Booker T recently posted a new episode of his podcast: ‘Heated Conversations With Booker T’. On this episode, he expressed his displeasure about the New Day’s ‘N-Word’ parody on Smackdown Live this week.
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For those that missed it, LaMelo Ball dropped the ‘N-Word’ twice on RAW last week. The next night on Smackdown, the New Day parodied what had happened. Big E said (before getting cut off by Xavier Woods): “Listen up and put this flava in your ear. We want that gold sucka and at Battleground, we comin’ for you…”. This was also a parody of Booker T, who infamous dropped the ‘N-Word’ while cutting a promo in WCW. Booker on live TV said: “Hulk Hogan! We coming for you n****”.
It turns out that Booker wasn’t a fan of the New Day bringing this up. Here is what Booker said on his podcast:
“I just want to make it publicly known that I don’t condone that at all especially coming off of Monday Night. We as a people, we gotta know when it’s time to speak up and when it’s time to shut up. My mother taught me that a long time ago. If you don’t know, it’ll come back and haunt you. [The WCW promo blooper] has haunted me for this many years. You put yourself in a situation for something to happen, just like Mike Tyson did, something can happen. For these young kids to understand and realize and be able to speak up for themselves…you know…then again, I spoke up because I was talent. I spoke up because I knew that I could speak up. I implore these young people out there to know exactly what they’re doing and how they are affecting our young people that are coming up. That’s the most important thing as far as I’m concerned. Me personally, I know I’ve made mistakes. That word that I said on national television in front of the world – I wish I could go back and erase it. I wish that I could take it back. I wish that WWE would never do something like that ever again.”
He was also asked about WWE approving the joke by the New Day:
“Me personally, I don’t appreciate it. I don’t know if [WWE] knew that the parody was gonna go down because I know those guys do a lot of their own stuff. I don’t think that we as a company need to go that route. I think that parody should not have ever been shown on television because it wasn’t a great moment for us as black people. For us as black people, it was one of our worst moments. Just like the [Lamelo] Ball thing. The kid is 15-years old [and] I don’t blame him or anything like that. It was something that slipped out just like myself [in 1997], it was something that slipped out. For me as a person that’s trying to set an example for us as black people and for me to let so many people down – even the ones that thought it was the cool – even the ones that thought it was an anthem… …I want them to know that it was my worst day that I could have ever had being a black man and letting so many of our people down by calling us that word or saying that word in any realm [or] any form was definitely not right by any means. I wish I could take it right back. That one blemish is the only thing they have over my head that they could put out there to try to make me look bad in any way shape, form, or fashion. Of course, I could put a spin on it… … but does that make it right? No, it doesn’t make it right. It’s still a stain, a blemish, a mark that no surgical procedure could ever repair. So I just want young people to know exactly what they’re saying and when they’re saying it.”
[irp posts=”26765″ name=”Vince McMahon’s Reaction To LaMelo Ball Dropping The ‘N-Word’ On RAW”]
You can check out the full podcast here.
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
[h/t to Wrestlingnews.co for the transcript]