If you're a fan of professional wrestling, especially one who got into the sport in the heyday of the Monday Night Wars, you're probably familiar with the Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T‘s addition to the post-wrestling media landscape that runs through the greatest hits of professional wrestling past, present, and future
And yet, on occasion, the podcast is also good for another thing, too: drama.
That's right, on the March 14th edition of the show, Booker decided to let it slip that he may or may not have had a little backstage “run-in” with CM Punk at NXT, something he declared that the “internet might want to pick up.” While he didn't elaborate on the matter further, telling his co-host Brad Gilmore that they'd discuss it further off the air, that didn't stop fans from making assumptions one way or another, with both men's track records weighing into the situation accordingly.
One week later, Booker T decided to set the record straight, letting fans know that he doesn't hold any ill will towards Punker and actually considers him a friend.
“I saw somebody said, ‘I just want to see you and CM Punk have a fight.’ Look, me and CM Punk, we won’t be having a fight, okay? I want to let everybody know out there, I have no ill will towards CM Punk. Contrary to popular belief, I consider CM Punk a friend,” Booker T noted via Fightful.
“So when I’m saying something about CM Punk, do not take it literally, like the internet and these sites do. Don’t take it seriously. Don’t jump into that mud. If you hear me say anything here on ‘The Hall of Fame’, it’s show-related. I’m trying to entertain my fans. I’m trying to entertain the fans that’s watching this. I’m trying to give you guys a moment where you ain’t got to think about that kind of stuff. Alright? So let me say something about CM Punk, Corey Graves, Michael Cole, Brad [Gilmore], don’t jump into the Internet mess, alright? So let’s just get that out there right now because that story, that 40-second story that people wrote, it was clickbait. That’s what it was, more than anything. Did I put it out there? Did I say it, as far as I had a beef, I was going to run up? Yeah. I said it. I’m entertaining, guys.”
Alright, is it unfair for Booker T to call stories clickbait when folks were reporting on what he literally said; what he literally asked the internet to pick up, no less? Yeah, when it comes to reporting the news, that's about as clear-cut as it comes, even if he was joking around at the time. Still, one has to wonder why Booker said the statement in the first place, and why he apologized now. Quick, someone get NXT Anonymous on the case.
Booker T reveals that Sami Zayn was upset about his Gauntlet reaction.
Somewhat lost in the drama of Booker T's initial comments about CM Punk, the former member of Harlem Heat also had some interesting comments to share regarding Sami Zayn, the new number-one contender for the Intercontinental Champion.
Spending some time together on a plane ride to Orlando last Tuesday, Zayn revealed to Booker that he was upset over the reaction he received from fans after beating Chad Gable in his Gauntlet match on RAW, with the typical fan favorite actually getting heat online for robbing the leader of Alpha Academy of his rematch with Gunther.
“I talked to Sami Zayn on Tuesday morning. We were flying to Orlando. We were sitting next to each other on the plane. Like you said, so many people were pulling for Chad Gable in that match. I said, ‘Sami, what a match. You’re going to look back on this one day and say that was the one that catapulted me to the next level. That was the one that put me in the light and let people see exactly what I can do,’” Booker T noted via Fightful.
“He was so, literally upset, about the online heat that he got from fans. He was like, ‘I thought the fans love me. Then I see all this stuff.’ I said, ‘You can’t listen to that white noise. You have to think how great that match was and you’re going to look back one day and say that was some really great work.’ He was still feeling like he let someone down just because the fans didn’t think the match was as good as I thought it was. I thought it was excellent.”
Fortunately for Zayn, it looks like Paul “Triple H” Levesque saw that online heat too and actually incorporated it into the storyline, with Gable telling the “Underdog from the Underground” that he can't beat Gunther ahead of their contract signing. And depending on how this shakes out, the storyline could be all the more interesting for it.
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