On his latest “Hall Of Fame” podcast, Booker T talked about the new wave of WWE releases. His thoughts spanned several segments of the podcast. Here are the highlights:
“I hate to see it. Ember Moon, she’s one of mine, so I definitely hate to see her get released. One thing I always teach my girls is when your talent, cream rises to the top and you’ll find a spot somewhere. Ember, she’s going to be ok. The business decisions as far as Scarlett, I don’t know what’s going on with that. I don’t know the behind the scenes dealings that go on with stuff like that. Franky Monet, I thought she was talent. I thought she was money. I thought she fit right in, and she was doing a great job. She was one of the girls I thought you could do pretty much anything with as far as title picture, angle wise, working with bringing somebody up. I tell you, the business has changed. The business is totally different than it was back in the day. Job security these days is nowhere near what it was back in the day. That’s due to, man, I hate to say it. I hate to even talk like that, but just say for instance, Ember Moon, Scarlett, Valkyrie, they’ve been out there, but their names hadn’t been out there enough to where they’re made to where these are people we can’t get rid of, or these are people we can’t replace. Back in the day, when somebody came on board, and I’m just giving an example, Madusa. How many Madusas were there? Luna Vachon? It was a lot harder to replace someone like that. Today, there’s an abundance of talent. I said it once, I’ll say it again. The business is as hot as it’s ever been today as far as people trying to get in it. They see this could really be a career. People see guys like The Rock, John Cena, and Batista making movies and see how this business has changed their lives. I’m going to tell you right now, there’s so many young people wanting to get in it, but I’m going to tell you, those ones that are irreplaceable, they’re few and far between at this stage of professional wrestling. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
Booker continued, “I think a lot of guys fall through the cracks because they have not put themselves in a position to go out there and have an overabundance of the crowd saying, ‘This is our guy.’ No one has been able to separate themselves from the pack. I say that all the time as far as the, say for instance, ‘Booker T’ chant as opposed to ‘This is awesome’ chant.’ To get the fans invested in you. To get the fans to bring a sign with your name on it. You have to understand, a lot goes into whether we’re going to keep someone or whether we’re going to let someone go. Someone who’s just a good worker, I’m going to tell you what we said about good workers in the business for so long. Good workers are a dime a dozen. That’s just a fact. I’m not putting anybody down or anything like that. You got to know how to separate yourself from the pack. Now Ember Moon, I thought she did that. I don’t think Scarlett had a chance to. I thought Ember Moon in the ring set her apart from everyone else because she was so different. She wasn’t the diva. She was someone who was going to come out there and whip your a** and look good doing it at the same time.”
