On the latest episode of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, Booker T discussed Rhea Ripley’s shoulder injury and relinquishment of the WWE Women’s World Title, a potential WWE return for the Hardy Boyz, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Rhea Ripley going down with an injury and relinquishing the Women’s World Title: “I’m gonna say right now, I can imagine it’s the same way for Rhea who, over last year, she’s — I mean, it’s been a monster. It’s been a machine for Rhea. Of course, on the outside looking in, it looks great. But when you are in that cycle, bro. I mean, you get thrown all over the place, you know? Like a frickin’ thunderstorm going on. And so for me, I’m sure Rhea was perhaps ready to slow it down a little bit. Perhaps not this way but you definitely — for me, like I said, I didn’t care. End of my run, I was so tired. I was working… I might be in the middle of the show, and then I was the main event on the show. And then I was the dark match after the show goes off the air. And then I might have to get up the next morning, go do whole sell somewhere for three hours. I might have to get on the phone and do a radio tour or whatever. You know what I mean? That’s a monster and when you’re in that position, be careful what you wish for. It’s the best position in the business. Best position that you ever could imagine. A dream of having, being the World Heavyweight Champion. But it’s a hell of a job at the same time.”
On wanting to see Matt and Jeff back in WWE: “I would love to see him back in WWE. I’d love to see Jeff back in WWE. I want to see both those guys go into the WWE Hall of Fame. They deserve it, they really do. The body of work those guys put in, the legendary matches those guys had with teams like The Dudleys. Yeah man, I want to see those guys take their rightful place one day. So maybe this is the beginning. Maybe this is the spark.
“I haven’t seen Jeff on AEW doing anything in quite some time, so he may be a free agent too for all I know… For Matt and Jeff, I think it’s hard to hang the boots up just yet. They’re still like, ‘We got something left in the tank. We’re not ready to just take a back seat.’ I think Matt and Jeff could have had jobs with WWE, at least the latter regime, they could have had jobs with WWE perhaps forever.”
On wrestlers having a hard time walking away from the ring: “It’s hard to walk away from it, man. It really is. It’s so hard. Like I said, I look at Matt and Jeff, Chris Jericho, Taker. The Rock was gonna sneak into WrestleMania 40 if he could. That’s what the business is, we never really retire. Even myself, I’m thinking about having another match at Reality of Wrestling. I’ve been training, I’ve been getting myself together in the gym on a regular basis. I’m on a 30 day ab workout. And I’m like, ‘Man, I can still do this.’ How are you gonna tell a man he can’t do it any more? You can’t do it.”
