Kurt Angle shares why backstage fight between Booker T and Batista happened
One of the most famous (or rather, infamous) backstage brawl has been that of Booker T and Batista some 15 years back.
It’s no secret that WWE talent get into a brawl here and there backstage with each other. It’s one room full of buffed-up men running high on adrenaline; things are bound to get scrappy at times.
But this fight between King Booker and Batista really had people talking. It was rumoured earlier that Batista’s affair with John Morrison’s girlfriend, Melina, contributed to it.
Another possible reason forwarded was that WWE locker room was losing respect for ‘The Animal’ because of how high headed he was getting.
But Kurt Angle revealed that the real reason behind the two fighting backstage in 2006 around SummerSlam was because of a misunderstanding.
Speaking on the Kurt Angle Show podcast (h/t WrestlingInc), the Olympic Gold medalist revealed that Batista made comments to a RAW star that offended Booker T, who was on the Blue brand with Batista.
“I was there after the fight ended. I heard what occurred, Batista got there for a commercial shoot, I think it was for SummerSlam, and someone approached him and Batista said ‘Hey, when are you coming over to SmackDown because I have nobody to work with.’ Booker took that as wait a minute, I’m on SmackDown? There’s a lot of people to work with. I think Batista was just saying, because there were a lot of injuries going on and it was getting a little bare at the top and he was just trying to tell the person I’d love you to come over and work a program with you.”
Kurt Angle says Batista and Booker T are now good friends
He added that it was just a misunderstanding and that Batista and Booker settled their differences soon after.
“I don’t think it was anything personal against Booker T or anyone else on SmackDown. Batista said it and Booker confronted him and now the situation got hotter. Now Booker confronts Batista, makes Batista look like an idiot, Batista confronts Booker and now they end in a fight competition. The fight occurred, I got there afterward, I saw Booker T had a black eye and Batista was a little banged up and I just thought it was a big misunderstanding. I know they apologized afterward and made up and did whatever they had to do to move on, they just misunderstood each other about the whole situation. It was a shame, it didn’t have to happen.”
Booker and Batista had some memorable fights, with one of them coming on SmackDown for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship- which the King would go on to win.
In their prime, the two of them really carried the Blue brand on their back for a while, especially in mid-2006.
Angle and Booker are in the Hall of Fame already, and Batista is surely next to follow. His latest influence on the show was seen just this weekend when WWE organized a zombie-lumberjack match at Backlash to promote his movie.
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