Booker T Reveals Perk He Was Given As WCW World Champion
When Booker T. became WCW champion in 2000, the organization also sought to reward him off-camera. As the two-time WWE Hall of Famer and six-time world champion recalled on a recent episode of his "Hall of Fame" podcast, WCW sought to incentivize him with his own locker room -– but the wrestling star had his own idea for a reward.
"I was like, 'Man, I don't want my own locker room,'" he recalled. "I didn't want to isolate myself from the boys or anything like that. I said, 'What you can do is get me a 50-inch television and put it on the truck and make sure it's at every show so we can play Madden."
WCW responded to Booker's request without questioning his choice or trying to appease him with another reward option. "And they did it," he continued, laughing that the television went with him to the shows on which he was scheduled to appear. "It is crazy, man, but that was my perk –- I wanted for us to be able to play Madden. And I was the king of Madden at the time, too, and nobody could stop [me]."
Booker's television did not come with him when he signed to WWE in 2001. But as Gamerant recalled, he brought along a "portable system" that allowed him to play "Madden NFL" backstage. However, that perk did not last for long -– Booker and fellow wrestler D'Lo Brown were engaged in a game when they were interrupted by WWE agent Michael Hayes, who might have alerted the WWE hierarchy about this diversion. As a result, the WWE talent received a memo mandating that video games could no longer be played in the locker room.