Booker T: AEW Dark Is A Demotion

Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T referred to AEW wrestlers being booked on their YouTube shows Dark and Dark: Elevation as a 'demotion', while talking about The Hardys and Paul Wight recently appearing on those shows. 

Speaking on a recent edition of The Hall of Fame podcast, he said:

"Hell yeah, it’s a demotion. I know that's going to get picked up, but hell yeah it's a demotion. Dammit, I'm not working on Dark. For me, working on Dark, which is a show that is only on the internet, should be for the young guys coming up. I didn't come from the big show, no pun intended, which I am talking about WWE, I didn't come from WWE to come to AEW to work Dark.

"I don't even know what Dark is, I don't know who's on it, I don't know when it's aired or anything like that. So, for me to be on Dark, it would make me feel a certain way, me personally".

Booker went further, likening it to him being asked to perform on old WWE shows like Heat and Velocity, which aired on weekends in syndication during Booker's full-time in-ring WWE career. 

While claiming that he 'never' worked on shows like Heat or Velocity, Booker said that he would have wrestled on them had Vince McMahon asked him to do it. 

"If Vince came to me and said, 'Hey Book, I need you to work the Velocity show, we need to bump the ratings on that show, we need some star power on it, do you think you can do it?'. What do you think I am going to say? I am going to say, 'yeah'.

"But my boss, he respected me enough not to put me on those shows. He respected me enough as far as to keep my star power at a certain position. He kept me working around the main event guys. If I wasn't with the main event guys I was doing something". 

Despite his claims, a quick check of the record books shows that the five-time WCW Champion did, in fact, appear on Heat and Velocity on multiple occasions. 

Between August of 2004 and September of 2005 alone, Booker wrestled ten times on Velocity, winning all of his matches against the likes of Shannon Moore, Billy Kidman, Spike Dudley and Kenzo Suzuki.

He also wrestled three matches on Heat between 2001 and 2004. 

H/T Wrestling Inc.