Booker T comments on this week’s AEW releases
Booker T commented on the AEW departures of Ricky Starks, Malakai Black, and Miro, suggesting that leaving WWE’s structured environment may have hurt their careers. He compared their situation to his own experience transitioning from WWE to TNA, describing the difficulties of adjusting to a less organized system.
“In WWE, everything was done for him, right? Everything was set up for him, all he had to do was just go out there and boom, get it done.” In contrast, he explained that AEW operates more like an independent promotion, where wrestlers are often left to figure things out for themselves. “You go to AEW and it’s like going to some of these independent shows and the guy that’s running the show, you show up and you say, ‘What do you want from me?’ They go, ‘What do you want?’”
He cited Malakai Black’s House of Black faction as an example of AEW’s lack of creative structure. “Boom, let’s create this House Of Black. Great, that’s a great idea, then you create the idea and nobody has written anything for it. You got to start figuring out what you’re gonna do yourself.” Similarly, he pointed out that Miro’s promos lacked direction. “Going over there and not having that structure again, letting a guy like Miro do his own promos. Who do you think wrote those promos? Exactly my point.”
Booker T believes that leaving WWE’s system negatively impacted these wrestlers’ star power and legacy. “My thing is, I felt like getting out of the system, that WWE system, hurt these guys more than it helped them. As far as star power, as far as legacy? I think it hurt. I could be wrong.”
Source: Hall of Fame
With all due respect to Mr. T, WWE is where wrestling goes to die. Vince McMahon admittingly spent years trying to get the Wrestling out of WWE. “In WWE, everything is done for you.” The emphasis on EVERYTHING. Your name, your look, the way you walk, the way you talk, right down to the way you deliver a DDT and when said DDT happens. “Attack Cody, attack Cody, you’re suppose to attack Cody now” – Referee to Jacob Fatu Smackdown debut. Is that the structure Booker T is meaning, the lack of freedom, the lack of freedom to be a professional wrestler, the lack of faith in someone to do their job (no pun intended). And before I forget, just because you know someone who works at AEW, or Lowe’s, it doesn’t mean you know what goes on in the locker room/break room.