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Though the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble won't go down as having the most intrigue or mystery in the event's history, it did see the surprising return of Booker T, who is technically still an active wrestler but mostly spends his time doing commentary for NXT alongside Vic Joseph. After mentioning that he hadn't been invited to take part in the match about a week before the show, the two-time WWE Hall of Famer ultimately came to an agreement with someone in the front office to secure a spot in the match and add another entry to his Cagematch page.
Discussing how his appearance came into being on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker was nothing but appreciative for a chance to work the show.
“I was so excited, man, just to back inside the Hall of Fame, give you guys a little feel of what it felt like, being in a WWE ring [for the first time] since 2012, the last time I was in the Royal Rumble,” Booker T said via Fightful. “I want to thank everybody. I want to thank everybody in the arena at that Alamodome for showing the old man some love. It was off the chains, it was electrifying. It was unbelievable, man. I’ll tell you, man, I gotta thank all of those guys that was in the Royal Rumble for just letting me participate and getting to back and see what that felt like one more time, just to walk that aisle was an awesome time. For me, I always said I never got that itch to scratch or anything like that, but every time, I always say preparation is the only luck you’re gonna have. For me to get out there and be in front of my students like Rok-C, like my daughter, she was so freaking happy, she’s been singing my song all day. My son was hyped up. But it wasn’t about me. It was about those young guys, it was about all of those guys that was in the Royal Rumble that gave me a chance to have that opportunity one more time to share the ring with those guys, and I must say, it was awesome.”
Though his run was short, and his body was ultimately sacrificed to GUNTHER like oh so many other performers before and after him, it was still cool to see Booker in a WWE ring once more.
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How did Booker T secure a spot in the Royal Rumble? By staying WWE-ready.
Discussing how he actually landed on the show, Booker noted that he wasn't booked when he arrived at the Alamodome, but received a text that changed the outcome of his evening immensely.
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“I was sitting at the table, on the Kickoff Show, and I got a text message,” Booker said. “It was the invite telling me, ‘Book, you’re in the Rumble.’ Me, I’m old school. I went down in the Winnebago, right, so something told me, ‘Bring your gear. Make sure you’re ready. Just so you don’t have to get ready. Stay ready.’ Boom, there it was. The text message came through, I said okay, here we go. Just like when I won my first world title, I had about ten minutes to warm up. So that’s what happened. I wasn’t warmed up, I went to the ring cold. I didn’t have that gloss, I didn’t have the sheen on me. I wasn’t lathered up and ready to go. I didn’t get a chance to jump rope for 45 minutes to get the heart rate up, get the blood flowing. I didn’t get a chance to do that. I would have won that damn Rumble if I would have been able to prepare properly. That last-minute text message definitely slowed me down a little bit.”
Why did WWE leave a spot open for Booker? Well, it sounds like it had more to do with Rey Mysterio not being available for the show than wanting to keep things a secret from the two-time Hall of Famer.
“I didn’t have my invitation yet. I think Rey went down, and I think they had to fill that spot,” Booker said. “Who better to call than me and say, ‘Hey, let’s give Book a shot at this.’ Like I said, I had my gear with me. I’m old-school. All you young wrestlers out there, don’t show up without your gear, man. I won my first singles championship because Rick Martel did not bring his gear. You gotta be ready. I was ready. I was almost ready, and I think I went out there and just got caught up in the moment, that 50-plus-thousand, they were cheering my name. Everybody was wanting it, everybody was feeling it. They had to have that Spinaroonie, so I said let me give it to them early. I didn’t know what I was gonna have in the tank left late in the match. So I said if I’m gonna give then the Spinaroonie, let me do it now because I don’t know how this thing is gonna play out.”
In the grand scheme of things, Booker T's return at the Royal Rumble was a success; he came out to a celebratory crowd in his home state, hit his Spinaroonie, and was eliminated a few minutes later so he could enjoy the rest of the show from the back. Not a bad way to spend an evening when you were already at the show anyway.
