On his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T talked about changes to the business since the end of the 1990s, here are some highlights:
“We are in a different time right now,” Booker stated. “When we went to the PG era, that kind of flipped the script a bit. It went almost to a television show.
“I think we just got to go back to what wrestling was. What wrestling was, is characters like ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. That is organically made, you can’t create that, you can’t learn that in a school. Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig, you can’t manufacture something that is organic. Guys like Bret Hart, Sting, Ric Flair, those guys built their careers going around the world and getting worldly talent. The went all over learning their craft.”
Great promo work contributed to those great characters, something not lost on Booker. However, Booker added that creative changes have led to feuds not being as heated as they once were.
“What wrestling was back in the day was you put a camera in front of the guy, they have an issue and they voiced the issues,” Booker explained. “They did it in an articulate fashion when you go, ‘man, I like those guys, or I don’t.’ Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, you think you can give him a script and ask him to follow this script and say these words verbatim? That’s not going to happen.”
Ultimately, psychology comes into good promo work. Booker feels that nothing can replace a particular real-world experience.
“On the other hand, you got to have guys like Jake that can go out there and pull that promo off, make it believable as well,” Booker said. “A lot of guys in the wrestling business have never been in a real fight, so they don’t know how to react in these promos. Guys are really young guys. Guys back in the day had a lot of worldly experiences, they know what it’s like to have someone say something stupid and fight breaks out, the relied on real experiences.”
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