Booker T Discusses His Decision to Leave WWE In 2007, Being Impacted by Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit Situations, How He Ended Up in TNA

On a recent edition of The Hall of Fame, Booker T discussed why he decided to leave WWE in October of 2007, saying that he was burned out with the pressure of being a top star in WWE, and that he and his wife wanted to start a family. Highlights are below.

On being exhausted in WWE in 2007: “It was a pressure cooker being in that situation, having to go out there and perform at that level each and every night. It was no nights off, I was working at the beginning of the show, and I was working in the main event, as well as I was working the dark match which was the advertised main event just for that town, for that city, and I tell you, I was so tired. At the end of that run, I was just like, man, please, somebody just beat me. MVP walked by me and I was asleep on one of the crates one day because I was just so tired. He woke me up and said, ‘Book, you OK?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ He just walked off because he understood the situation I was in.”

On the Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit situations impacting him: “We had lost Eddie, and when we lost Eddie, that was huge for me because Eddie was a really good friend, we’ve had a lot of good memories together, unspoken memories that none of the boys know about, which is Eddie and I and Sharmell, it was that kind of relationship. And then the Benoit situation, that was another guy, him and I had a really close bond, and then that happened, and for me not to know why, it shook me, it really shook me. Then I started thinking about life, I really started thinking about life.”

On wanting to have children: “More than anything, I started thinking about my wife. My wife and I, we were trying to have kids at that time too, and we couldn’t have kids due to a situation and then, I don’t know if it was stress or whatnot, but soon as we left the company, we got pregnant.”

On how jumping to TNA came about: “I went to Los Angeles and I did some voiceover work, I stayed in my Winnebago on the beach for three months like a bum, in Newport Beach, I laid there on the beach, working out, training, and my wife was at home, she was pregnant, life was really, really good, and the phone rang, as far as the TNA thing came, I didn’t make a phone call and say, ‘Hey guys,’ and then when they called, they made me a nice, sweet deal, but that’s how the TNA run started.”

If using any of the above comments, please credit The Hall of Fame with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.