Professional wrestling legend and two times WWE Hall of Famer Booker T who is a former five times WCW World Heavyweight champion and a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion recently said that professional wrestling should evolve regarding the mental health status of the top stars.
Booker T started his professional wrestling career back in 1989. He travelled in different professional wrestling promotions before getting his biggest break in 1993 when he got two side for WCW. He was one of the biggest wrestlers that was created by WCW.
Booker T Believes Pro Wrestling Needs To Evolve By Keeping Mental Health Of The Wrestlers In Mind
During the 90s, when the Monday Night Wars was the hottest thing in the world of professional wrestling, WCW mostly trusted on readymade stars. Only a few names that were actually created by WCW in that time, such as Goldberg and Booker T.
Booker remained with WCW till the very last date of the promotion and he became one of the biggest stars of it. After the death of WCW, he joined WWE and went on to become one of the biggest legends for the promotion. In 2001 he came to WWE and he won his fifth WCW World Heavyweight Championship reign during his first year in WWE.
At first he was treated as a main event star, then in 2002 he was turned to an upper mid card. He challenged Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania XIX but he failed to win it and he remained a mid card star.
In 2004, he joined Smackdown and turned heel and that was the beginning of his main event push. It all started with his King of the Ring win in 2006 and on the same here he won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
That was his only reign as a World Champion in WWE. In 2007 he joined TNA Wrestling. He was treated as a main event start in TNA but he could never win the World Championship in TNA. After leaving the promotion in 2010, he never wrestled regularly for any promotion.
Of course he made some sporadic appearances every now and then but he was out from regular professional wrestling action. In 2013 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and in 2019 he got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame once again as a member of the Harlem Heat.
Booker T who is a former five times WCW World Heavyweight champion recently spoke on “The Hall Of Fame” podcast where he said that professional wrestling should evolve regarding the mental health status of the top stars. He said;
“WWE’s schedule is the hardest thing you’re ever going to go through in life. It’s harder than any football schedule, baseball, I don’t care what sport, WWE schedule is harder or just as hard than any of them. If that’s the reason, taking a step back might be a good thing.
“I do think the business is going to have to evolve sooner or later. As far as the guys that’s making the money, the guys that are drawing the dollars. Because it has always been a thing, time off is your worst enemy.
“But I do think the way the world has changed with mental health being at the forefront now of so many, not just sports but Hollywood, everywhere is coming into play. It’s got to be addressed and it has got to be addressed seriously. I do think sooner or later that part is going to change. I don’t know when, but I think it has to.”
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription