Booker T Reveals Why He Turned Down Dark Side of the Ring Appearance (1 Viewer)

Booker T has shed light on his decision to decline an appearance on a recent installment of Dark Side of the Ring. The episode that aired on August 1st delved into the events of the notorious WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 pay-per-view.

Although Booker T emerged triumphant as the WCW World Champion, the focal point of the event remains the controversy surrounding the title bout between Hulk Hogan and Jeff Jarrett.

During one of his Hall of Fame podcast episodes, Booker T shared his insights regarding the coverage of the event on Dark Side of the Ring. He expressed his appreciation for the episode's informative value, acknowledging that he gleaned significant insights from it. Furthermore, he commended Jeff Jarrett for his contribution to the show.

“It was definitely eye-opening. I learned a lot about the situation that I didn’t know myself if it’s true. But my thing is, these guys that put themselves on this Dark Side of the Ring show, they really open themselves up for criticism. They really do. That’s the only thing I think.

“Jeff Jarrett did a Heck of a job on there. I give Jeff Jarrett more credit than anybody that was on that whole episode, more than anybody, seriously, without a doubt. I didn’t know Eric Bischoff was against me winning the championship. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know he was with Hogan on that. I didn’t know that. Those are the things that I didn’t know about.

“Like I say, if it was up to Eric Bischoff, I may have never won the championship. That’s the way I feel about Eric Bischoff right now at this time because the company was going under, you know, at that time. The company was going down. If I didn’t get it at that time, I wasn’t gonna get it in WCW, probably. That’s just my opinion on that.”
“I Declined For A Reason” – Booker T

Continuing his discussion, Booker T elaborated on his decision to decline the chance to present his perspective in the episode. He conveyed that he chose not to expose himself to potential criticism, especially in light of the aftermath following the airing of the episode that covered the Plane Ride from Heck.

“As far as, like I say, the embellishment of the story, what happened at Bash at the Beach 2000, I don’t think the real story is ever going to come out because I think what we heard on Dark Side of the Ring, just like the plane ride from Heck, a lot of stuff was just put in there that wasn’t actually true because I was on the plane ride from Heck and it definitely wasn’t that plane ride that they had on that episode, but, there again, that episode right there ruined a lot of people and got a lot of people a lot of heat.

“When they called me and wanted me to be a part of some stuff like that, I declined. I declined for a reason. Don’t think there’s not a lot of stuff that I could be saying about, you know, people like Eric Bischoff. Don’t think there’s not a lot of stuff I could be saying about Vince Russo and then that whole, you know, time period, but is it worth it? Is it worth it for me to put my reputation and my character on the line for a show that’s paying me $0 or very, very little dollars, dollars that’s definitely not going to be life changing.

“Why do it? That’s my question. Why? A lot of people still want to be relevant. A lot of people still want to let people know they’re still around, they’re still a part of a game. You know what I mean? For me, there again, just opens you up for a whole lot of criticism.”