Speaking on a recent episode of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, Booker T talked about Lacey Evans’ recent departure from WWE, the events leading up to her exit, her seven-year stint in the company, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Lacey Evans’ original gimmick as “The Sassy Southern Bell”: “Yeah. It’s tricky, man. It’s tricky. You got you to wonder, you know, why didn’t someone like Lacey Evans get over? I thought that was cool when she was doing the sassy Vixen Southern girl thing. I wasn’t too big up into the outfit, you know, the way she would come out, you know, and, and then the role kind of became kind of like, Gorgeous G lady of wrestling-ish. Yeah. Do you understand what I’m saying? It became almost like a gimmick. You know what I mean? And then when you got. Ladies on the show like, you know, Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair and the man. Becky Lynch. You know, Asuka, you know, just real people. It’s kind of like, you know. Does it mesh as well? You know what I mean? Yeah. And that’s, that’s something that, you know, changed, you know, when this came out as this was people having to figure out how to switch gears. One thing about Lacey Evans is I can’t throw the blame off on her or anything. As far as that goes, because I’m sure you know, I don’t know if she wants to, you know, if that was the character she wanted or created. But I do know a lot of times WWE has a lot of, you know, players for us. What role are you going to play? I don’t know. Does Lacey Evans have talent? You answer that question?”
On Evans’ capability as worker: “That’s my thing right here. You know, from the Internet, if somebody sucked in the ring, just according to the Internet. I haven’t heard anything about Lacey Evans’s work on the internet. I can go back, and nothing stands out in my mind. ‘Lacey Evans needs to learn how to work.’ I can’t go back and find anything like that. I don’t remember anything that stands out either. But that’s not how I look at guys until, you know, if I could work with them. I look to, you know, for I always say it’s not too what to do, it’s what to what not to do. And I can’t remember a whole lot of, you know, Lacey Evans, you know, and what not to do, you know, you know, that she should have been thinking about. I don’t. I can’t remember any; you know what I mean? That’s why I say she was a pretty good worker because I would have spotted it if she sucked in the ring, I would have spotted it. Okay. Maybe this is… a lot of times, it’s, you know, frustration.”
On the creative team perhaps letting Evans down, the frustration it causes: “You know, you’ve heard the old saying, we just don’t have anything for you. We try to figure it out, and you can get frustrated. We saw her name that left not too long ago and went over to see what her name was. Toni Storm… same thing. She had been around, you know, she couldn’t find a footing, you know, really couldn’t get over, and frustration set in, and boom, she’s like, all right, let me get out of here. And that’s what the business is these days, man. It’s going to be a lot of that. It’s going to be many people getting frustrated because, you know. They want more. I get it. No doubt. I get it. I understand it.”
On Lacey Evans’ latest gimmick, one marred in controversy: “Was it a good fit in 2023? We’re not in any wars or anything right now. It, as I say, had that feel to where. She was separate from, you know, the other top guys, you know, you know, the top deals. As I said, Bianca Belair, Charlotte’s whatnot, whatnot, and I thought she could have been, you know, right in that same mix, at one point. At one point in time. But I always talk about time off, you know, out of sight, out of mind. Time off is your worst enemy. With Lacey, I don’t think we got a chance to see any sustained run from Lacey Evans to where we can remember it and go. Man, she was freaking hot. You know what I mean?”
