Booker T On Whether He Sees Similarities Between AEW And WCW In 2001

Booker T has firsthand experience seeing a mainstream wrestling company going through struggles. The two-time WWE Hall Of Famer recently joined Wrestling Inc. senior news editor Nick Hausman for an exclusive conversation and was asked about the backstage drama that went down after AEW All Out. Did it reflect the dying days of WCW in 2001?

"Not at all," Booker said. "Totally different. Our last days at WCW, you could see the writing on the wall that the plug had been pulled. We were just waiting on the doctors to come tell everybody it's over, you know what I mean? Right now, Tony Khan still got a whole lot of money. He's invested, he's all in, no pun intended, with this company. And I think he's going to do everything he possibly can to make this thing work. I wouldn't even think Tony Khan is going to even start thinking about anything other than making this thing successful. If he gets to that five-year mark and things not working out, he might start thinking then."

During the post-All Out media scrum, Khan wasn't afraid to say he had a whole lot of money to go up against WWE when he was asked about WWE taking over part of Labor Day weekend with Clash At The Castle on Saturday and "NXT" Worlds Collide on Sunday, though Khan compared himself to Jim Crockett Promotions rather than WCW. Former AEW World Champion CM Punk, who was at the center of the All Out drama, also mentioned the five-year future of AEW when asked about his WCW Bash At The Beach '96 comparison from last year, but his future with the company is currently unknown.