10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2003
2. “People Like You”
Live on the 3 March 2003 Raw, reigning World Heavyweight Champion and future WWE overseer Triple H went nose to nose with Booker T heading into their clash at WrestleMania XIX. Cool. This was nothing out of the ordinary, but some of Hunter's wording sure was. Mid-promo, Trips said that "people like you" (referring to Booker) could never be a proper World Champ.
Afterwards, WWE tried to claim that this wasn’t about race and had more to do with Booker’s time in jail, but it blatantly was about colour. Their poor bid to palm off criticism didn't wash, because Trips even said that "people like" Booker “with your nappy hair” are great at entertaining but that’s it. Wow. He might as well have said WWE would never book black wrestlers on top as World Champ.
Untrue, of course, but that's what the villain was pitching on live TV.
The storyline skirted a very fine line between challenger going after elusive championship and an outright show of racism from Triple H's character. In the background, a gleeful Ric Flair chortled as his Evolution stablemate rubbished Booker's claim to the throne because of his race. Again, WWE excusing this as something like: 'Oh, he was referring to Book being a convict and nothing more'? Nah, nobody bought it.
There was zero need to inject race into the story anyway. The pair had enough to work with. Hunter big-leaguing Booker for "only" being WCW World Champ and struggling to do the same in WWE would've been enough of a story. As usual, wrestling during this era clumsily handled race issues when it didn't even need to.