Booker T Discusses His Reasons for Departing WWE In 2007

During a recent appearance on “The Kurt Angle Show” podcast, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T shared his thoughts on his King Booker persona, his decision to leave WWE, and more. Highlights from the podcast include:

On his King Booker gimmick:

“Vince didn’t have anything to do with that character. Brian Gewirtz, he had a lot to do with it. He wrote a lot of good stuff for me, and I could change it. Of course, I had the liberty to change it. King Booker was a very, very interesting time in my career. It was the hottest I could have ever gotten doing a gimmick. Okay, King Booker could have been an asterisk on my career. It could have been a man who was making a fool out of yourself at the end of your career. ‘Wow, man. How far? How far down did you go?’ I mean, literally, it could have been the guy walking around with a cape and a crown acting a fool. That’s what he could have been. But I was determined. I was determined to make King Booker so memorable that no one would ever be able to do the King of the Ring tournament ever again…

“I don’t think anybody has become king after me. It didn’t work. It just couldn’t work because those are really, really big shoes to fill. No one is ever going to be able to do that, that king of the ring, ever again. Just because of what I did and I wanted to. I loved movies when I was a kid; the Shaw Brothers productions were karate movies. They produced karate movies, and they produced some of the greatest karate movies. So, I took a lot of my themes from those karate movies and just brought it to life with King Booker. But then I studied, like the Pope. I studied like the last king of Scotland, stuff like that. So I was always searching to try to figure out how far I could really go with this thing. I changed everybody’s name, like Jerry Lawler. He was Jerome. Jim Ross was James. I just made sure I took it to a level where people were entertained. But I never forsake going out in the middle of that ring and humbling those peasants that were trying to dethrone me, those peasants that were trying to. I was trying to dethrone me. And that part had to be real. I think I was at my best as far as my wrestling when I was King Booker.”

On his WWE departure:

“I was so tired at the end of that run. People don’t realize I left WWE at the height of my career. Yeah, I was at the top of my career. I just dropped the World Heavyweight Championship and I was like, I was so tired after that year, going out there and creating that King Booker character every night was so draining. Sharmell was driving for me almost every night after those shows because I would just be so drained. I remember Michael Hayes telling me when I was getting ready to leave, and I was like, ‘Bro, I’m done. I’m finished.’ And Michael Hayes goes, ‘Book, what are you doing? What are you thinking? You still got a babyface run with this thing.’ And I’m like, ‘bro, I’m finished.’

“Yeah, but it was a great time and I would not change that for the world. But all the King, King Booker was all about Sharmell. It wasn’t about me at all. It would have never made me the King if it wasn’t for Sharmell. I call Sharmell my queen all the time. That’s just what I’ve always called her and said, ‘Let’s make it, let’s bring the King of the Ring back.’ But I don’t think the king of the ring was brought back, actually for me. But I say, ‘Hey, when you get something, you have to make the best of it, no matter what it is.’”