WWE Hall Of Famer Comments On Mercedes Mone's NJPW Debut

Sasha Banks finally made her much-anticipated return to the squared circle this week at Wrestle Kingdom 17. Now known as Mercedes Mone, the women's star attacked former WWE colleague KAIRI after her successful defense of the IWGP Women's Championship, setting up a match between the two at NJPW Battle in the Valley in San Jose, CA on February 18. While Mone's arrival on the scene certainly brought a lot of eyes to NJPW's biggest event, the reaction has been mixed as to how well her debut went. On the latest episode of his "Hall of Fame" podcast, Booker T weighed in, raising the issue of the difference between Japanese wrestling fans and those in other parts of the globe.

"The crowd, man. It's just hard to navigate that Japanese crowd. It was quiet, it was silent, you know they don't understand what you're saying," Booker said. "If she just would have knew a few Japanese words, right? If she just would have studied in Japanese what she wanted to say. Or maybe not what she wanted to say, say the first part in English, but just the outline in Japanese."

Some listeners wanted to weigh in on the misfire that ended the confrontation between KAIRI and Mone, but Booker was a bit more forgiving about the moment just being one of those things. "Stuff like that happens and I don't think that's what killed the crowd," Booker laughed, saying the crowd was going to be quiet no matter what. "That's the way they are." He further added, "A move is a move and the fans that look into wrestling as that being the end-all-be-all as far as what we're trying to do here, we're trying to entertain," he said, "And sometimes, trying to entertain you, you screw up. Give us a little bit of a break. That's just part of the game."