Booker T thinks somebody should be fired over the Avery Styles controversy. After hearing why AJ Styles’ son was criticized for not helping set up a GCW event, Booker called the entire situation “ridiculous.
Speaking on the Hall of Fame podcast, Booker was brought up to speed on the controversy surrounding 19-year-old Avery and his August 1 GCW appearance in Minneapolis. The entire thing genuinely baffled him.
Booker runs Reality of Wrestling, brings outside talent into his promotion regularly and said those wrestlers aren’t expected to touch a chair or help put the ring together. That’s what his crew and students are there to do.
“I heard the story and it baffles the hell out of me because I got a wrestling promotion. I hire talent to come in every month. Even talent that’s local, that live in Houston, and they don’t set up a damn thing.”
“We got a crew. We got students that’s coming up, you know, that’s trying to make their way in the business, and perhaps [the talent] was one of those students once upon a time, you know, that did that. But if they’re talent on the show, they’re well past that.”
Booker’s position became even stronger once Brad Gilmore explained exactly what happened. Avery traveled to Minneapolis to wrestle Marcus Mathers. Arik Cannon subsequently criticized him for allegedly not helping with setup and teardown. To Booker, somebody traveling in to work a match shouldn’t suddenly be expected to become part of the ring crew too.
“Now, if I’m hiring out someone from, you know, another state and they’re coming in, they’re flying in or they’re driving in or whatever, they’re just coming in for the show. They’re not coming in to set the ring up and take it down. That’s ridiculous.”
Then Booker really went there. He called the entire situation a “real, real bad look” and said somebody should actually be fired over the fact that this ever became a controversy. Booker didn’t want to outright bash another wrestling company, but he couldn’t understand how a disagreement over talent setting up a ring was allowed to become this big of a story.
“And for any—this, I’m going to tell you right now, this is a real, real bad look, you know, for a promotion to be wanting talent to come in and set up the damn ring and wrestle. That’s ridiculous.
I don’t want to, you know, bash anybody’s company or anything like that, but for this to be a story out there, somebody’s ass should be fired. That’s the way I look at it.”
As far as somebody coming to Reality of Wrestling, I would not be expecting them to show up to set the chairs up or take them down or bust a ring or any of that. And it’s never been that way at Reality of Wrestling.”
This whole thing somehow started with Nattie Neidhart complimenting Avery and Marcus Mathers after their GCW match. Cannon criticized Avery for allegedly not pitching in with setup and teardown, AJ Styles defended his son, and suddenly everyone had an opinion on whether a 19-year-old with a famous father was properly “paying his dues.”
Now Booker has brought a promoter’s perspective into the argument, and there wasn’t much gray area. At Reality of Wrestling, the people booked to wrestle aren’t expected to build the ring first. As far as Booker is concerned, Avery shouldn’t have been expected to either.
What do you make of Booker T saying somebody should be fired over the Avery Styles controversy? Let us know in the comments below.
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