Pro wrestling legend Booker T sets expectations for next great superstar ahead of 'WWE LFG'
Legendary professional wrestler Booker T will be one of the four coaches tasked to find the next top competitor on the upcoming A&E series "WWE Legends and Future Greats."
The show, also known as "WWE LFG," takes 16 budding professional wrestlers and lets them learn under the guided eyes of Booker T, Mickie James, Undertaker and Bubba Ray Dudley. While each coach has their own styles and backgrounds, Booker T has experience as a coach.
Booker T is the founder of the independent promotion Reality of Wrestling (ROW), which became an independent wrestling school for WWE's latest developmental program, WWE ID. Much like his fellow coaches, he has been through the ups and downs that pro wrestling has to offer. He has been a world champion with WWE, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, and he has been on the independent and international scenes.
He explained to Fox News Digital in a recent interview what he is looking for in a pro wrestler.
"How much heart they have, how much they really, really want it, and how far they're willing to go because with professional wrestling, I tell my students, it's not going to come to you," he said. "You got to go to it as far as the studying side of it.
"Do you really want to be a professional wrestler or do you want to just play wrestling? It's so many different elements that goes into it. But I'm looking for the guy that wants it. It's hard to judge a book by its cover because you might see the one guy, he may have everything on the outside you're looking for, but it may have zero on the inside that you're looking for. On the other hand, it could be totally the opposite."
Aside from being a prolific singles competitor with multiple world championship reigns, Booker T broke into WCW as a tag-team wrestler with his brother, Stevie Ray. The two were known as the Harlem Heat and took the tag-team scene by storm.
The Harlem Heat were 10-time tag-team champions in WCW. Booker T also won tag titles with Rob Van Dam, Goldust and Test.
He told Fox News Digital he was not looking for one person to have a certain specialty, rather a person who is ready for any type of challenge.
"I'm looking for someone who can find themselves in situations, and no matter what the situation is, they know how to figure it out," he said. "A lot of these guys are dealing with this competition from just about every aspect we possibly can put them in – from a tag-team perspective, from a singles perspective, from a surprise perspective.
"There's going to be so many different elements that we're going to put them through. They're going to, like I say, run the gambit as far as that goes. But I'm looking for someone who's prepared for those situations because, just like I've been talking to my students since day one, preparation is the only luck you're going to have in making it in this business."
"WWE Legends and Future Greats" is on A&E at 8 p.m. ET starting Sunday.
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