Booker T has reflected on his 2007-2010 run with TNA Wrestling and admitted there are aspects of that period he wishes he could change.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the WWE Hall of Famer said he arrived in TNA with high expectations and hoped to help change how the promotion was perceived.
“When I went to TNA, I had such grand expectations. I really, like, wanted to change how, you know, that company was viewed. I had a lot of young talent to do it,” Booker said.
However, Booker felt there was a lack of direction behind the scenes. He cited the African accent he began using during his run as an example, revealing that the idea came after watching The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker.
Booker said he never received approval to use the accent and essentially began doing it to see whether anyone within TNA would tell him to stop.
“So I’m like, ‘Damn, you know, nobody’s telling me anything. S**, I might as well just start making up something.’ So after watching the movie, I say I’m gonna just start talking with an African accent. I didn’t run it by anyone. So I said I’m gonna run it to see how long before somebody say something. Nobody ever said nothing. I’m like, hell, what kind of operation is this? Because I don’t know, if it was my company, I would come to Book, ‘Could you kill the African accent?’”* Booker said.
“I was just entertaining myself again, just like doing commentary in the back,” he added.
Although the character received a positive response from some fans, Booker admitted he regrets not putting more effort into making his TNA run everything it could have been.
“A lot of people liked it, but I always say, I wish I would have worked harder. I wish I would have really worked harder and tried to. I don’t know. I don’t know. I just feel like that part of my career, I wish I could change a little bit,” he said.
Asked whether his attitude stemmed from feeling that nobody else seemed to care about providing direction, Booker agreed.
“I know 100% that’s what it was. You know, I mean, no one, no one. It was really no direction,” Booker said.
Booker also addressed past criticism from Dutch Mantell, who had been involved behind the scenes in TNA and had suggested Booker was lazy during his time with the company. Booker said he later raised the issue on his Hall of Fame podcast with co-host Brad Gilmore.
“Dutch was one of the guys running things, and he never came to me one time and said, ‘Hey, Book, stop doing the accent,’” Booker said. “And Dutch came back and go, ‘I just want to apologize. He’s right,’ because no one ever gave me any direction in that company, you know.”
Booker said he eventually reached the point where he decided simply to enjoy himself. Despite his regrets, he appreciated getting the opportunity to work with several wrestlers who would later become major stars.
“But I got to the point to, I just, you know, man, let me come to work and just have some fun, and you know, I got to do some cool stuff with AJ, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, and those are the guys I really, really wanted to work, and look where all those guys ended up,” Booker said.
“All of them ended up in WWE,” he added.
