Booker T: Andrade El Idolo & Sammy Guevara’s Online Feud ‘Does Nothing For Wrestling’

Sammy Guevara and Andrade El Idolo’s issues have been one of the big news stories of the week, and Booker T weighed in on how the whole situation is not good for AEW or wrestling. As you likely know, the two got in a heated argument on Twitter after El Idolo said during an interview that Guevara had complained that he hit him too hard in the ring. Guevara took shots at his fellow AEW star online over it, calling El Idolo a “jobber” and a “favor hire” which escalated as Andrade said he said it to Guevara’s face, which Guevara claimed was a lie. Guevara at one point told Andrade to “Just go back to [WWE] like we all know you want to do & f**k off.” Those comments led to an altercation at last night’s Dynamite between the two which saw Andrade sent home.

Booker T discussed the matter on the Hall of Fame podcast before the news of last night’s altercation had broken. You can check out highlights from his comments below:

On the back and forth reflecting poorly on wrestling: “I was reading, [Andrade] had made a comment and Sammy Guevara came back on and said, ‘You’re just a jobber. You was a favor hire. Be grateful. Be–‘ you know the rest. And when I hear stuff like that — ‘A favor hire.’ ‘A jobber’ — when I hear talk like that man, that’s when we are really beyond professional wrestling. When I hear certain terms, you know. Of course The Rock, he didn’t coin the phrase or anything like that, [but said] ‘jabroni.’ But that was a term to use towards a guy and still have it be in context, if you know what I’m saying. ‘You’re a jabroni.’ A ‘jabroni’ might still be a pretty tough guy.

“But at the same time, when you call a guy a ‘jobber,’ a ‘favor hire,’ like you’re actually the one who put the word in for them. That’s when the lines are definitely not even blurred as far as what we’re doing here. We’re just playing. It has nothing to do with trying to give that fan that moment that they’re going to remember for the rest of their lives from a perspective to where [they say] ‘Man, I was there when that happened!’ This kind of talk, you know, I don’t think it does anything for the business. I think, more importantly, that the tradition of this business is definitely, it’s almost gone. We’re in a totally different place as far as the tradition of professional wrestling and the way I saw it and the way I felt being a part of it. It was real, it was real to me. And when I watch it ow, man, it’s just making me sad to see what this business truly is in certain aspects.”

On AEW’s backstage drama becoming public as of late: “Like I say, some things are better left unsaid, you know? Keep it to yourself. Because for me, when I see something like this, I just only can imagine… Because it’s a business. And when we start taking out our business to Twitter. When we start taking our business to social media?

“Just say for instance that The Young Bucks did kick down CM Punk’s door and then the next thing you know, it’s on social media. How do you think it got on social media, you know what I mean? And more importantly, why did it get on social media? That’s the thing I’m talking, about as far as we’re definitely losing the perspective of what wrestling really is to the fans. The fans, they don’t want to know about who’s a jobber and who’s not.”

On Andrade and Guevara’s back and forth: “What’s so crazy about this is that it’s being done on Twitter. That’s the stupid part right there. If I ever had a problem with somebody, it would not be on Twitter. If I got a beef with you, I’m not going to get mad and get my character hand out and start typing, you know what I mean? That’s not what I’m going to do, I’m going to run up on you. I’m gonna run up on you and if we got a problem, we’re going to settle it. It ain’t going to be on Twitter. Only thing that’s going to be on Twitter is who went to the hospital.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Hall of Fame with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.