WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T On #NaomiDeservesBetter: "They Can Go To Hell With All These Hashtags As Far As I'm Concerned"
The hashtag was trending on Twitter over the weekend...
Jul 22, 2020
On last week's episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Naomi was defeated by Lacey Evans in 155 seconds. This came only a week after the former Funkadactyl was featured in a widely panned karaoke segment and she has done little of note since WrestleMania 36.
Her latest loss led to #NaomiDeservesBetter trending on social media over the weekend and female stars in the wrestling world like Charlotte Flair and Big Swole tweeted their support for the message.
Someone who wasn't a fan of the hashtag was WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T. On his podcast, the six-time world champion said Superstars have to earn their spot on the card and Naomi will rise to the top of the women's division if she starts "advocating for herself" and performing at a high level each and every time she steps inside the squared circle.
"They can go to hell with all these hashtags as far as I’m concerned," Booker T said. "But I'm tired of hearing about them. Nobody deserves a chance, alright. First and foremost, you've got to earn your chance, your spot on the roster. This is not some kind of movement to just pull somebody up just because. And I hate to sit here and say this and talk this way because I like Naomi, but as far as the business goes, you get it on your merit alone. That's it. It's no buddy system. And I know somebody's gonna hear me and go, 'Well such and such got a buddy and that's why they're doing it.' Yeah, that may be true but life is not fair, okay. Life is not fair. Sometimes you've got to make your own breaks. Sometimes you've got to go out there and rise to the occasion when no one else thought you could, and the thing is, it may not happen overnight. There's a consistency thing that goes with that.
"No one expected me, including myself, to become a six-time world champion, but my persistence as far as going out into the middle of that ring and performing better than all them suckers in the locker room, and the suckers in the locker room they knew it, and the fans they saw something different and the signs were there for Booker T on a nightly basis. That's why I say #NaomiDeservesAChance, whatever, #DeservesBetter, I just don't think that serves her any purpose people advocating for her in that way. The way that needs to be put out there from an advocating perspective is her advocating for herself when she goes out into the ring and performs at a high level and the world see it. And that right there, when you do that Naomi, you cannot be denied.
"No one will ever say someone gave you anything and if it happened right now, tomorrow, someone blessed Naomi with the world championship, trust me, it would not feel like she did it on her own. It would have to be a movement for something like that to happen. I would have never wanted the world title if it was given to me that way… And Naomi, I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times, Naomi is perhaps more athletic than every female in that locker room and perhaps 99 percent of females in this business, but psychologically and working is two different things. And I just hope and wish that I had my hands on her for one month, Naomi would look at this business a totally different way."