The war of words between Booker T and Swerve Strickland continues as the WWE Hall of Famer sent along some advice.
After AEW Dynasty went off the air Swerve addressed the crowd. He closed with: “When I talk about representation, I mean it every single f—–g time I speak on it. This kid right here that you supported for these last 12, 13 years, in one year, headlined five main event pay-per-views. I always want to hear you all chant ‘Who’s House”. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the merchandise. Get home safely. And one last thing just for my own amusement… F–k Booker T.”
Booker T and Strickland have been on a back-and-forth over Strickland’s claiming that he wasn’t treated fairly in WWE Vince McMahon used the “N-word” in front of him and that WWE still isn’t treating their current black talent fairly.
On his podcast, Booker T had commented that even though he has faced obstacles in his career, he has no issue with his treatment by WWE. He confronted Swerve at an event they attended together.
“I told Swerve Strickland to his face how disappointed I am in him as a young brother because all I did for Swerve Strickland was put him over and put him on a pedestal as being one of the best out there, that he deserves to be the AEW Champion. For him to say something like that about me – I don’t know if these guys think racism stopped in 1990 when I got in the business – but it didn’t. You may not hear about a lot of racial issues with Booker T because I handled racial issues hand-first. I opened doors. I broke down barriers for people like Swerve Strickland. Swerve Strickland would perhaps not even be here if it wasn’t for me. I have to apologize for nothing that I’ve done in this business because I’ve gone out there and I have literally represented in the ring and out of the ring from day one all the way to this day in 2025,” said Booker on his podcast.
Booker then addressed Swerve directly.
“You speak on Vince McMahon and him saying the ‘N-word’, you want me to be angry black man in the company? You want me to not open doors and make spaces for people like you, that’s what you want me to do? Swerve Strickland, I hope you’re never going to be in the movies. I hope you’re never going to be on a movie set because you might hear somebody say the ‘N-word’ and if you’ve got a problem with it they’re gonna tell your ass to get the hell out of here, this is a movie, alright? I’m disappointed in Swerve Strickland because what I told him – I’ll repeat it just like I repeated it to him; you got played. You got played, bro. You got played. You let that man play you and pit you against me and me against you. I don’t know how many stories you’ve ever heard about that on VladTV, but there’s many of them. There’s many stories out there about the black man against the black man because Vlad is pitting them against each other. I don’t know how many people you know that have been locked up from the federal perspective by going on VladTV. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing on VladTV first of all. What have you done to be on VladTV? That’s just my opinion on that. As far as Swerve Strickland – and me having the energy, the veracity, I got all that. I’m still six foot three inches tall, two hundred and thirty pounds of stomping, grave damn digging, destruction Jack,” he said.
Upon hearing, reading what Swerve said at Dynasty, Booker replied:
“Woke up this morning and I wondered, why is my name trending? I see the video of Swerve Strickland saying, ‘F Booker T’ at the end of Dynasty. I’m not going to even get upset about it. I’m going to give Swerve Strickland a little bit of advice, just a little bit. That advice would be, don’t be talking about something other than the pay-per-view at the end of the night. That’s the main event and the last thing people are going to remember. The last people are going to remember is me, my name being said. I’m sure Tony Khan don’t appreciate the news, the headline not being what happened at Dynasty with all the matches. They’re talking about Booker T. That was a bad move,” said Booker.
Booker doled out some more career advice:
“He’s got a lot of energy at the end of the show. I’m not that type. I’m from that school that if you got something to say to somebody say it to their face. I’m going leave it at that. Hopefully, Swerve Strickland has a hell of a career and he’ll do very well in this business. I’m going to keep stressing what I’ve talked about for a long time, go out there and get it on your talent and merit. Nobody will ever be able to say you got it because of, only for your talent. I’m going to keep advocating for the young guys to go out there and perform at the highest level. Take what you want. It’s not going be given to you. You’ve got to take it. The only way to take it is through your performance and how good you really are inside the squared circle. That’s as much as I’m going say on that issue as far as Swerve Strickland goes,” he continued.
Booker then affirmed that Strickland is in his rearview mirror.
“This generation, man. I’m an advocate for all young black talent to get into this business but I’m an advocate for so many more young kids than just black kids. I’m an advocate for anybody who has the talent to actually make it to the next level. I’ll put a word in for them. I think my reputation has been solid. I don’t publicize a lot of things. The guys out there, they know. They know if I’ve been on the side of righteousness. They know what Booker T has done behind the scenes. I don’t have to talk about it on social media. I’m not trying to get extra brownie points for anything I’ve done but they know. People like Swerve, we come from a different cloth, a totally different cloth. I wish nothing but the best for this dude. I want to see them succeed. Would I ever say anything positive about him, ever again? Probably not. Would I ever put him over as far as being a good worker and perhaps transform this business? I probably won’t do that again. I’ve learned my lesson. I ain’t going bring a personal beef to my job.”
