“It’s probably a good thing” - Booker T clears the air regarding comments about NJPW
Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T has clarified his controversial comments on New Japan Pro Wrestling and its upcoming Forbidden Door pay-per-view with All Elite Wrestling.
The former WCW Champion received backlash from fans of both AEW and NJPW after claiming that he wasn't sold on the Forbidden Door event, despite all the excitement surrounding the announcement.
Booker's reasoning was that fans who aren't already watching AEW will not care enough about the show to go out of their way to watch it. Meaning that the show might be good for hardcore fans of AEW and NJPW, but it won't grow either company.
However, Booker T took the opportunity to clear the air on a recent episode of his "Hall of Fame" podcast, stating that he has no ill will towards either promotion, and the fans who will watch the show will enjoy it:
"I did say a lot of those people probably was AEW fans. Is that a bad thing? No because they’re the ones that are actually going to be watching the pay-per-view so it’s probably a good thing," said Booker T. [14:51-15:03]
The Forbidden Door is now a cool show name simply because of this quote from Booker T. twitter.com/wrestlinginc/s… https://t.co/kCR1DddYm5
Booker further clarified the reasoning for his previous comments, noting that NJPW does not have much exposure in the United States due to the fact that its replay show airs on AXS TV:
"I wasn’t trying to look down on that company or anything like that. I was just trying to speak facts, you know? New Japan Pro Wrestling I found out comes on AXS TV and last week they drew 46,000 people on that station, on that network. Is that a bad thing? If you’ve got 46,000 people watching your show, it is what it is, let’s just say it like that. But then again out of the equation of this thing and as far as how big this thing is, in the United States, that’s a really small number of people" said Booker T. [14:12-14:48].
Booker T has previously wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling
The claims that Booker T was bad-mouthing New Japan Pro Wrestling must have come as a shock to the WWE Hall of Famer given the fact that he has wrestled for the Japanese promotion in the past.
Back in 1996, NJPW had a working relationship with WCW. Booker and his Harlem Heat partner Stevie Ray performed on the company's "Hyper Battle" tour in March 1996.
harlem heat in njpw https://t.co/y7vkx5FpJ1
Harlem Heat even challenged for the IWGP Tag Team Championships against Shinya Hashimoto and Junji Hirata, but were unsuccessful.
Did you know that Harlem Heat wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling? Let us know in the comments section down below!
Please credit the "Hall of Fame" podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.