During a recent edition of his “Hall of Fame” podcast, Booker T discussed Duke Hudson’s release from WWE, Miro’s AEW release, and other topics.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Duke Hudson being released by WWE: “I got a chance to see him make his rise and then make his journey to WWE, to NXT. And the thing is, Duke Hudson has been in that system for six years. And the thing is, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something, this is a word from the wise to someone like a Duke Hudson or anybody that wants to do this. That wants to partake in this business. Six years in the NXT system, that’s going to be way too long for anyone to be in an NXT system.”
On being able to reinvent yourself: “The thing is, I say it all the time. If you don’t change with the times, the times will pass you by. If you don’t know how to actually reinvent yourself and do something and make them look at you differently than they’ve looked at you before, that’s not going to be on them. That’s going to be on you.
“And it could be the smallest little things as perhaps getting your haircut a certain way. It could be something as big as getting in the gym and really putting in a whole lot of time. I’m talking about when everybody’s sleeping, you working. And then when you show up, you just take your shirt off. All of a sudden, somebody’s eyebrow goes up just a little bit because they say, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. This guy’s been doing something.’ So I’m gonna tell you right now, if you ain’t preparing, you are preparing to fail, and that’s the bottom line to that.”
On Lana helping Miro/Rusev get over in WWE: “No disrespect to Miro or anything like that. But Lana, the Ravishing Russian, just got over more than Miro, right? I’m not saying anything out of bounds or anything, right now. I really feel like Rusev, his thing was going to the ring and working and doing that. The Ravishing Russian, she had an upside to her that was limitless. I mean, you could do so much with her. I think that’s what it was in WWE. I think she just overshadowed him just a little bit.”
