Booker T Doesn’t “Look Back Negatively” On Triple H WrestleMania Match

Booker T isn’t as upset over his WrestleMania match with Triple H from twenty years ago as many fans were and still are.

Back in 2003, Booker T was the surprise winner of an over-the-top-rope battle royal to determine who would challenge Triple H for his World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XIX.

On the go-home episode of RAW, Triple H made a controversial statement when he said to Booker T that “people like…you…aren’t meant to be champion.”

The explanation was that HHH was commenting on Booker T’s past problems with the law and his time spent in prison, but many fans interpreted those comments as meaning something far worse.

Given this angle and story, it was presumed that Booker T would beat Triple H at WrestleMania. but not only did Triple H win, he won decisively. Over twenty seconds passed from the moment Triple H hit his Pedigree to the moment he got the three-count.

With those two elements together, many fans argued that Triple H had “buried” Booker. However, Booker doesn’t see it that way, as he described on his Hall of Fame podcast.

“Hunter and I had a lot of back and forth as far as what was gonna be done in that match. I did the Harlem Hangover in that match, and Hunter called for it.

I don’t look back negatively on that match at all really. Do I wish I had won that match? That’s the question. It’s a really tough question because I never got in the business to win matches.”

Three years later, Booker T, wrestling under a new gimmick as King Booker, won the World Heavyweight Championship while it was defended on SmackDown.

h/t WrestlingInc for the transcription