High-Pressure Feud With The Rock A Test For WWE Hall Of Famer
One WWE Hall of Famer saw his rivalry with The Rock as an audition for the rest of his WWE career.
After WWE bought WCW back in 2001, many of the stars of the one-time competitor company made their way to WWE as part of the infamous ‘Invasion’ storyline. One of those stars was former WCW Champion Booker T, who soon found himself going one-on-one with The Great One.
The rivalry was a big opportunity for the future Hall of Famer to prove himself in his new surroundings, and he was determined to make the most of it. Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker admitted that working with The Rock was an intimidating experience.
“Coming in from WCW I must say that I was a little bit intimidated, I’m not going to say I wasn’t.
“Just because when you’re coming in, you’re working with the top guy in the company it’s a pressure-pressure situation, it really is a lot of pressure for me to go out and have to perform at my best at my highest level.”
The star went on to explain that he felt like the company was testing him with the rivalry and that he was determined to perform at the highest level as a result.
“I felt like I was auditioning at the same time, I really did, I felt like when I came into WWE I was auditioning. Everything was a test, everything from the beginning.”
“I was thinking about the work, I wasn’t thinking about the history or how it was going to be looked [at] many, many years later or anything like that. I was just thinking about going out there and performing and performing at my highest level.”
The feud culminated in the main event of that year’s SummerSlam, where The Rock defeated Booker T to capture the WCW Championship.
The Rock Joins The Bloodline
Although he looked set to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40, The Rock has performed a huge about-turn and joined The Bloodline instead. The turn came after Cody Rhodes seemingly insulted the Anoa’i family during the WrestleMania 40 kickoff press conference, leading to The People’s Champ slapping The American Nightmare. The Rock later left the press conference alongside Reigns and Paul Heyman.
On the February 16th edition of SmackDown, he solidified his heel turn by announcing he and his cousin were now the most dominant duo in the company.
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the above transcription.