- WWE announcer and Tough Enough trainer Booker T spoke with The Miami Herald this week to promote WrestleMania 27. Here are some highlights:
His new role with WWE:
"I’ve been trying out for this commentary job for as long as I’ve been wrestling and didn’t know it. It’s been an ongoing thing as far as Booker T calling matches, commentary. I always did it in the back for the boys while the show was going on. It was always like a joke, for fun. It wasn’t something I was auditioning for, but one day I got the call, ’How would you like to be a commentator on SmackDown?’ I was like, ’Wow.’ It was something totally out of the blue, totally unexpected, but that’s where my career has gone. It’s all good, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I’m in a different zone right now, and I’ve got to step up to the plate, just like inside the ring. It’s not as easy as you think it would be, just sitting out there talking. It’s a pretty hard job."
Announcing at WrestleMania this Sunday:
"It’s crazy. I’m in a position right now that I never imagined being in. It was never a dream, a thought for me, but Booker T, WrestleMania 27 sitting there in the Georgia Dome in the [broadcast] booth, it’s going to be great. I’m totally stoked. I’m excited about it, but at the same time, I’m nervous because you just don’t want to screw up. You just want to do well, and that’s what Booker T is really all about."
His retirement from in-ring action:
"I don’t miss competing from a certain aspect, but I do miss competing in a certain aspect, also. I do want to finish the journey. More importantly, I just can’t stop and go into the commentary booth and say, ’I never want to get in that ring again.’ I watch the show every week, and when I watch those guys, I know I can do it just as good or better. I want to finish the journey. I want to go out just like I came in, with a bang -- and then retire -- actually say Booker T is officially retiring. That’s something a lot of us never got a chance to do. I want to be one of the guys who actually says, ’I’m officially retiring,’ stepping down from the wrestling ring and passing the torch to the Kofi Kingstons, the Wade Barretts, the Drew McIntyres, the young guys today. It’s time to let these guys go out and do their thing."
