BOOKER T INTERVIEW

The following are highlights from a recent interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T:

On whether or not he has interest in a return to the ring: 

“I wouldn’t call it a comeback (laughs). I’m semi-retired and to work around these schedules that the younger wrestlers and the divas (applies to the female talent, whether as wrestlers, managers or ring announcers) is rough. It’s a young man’s sport. I don’t want to be one of those wrestlers who still holds on to the past, hearing all the roars from the crowd. Royal Rumble is cool, I can do it once a year but to do it every day or week is tough. It’s time for me to step aside.”

On what he misses most now that he’s “semi-retired”: 

“I don’t miss wrestling, but I miss performing. You know, going out and amazing everybody and feeling that adrenaline rush. I performed in front of soldiers in Iraq in 2003 and the temperature was 40°C. And when you strap on your gear and with the adrenaline pumping, it feel more like 80°C. I’ll miss that. If it’s not for the exhausting travels, I could do wrestling for another 10 more years (laughs).”

DETAILS ON A FORMER TOP WWE DIVA POSSIBLY RETURNING AT WRESTLEMANIA XXX

As previously reported, former WWE Diva Michelle McCool, along with The Undertaker, were recently working out at the new WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. According to one source, McCool looked to be in great shape, so much so that many felt she looked better than when she was actually wrestling actively in WWE.

Reports claim McCool was in serious discussions about a year ago with WWE regarding a comeback. The feeling from her side is that now would be a good time to return because she could make it back on television in time to set up a program that would lead to a big payoff at WrestleMania XXX in 2014.

VADER INTERVIEW

The following are highlights from a recent interview with former WWE Superstar Leon “Vader” White:

On working with Hulk Hogan in WCW: 

“Terry, he was obviously in charge. Everyone said that Eric was in charge but Hogan was pretty much running the show. He did what he wanted to do so when you worked with Hogan it was like working with the President of CNN. He called the shots, we did what he wanted to do. It wasn’t the match I would’ve had with him. The match I would’ve had with him, not necessarily a different outcome, just a different context of the match. Terry is doing fantastic and I wish him well. I’m honored to have worked with him. Hulk Hogan, when it comes to wrestling, he started it all. He’s the man. You’ve had The Rock and Stone Cold, but before them you had Hogan, he was the very first. My hats off to him.”

On why he asked to be released from WWE to return to Japan: 

“I wanted to finish out my career with my style. I was able to do it over there. I think I was back in Japan, two or three weeks and Baba had put the Triple Crown World Title on me. I was back in shape and doing my style. (In WWF) You’re working with major superstars and they control the show. It’s kind of like working with a bunch of Hulk Hogan’s you know, they run the show. When you’re in the ring with Shawn Michaels, he calls the show, when you’re in there with The Undertaker, it’s like their house.”

On who he likes watching in today’s current wrestling product: 

“I like Brock Lesnar a lot. He’s significantly better this time than he was the last time around. He’s just perfect. He’s the perfect size, the perfect height. He can wrestle anyone big or small. It’s not like he’s 6’9 like The Undertaker. It’s not like where Undertaker and some of the smaller guys, you know you can’t match them up. Lesnar, you know, he’s 6’4 and he’s wrestling CM Punk. CM Punk is not real big and not real tall yet Lesnar and him had a good match. With his height, you know, he’s the beast, he’s an incredible physical specimen. The fact that he’s just the right height, he’s tall enough to fight, Kane or The Undertaker or he can go down to wrestlers on the smaller scale and have a great match. I think we’ll see great things from him in the next year.”

TED DIBIASE "MILLION DOLLAR MAN" INTERVIEW

The following are highlights from a recent “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase interview on Ring Rust Radio:

On the WWE Mid-South DVD release and his time with the organization: 

Well, I think the thing that will surprise some people is that, of course I haven’t seen it yet so I don’t know what matches they have of mine, but the better part of the early part of my career I was a babyface, or “good guy”, and, you know, WWE fans don’t remember me ever being a “good guy and, actually, I turned heel the first time when shooting an angle with Junkyard Dog. But I think one of the things that’s on the DVD is a match that Ric Flair and I had where I actually had been a heel for a very long time, and Bill Watts, in my opinion, his knowledge and psychology for the wrestling business are remarkable. I mean he turned me back babyface in one night. There was a scheduled match where somebody gets a shot at the World Heavyweight Champion and it ends up being me, and as this match is about to start, Dick Murdoch interrupts, and everyone knew that Dick Murdoch and me had a history where I was his protégé and he broke me into the business and brought me into Mid-South. So he comes up to me and says “hey kid, you know this is my time, this is not your time, you know.” And I said “your time? Your time is way past, pal. Hit the road.”

And of course he busted me open before the match starts, and so I go back into the dressing room and they tape me up and do the old spirit of ’76 thing where, I guess there isn’t going to be a World Title match tonight and then I come out to the ring and have this match and I’m bleeding and what really made it exceptional was I actually really hit myself pretty hard with the blade back when we were bleeding and the bandage actually came off and every time my heart would beat it would just shoot ha-ha. But anyway we get to the end of the match and, as a babyface; my finish was that I would do a Funk Spinning Toehold into a Figure Four Leg lock. And of course Flair’s finish has always been the Figure Four Leg lock as well so I go for this move and he kicks me off and I take this bump over the top rope to the floor and I get counted out but it’s like in the mind of the people it was the most valiant fight of my life and the whole thing with Murdoch turned me babyface and then Murdoch comes out and looks like he’s going to help me up off the floor and he picks me up and gives me a brainbuster on the floor on the outside, so it started another program. So it’s one of those matches where you just go “Oh my god, wow.”

On being in the new WWE 2K14 video game: 

Well, just have a good time. The amazing thing is, like you said, here I haven’t been in the ring physically to have a match in 20 years, and I’ll be 60 on my next birthday so I’m an over the hill guy, even though some of my contemporaries are trying to still go, and they’re almost 60 or older, but that’s another story. I’ll give you an example; it amazes me the marketing (for the game). I was in Scotland and I’m walking into their equivalent of a Walmart and I’m going to be there for a couple of weeks there’s going to be an Indy wrestling organization that I became good buddies with the owner, SWE, Scottish Wrestling Entertainment, and so this particular trip, this was a couple of years ago, and I was staying a couple of weeks so I went in to buy some things.

As I’m walking in, there’s a little boy and he’s got his grandmother by the hand and they’re walking out. And as they pass me I heard the little boy say to his grandmother, “that’s the Million Dollar Man”. I almost had a heart attack. I swung around wide eyed and with my jaw dropped open and I said “you know who I am?” You know, I don’t have blonde hair anymore, I’m 20 years older, I’m wearing glasses and about 30 pounds heavier and this kid recognizes me. He says yes, you’re the million dollar man. I said how do you know me? He said one word, video games. So it’s incredible the marketing and yes I’m thrilled I’m in the new game and, as the million dollar man says, everyone’s got a price and I’ll get a pretty nice royalty check. So, of course I’m always happy to know when they put me on a new game.

On managing Steve Austin and if he thought he’d become as big of a star as he did: 

No, I guess I’d say I don’t that anybody would say that they thought Steve Austin would become, in my opinion as a wrestling star, he’s the biggest guy we ever had. Now the Rock, of course the Rock went on to become an A list movie star and nobody’s going to deny that but in terms of worldwide recognition and popularity I don’t think anybody is going to top the Rock. But, as far as wrestling goes, yeah as a matter of fact the reason Vince put me with Steve basically because Vince, you know, he put me with several guys to more or less help groom them, give them advice and be with them what have you, and of course that rub also helps them because anyone that was put with me automatically was hated. I can remember some of the agents back at the time telling Steve he needed to spice up his TV matches and do more stuff and I told him no, don’t change anything. I said what you do is very believable, you go out there and wrestle and you’re not going to get over as fast as, say, some other guy, but the guys who get over real fast are the ones that die real fast, even though it’ll take you longer to get over you’re going to be over so solid you can do anything you want, and I think you’ll be one of the biggest stars we’ve ever had. I don’t think anybody realized it would be as big as it has been.

On being misused by WWE: 

Well, you know, I was a top heel in the company for a long time and whether I was moved over to a tag team with Mike Rotunda, you know, we were a top heel team. One of the things everybody asks me is it seems like you’ve been one of the all-time greatest heels but you were never the World Champion, whether it was NWA or WWE, and they say “don’t you regret that?” And I say well, you know I guess to be able to have the career that I had and to at one point say that I was the Heavyweight Champion of the World would be great, but here’s what you gotta understand. Wrestling is a business, it is show business and wrestling championships are props. Now, it’s true that, most of the time, the guy that’s wearing the World Heavyweight title is an extremely good wrestler, but again, the first Wrestlemania I had, Wrestlemania 4, initially the thought was that I would win that tournament somehow, underhandedly, you know, screw Hogan out of it, and have that run.

Of course at the end of that run with Hogan you would lose the belt and Hogan would be champion again and then a new heel comes in, it’s kind of like you go from the top to a simmering stage where you’re still there but you’re not the top guy, but it was presented to me this way, I think it was Pat Patterson, who said, “Ted, what’s going to give you more heat? What’s going to generate more heat and what’s going to generate more money? If we do what we would normally do, and been done a thousand times, and we go to this Wrestlemania and you underhandedly win the title and you have the run with Hogan and on and on you go. Or, you don’t win and somehow you get screwed out of it and then in your arrogance you declare to the world that you don’t need the WWE’s world championship belt you’ll create your own.” And I said that’s the ticket. For me to walk out every night with my own belt declaring myself champion, I mean, people would just absolutely loathe me and I’ve made more money with the Million dollar belt than I ever would have with the other one.

Backstage WrestleMania XXX Updates on Austin, Batista and Goldberg

With The Rock’s status for WrestleMania XXX still up in the air, Vince McMahon has put out the edict for the WWE creative team to begin figuring out matches for other top stars, under the assumption that The Rock won’t be there.

It’s said that Vince is looking to potentially bring in two guys. While Batista and Bill Goldberg are possible, Vince feels there is only one star that can fill The Rock’s boots – Steve Austin. Austin and WWE are still said to be “very far apart” on money for his return.

A source noted the longer this drags on, the more leverage Austin is going to have.