SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
If you thought Booker T rambled like a madman when he was part of the Raw commentary team, you need to check out his latest “Heated Conversations” episode.
In the latest episode, Booker T blames Corey Graves for his dismissal on the Raw team, and then goes as far as saying he’s going to “beat him like he stole something” if he catches Graves on the street.
Unless this is all part of some angle and we’re all being worked (an unlikely scenario), Booker T should probably be terminated. Immediately.
You can’t go around threatening your co-workers without repercussion. In 1998, Vince McMahon would have loved something like this. He would have embraced it and turned it into a match at WrestleMania. But in 2018, Vince has stockholders to deal with and, perhaps more importantly, an HR department that doesn’t want a lawsuit.
“A lot of people in the company thought I was gonna jump on him, I was gonna do something bad to him, I was gonna drag him, I was gonna take him out to the woodshed, I was gonna beat that man so bad,” Booker T went on to say.
“They said ‘Hey Booker, we’re going to regroup. We’re going to send you back to the kickoff show and cool you down, because we don’t want you to do anything to Corey Graves, because we know what you could do to him.'”
Hey Booker, I’m just throwing it out there, but maybe that’s why you’re not on commentary anymore? If people in the company thought you were going to beat Graves and re-arrange his face, maybe that’s why you’re not sitting next to him on Monday nights? Perhaps, and it’s just a theory (I don’t want to get on your woodshed list), but maybe WWE was worried about you being a loose cannon?
Booker T might believe that Corey Graves got him fired, and Graves’ own tweet on Monday might confirm it, but that doesn’t matter. You can’t go around threatening to bludgeon people you work with, and then keep your job. Nowhere else is that behavior allowed.
It’s not something to brag about. I feel really sorry for a 52 year old man that needs to be so braggadocios about how tough he is, that others in the company think that he was going to beat up a co-worker. That doesn’t make Booker T tough, it makes him sad.
And this isn’t the first time Booker T has gone off the rails. Back in the Raw Pre-Show days on WWE Network, he nearly jumped Scott Stanford on air before (ironically) Graves grabbed him and told him it wasn’t worth it. Graves saved Stanford’s life that night, and he probably saved Booker T from assault charge. What’s mind-boggling is Booker T doesn’t back away from this. He not only embraces it, he went on air and openly bragged about it.
“I ain’t gonna do it at the office or anything like that,” he said. “But if I catch him… not gonna do it in the airport, nah, I’m not gonna do that. But if I catch Corey Graves on the street? You see that little bouffant hairdo he got? I’m gonna rearrange it for him. Alright? I’m just saying. I’m just saying… Let me catch him at Starbucks.”
I’m just saying … Booker T is the reason he’s no longer on the commentary team.
Moreover, Booker T’s commentary is bad. He didn’t get over the talent and half the time, he’s not making much sense. He was counterproductive when heels would do nefarious things, sympathizing with them for “doing what they had to do.” He didn’t enhance the talent in front of him.
As a viewer, it didn’t seem like he took the position seriously whatsoever, and would that really be a surprise? Booker T has, in the past, also bragged about how he treated TNA as a country club and they kept on paying him.
Graves might have Triple H on his side politically, but Graves is also a superior as a commentator. It’s not even a contest.
Mike McMahon covers Impact Wrestling for the PWTorch and also co-hosts the Thursday PWTorch Livecast at 10 p.m. ET with Andrew Soucek. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMcMahonPW and you can email him here.
This was dead on and I agree. He does have his Reality Of Wrestling promotion so if he’s treating the bigger feds like a country club, why take a job there? Stick with your indy group and shut the fuck up.