Heated Conversations with Booker T
Episode 190: Sam Roberts
Release Date: December 4th, 2018
Recap by: James Hayes
https://www.radio.com/media/audio-channel/episode-190-sam-roberts
Booker T and Co-Host Brad Gilmore welcome you to the show!
Brad is in a great mood because this is the day he was born. Well, not the exact day, but, you get the point.
Booker gives him some wisdom.
“I want you young guys out there to understand something. Brad, 26 years old, I don’t want you to lose your mojo. I don’t want you to lose all your flavor as you get older and that’s what happens to a lot of men. They stop thinking about themselves. Make sure everything is right and everything is tight. Make sure you get in the gym. Stay with the program. Make sure you keep your hair manicured. Make sure you treat it like a chia pet. All you suckers out there who don’t treat your hair good normally around a certain age your hair will say, ’Look here, I’m up outta here. I’m done with you. No lifetime guarantee. My advice to you young guys is to take care of yourself. Pamper yourself. Don’t ever get comfortable. I told Sharmell, “You think about getting one of these young guys… You better call somebody. She ain’t got no reason to do that because I keep it tight. I’m always working on my mojo.”
Brad appreciates this.
Booker is not done. “I might go to the club. It ain’t no harm in looking. Just don’t touch.” Brad says, “I hear ya.” Booker continues, “You gotta know if you still got it. As you get older you are going to always question yourself. You are gonna always wonder, “Do I still got it? Can I still go out there and pull the ladies like I used to? Am I as handsome as I once was?” Sometimes you’ll dip out to the club. You ain’t with nobody. You take a seat. Some nice lady steps up to you and says, ‘You are looking real nice tonight.’ And you say, ‘I really appreciate that.’ She says, ‘Are you married?’ “Yes, I am. I appreciate that.” Boom. She walks on in a daze, wondering, “How did I miss out on a catch like that?” And you wondering, “Yeah. Yeah.”
Brad jumps in. “I got it. That’s me.”
“I still got it,” Booker brags.
(Booker T is a fountain of wisdom.)
Sam Roberts is quietly building a media empire. Wanna hear about it?
The Sam Roberts Interview
Booker: On the line with me right now is Sam Roberts. What’s going on, Sammy?
Sam: What’s going on, Book? Thank you for having me.
NY traffics sounds off in the background.
Booker: Where you at, middle of Times Square?
Sam: I wanted to give you the environment of New York City to make myself feel like a big deal.
Booker: It sounds good.
Brad: Some atmosphere. A little ambiance.
Booker: In New York, they can’t wait to blow the horn at somebody. You can be walking across the street the light is green and somebody will still HONK! HONK! HONK! “Get up outta the way!” It’s crazy. What’s going on in the life of Sam Roberts now?
Sam: Everything is good. We are just winding down everything from the morning show I do on Sirius and getting ready for TLC. Just tying up all the loose ends of 2018.
Booker: Me and Brad were talking earlier, and I wasn’t hot or nothing, but…
Brad: You sounded a little upset, a little perturbed.
Booker: I was not! It was nothing like that but I was just wondering, me personally, I don’t know how many championships, thirty…
Brad: Thirty-Five.
Booker: World Titles?
Brad: Six.
Booker: I won them all.
Brad: Hall of Famer.
Booker: I been bruised, battered, and torn. You talk about walking through the war zone and literally having to sidestep landmines at certain times along this journey. That’s how it’s been for me. And Brad is sitting here looking at me like, “That had to be hard.” And then…. Look, I’ve been blessed. I got a cool job with WWE. It’s beautiful. I was wondering how did Sam Roberts get that plush job with WWE?
Sam starts laughing.
Booker: You ain’t got no Hall of Fame ring or nothing like that. How did that happen?
Sam: We all have our own landmines in life that we have to get over, just because I ended up at Sirius, and I have a Booker T action figure on my desk…
Booker laughs.
Sam: Look, the WWE wanted a perspective that only someone like me could offer. And that’s the fan perspective. You’ve been through the wars. And you give your perspective when you get out on the Kickoff Show. No fan will actually know, but there is still value in a fan that just sits there and goes, “I want this to happen. I like this guy.” I got a call from Michael Cole a year and a half ago and he said, “We want the fan perspective on these Kickoff Shows, what are you doing in a couple of months?” And I said, “Michael Cole, I’m doing whatever you want me to do in a couple of months?”
Booker: There it is. That’s the way it happens sometimes. I used to play commentator in the locker room and one day they called me and said, “Book, you wanna be a commentator?” I was like, “Wait a minute. Are you kidding me? I was just playing around at this. I’m just trying to entertain the boys.”
Brad: How was it Sam, day one, walking into WWE for the first Kickoff Show?
Sam: It’s still unbelievable. I kind of try to treat every Kickoff Show like it was my first. It’s ridiculous that I ended up here. It’s insane. It doesn’t make any sense that I’m the one up there getting to do what I do. For whatever reason, that’s where I’m at. I tried to keep to myself for as much as humanly possible. Not be rude. Some of the guys I’ve known from doing interviews. I say hello to everybody. And I’m respectful to everybody. I try to sit back and get the lay of the land. The reality is I’m such a fan that just getting into the building and getting to sit in the stands before the show and watch the ring get set up, watch people go through what they’re gonna do that night. Just get the energy. For me that was my favorite thing I do, other than the Kickoff Show.
Booker: I remember the first time I worked with Peter Rosenberg. It’s always up to the old guys to rib guys, mess with them, you know bless them. Bring em’ into the family. I remember he had on Sasha Banks…
Brad: Bella Twins socks.
Booker: Bella Twin socks. On live television I go, “I thought your name was Peter, not mark.” (Any grown a** man wearing Bella Twins socks deserves that.)
Sam: I remember like it was yesterday.
Booker: Peter goes, “Oh, okay.”
They all laugh.
Booker: He took it in stride. It’s all fun.
Sam: I was watching that because that was his first time and I knew the next one I was doing. Because it was set up that Peter was gonna come one month and then me. So, I was like, “Let me see how Peter handles it and see if I can get any kind of insight.” In our heads, we are thinking we must sound like WWE announcers. That’s not what WWE wanted anyway. When you dropped that line I was like, “You know what? This is gonna be a good time.”
Brad: I’m gonna burn my Bella socks right now.
Booker: The stuff I’ve said on television… I still wonder sometimes, “How am I still sticking around here, man?”
Brad: The first time Sam and I met was at the Toyota Center at the Survivor Series last year. I was telling him I do the radio show with Booker T and he said, “You must just have fun all the time.” It sounds like you guys are doing that.
Sam: If your dance partner is talented and having fun it makes it easy to do your best work and have fun. That’s how it was at the first Kickoff Show. I got Renee on one side and Booker on the other I was having a blast at the same time.
Booker: I always thought for the network to work out they will have to bring in guys like yourself, guys that are connected to wrestling, as far as loving it, but still having that outside presence. Are you interested in having a show?
Sam: Of course. I would love to. I’ve pitched them stuff but I’m at the point where I feel almost greedy. But I gotta get past that, and realize, “No man, you are here and you are in that spot. You gotta start giving out some of your ideas and talking to people about doing fun stuff.” I would love to do some kind of show.
Booker: What kind of SHOW are we talking about?
Sam: My favorite thing to do is sit down, with guys like yourself, and talk for an hour or 90 minutes and go through stories in your career. Doing a show from the fan perspective but not click baiting. I have a studio in my house. So I had Jeff Jarrett come by and do the podcast there. We ended up sitting down and talking for two hours just going through his career and we didn’t even get to WCW. I love doing stuff like that.
Booker: If you had to pick one guy on the roster right now that’s going to be that one guy for the next five years who would it be?
Sam: One guy to beat Brock Lesnar? Seth Rollins is the guy for me. He’s done an amazing job of connecting with the fans.
Booker: I said about 6 months ago that Seth Rollins over the last year has been on such an awesome roll, his storytelling has been so great, that he could write romance novels.
Brad: Wrestling fan to wrestling fan, a year ago everyone was talking about the next WrestleMania main event will be Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte. Now over the last month, there has been this meteoric rise from Becky Lynch. Lynch is The Man now in WWE. Everyone wants a piece of her. She is even doing MMA interviews. She crossed over. Do you think that now the more likely main event is Rousey vs Lynch at WrestleMania?
Sam: We are not in the war room that makes that decision but as a fan… When you asked the question, a minute ago, Book, about who is that person, if you hadn’t said, “Who is that guy.” I would’ve said, “Becky Lynch is on her way to being the most popular superstar male or female in the WWE.” The match I want to see at WrestleMania is Ronda vs Becky. I think that is the match far and away that, and I love Charlotte, that has the most potential to main event. And if it did, it would be specifically special. It’s not because it’s history. A lot of time with women it’s important and amazing, but the emphasis is its history. You do Becky vs Charlotte because regardless of gender that’s the match people want to see it. Then you’ve really made history. Becky vs Ronda is 100 percent the match I want to see at ‘Mania. It has the most potential, male or female, to headline that show.
Booker: I’m not into predicting wrestling matches. I get them wrong, but, I gotta go against the grain. I like Becky, she paved her own way. But Wrestlemania with Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey is like Ali/Frasier. The Thrilla in Manila. That right there is… Early ticket sales are looking good. Sell out money here. TLC is gonna be huge. The outcome… WrestleMania needs a main event. That match would be Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte. She is the Greatest Female Wrestler In the history of… in the annals of all time. That’s money to me.
Brad: I see the appeal. But sometimes you gotta strike when the iron is hot and right now Becky Lynch is hot. She is The Man. Sam, who do you see walking out of TLC?
Sam: All this conversation about Becky vs Charlotte a lot of people have forgotten Asuka, who up until Wrestlemania, was one of the hottest females on the roster. I think on Smackdown they have actually done a really good job in the last 3 weeks of reminding people how great Asuka is. I think TLC is a good opportunity to put that title on Asuka, then have Charlotte and Becky battle it out at The Royal Rumble to see who gets the shot at Wrestlemania. Should Becky win that Royal Rumble she is able to look at that sign and say, “I want the Raw Women’s Champion at Wrestlemania. I want Ronda.”
Brad: I gotta say, Book, I really like that a lot. He laid it out pretty good. He’s a good prosecutor.
Booker: Let’s switch gears because that is a good idea. That’s a great idea.
They all laugh.
Spoiler Alert!!!
Asuka won.
Spoiler over
For more of this interview click the link above. The guys get into Roman Reigns, Raw’s recent run of poor shows, and who they think is The King Of R&B.
Sam doing his thang
Before The Final Bell:
Remember when Booker and Stone Cold battled at the Green Frog Grocery Store?
Brad informs us that yesterday it was 13 years since Booker and Stone Cold had their classic battle among the produce.
Booker reflects about how proud he is that he was able to something so legendary with someone so iconic.
“I did a panel in Bakersville at Comic-Con, that’s where the Green Frog was, and I had so many people that wanted to talk about The Green Frog. They got a piece of The Green Frog when they tore it down. Steve Austin did a hell of a job. He and I walked it. We will go this way, or finish over here. We did not rehearse one time. It could not have been scripted better.”
Booker says, “It was a special time in the wrestling business.”
Rating: 8.0 out of 10
Overall Observations:
This was a very fun show with a great debate with Brad and Sam vs Booker. This was a triple threat match that the Hall of Famer lost. (Sorry I couldn’t resist.) We got a lot of wrestling opinion. Sam always brings his A-game when it comes to wrestling. I especially loved Booker asking him how in the h**l he got the job in WWE. An honest question asked and answered truthfully. Three guys with knowledge and chemistry made this a fun show.
See ya next week!
About James:
Based out of New York, James Hayes is an independent filmmaker and podcaster, currently working on a true crime series focused on African American crime. When he needs a break from the seriousness of true-crime he turns to pro wrestling. James has 27 years of following the sport. Here is a link to his film credits https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2026980/, as well as His Twitter @JamesHa34395813.
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