy too, don't pull that. He'd let you do whatever.

12:18He'd just do whatever. Yeah, they was willing to do anything. So I think they were just happy to be, you know, along the ride. I don't think they realized, you know, their star was going to, like, blaze, you know, as quick as it did. And they were going to be a part of something as big as, you know, WCW was at the time. But no, they took advantage of it. We had Jay down on our show. Yeah, not too long ago. Oh, he did? Yeah, he was great. He was down in Houston. He's such a big, because also, he's huge into ghetto boys, and that's kind of what gave them, put the battery in their back to do what they did.

12:49But he was great, man. He did a Reality of Wrestling appearance? He didn't do it for the show. We just did an interview, yeah. Oh, just so he did the show for Hall of Fame. Okay, got it. By the way, you guys, speaking of which, the radio show picked up a new affiliate, right? Yeah, yeah, Nashville. Nashville, 102.5 The Game in Nashville, and we got more stuff coming, brother. There's more happening with this. Way more. Way more. How many days are you guys on right now? Four. Yeah. You're on four days a week now? Yeah. Book, you've messed around and turned this into a whole job, huh? It's an enterprise.

13:18It really is. It is an enterprise. Wait, is the show going on? How long is each show? An hour. Just an hour. You only do an hour, yeah. See, that's great. It makes it easy. It's in and out. An hour every day. I mean, you could do an hour every day. Yeah, four seconds and we're out. We could take more. We can take more. Wow. Okay? We can take more. You'd be willing to go even longer than that. Yeah. Yes, yes. Well, there's another, real quick, one more like wrestling hip-hop story from Book, because I see the picture in our arena, but I don't know the story of you and LL Cool J. Yeah. Oh, please.

13:49Oh, back in WCW, I ran to LL Cool J. I damn near whooped his ass. No. No, no. Did you walk up to him and say no wrestler can wrestle quite like I did? No, I walked up on him, you know, but he was sitting down. and I can't remember what I said but I spouted some off to him you know kind of aggressive like why I can't remember what the jest was but for some reason you can tell when you don't like somebody and I didn't like LLKJ and I rolled up on him and then he stood up and he was bigger than me I rethought everything you know what on second thought I always liked I always liked Boomin' System more than I admitted.

14:33Booker started spitting the second verse to radio. Right, right. All of a sudden, I like radio. Homie, everything. You got a little bit there. No, but he's a big dude, man. He's a big dude. He's a big dude. He's literally taller than me by maybe an inch or so. Half inch. But I was like, you could tell what a man can handle himself to. So I was like, no, maybe we might want to record this. LL dropped a new song today. Did he really? How is he? He did. I got to tell you, I was actually pretty impressed by it. Oh, yeah? It's featuring Fat Joe and Rick Ross. It's produced by Q-Tip of A Trap Called Quest.

15:11There we go. Q-Tip is doing like his whole album. I got to tell you, I was pretty impressed by it. LL doesn't love me. Hey, didn't y 'all have like a beef or something? We had like a joking beef, but I kind of feel like it was partially real on his end. I was always joking. but then one day he came to the radio station and he was recording like drops you know little shout outs for the radio station and I wasn't there and other people were and he was recording a drop for our radio show right so I'm not there but other people are in the room with him and he goes oh you know this is LL Cool J blah blah blah Ebro in the Morning with Laura Stiles and Rosenberg and when he said my name he stops he goes Rosenberg Meatball and by the way all my colleagues they just started laughing they didn't have your back they just laughed everyone just laughed and then he said again he's like meatball and they kept laughing harder it was like dr evil the laugh kept getting bigger as it went on so i think he may not may not have been as in on the joke no i think he's half joking i don't think he appreciates how much i like i mean he's a little cool jay yeah right like sometimes these guys don't know because and maybe book maybe now even you have this experience because now that you talk for a living it changes things sometimes when you talk about people for a living they may hear a certain thing and because you make a joke or whatever it may be not realize how high the respect level still is yeah but like you talk about people for a living even and you're gonna be critical and you're gonna be critical and sometimes you're gonna make jokes like i have a lot listen ll Cool J is such an icon in hip-hop that I have like many different jokes I make about LL Cool J.

16:51Generational. Yeah, because over time there's different versions of LL. And he's so ubiquitous and a part of our lives that, of course, there are things that are funny, but that doesn't mean that you don't think of them as just an absolute icon. You know what I mean? I love LL. Yeah, definitely. No, I mean, for me it was a moment, you know, in WCW for me to actually be and that, you know, the same, you know, shot as LL Cujillic. Who else was it? Because he was huge. I mean, he was huge back then. Did anyone else show up in the WCW days? And how tight was their locker room? Like, in those days, was it hard?

17:30Did a lot of people end up backstage at WCW or no? You know, I think the locker room in WCW was tight. I think we had a camaraderie. I don't remember it being toxic or anything like that. we've heard about toxic locker rooms, especially as of late these days. But no, I think everybody was on the same page. In WCW, I think guys were making so much money. Everybody was so freaking happy. No, because they were all doing their own things. I've heard the stories about, you know, just say for instance, you know, Mark Bagwell. You know, he had, you know, a mansion. I remember Bagwell and Sting was like two of the first guys and Lex Luger, three guys I saw on the road they were bringing their golf clubs.

18:20Get around it. Wait a minute. We're wrestlers, right? They would be able to. So I was like, man, these guys are living large, man. I mean, and there was so many guys that were just living large and getting paid so much money. I don't think they had time to bicker, you know, really. Was that an inspiration? Do you later want to be into golf or no? Oh, no. No, heck no. You always were interested or no? No, I used to play the Tiger Woods golf game. That was it. That was what got you in. I was connected with the brother. By the way, that was how a lot of us got into golf. Exactly. Everybody knew. Everybody knows.

18:50I played the golf game, and actually I had a seven iron, and I used to go to the driving range, and I used to hit balls with the seven iron. And then one day I just said, I want to pick this up, and I started playing a par three course for about a year straight. And that's how I learned how to play golf. Okay, so we just talked about the tightness of the locker room or lack thereof. these days the lot the the backstage at wwe is a mixed bag it depending on the event it can feel like if we're like a random ple in indiana it feels tight there's no one really around right but then at like wrestlemania weekend or royal rumble all of a sudden there's all kinds of people and i'm sure it's only going to change more now in the tko era because it's not wrestling people it's going to be even different backstage will change even more yeah you're talking about more like entertainers and stuff back stage?

19:39Entertainers and, good question, entertainers and hangers-on of other people. Now, there's a story that Book told me, and we can always edit this out. We don't have to use it. I won't say who, although I will say that person has certainly been very open about telling their stories about WWE. There was a person who was often around with an entourage who had a story with Booker that you told me privately. Like I said, you don't have to tell it. We don't have to say who the person is, but it is a great story. about someone who was there. You know the story, I'm sure, Brad. The person was there with their person who was now doing things with WWE.

20:15And the audacity of what they said to you was a crazy... This does show the times when there's too many people backstage. Right, right, right. That's all I'm trying to... Yeah, yeah. No, you know, and the thing is, and you make reference, but let's be completely transparent. Okay. Just because you're talking about the Ronda Rousey story. Yes. And the thing is, I've always gotten along with Ronda very, very well. I remember seeing Ronda at the airport just after her last run, her and her husband. And, man, we gave each other a big hug and whatnot. So I don't even know if Ronda even. She probably doesn't ever know.

20:57My guess would be she doesn't know. She probably never heard the story. but it was when Ronda was making her debut match at WrestleMania and that week coincided with the Masters tournament and it literally The setup here is so great It was early in the day and the Masters, the tournament actually still was on Right, because it was one of those days Masters doesn't finish until like 7.45, 8.00 Exactly, exactly And for people who don't know So, Book is watching. If there's a major golf tournament on and Book is at TV, this is when Sundays was the day. Book's watching the golf. I was watching the Masters as I was watching WrestleMania, but I was deep into what was going on.

21:42And I had it on my phone, and I was sitting there. Where is this, catering? In catering. And I was watching it on my phone, and I was really deep into what was happening. You know how loud a phone goes. It's not that loud. It's not going to be louder than the background here. Right. And a person walked over. And it's golf, so it's like, it's Jim Nance. It's a quiet game. Right, right. It's a quiet game. A person walked over and it tells me, could you please turn your phone off? Because Rhonda's getting ready to make her debut. And I was taken aback. Someone said that to you. Yeah. Someone said it to you.

22:19The Hall of Famer. Yeah. And I knew who it was as far as she was part of the entourage. and I knew that she should have been looked at as a guest. So it was almost like a guest coming to your house telling you to turn your television down in your house. That's a very apropos comp. That's the way I felt about it. I think I politely told her, you might want to go back over there with your entourage because something might happen. How politely did you say that? I did. It was pretty polite. You stayed low-key. It was very low-key. I didn't go overboard. It wasn't a situation where you didn't take your glasses off?

23:00I think I was a little stern. She moved very, very quickly back to her party. But I was just taken aback from it just because, like you say, a lot of people in the back, we may not know who they are and they may be connected to someone. And that someone may be of the higher-ups. And I may not have known that. And that higher up may have more power than I do, and I could end up getting fired for something like that, which I should have felt very, very comfortable in my house watching the Masters. Right. You should have your feet up. It's your house. I think so. Yeah, but that's just a moment. That's just a moment.

23:41I just loved it. I'll say this. Booker, you told that incredibly calmly just now. Brad, I'm sure the first version you heard was a little more colorful. A little more. Way turned up. You know, man. But it's still a good story. No, you know what? No, you know what? You know what he's learning? Book has learned that even on a random Patreon episode, a story you tell, I swear you could add the dirts on Monday. Then I'd get a text from him going, yo, Pete, I thought we did a little bit. Why are we dealing with this? Because they will. That's the thing you guys have to deal with. It's both good and bad.

24:13When you have a legend doing a podcast, they listen to every episode. No matter what you say. Brad knows I can't say anything without picking it up. And by the way, if anyone who knows a book, they could write that you gave the deepest opinion. And I'll read it. I'll go, oh, he didn't even think a thing about that. He didn't even know what he was talking about. He didn't know what he was talking about. He had not seen the match. He hadn't even seen the segment. He hadn't even seen it. He just said words. He was just filling the time to get to the next thing. They don't even know the difference.

24:41He booked it. Yeah. It happens to you all the time. It is crazy sometimes to see the stories that come out and go, like, wait a minute. We talked about that? Like, what are you talking about? Right. You click it and you're like, oh, that's. Oh, that little throwaway moment we weren't even thinking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, like you say, we really have to, you know, watch what we say. And the thing is, I don't want, you know, people to take anything out of context. And I think that's what people are looking for these days. Always. To find something that they could take out of context and then have a thumbnail, a caption, and saying, hey, Booker T said this.

25:16You know, because. Book, there's Davis and Martin in each other's face. You probably wouldn't want to miss that. It's about to get busy, man. It's about to get real busy. Martin's still mad about that flinching incident, I think, from a couple days ago. Yeah, where Javante kind of punked him a little bit. Yeah, Javante punked him a little bit. He flinched? Yeah, he flinched a little bit. A little light punking. Oh, shucky-ducky-quack-quack. It's going to be good, man. I can't wait. Book gets so excited for these fights. I'm serious, man. Okay, I think they're separate. Yeah, no, nothing happened.

25:46Nothing. Do you remember we were here for, one of my favorite moments, we were here for, was it Fury Wilder 2? Yes, we were all here for that, yes. And there's a moment where there's a break in the fight, I think it's right before the main event, and the DJ, who's been playing like classic hip-hop cuts the whole night, decides to switch up the flavor, and he plays Sweet Caroline. Yes. Do you remember this? Yes. Everybody, we're all singing it, we're standing up. Very common at fights, by the way. They play Sweet Caroline, a lot of fights. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a thing you do. and then I look over and Booker's the only person in the whole arena sitting down and he's got this just staring, look at his face and I look over, I'm like what's wrong?

26:23And he just won't even answer me he was so thrown off by sweet characters do you remember this? I have a picture, if I go look at my phone right now I have a picture of Book in that night I don't remember what point of the fight it was, he looked so depressed I think I might have been that moment It might have been, and I might have put it up in my stories and made it sound like it was because Wilder was losing, but really it was just he hated Sweet Caroline. He hated Sweet Caroline. It was a rough night that night. It was rough to watch. We couldn't wait to get out of Vegas that night. That was right before the pandemic, right?

26:56Yeah, it was a couple weeks, a couple weeks before, and that was where Tyson Fury told everybody the whole week, I'm going to walk him down and I'm going to knock him out. And that's exactly what happened. And everybody was like, what are you talking about? There's no way that you're going to walk him down and knock him out, and that's exactly what he did. February 20th, 2020. Wow. Yes. Does this look familiar?

27:17That's the picture. I have it. I have the moment. That's the picture. You guys were sitting right near each other, and I looked over and went, why does he look like that? Why is he so mad that they're playing Sweet Caroline? I'll tell you what, man, poor Deontay Wilder, boy. Yeah, his career's over. His career's over. His last fight was, I think, the true downfall of Deontay Wilder. I mean, he couldn't have crashed and burned any worse than he did. I mean. That knockout was bad. It was vicious, man. It was definitely a horrible night for him. That's one thing that we don't have in wrestling. Because the matches are designed, the ending always looks great.

27:58You know? Like, yeah, Ric Flair loses to Shawn Michaels, but he comes after a hard-fought battle and a super kick. and you don't have an ending like happens in sports where it's just a couple of nasty punches and you're kind of done in disgrace. Yeah, you know, I was looking at a fight way back in the day, and I'm sure you've seen it, Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman. And George Foreman came to the ring with his entourage, and Muhammad came with his entourage. at the end of the fight, George Foreman left, and it was like one or two people with him. And I remember the English commentator saying, nobody mobs a beaten champion.

28:48Bar. It really is a bar. It's deep, isn't it? It's not as cool. It's just not as fun. And it just happened. You were just there. You could have been that guy. Yeah, yeah. That one nine, man, just always gave me chills. Nobody mobs a beaten champion Have you used that yet on television? I think I have You have to have used that Let me ask you this What was your first opinion of Booker Because I think the first time y 'all worked together He called you a Mark, right? She was right, boy I showed that I was wearing Bella socks I don't know what the hell I was thinking I thought your name was Peter I didn't know what to do when he did that line When Booker hit me with the He goes, I thought your name was Peter.

29:36I didn't know it was Mark or something like that. And it took me a second to realize what he did. And it was a double whammy because not only did he call me a Mark, but also I'm like, wait a second, we're not allowed to say words like that, I thought. And then that was the first moment I realized, oh, Booker can say whatever he wants. I'm going to have to figure out what I'm allowed to say. He's going to be able to just say whatever. And I don't even know, at that point in his ear, he probably had someone like Mansuri laughing at me in his ear. Going, he is a damn Mark. I'm sure that's what happened.

30:13I think they told me about the socks. Exactly. They tipped you off? No, not only that. You know what? It might have been worse. I would have been looking for it. No, and you know what? In retrospect, it's probably even deeper than that. I don't remember. my guess would be Mansuri probably told me to do it he probably said you should show them the socks and they told Booker watch out he's going to show the socks that he's wearing be ready for it yo I swear to guys what happened it takes so many years to realize what the hell you're doing sure that it's like I'm playing catch up these guys have all known how this whole thing works for years this is a funny story I haven't told on the podcast so at this year's Hall of Fame we we had they did like an in between show basically I was there to sort of kill time between when Smackdown ended and the Hall of Fame started it was like a 20 minute pre-show but it was completely loose let me open up let me remember the whole class this year so I was I was instructed basically the smackdown ends I'm waiting and they put a microphone in my hand and say go down to the ring area I get down to the ring area I'm looking around like hey what are we doing and within a couple of minutes they just say I just hear the signature in my ear I just hear the then now forever and I'm like wait are we going on the air right now and literally just I swear I've never had this happen all my years WWE they just stuck a mic in my hand and they were like and they started counting me down and they said just Phil just Phil we'll tell you when we have something to go to it's 20 minutes you had a Phil no yeah I mean but I knew it wasn't gonna be 20 minutes it was just gonna be a minute or two oh it was just the top of the show Phil we're gonna go backstage welcome I don't have I obviously don't have a prompter i no one made me notes of anything i just had looked over everything before i get out there so i start talking and i gotta tell you no one ever saw it i never heard anything it was one of the best 20 minute my whole the whole show i killed it except for one part oh i was talking about the the hall of fame and in my transition while trying to remember who everyone getting inducted is to hit the whole class i don't have a monitor with the graphics on me i'm just going off the top of my head i had to remember every single one when i transitioned to those who are no longer with us i included thunderbolt patterson if you can't hear booker now it's because his head is in his hands right now oh man and i included thunderbolt patterson and no one said anything i keep going i do the whole show i walk backstage afterwards and tommy cullen our friend and producer who does everything backstage that you see comes up to me and go oh show was great a show it was perfect you killed thunderbolt patterson i went i did he went yeah he's standing right there you killed him though i went oh no i said what i said did anyone say anything and he said right when you did it bruce just went did pete just kill thunderbolt

33:46so i go oh no i killed thunderbolt patterson oh my god man one man world so i now oh my god i go it's hard you know as a broadcaster it's hard those moments you hate you beat yourself up for a while you think about them for days you didn't do your research well i did i literally did i had a whole sheet and I wrote things about each person. I swear, the honest truth is, when I kept watching the stuff about Thunderbolt, everything they showed was super old and in my brain, I never thought about modern day Thunderbolt Patterson. I knew what he represented, but the truth is, in that moment, I was like, is he?

34:26By the way, everyone I told the story to, I'm not trying to defend myself, I told the story to multiple wrestling nerds afterwards and each one of them responded with he's not dead oh no the thing is uh thunderbolt had been so disconnected from professional wrestling for so many years people thought thunderbolt patterson was no longer with us so and so and so much old enough yeah yeah i think he's very i think he hold on thunderbolt was born he's got to be in his 80s right i think thunderbolt's in his 80s he was born he's 82 82 yeah and and because he's disconnected whenever they would show the montage stuff all the footage was 50 years old yeah so in my brain when i did it it just came out i messed it up right and i'm sitting there beating myself up for it blah blah and the next day and i'm just thinking this is it's fine no one they don't they really wwe is not as crazy as people would think it's not the end of the world i just know as soon as jbl finds out yeah you're never here in the end of this is gonna be so so the next day when i see bruce I see Bruce in catering I go hey Bruce how are you Pete you killed Thunderbolt and I went I know I know I said Bruce just do me a favor and this is me understanding now what it's like there I said Bruce just do me a favor whatever you do don't tell JBL you loaded the gun and handed it to him JBL called you five minutes later I just said A I don't want to prevent I don't want to deny JBL this fun.

35:59He deserves it. This is his pleasure. He's going to be ribbing me for the rest of the day. So five minutes later, I see Bruce just walking directly towards TV Locker. I go, Bruce, don't say anything. And for the next two days, JBL would just, I'm sure the second he saw Booker, he said it. People walk in the room. Hey, Book, did you know Pete killed Thunderbolt? You can't give something like that to JBL. No, no, that's why. But that's my point. Tell him Bruce was the mistake. No, no, no. Tell him it was intentional. The thing is you want to get it out of the way. I just want them to enjoy it. Let's get this out of the way.

36:34Yeah, I don't want JBL to find out later. I got to take it. This is what my, to me, the trade-off for getting to be accepted in this little world is whenever I have a moment where I mess up. Take your medicine. I got to take the medicine. So I just, years ago I wouldn't have understood. I would have run from it. Right. Now I get it. I feed it to them. Like chum. Enjoy it. So all due respect and my condolences. Your condolences? Don't do it again. Don't do it again. I mean apologies.

37:07Oh, man. You can't live that one down. No, you can't. You can't. But shout out to the great Thunderbolt Patterson. And all of the – because there was Liam Maivia. There were a few names that we know every year. Muhammad Ali, of course. Holden O 'Connor went in, I think, right? Yes. I just sit and talk with Thunderbolt for a minute. at the hotel. I hadn't seen Thunderbolt in years since WCW. Did you have a relationship with him back in the day? I didn't, but I know he was managing for a minute there, the ice train, God rest his soul. But Thunderbolt, man, he was the real deal, man. You go back and watch Thunderbolt on some of these talk shows, and man, he really represents the brothers.

37:52He really did. Like, he was doing, like, media and stuff back in the day? Yeah, man. He was doing stuff to where he was the only black man on the stage. And he was really talking about how, you know, a lot of these towns, you know, he would be a main eventer. And he couldn't stay in those same towns. He had to move on. He talked about, you know, rights, you know, and us having our rights. Even back then, man. And I saw how he got beat down. He got beat down because there were so many people on that same panel that was against him. But Thunderbolt was standing there and taking the beating for people like me.

38:33So I just wanted to say that publicly. No, I'm glad to hear it too because I think a lot of us don't have the knowledge. His name did not get thrown around with the important legends the way it should have. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I just happened to, I don't know, one day I was just so intrigued with Thunderbolt Patterson going into the Hall of Fame. I went and looked up a lot of stuff on YouTube, and a lot of this stuff started popping up. And it just made me totally look at Thunderbolt Patterson in a totally different way. He was a hell of a promo, too, man. Oh, man. I went down that rabbit hole of his promos back on WCW.

39:08He was a hell of a promo. But the thing I remember when he was getting inducted and we were talking about on the radio show is when you would say he would be the main event in the town, but the law prevented him from staying in a hotel in that same town. Yeah, yeah. Wow. That's crazy. It says here he did a lot of work. In the 60s, he was doing work down in Texas with Dory Funk Sr., working for Dory Funk Sr., and then he did stuff with Fritz Von Erich, of course, and then it said in 1970 he feuded with Jose Lothario and held the Florida version of the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship. All these years later, by the way, then it says in 1988 he was a labor organizer for Service Employees International Union in Atlanta.

39:59Yeah, it's weird though. You're right, Pete. When Thunderbolt was brought up, he's not brought up with the same reverence that people talk about Ernie Ladd or any of those. Because this is always what happens with the first first. they end up getting left out of the conversation. They almost predate, you know. When did Ernie Ladd debut? I'm not sure. Ernie probably debuted in the 70s, 78 maybe, 75 maybe. But it's just crazy. Like his name. But Ernie was a football player, had his name built as a football player. Different thing altogether. Oh, totally different, yeah. But Thunderbolt, he was a draw.

40:40People used to actually pay money to come see Thunderbolt Patterson. I mean, I remember Thunderbolt Patterson as a kid and how big of a draw Thunderbolt Patterson was. You know, when you heard, I always have a saying, if your name get there before you do, you're a star. Right. We always heard about Thunderbolt Patterson. Really? Before we ever saw him. Yeah, it was one of those times. And by the way, he doesn't predate Ernie Ladd in wrestling. It looks like Ernie Ladd was in the early 60s he started getting older. Yeah, yeah. You know, speaking of great black wrestlers who haven't necessarily gotten their due, now this guy's gotten his due, but every time I get asked about it, I try to mention this.

41:19They have to do a biography on JYD. Oh, my gosh. How could they not have done that yet? To me, that is the no-brainer. Like, the sweet spot of those biographies to me are finding guys who their story hasn't been completely told and the lapsed wrestling fan, if they see them, will say, ooh, I remember that person from my childhood. And I think JYD is the perfect example of that. His story hasn't been fully told. And everybody from our, well, you're younger than me. In my age, in my 40s, people of my age range, even if you haven't watched wrestling a day in the last 30 years, you know Junkyard Dog.

42:00He was such a big star for kids, and his story hasn't quite been told. You know, I agree 100%. JYD's story should be told. I feel like JYD is the greatest. I mean, if we're talking about African-American wrestlers, JYD is at the top. He's literally at the top of the list. And it's not because of his world title wins or anything like that. It was because JYD was the biggest draw that we had ever seen as far as a black man in his business in his time when he was having his run. I really think his story haven't probably been told just because there's always going to be a wonder, are we going to get the masses of people to watch it?

42:54Because these days are people always thinking about numbers. They're thinking about ratings. Of course, JYD has literally probably one of the best stories that you're ever going to hear in this business. I would argue to them, though, I would say, hey, the same reason that you're interested in Macho Man, a lot of those same lapsed fans who know Macho Man, they know JYD. I feel that same way. He was on the cartoon. In WWE, he was a huge star. Kids love that man. You know what? I'm not disputing exactly what you're saying. I totally understand 100%. But I feel like these days, there's always going to be a question in the boardroom when everybody has to take a vote.

43:35Is this the story that we really want to go with? Let's table it. Let's go with the next story. Right. It's always, yeah, yeah. It's always. If there's a question, if it's not sure, let's go with the layup. But then my problem is, and let me just say it clearly, I think the biography work that we do, the doc work in WWE, may be the best work that is done in WWE. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's tremendous stuff. but then we end up going to a lot of like i would rather take a gamble and i know obviously i'm not in the boardroom for a reason but i would rather them take a gamble on a jyd than do a biography from someone who's still in the middle of their career you know like they're that i've never they're 34 that i've never liked i didn't get why like you know do something on i don't know whoever it might be in the like charlotte flair right i'm like she's she's still a kid i mean We still got a run to go on.

44:24I get it. And I understand exactly where you guys are coming from. But it's just always going to be a question. You know what I mean? What's best for business? What's best for business? This is corporate book. He's giving us the corporate book. I really am. Because I was that same guy in WCW. I feel like I was the best guy for the job. You've heard the stories. Talking about who kills WCW right now. You've heard the stories as far as, you know, it's a boardroom full of guys and they all got to vote. And, you know, who should we put the title on? And everybody in the boardroom secretly, excuse me, say Booker T, but publicly it's so hard for them to actually say, let's pull the trigger on it.

45:11One person, if it weren't for one person for me, Vince Russo, I'll give him a lot of credit, you know, for saying, no, let's pull the trigger on this guy. just because he is the best person for the job, it takes a lot of courage in that boardroom for that kind of stuff to happen. So otherwise, had it not been for Vince Russo, all the boys separately might have said you were the guy, but then when they all got there together, people wouldn't have had the balls necessarily. I give Vince Russo the balls for being the guy to step up and say, perhaps being the only guy to really, really, at the end of the day, step up for me.

45:45He was the guy. Let me ask you this. since we brought up your title reign um which the last one is a complicated one to have right what do you see in swerve strickland situation right now because i've been a little perplexed it seemed like from the second they put the strap on swerve he was growing growing everyone sees the potential he's the man and then the the day after he wins the title the next time we get on tv all of a sudden the guy wasn't getting treated like a champion. I just don't feel like he's been treated like a champion this entire run. I agree with that. You know, I don't want to disparage AEW or anything like that.

46:28Oh, sorry. They'll come after you again. You know, the corporate book has to come out. Yeah, but here's corporate book. This corporate book is something right there. I have prepared a statement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like corporate book. What do you got for us? No, no, no, no. No, no, no. I always got to do it like that, too. Pump the brakes, pump the brakes. Now, with Swerve, major talent, major talent, but I agree 100%. You know, I appreciate Swerve getting his flowers, becoming champion. That right there, you know, it puts that question behind him. It's not something that he has to wonder about or talk about ever again.

47:06When are they going to do it? Man, why aren't they doing it? Man, they should have did it. I had to go through that for many, many years. So I understand what Swerve is. from that perspective. But after seeing Swerve being put in that position and not really getting the flowers that I really feel like the championship, like a state of the union after you win the title. They did a full seg celebrating Willow Nightingale getting the TBS Women's Championship that day. And I think Swerve had to have a match. He had a random contenders match that he had to have. Well, I saw something where they had the poster for London, and Swerve wasn't even on the poster.

47:53Swerve wasn't even on the poster. I saw one of their promos on TNT, and it was, you know, and all due respect to everybody, it was Jericho. It was Adam Copeland. I just saw that last week. It was Christian. It was Moxley. And Monet at the end. Yeah, Monet at the end. No swerve. No swerve. The men's champion. He's the heavyweight champion. He wasn't even in the promo at all. And the thing, it just lets me know that almost like, well, we just put you in this position just to, you know, appease the masses. And the thing is, I hate to even look at it that way, as far as them putting him in that position just to appease the masses because he is just that damn good.

48:30Yeah, he earned that. The spotlight has been, you know, on swerve as of late because of what he's been doing. not anybody else his performances his character building everything and then to actually get to that point and not you know I can't say when I won the world championship in WWE just say for instance as King Booker the show revolved around me you know everything was King Booker there's all the spotlight because I deserve that spot and I really think Swerve Strictly we're seeing it with Cody right now yeah yeah Cody's the guy on everything yeah Yeah. And, I mean, I didn't see the full Dynamite show because it was a travel day, but I did see, like, Will Ospreay has the AEW title over his shoulder in a segment with Swerve, and Swerve doesn't kick his ass.

49:22You know what I mean? Yeah. He's like, just because we're boys, I'm going to let that slide. I mean, I can't say that I don't agree with that or anything, but I am happy to see Swerve, like I say, in that position. I would like to see Swerve get a little bit more shine. yeah I would just if they're gonna if you're gonna put the title on a guy I'm not one of these fans who like makes all these rules and believes you have to follow every old wrestling rule of all time but my eyeballs they're just weeks when I realize I'm like I'm not thinking about the champion at all you get and I just don't think that doesn't do a service to swerve or to the title I just feel like one day swerve is gonna have a great run and we're gonna all sort of look back at this run is like the trial run like he's gonna have his title run that really is when he's getting the treatment he should get.

50:07What is that? What are you talking about? I don't know. I'm hopeful for it. Wait, you just said something about that. We were talking about a different world champion the other day, and you're like, look, the first one's just the hardest one, right? Didn't you say the first one helps us? We're talking about Damian Priest. Yeah, yeah. And you were like, the first one, what did you say? The first one helps establish it? Well, I mean, he got a chip in the game. You know, I mean, you got the rub. You're world champion. You know, look here. You're part of the club. Right. You're a made man. It's like winning the Masters.

50:39You know what I mean? Right. You have the jacket now. You have the jacket. You're exempt. You're exempt. All right, let's see if you can go win another one. Let's see how good you really are. Well, you know what? But it's funny. Damian Priest is the WWE example of the same thing. And I get it. I assume they all thought we're going to have him next to Rhea, and he'll be getting the rub also from how over Rhea is. It'll all work together. and then all of a sudden Rio's on the shelf. Now you just have Priest on his own. But he's been stuck in this weird spot where like, you'll have three wrestlers in the ring at the same time.

51:11And I will not know who the bad guy or good guy is supposed to be on any of the three. Yeah. I'm just like, all of these three guys, I don't know if they have problems with each other. Yeah. To him and Drew McIntyre have a problem. And Drew McIntyre is only thinking about CM Punk. Right. So what about Damian Priest, the guy with the title right now? It feels like, and listen, I know Let It Play Out is, but listen, this is what we do. We talk about it. So I feel like this would have been the time to have the Judgment Day implode. Have Finn coming after Damian Priest. Because the Judgment Day is already feeling a little more, it doesn't feel like what it felt like.

51:46No, no, even four or five months ago, right? No, it feels very different. Now, Rhea being gone is part of that, but I would have rather seen the Judgment Day turn on him. But again, we'll see. Obviously, Clash of the Castles this weekend, we'll see where it ends up landing for him. And I think Drew's like a situational babyface right now because of it's in Scotland. By the way, I got to tell you, I'm sick of the international show situational babyface. All of a sudden we're going there. Now they're not a good guy just because they happen to have a show in Scotland. Yes, they are. I mean, they're going to represent their country.

52:15They're going to represent their homeland. But that doesn't make them good here. It does. To them it does. So why wouldn't I be good to my people? Why? Why not? Why would I not be good to my people? No, you will. Because I need all my people behind me. because we finna go win this championship. We're gonna win it for Scotland. I mean, why... So he's gotta start building his way up before he gets to Scotland of look how lovable I am so when he gets to Scotland, everyone can cheer for him. Huge pop. Hey, come on, right? I mean, come on. Give me a little bit of something there. As well as you guys are talking about, you know, Damien Priest.

52:45My thing is, look, I try not to book the show. You have your own shows to book. No, no, no. I try not to book the show. I let those other guys out there, you know, on their podcasts book the show. he just lifted up his glasses and looked at me by the way no no but as foreshad Damien Priest let's pontificate since you're using these big words it's a great word I didn't say pontificate he used some other big words thank you thank you very much alright pontificate then as foreshad Damien Priest for me from a storyline perspective he's in the perfect position um he's in the perfect position for the storyline to play out there again i don't want to sit here and uh talk about how the storyline should and probably will play out after clash at the castle but if these go the way i see them going oh my god man the raid is about to go straight through the roof brad and i were just talking about this earlier inside the hall of fame and and if the story play out the way we think it's going to play out.

53:52Trust me, guys. Just sit back. Relax. It's going to be good at the end of the day. I'm guessing you're talking about, Brad, I guess he's talking about CM Punk? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think we're thinking Punk Drew, SummerSlam. How does that help Damien? Who cares if it helps Damien or not? See, that's the wrestling business right there. Who cares if it helps Damien? We're worried about poor Damien. Where does he land? How does he get a rub from that? I just talked about Damien earlier. I say, look, if he loses it, that means we gotta see if he can work his way back to it again. And at the very least...

54:26He has a chip in the game. He has to run up now. And he will have had it if he keeps it till SummerSlam. He will have had like a four or five month frame with the title. Exactly. That's a King Booker run. That's how long King Booker runs? I feel like it was longer. Like four months? Four or five months? Four months? That's it. Oh, wow. Yeah, my run it was an everlasting run, though. You remember it forever. do you view that one as like the bonus run well it was the run that I created it was the run that I could not be denied I'm the reason why they have the King of the Ring tournament now and the winner actually gets a title shot I'm the reason for that through all my hard work through ruling the Smackdown world with an iron fish I'm the reason for that I'm sorry.

55:17How did that conversation start? As far as? Did they say, hey, we're going to do a King of the Ring and you're going to be the guy? And then you decided to run with it and be like, all right, well, I'm going to go crazy if that happens? Yeah, yeah. Where did the British idea come from? Like the whole thing. Where did that conversation begin? King of the Ring tournament, I think, I honestly think started because I referred to Charmelle as my queen all the time. It was just something that I do still to this day. Right. In real life. In real life. and they go, wait a minute. Why don't we do the King of the Ring tournament?

55:50You might become the King of the Ring. It was literally, I had two matches, actually, maybe one match, and did a bye, and then I won the King of the Tournament. So I didn't even really realize. Everything works for Booker that way, right? You know, but I really think it was all built around Charmel, but it was a moment for me that I could capture in time and say, man, let me create something that's going to be so memorable that no one ever is going to be able to do it again. That's what my thought was. Now, hadn't, and again, you could tell me, I don't know if this is part of a story that you tell, but you told me this recently when we were just hanging out, that you had said to Vince, you were done.

56:28You were tired, ready to go. You missed Charmel. You wanted to go home. And he said, well, how about we bring Charmel? How about we hire Charmel? You know, they brought Charmel in. We didn't really understand, you know, what our role was going to be or anything like that. but she seemed to have, you know, picked it up pretty quick. She fell right into the role. Had she done, in WCW, had she done much character-wise? Yeah, she had worked. She was Paisley, right? Yeah, Paisley. She had worked with this guy named Queewee, and they were like, you know, not like a couple, but a ballet. That's what most people remember her from in wrestling, her run with Queewee.

57:01Yeah, yeah, yeah. They throw you in as an afterthought, sure. Later inspired the Sexy Reds song. A Queewee? I got a good story uh uh Charmaine got a I don't know what a DM maybe I don't know some kind of message from Kweewe because he wanted to do an autograph signing with them together and I said I will kill this man DMing my damn wife about wanting to do a damn autograph signing man let Queen Wee have a moment let him get something man let him live bro come on boy wait so she had done some stuff in that regard but then Vince says I'll hire Charmel and then you're like alright well now I don't even have a reason to go away because I'll get to be traveling with my wife and you guys were newly married yeah yeah when you're having kids or anything like that so it was great for us you know what I mean we had the time of our lives actually being together and King Booker, that was literally like my best time, you know, having my wife with me on the road full time, and we really was ride or die.

58:15It was cool, actually. But I think what people forget about Charmel, too, is she was in, because she came over originally in like 02, right, to WWE, and she was in that 02 class with Brock and Batista and Cena and Shelton. She was in that OVW training class. Oh, really? And then what happened? She blew her knee out. Blew her knee out. And then she had to move in with me. and that was that you ain't working that's it you know you you bitched and and and so then she comes back now did she only come back but she came back prior to you guys doing king of the ring she came she came back was managing you oh yeah we did some double current angle uh all right mysterio i guess and she was just doing regular valet just coming out with you yeah she was just we had the angle was so cool uh because we first started with chris benoit and uh because we want the wine we were friends and uh charmel was doing an angle where she was doing stuff behind my back where i didn't see it but i would get the wind and i would you know so i didn't know it i remember that yeah but cheating for you without you asking for yeah but but at the end of the day i really didn't know it so then that's when we became like the hill couple you know and you know started our run which is really really cool and then and then so you think that they basically heard you saying my queen in real life that had to be what it was yeah and they said Why don't we try this as...

59:33Let's just do the King of the Ring tournament and make Book of the Keys. So whose idea... Yo, Flex. I got to say goodbye to DJ Flex, guys. Hold on, podcast. This is my guy. But you know what? It is right, Book. When I looked it up just now, you had two wins in the King of the Ring tournament. It was only two. It was you beat Matt Hardy. He beat Matt Hardy in the first round. Let's look at this joke of a run that he had. He beat Matt Hardy in the first round, and then he got a second round bye. And then beat Bobby Lashley in the finals. Well, but he did beat Bobby Lashley. I'm sure he cheated. Yeah, he definitely cheated.

1:00:08No, he cheated. So essentially bye. He beat Matt Hardy, got a bye, and then probably cheated to beat Bobby Lashley. Who cares? Who cares how you win? I talk to these young guys about this. You don't care how you win. You just want to win. Now, did you right away then go, I'm going to start talking with this British accent? Yeah, where'd that come from? I mean, if you watch the coronation of King Booker, I didn't have any of the accent. I didn't know exactly what the role was going to be or which way I was going to take it or anything like that. I think what happened was I was watching The Last King of Scotland with Forrest Whitaker, and that totally blew my mind.

1:00:52And I go, that's King Booker. That's who King Booker is right there. From that point on, I start studying, you know, like the Pope. certain, you know. I love that he studies the Pope for a wrestling angle. Of about a king. Yeah, about a king. About a king, by the way. Now, for the record, I'm watching. About to be so majestic, man. The Pope is quite majestic. Charmel is immediately already, like, owning. I'm watching the coronation. She's very much owning the, like, over-the-top royal look as she puts it. But I was still ghetto. I was still, like, I had the crown kick to the side. You know what I mean?

1:01:30Let me hear what you said. Let's hear what you said. Hold on. This is when the microphone. Let's see if this works here.

1:01:38Thank you all. Thank you all. My loyal subjects. Just like regular accent. Yeah. Well, I picked up a little bit by the end. A little bit. But look at it. See, I totally lose it right there. Bobby Lashley. See that? I'm just reading the lines. Bob Cobb. Far top, far top, far top, far top. WCW champion. Booker T is your new man. See, I'm still calling myself Booker T. I wasn't King Booker at that time. By the way, Sharmel just sold it. She was so happy. She just sold the hell out of that. And by the way, your accent completely went away. Yeah. Like three seconds in, it's gone. You had it for about two seconds.

1:02:25Oh, man, that character evolved into what it became. I tell you man I interviewed him for the first time when he was King Booker at the radio I gotta go find the interview I have it somewhere for some reason it was like at a club I don't know why they had you guys doing media at this weird spot but like it was in DC I was doing DC radio at the time and I don't remember it was random but I know they were both there that's crazy I was by the way I'll be so embarrassed to go back and listen this is when I was like I had just gotten back into wrestling as an adult. So you know what? I don't know if you've had this experience now.

1:03:03There's nothing worse than meeting an adult who just got into wrestling as a smart fan. So they really don't know shit. Like even as much as I still don't know shit. You really don't know shit. But you're like, no, no, but I'm into it in a different way now. I get it. I'm going to use the words. I don't even want to go back. I was probably super cringe at that time. But that was such a fun run. Yeah. It was my most fun run. This would be more of a Charmelle question, but were those like her real gowns and crowns from when she was a pageant girl? Yeah, exactly. It went back to her pageant days, and she actually had a chance to finally use that stuff, because it was just collecting dust in the closet.

1:03:46Because she won Miss Black America in 92. Yeah, yeah. 90. Wait. 91. Okay. She won after Tyson Desiree. It was the Desiree year? Yeah, Tyson year. Yeah. It was the Tyson year. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's like being Forrest Gump. Like, in terms of the history, like. I remember there's this one scene where Mike Tyson come in. The video where they show him looking at the girls? Where he meets all the pageant girls. You know, we got the video at home. You know, VHS. You know, we used to pop it in back in the day. And Mike Tyson rose in. and I always mess with Charmell, you know, with Mike Rowland.

1:04:29I go, look at your ass, cheesing. Because if you haven't seen this, it's in a lot of the documentaries. Mike walks in and the reaction is all the girls are very excited to see Mike. Obviously, the way the weekend played out and how much that changed history is a crazy thing, but in that moment, yeah, all the girls are cheesing in that moment when they see Mike. Look at your cheesing, your ass off. That is crazy that she won in the pageant against Desiree Washington. Did she remember Desiree Washington at all? Oh, yeah. She didn't have quite good things to say about her either. She wasn't a big fan?

1:05:03No, not at all. Wow. That is such an interesting piece of history to be near. Wow. And think about you. Miss Black America, Booker. Good for you, man. I mean, you know. Look at you, man. I'll kick in his coverage. I mean, you know, overachieving. And by the way, not only overachieving, but think about how weird an anomaly this guy is as a wrestler. Yeah. That he said his favorite time was when him and his wife were on the road together. I mean, we slept in the car one time. I think we were in maybe Jersey or somewhere. And we had like about three, four hours, you know, to get. That was before we was married.

1:05:44I guess we were married. But before you had kids. So it didn't really feel like you were married. No, the thing is, we had about four hours to catch a hotel. And I was like, man, we should just sleep in the car. You know what I mean? She was like, yeah, maybe we should just sleep in the car. And that's what I knew. I was like, man, this is the right one. When we slept in the car together. You mean when she was like, no, I don't need a hotel. The fact that she just said, no, let's just go to sleep. No, no, as well as, you know, when I got into this fight one time. And she backed me up. You know what I mean?

1:06:16She got some punches in and whatnot. We ain't got to talk about the fight or anything. Right. But she was there. That's what I do. She jumped in. That's what I do. I had the right woman more than anything. I'm serious. No, but I'm serious. To me, it's such an amazing story. Most guys would not describe the most fun run that they had was on the road with their wife. It would be quite the opposite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a great time, man. We really did. I remember one time we were in Canada or somewhere, and we was, I don't know, maybe on the 20th floor or something like that, but it had like an overlooking, you know, the bar area, and we were looking down, and I remember, you know, Matt Hardy was, you know, wrestling somebody, and all the guys was drunk, you know, and me and Charmaine, we were looking at them, and I go, look, baby, we living it up.

1:07:02She goes, what the hell are you talking about? It's that type of stuff, you know. It's those moments, you know, with my queen, you know, with just her and I, you know, and, you know, against the world. It was a great time. I just think also, I keep thinking back now to how Book described the King of the Ring thing. WWE at that time was so white that when they heard him use the term queen, they'd never even heard of terminology like this. Oh, right, man. By God, he said it's queen. I never heard anything. It's like getting invited to the cookout. Wow, we should do something with this. We got to do something with this queen.

1:07:36Queen, are people saying that, queen? That was just my respect, man, for my queen, man. Damn right. And it led to something big. It really did. It led to something special. Because, you know, we talk about the King of the Ring tournament, and I'm quite frustrated sometimes when we talk about the King of the Ring just because I feel like my run was the best run in the history of the King of the Ring. Strong. That's just my opinion. And I know that's just my opinion. What about King Duggan? but I get compared to you know this King Austin's you know what I mean guys like Bret Hart but their runs didn't their runs are afterthoughts in their careers your run is a major part of your career you made the most the point isn't how many matches you win during the run the point is how many people remember the run now and the only reason they remember the Austin run is because of the promo that's the promo that's what we talked about the other day I get that And for me to have to sit back and listen to these comparisons, sometimes it's frustrating.

1:08:45I hear you. Just because I know how well of a job I did, I know I was the best king that ever. I'm trying to think of what reasonably could be in the conversation. King of Hearts? King of Hearts. Owen was... Savage. Macho. Yeah, Macho. Anybody that comes close, for me... Macho King. He changed his character, and him and Sherry running with that. It's a whole thing. Savage will be the only one to come close. That's it, for me, in my opinion. That's a great point. But Savage, he wasn't the world champion, right? No. When he won the King of the Ring? No, no, no, no. He was the Macho King, no. Yeah.

1:09:14But the fact that he was, and like King Booker, he became the Macho King. Right. Exactly. I have the shirt. It's one of my most treasured shirts. They made merch for it that's just Macho King. No, I mean, he was the one guy that embodied. I mean, I took so much from Macho Man, I must say. The pinky finger actually came from the Macho Man doing the one finger. I just changed it. Yeah. And with the pinky finger, people always used to say, what did that mean? I was just taking a little bit of a macho man, you know what I mean? Was he cool by the time you got to know him? Oh, he was very, very cool, man.

1:09:49I learned so much just getting in the ring and working with macho just for a minute as well. Okay, here's my question. I need you to tell me this. We'll close with this. So the other day I had a conversation on this podcast about the rapper Ghostface and how much I love Ghostface because Ghostface, like, he's not playing a character. He's the real deal. Like, the line of where rapper ends and human begins is completely lost. And the comp that I came up with without ever having met the man was Macho Man. It seemed to me that even when he was being the guy, there still seemed to be some of the character.

1:10:31Is that true? or were there times when he was literally just Randy Poffo? He didn't remotely seem like Macho Man. He was just completely different. He was always the same guy. Always. Yeah. Sounded, always had the gravel. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know anybody else other than that one guy. I don't know Randy Poffo. I don't know if he has a different persona other than that guy who was all the time. So even backstage, just hanging out, he was always? All the time. he was always that guy. I don't know if that was a persona or if that was a character he was playing. If it was, it would have had to have been very, very hard to keep up with that all the time until the lights go off and you're around.

1:11:18It would be, that's almost like a Robin Williams type, like, you know, character where you turn on all the time. You know what I mean? It has to be, it has to do something. I didn't see that. I thought he was that person. That's what I love. That's what I love. I mean, dude, even when late in his career, his beefing with Hogan, the rap thing. Oh, man, the rap song is over, man. Be a man over. That's it. By the way, he's very simple. He just wants you to be a man. Be a man. Just do the right thing. Hogan, be a man. Guys, this was a new one. How did you put that one line? Give me that one line. I knew all along you had those tendencies.

1:11:54Is that a bar? It's from Macho. In the rap? Yes. Why you got to do it? Because I said you got to move along. Yeah, I don't wait for a little. You got to be all sideways. Yeah, Brad gets started playing the little piano up there. Yeah. I knew all along you had those tendencies. It's a bar, man. But you've been running from macho like I got a disease. I love it, man. Gosh darn, I'm so sad. I missed the window. I was so close to getting to like, there should have been, because he didn't die until 2011. 2011, yeah. I know, I know. It really bums me out. You never listened to the album? I've never listened to Be a Man, the acclaimed album.

1:12:31I gotta go listen to Be A Man Is it streaming? Are they streaming Be A Man? He's got some hard bars Is that true? He really does We actually played one of the records on the radio one time And Booker and I were kind of freaking out We were like wait a minute this song is kind of going right now No no Be a man hook Be a man There it is Be A Man song Macho Man Randy Savage I mean you have the Mr. Perfect tribute on the album Yeah my perfect friend Whatever they call you, I'm coming after you. Go ahead. I think it ain't overplayed. You set it off. Set it off. Used to be hard off. Now you're done.

1:13:08Turns off. Doing telecom commercials. I send ya. Can't tell you that there's a ballerina. I do one along. You ain't those tendencies. But you've been running from black to like I got a disease. Yo, oh my God. Bosh actually has the voice for this shit. He could have. Bosh could have went fucking double platinum. He had to write people behind him. No, Macho Man is definitively better than that sexy red Drake song that's out right now. All right, on that note, guys, thank you. I appreciate you both. Thanks, Pete. Booker T and Brad, Hall of Fame. Thanks, guys.