During the latest "Hall Of Fame" podcast, Booker T commented on the impact John Laurinaitis had on his career and the thoughts of Laurinaitis no longer being part of WWE:
"I give that dude a whole lot of credit for making me a much better performer. He came over from the New Japan Pro Wrestling back in the day, and in New Japan, for all the wrestlers over there, he was the finish guy.”
“Then he came to WCW, he wanted to work with me. I was a guy who had been in the business a decade plus by that time. I was like, 'Man, how can this guy help me? He came to me one day. He said, 'I want you to do this tonight.' It was five pages, written out. I was like, 'Bro, I don't work like this, man. I can't do this.' He's like, 'Just just keep an open mind and just try it out.' I said, 'Man, I'm sorry, but I don't work like this.' He goes, 'I'll tell you what. Just look it over. Whatever you like, keep it in there. Whatever you don't like, throw it out.' I was like, 'Give it here.' He gave it to me. It was five pages long, but it was only a finish.”
“I looked it over. I'm thinking his guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, but I'm gonna have a piece of it anyway, I'm going to flatter him. You know, make him feel good for a moment. I went out and I did it. It was so detailed. It was some of the smallest little bitty things, stuff that I just never really thought about. From that point on, every week, I would come to work and I would look for Johnny Ace, and I would say, "What you got for me?' It was like that until WCW closed down.”
“When I came to WWE, he started writing stuff for me again. He was very instrumental in my career in making me challenge myself to think a whole lot more and to be better. So yeah, man, this is a sad day for me. I'm sad to see Laurinaitis step down if that's the case.”
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If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
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