Interview: Booker T on Reality of Wrestling, Charmed, and Favorite Films

WWE Hall of Famer Booker T is bringing his Reality of Wrestling promotion to Las Vegas. On November 19, 2021, ROW is putting on its One Night in Vegas show that will feature two big championship matches, plus appearances by Boogeyman and Disco Inferno. Tickets are on sale now, and it will also stream live on the Reality of Wrestling YouTube for free.

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with pro wrestling legend Booker T about Reality of Wrestling’s Las Vegas debut, his acting appearances, and how his favorite films helped shape his wrestling persona.

Tyler Treese: We have such a huge Reality of Wrestling event coming into Vegas. One Night in Vegas on November 19th at the MGM Grand Conference Center Premier Ballroom. Rundown this card: you’ve got a big championship match. You’ve got the triple threat Diamond’s match. There’s a lot of exciting prospects to watch here.

Booker T: The main event, it was planned to be Will Allday versus Cam Cole, but Cam Cole had some other obligations. So Danny Limelight, one of the indie guys out there that got some time in AEW as well, is going to step right in and fulfill that spot. You never know, you may walk away a new champion. A guy first time stepping into Reality of Wrestling and he has a chance to win the Reality of Wrestling Championship. So that’s going to be really, really awesome as well as the triple threat Diamond’s match for the Diamond’s Championship. Rachel Rose, she is our champion, but Promise Braxton, she’s somebody out there that’s coming up. All of my students are coming up, Alex Gracia, is going to be in that match as well.

It’s just all about showcasing my talent to the world and then the world see what we’re doing at Reality of Wrestling, more importantly than anything. Guys like Mysterious Q guys, like Edge Stone, guys like Ruthless Ryan Davidson, Bryan Keith, the fastest kicks in the south, will be a part of the show as well. But it’s going to be a lot of surprises. You can’t kick off a show in Las Vegas without having someone of a Sinatra status, like the Disco Inferno. So it’s going to be a party. Coming off Halloween coming up here in a bit, the Boogeyman is still going to be lurking somewhere in the building. So it’s going to be a night, a fun festivity. It’s going to be a show first and foremost. People gotta be able to see it live on our Reality of Wrestling YouTube channel for free. Just because we want to show the world what we’re trying to build from an independent standpoint, we are the AAA of professional wrestling and to get to that next stop you gotta stop at Reality of Wrestling first.

I love that you’re doing so much to give back to the future generation, to give these chances to these up and comers, and streaming it free is such a great way. Seeing it in Vegas is going to be amazing. You also have some great meet and greets with Boogeyman, as you said, and yourself. You two had that great WrestleMania 22 match, and it might not be your greatest match from like an in-ring standpoint, but it’s a moment and WrestleMania is all about those moments. How great was that getting to share a moment with your wife, who was in that match as well?

You know what. That word you just said? I use it all the time: a moment. When you have a moment, it presents itself sometimes, one time, and then it’s gone like that. So you gotta make the best of every moment that you have. Especially for me, wrestling has always been entertainment and to share the ring with Boogeyman, to share a WrestleMania stage with the Boogeyman. I had done so much in my career up until that point, and I just felt like it wasn’t about me. It was about giving Boogeyman a moment that he was going to remember for the rest of his life.

And I tell you, man, that guy we’re the best of friends, but it’s not a month almost that don’t go by without Boogeyman, well, Marty Wright, that’s his real name, calls me and goes, “Man, I really appreciate everything you did for my career.” Because he’s still working and doing stuff right now because of people like myself, people like JBL giving them that spotlight, knowing what it meant to go out there and work for the Boogeyman, just like it was no different than going out and working for the Undertaker. Make this guy bigger than life, and that’s what wrestling is all about. I teach my students all the time. All of my Reality of Wrestling students, I teach them [that] it’s never about you. You could be the most selfish wrestler in the world but know that it’s never about you at the end of the day and you win. The ones that don’t pick that up, they don’t stick around very long at all.

You know this was almost 20 years ago, but you were in an episode of Charmed with Scott Steiner. The battle ends with you like falling into the depths of hell with Scott. What memories do you have of that experience?

Alyssa Milano [laughs].

That’s the memory that I have of that. Because I remember I was on top of her like this here, but I remember what she told me after we finished shooting. Alyssa Milano, she told me you really have great timing and you could do this if you want it to. I was so I was so taken aback by that. I was like, “Wow, man. Someone like Alyssa Milano is telling me I could act if I really put myself into it, if I really threw myself into it.” So I was like, wow. So for her to give me that, that little bit of a nudge of courage, man, it was really, really awesome. That’s what I remember mostly about that whole thing.

That’s awesome. I know you had a role in a film about a year ago. Is that something you’re going to keep on pursuing a bit?

Penance Lane. Yeah, man, that was awesome, man. It’s not something that I’m trying to pursue like on the regular or anything like that, but if I get a role that comes to me, like Shaft. I’ll take The Last Dragon. I’ll take it. But it’s not something I’m looking for because I’m really trying to build my company, Reality of Wrestling. We’re trying to take this thing to another level. We want to be able to tour Texas. We want our own territory, which will be just based here in Texas, but to be able touch different places here and there is something we want to do as well, but we want to make our small company, Reality of Wrestling, as big as we possibly can and still stay small, still stay independent.

Still fuel companies like AEW, companies like WWE, and New Japan with the fresh talent that’s coming up. Teaching these guys to the the what not to do’s in professional wrestling. Giving these guys some philosophies and thought processes and blueprints to actually go out there and get into the crowd’s head. I tell my students, when you can make a real tear come out of a fan, that’s when you know you’re working. That’s when it becomes Shakespeare. That’s when it becomes something totally real to you. For me, people can say wrestling is what it is or what it was, but for me, it was always real for me to try to make it feel as real as possible to you watching it.

So when you leave, you go, “Man, I can’t wait to see Booker T again. I got to buy the t-shirt man.” You know what I mean? “I got to meet him.” It’s that kind of stuff, and you don’t get that without making people feel. November 19, we plan on making the world feel that watched that show and say, “Man, this company is not like AEW, not like WWE, but man, this is pretty good.” If I’m a young guy, that’s looking to be a part of something, Reality of Wrestling is your first stop.

You’re going to inspire the fans on November 19th, and you mentioned Shaft earlier. I heard that inspired your, “Can you dig it, sucka?” catchphrase?

Richard Roundtree was a huge mark in our family. We looked up at Richard Roundtree like he was Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, and like that. To see him whooping somebody’s ass, the regular man in New York as well, because that’s where the Harlem Heat came from. Because we was like, “Man, we gotta be somewhere like tough.” You know what I mean? If we were the Houston Heat, we’d have to wear cowboy hats, cowboy boots, like Brooks & Dunn, but Harlem, Roundtree, Shaft. All synonymous with everything that I’ve done throughout my whole career.

You had this great run in a TNA with the Main Event Mafia. You had this great accent during that period. Was that kind of inspired by Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland?

Man, it was. It really was. Last King of Scotland was a character that I studied when I was doing King Booker. So when I went to TNA, I said, I want to do something. I want to have like an African accident. And I thought it was cool because with wrestling, wrestling is to be embellished. If you take wrestling too serious you can really lose focus on what it really is, but you gotta take it serious at the same time. So it’s really a balancing act there when you’re trying to entertain fans. For me, that’s what I am. I’m an entertainer. I can’t say that I’ve ever did any real wrestling training. Like Greco-Roman or collegiate. I tell my guys, “You don’t actually have to know how to do this. You just have to act like you knew how to do it very, very good.”

Exactly. You were working with Kevin Nash a lot during that time and he seemed to be having just so much fun. How was it like working with him during that time period?

Man, I love working with Kev. I remember I was doing this skit one time and it’s with Kurt Angle. We was getting into it. We was going back and forth, and I was talking about my African accent. Kevin jumps in, he goes, “Sharmell, get your husband outta here!” We was having so much, big Kev and I. That’s my big homie. We left TNA at the same time. We showed up at the Royal Rumble in 2011 at the same time. I remember it was the contract disputes going on back and forth, contract. Kev calls me and said, “Book, what are you going to do, man?” I said, “Man, I’m going to the Rumble.” He goes, “You know what. I am too, bro.” We showed up the same night. We’re good friends, man, really, really good friends.

One of Reality of Wrestling’s big success stories is Rok-C, who is the Ring of Honor Women’s Champion right now. We just got the news that Ring of Honor is going to be restructuring. I was curious if you had any thoughts on that?

It sounds not too good. I was reading they’re selling the library. Rok-C, though, I tell you, she’s got her moment in the sun. Such as I with WCW when the company closed down and I was the Heavyweight Champion and the United States Champion. It’s something that will be held forever. It will never change, so Rok-C, no matter what, she’s in a good position and she’s talented. I don’t think she’s going to have to worry about finding a spot in this business. She might have to wait a minute, just because the influx right now, wrestlers getting contracts in WWE and AEW, it’s going to have to slow down sooner or later, but talent cream always rise to the top. She’s definitely that. She’s the diamond, not in the rough, she’s polished and she’s ready to go. The youngest Reality of Wrestling champion in history at 16. At 19, the first ROH Women’s World Champion. She’s got a bright, bright future.

But as far as ROH goes, man, I’ll tell you, it’s a rough gig. I see them talking about structuring from an independent standpoint. Maybe that’s what they should have done from the beginning, because trying to be like WWE, trying to be like AEW, you gotta have a huge bankroll. Keeping something like that together, I can only imagine how hard it has been since 2002 for those guys.

Rok-C is obviously going to be a star. What I’ve seen lately, Bron Breakker has been looking amazing, and NXT 2.0 is really putting a focus on a lot of younger talent. Who has really stood out for you that you see, as somebody up and coming, that just has that star potential?

Breakker. Bron Breakker. Rick Steiner’s kid. I watch that kid go out and perform, and he works at a very high level and he’s a young kid. He’s very young into the business. It’s not something that he’s been out there doing like on the independent scene, like a lot of these guys did for so long and they got their shot down there and then succeded. He’s fresh, he’s new, but you can tell he’s a natural. It is in his DNA.

I watched him do things that myself and his dad did in the ring and only him, me, and his dad did these things. I go, wow. I almost had a tear come out of my eyes last week watching him work because he did a move that only me and Rick Steiner, in the business, has ever done that move. I watched that kid do it, and I was like, well, I’m not going to say what it was or anything like that, but I was like, “Wow.” It was unbelievable.

Awesome. You have a great podcast, The Hall of Fame with yourself and Brad Gilmore. I know he’s a huge Back to the Future fan. You mentioned Shaft, are there any franchises that you’re just as passionate about that you’re a big fan of?

Rambo, First Blood. Rocky. Terminator. Those type of series. That that was my era. That’s what I grew up with. I’m still to this day, I was just looking at the director’s cut of Rocky IV that’s going to be coming out. I can’t wait. They’re taking out the robot and a lot of different things I can’t wait to see exactly how it plays out. So yeah, I’m a huge movie buff. My whole wrestling career has been pretty much created from movies that I’ve seen. Just about every time I was doing a promo, I used a line from some movie that I would stick in there or I’ll say it the way I heard someone said on television or a movie that I watched. So I’ve never been myself on television. I’ve stole everything that I’ve done throughout my wrestling career. Even my moves I got, I stole from somebody. I just made them my own [laughs].

My last question here, Roman Reigns has been killing it for months now. I think he’s on the best run of his career. A lot of people don’t see pro wrestling as high drama, but if they would watch his storylines, it’s just as good as any TV drama. Can you just talk about the performance he’s putting on and how he’s just really come into himself?

Well, I’ll tell you any young guy or girl out there doing this. They could look at Roman and learn. I always said, Roman was my guy. I always said how talented Roman really is. And people don’t even think about it. They look past it just because they [are] listening to the internet and people. The world is so toxic right now. But for me, I look at talent and talent only. And base that talent on not how good they are, but how good they make the person in the ring they’re working with that night. Roman, everybody that he works with, they’re a better worker with him than they are with anybody. They had the best matches with him, then they do with anybody, and when they go back to work with those other guys, you don’t see the great stuff like you saw in that match that you saw with Roman.

He is definitely the the one thing that for me, I look at as a coach and say, “Man this guy, he checks off every box. He got the look he’s got the attitude. He is believable 100%. And then he goes out and works for the fans to, like I just said a second ago, feel a certain way. So we can hopefully get a tear to come out of somebody’s eyes. He’s working from a Shakespearean perspective. If not the best in the business, he’s definitely top three right now in the world.

Awesome. Booker, thank you so much for your time. Reality of Wrestling: One Night in Vegas, MGM Grand Conference Center Premier Ballroom and free on YouTube. Thank you so much for your time today.

Appreciate it, brother. Check you out in Vegas.

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