Booker T On Roman Reigns’ Comments On AEW, Differences With WWE & AEW Crowd Reactions

As previously noted, Roman Reigns recently shared his thoughts on why he doesn’t view AEW as competition to WWE, and in on the Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T discussed Reigns’ stance, the differences with WWE and AEW crowd reactions, and much more. Here’s what he had to say (via Wrestling Inc.):

Booker T on Roman Reigns’ comments on AEW and the differences in crowd reactions in WWE and AEW: “I agree with a lot of it, but the one thing I think even WWE, the company that I worked for, needs to keep an eye on, one thing that I’ve always noticed is, there doesn’t have to be a whole lot of people there, but if you see it on television, and it looks like it’s a lot of people there and it looks like that everybody’s having fun, you feel like you missed out on something. You’re like, man, I wished I had been there. Man, that looked awesome. You know what it feels like, it feels like when The New Age Outlaws came out back in the day. The signs, everybody wanting to be a part of the show. In some way, shape, or form, or fashion, they want to be a part of that show, and I noticed when Adam Cole walks out, when he does the ‘boom’ and ‘Adam Cole bay bay,’ you can feel that. No matter what happens after that, that right there is something when you’re watching it and you see it happen, you say, man, that was pretty cool. That right there for me is fuel, and that’s something that you really got to pay attention to.”

On Reigns’ rise to being the top star in WWE: “Roman has been taking what he’s given and making the best out of it since day one. Every situation they put Roman in, he’s gone out there and dealt with it straight up, whatever happened happened, and a lot of times, well, I wouldn’t say a lot of times, but Roman has been put in situations to where the fans, the way they feel about him, it hadn’t been his fault. When Roman first came out, it seemed like they were trying to make him The Rock. He was going out, and he was cutting promos and he was trying to be quick witted. That just wasn’t Roman. You can’t put me in The Rock’s position and expect for me to be The Rock. It’s just not gonna happen. That guy was an anomaly. He was definitely something that was just different than any of us, but Roman took that situation and bit down on it and said, okay, the fans hate me for trying to be like this. They’re gonna hate me, but I’m still gonna go out and perform.

“That’s the one thing that Roman has always been able to fall back on and that’s been his performance. He’s always been a guy that worked at a very, very high level, always there. Roman has always been one of my favorite guys to watch because everybody that works with Roman becomes a better worker. Everybody that worked with Roman had a best match of the year. Everybody that works with Roman, they don’t have another match that good all year. I look at it a little bit different than most, and I think Roman is literally one of the top guys in this business, especially being a heavyweight and going out there and knowing how to work that style and still be able to entertain people at the same time because when you’re a heavyweight and you ain’t jumping around and jumping over something, you still having to entertain people. It can be a little bit hard.”