Booker T has reacted to Swerve Strickland’s comments about WWE reportedly complaining about how much he’s being paid in AEW. Persons within WWE believe that Tony Khan is overpaying his talents and it’s bad for the business, and Strickland responded by saying that AEW’s rivals only complain when it’s a black man getting paid. However, Booker T took issue with Strickland playing the race card, noting that WWE has several black Superstars in high-paid positions on an episode of “Hall of Fame.”
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“I look at the black talent in WWE right now — you know, Bianca Belair, Oba Femi… The New Day have won more Tag Team Championships than anybody. Bianca has headlined at WrestleMania. Oba Femi is a young guy out of college who’s doing big things in NXT. I’m just trying to figure out what he’s talking about”
Booker emphasized that WWE has no issues when it comes to paying and pushing black talent. He noted that he’s worked for the promotion for 20 years and hasn’t had any problems. That said, Booker wondered if Strickland was upset with WWE due to not receiving the push he felt he deserved during his tenure there, where he was a member of the Hit Row faction prior to his release.
Despite disagreeing with the AEW star on this issue, Booker praised Strickland’s World Championship win at Dynasty earlier this year. He’s also a big fan of the former WWE star’s ability, suggesting that he’s on his side more often than not.
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If you use any quotes from this podcast, please credit “Hall of Fame” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
“WWE Raw” came to a close last night with a Last Man Standing match between Braun Strowman and Bronson Reed, which included broken barricades, a Seth Rollins cameo, and the collapse of the ring. Looking back on the match during “Busted Open Radio,” Bully Ray explained why the bout did not work for him.
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“Anything I saw last night from those two big men, I’ve seen before,” Bully said. “The ring breaking, to me — no big deal whatsoever. … You’ve seen the ring explode three times before in the WWE. The fans in the front row popped because they got exactly what they were expecting to see, not because it was shock and awe.”
While he gave credit to announcers Wade Barrett and Joe Tessitore for their work during the match, Bully felt that the wrestlers should have taken another path rather than repeating an angle that has been seen before. Instead, he suggested that Strowman and Reed could have lifted the ring with their bare hands, or wrestled a match throughout the entirety of “Raw” that the show would keep cutting back to.
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“When I see that main event go to the ring with 20 minutes left before the show is over, I’m immediately thinking to myself, ‘All of the things that I wanted to see, … I don’t think I’m gonna see,'” Bully continued. “I wanted to see complete destruction, like when Godzilla and King Kong fight in a city.”
Bully’s use of Godzilla and Kong as a reference point was deliberate, as the company drew on that comparison themselves to promote the match. However, the WWE Hall of Famer did not feel like the end result met his expectations.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
TKO President Mark Shapiro recently announced that WWE will be reducing house shows, scaling back from 250 live events down to 200. The change comes after the cost of live events stopped being beneficial, with Dave Meltzer reporting that house shows have become marginally profitable for WWE. Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan commented on the reduction of house shows in an interview with the New York Post, where she expressed her sadness and reflected on her time gaining experience on the live event circuit.
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“I’m sad to see them kind of go a little bit because the house shows are so much fun and it’s so much more intimate,” she said. “Also for me, I feel like that’s when I got good having so many reps on these live events in 2017, 18, 19 I was doing every single live event. But it helped me get so much better because I was getting all these reps. I’m sad to see that go for the newer guys and girls coming in who aren’t going to be able to have that experience and have the reps at live events under their belt but it is what is. Time home is always nice.”
This upcoming Saturday, Morgan will defend her Women’s World Championship against Rhea Ripley at Bad Blood, where Dominik Mysterio will be trapped inside a shark cage above the ring to prevent him from interfering. The champ has come a long way since her early days on the live event circuit, as she is currently one of the most featured talents on WWE television.
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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “New York Post” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
I seen a dragon fly I seen a house fly I seen all that too I seen a peanut stand And heard a rubber band I seen a needle that winked its eye But I’ve been, done, seen about everything When I see a elephant fly What’d you say boy? I said when I see a… pic.twitter.com/QlgFOQKenb
— The Monster of all Monsters (@Adamscherr99) October 1, 2024
Britt Baker Addresses Internet Criticism – Like many in wrestling, Britt Baker has faced her fair share of criticism from online fans, whether they are critiquing her matches or her persona.
Baker has been the face of the AEW women’s division since day one of the company, as the first woman signed by the promotion. The division went through growing pains in the first few years as it worked to establish itself in the start-up company. The division and Baker were under a microscope in the first two to three years as fans wanted more from all involved.
Baker proved she could lift herself and the division with standout matches against Thunder Rosa, character work despite being injured, and winning the AEW Women’s Title. With more accolades and the company growing, Baker became subject to even more criticism with some fans questioning her place in the division as the likes of Mercedes Mone, Willow Nightingale, Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander started to shine.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown. It’s the nature of the business. It doesn’t matter what company, what business, what promotion. There are always people that are going to be heavily criticized,” Baker told Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp when asked if being the first female talent signed made her more susceptible to criticism.
“As much as it hurts…I think what hurts me the most is when people run with rumors or concepts or ideas that are not true. If I sat here all day and fought off or batted down everything I’ve heard about myself that wasn’t true, I would spend my entire day on social media. I don’t do that, and I delete the app unless I have something to promote or it’s a Steelers game, and I get to talk shit to Bengals fans. That’s actually more frustrating than any of the criticism. I would like to say that, for most genuine wrestling fans, criticism comes from a good place. Just because they might not be able to communicate that properly or respectfully, that’s one thing, but just running with a rumor, people build whole podcasts around a one sentence rumor they’ve heard about me that’s not real. Some day, I can’t wait to do a tell-all; it’s going to be very eye-opening for a lot of people. You just have to let it roll off your back. I can’t control (it). I’m a control freak in all aspects of my life. I was the kid in school that took the reins of the group project because I wanted it to be perfect. I like to have control of things. You can’t have control of the narrative that people are going to say about you. They’re going to hear something and if it doesn’t fit their narrative of what they want it to be, they’re going to twist it and turn it so it does anyway. I’m at the point of my career where I’m happy. I know what goes on and what doesn’t,” she said.
Baker sarcastically continued, “Whatever you’ve heard about me, it’s true. Whatever you heard I said, it’s true. I said it, I did it. I don’t care because it gets to the point where it’s laughable. You can’t lose sleep. You can’t sit at home and cry because people say you’re a bully or this and that. At the end of the day, my priority and passion is pro wrestling. I love the AEW women’s division, I love AEW. I love pro wrestling. I watch both companies religiously. That’s more of my focus now. How can we make pro wrestling better? We can’t control Twitter, X, Instagram bullshit rumors, but you can work on making the product better and building bigger stars and growing the AEW audience, crossing over into mainstream media. I’ll leave it at that.”
That settles that.
Baker will be in action for the first time since AEW All In when she faces Serena Deeb at AEW Dynamite Fifth Anniversary on October 2.
I seen a dragon fly
