WWE Hall Of Famer Defends Booker T After Being Named Worst Wrestling Announcer

One WWE Hall of Famer has leapt to the defence of Booker T after he was recently voted the worst wrestling announcer of 2025.

Booker T was recently voted the worst wrestling announcer of 2025 in a vote held by the Wrestling Observer. The NXT announcer has now won the award three years in a row, making him a four-time winner overall. And for an industry known for famously not caring what happens outside of its bubble, it really seems to have struck a nerve.

Speaking on TMZ Inside The Ring, JBL – himself a winner of the Worst Announcer Award in 2014 and 2015 – has jumped to Booker T’s defence, claiming his fellow Hall of Famer is a great announcer:

I don’t know what water head moron would make Booker T anything but the greatest (commentator). I think Booker, Booker is awesome, and everything about Booker, Booker is a role model. Booker is a legend. He’s a multi-time Hall of Famer.

I think he’s a great commentator. He’s done so much for this business and for his training guys. He’s one of the best guys I’ve ever met. I think he’s a great commentator, and people agree with that.

Booker T “Lights Up A Room”

JBL then launched a wider assault on the wrestling media, daring to have opinions or give awards and claimed they just try to be negative:

It’s just like these press gimmicks that come out. And it’s not just Meltzer….You don’t get followings by being positive and say, ‘Hey, this guy’s really great.’ You get followings by saying, ‘Oh, this guy’s terrible.’ And you try to sound smart and try to sound cerebral. That’s why you have some movie that sells a billion dollars in ticket sales and people say, ‘Oh, that’s the worst movie ever That’s right that’s because of why it just made a billion dollars.

You know, these guys like Meltzer and these guys are a bunch of bozos. I think Booker is awesome. I’m so happy that what Booker is doing, and I think he’s fun to be around. He’s infectious. You know, Booker is one of these guys that just lights up a room, and I think he does that on commentary also. [h/t WrestlingNews.co]

The Observer Awards had 38 separate categories in 2025, with only nine of them having negative connotations. That means 29 awards celebrated the best of pro wrestling 2025. AEW publicly commented on the awards the promotion won and its stars won.