10 Times WWE Embarrassed Their Own Stars
5. Booker T
Booker T, like DDP, could have entered WWE as a major player in the company's Invasion angle. There was money to be made from the fictional war built from over a decade of factual animosity, but with most of WCW's true stars content to continue cashing their cheques, the Atlanta team was struggling for legitimacy.
When their champion, one of the last true stars the promotion had created, injured Steve Austin at King of the Ring 2001, it seemed as if the fight now had fillet - and even more so when he led the interpolating contingent to victory during InVasion's 'Inaugural Brawl'. Or at least, it would have, had WWE not fed lamb Booker to their promo wolf The Rock just days later.
On the 2 August edition of SmackDown, Rocky returned to WWE. After pledging his allegiance to the company in which he was 'born', he turned his attention to other business: a certain Texan world champion.
He didn't get the one he was looking for. Instead of Austin, out walked Houston's Booker T, WCW Championship in tow. The Rock's face was a picture of mock perplexion, as he asked the supposed unknown, "Who in the blue hell are you?" The Harlem Heat man's response that he was the "WCW champion, suckah!" was lapped up by his verbal sparring partner, who stripped it of its punctuation with homophobic derision. You could sense Booker's apprehension when The Rock delivered his next question: what was his name?
It didn't matter what his name was. It didn't matter what his legacy was. Booker T was instantly cast as a zero, and he'd be forced to climb back up the ladder from this moment.