Original subtitles

- Steve Austin.

Booker T.

I felt like it was going to catapult me to that next level.

- You could see that there was going to be something else

down the road for Book.

- I expected him to bring it.

It was hardcore.

It was a fight.

But that's just part of the game.

- Wait a minute.

- Booker T just threw Stone Cold.

- When I first came into WWE I really didn't know my place.

That night turned out to be a little topsy turvy, of course.

- As if you didn't have enough problems if you're Booker.

Now, you really have some uphill battle.

- He was a different opponent for me.

I've never done anything like this before.

This is a very new landscape.

- Oh, no.

- Uh, oh.

Austin attacking Booker T.

Oh.

- The grocery store fight is

Something that put us on the map.

- Stone Cold Steve Austin, having been the man in WWE

and Booker T having been the man and final champion in WCW.

Finally, we're going to see

Booker T and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the ring.

- Doing something like this

with someone like Booker T, I call that a Grand Slam.

People remember the character aspects as much,

if not more, than the matches.

- If I'm going to do something, I want to be the best.

- You son of a-

Come here, you son of a bitch.

got a chance to work with Booker T.

It was pure entertainment.

- You're out of line.

- So much animosity

in this awesome rivalry

- When two legends collide,

their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories

behind the greatest rivalries of all time.

I'm Gabriel Iglesias,

and this is

WWE Rivals.

[groaning]

- I won't do it no more.

- Shopping gets me tired.

- I won't do it no more.

- Shopping gets me-

I'm thirsty.

- Please no more.

Please.

- Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T,

two guys that both came in through the WCW channel

and eventually became mega stars in WWE.

- In my early stages of Stunning Steve, I-I really emulated

the greatest of all time, Nature Boy Ric Flair.

And I tried to wrestle like him,

and no one can wrestle like Ric Flair.

And so I was kind of trapped.

I was considered by my peers a good mechanic in the ring,

but I wasn't a superstar

because I just didn't have all the pieces together.

I didn't have the gimmick or the character.

If you can't take it, tough guy,

get out of the business.

- You know, a lot of people don't realize that Booker and

Austin both came through the Sportatorium

just like you and I.

- That's right.

Just like we did.

- Yeah, yeah.

- It's a breeding ground of champions

that came through there.

- A bunch of Hall of Famers came through the Sportatorium.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Me, Pac, the Von Erichs, Booker T, Stone Cold.

- Oh

- Freebirds, Freebirds

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

- I think-I think Booker's so incredibly underrated.

And I feel like when you start thinking about like, the greats,

for whatever reason, like he doesn't his name doesn't

get thrown up in there.

He's right up there.

- Booker T and Stevie Ray.

Harlem Heat's controlling this match up.

- Booker has gotten over everywhere he's been,

what he and his brother did and what he did by himself.

He had a Hall of Fame career in WCW alone.

- Is it hot in here?

- Boy, is it ever when these two men get into the ring.

- I got into professional wrestling um,

following my brother.

My brother always wanted to be in professional wrestling

He loved professional wrestling.

And my brother was getting a tryout,

and I just went along with him.

And they say, "Well, who is this guy?"

And he goes, "That's my brother."

"Well, I'm looking for a tag team."

So, that's how I got my foot in the door.

It was something that gave me a sense of purpose

and I was good at it.

We finna to hurt these punks,

Harlem style, if you know what I'm sayin'

- Confidence.

Arrogance.

Ability.

All words to describe Harlem Heat.

- Man, when Harlem Heat first walked in,

those guys would turn your head.

V frames, big arm, shoulders.

They're put together.

- Double team maneuver

from Harlem Heat

- When Boooker and his brother Stevie,

you know, got on my radar, I kind of started watching.

These guys are championship material.

These guys can draw money.

- My brother had his role, I had my role,

and we went out and we were like peanut butter and jelly.

It was just a perfect mix.

We're not just here to day.

We're here to stay.

And we're taking the gold before it's all over, baby.

I remember meeting Steve Austin in WCW.

I never crossed paths with Steve as far as in-ring,

but I always had a lot of respect for Steve.

I always thought he was a hell of a talent, and I thought when

WCW let him go, I was like, "Wow" you know,

"We just just let a big fish go."

- You know, I ended up getting fired,

but I wasn't ready to be in that top tier because esthetically

I didn't have the right look.

I didn't have the right gimmick or persona.

I was never in the head space in WCW

to be Stone Cold Steve Austin.

- Stone Cold Steve Austin, he's a Stone Cold, if anything.

- When I went to WWE, that's when everything

organically clicked and it happened.

Talk about your Psalms.

Talk about John 3:16.

Austin 3:16 says, I just whipped your ass.

- When he comes out and all of a sudden says that Austin 3:16

with Michael Hayes,

I mean, everything changed.

That night, everything changed.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin's music]

People have Austin 3:16 signs.

I've never seen anything like that.

- It's just something about him had that energy,

that attitude that pe- people wanted to see him.

- That pop that he would get-

- of anyone.

- It was-

- Hulk, anyone.

- Deafening.

People were just waiting to see Stone Cold.

He was that big.

- I remember when having hair was a thing and then, you know,

sometimes, sometimes you got to

clean it up to go to the next level.

- You don't put it-

you don't put a roof on an empty barn.

- you know?

[laughing]

- Man, the numbers that we were

doing back in those days was so crazy.

I was so in your face.

I was so raw, but I was so real I could not be denied.

Does anybody have a cold beer for Steve Austin?

- You know watching Steve run from when he first came to WWE

and all the way to the end.

I just saw a guy that was on a mission.

Um, just to watch that guy go out and do his work, uh,

it was pretty awesome.

You know, I was living in a time of my life at that time.

Then I started doing singles wrestling.

I always wanted to be a singles wrestler.

My brother, he gave me his blessing to go out there

and be the best singles wrestler I possibly can.

- Once you're established as a tag team wrestler,

that's pretty much it for ya.

You know, you're a tag team wrestler.

When Booker T broke loose,

there was no question he took off on his own, man.

The sky was the limit.

He had it all.

- You know, some people, Mike, can't adjust from tag team

wrestling to singles competition because they're used to having

a partner to depend on.

But this man here,

this man, looks like he's been a single wrestler for years.

- Booker T was kind of the guy that could do it all, and just

the way he moved, his instincts, everything to me seemed to come

very natural to Booker T.

You could see that there was going to be something else

down the road for Book.

- Booker T is the World Heavyweight Champion.

- In the late 90's, going into the early 2000's,

the biggest story was WWE versus WCW.

These were two wrestling companies

that were fighting for survival.

The announcement was made that WWE had actually acquired WCW.

- It's 2001, we're watching it on TV, and all of a sudden

you're seeing Monday Nitro, you're seeing Raw,

same time, you're watching this happen.

- Welcome to a landmark night

in the industry of Sports Entertainment.

- As a fan, you're just like, "Wow, this this is insane."

- Well, everybody was kind of in shock.

We heard about the rumors taking place,

but everybody was kind of in shock.

They didn't know what's going to happen to our jobs.

Nobody knew what the future was going to be.

- It's the end of WCW, and WWE is now making decisions

about what their future is going to look like

with this talent from WCW.

- Seeing the ship go down.

I was really preparing myself for what was next.

- It is title versus title here tonight,

- The World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner,

and United States Heavyweight Champion Booker T.

- He's got-

Book End.

One, two, could it be it?

Yes it is.

Yes.

Booker T is WCW World Champion.

He's got two titles.

- Think how impactful it is that on that last episode of Nitro,

Booker T wins the world championship from Scott Steiner.

That basically tells you everything you need to know

about how WWE viewed the future of Booker T.

- I'm like, "Well, maybe they got plans for me."

[laughing]

I'm like "How the hell this happened?"

This may be the end of a chapter,

but let me tell you, there are many,

many more pages left in this book.

- I don't think there was ever a sense of panic,

once the war was over.

There-there was more a sense of what do you do now?

We had done this major storyline

on television with Shane McMahon buying WCW.

- I now own WCW.

- There had to be a creative way

to bring this new WCW talent into WWE,

and we would slowly build this rivalry within WWE.

The WCW guys against the WWE superstars

who had already been there.

- Steve Austin for the WWE title.

- Wait a minute.

What the hell?

- That's-

Booker T.

Booker T just threw Stone Cold

right through the announce table.

- By the time the WWE bought WCW,

they'd been on life support for a couple of years.

I mean, the war was over.

- Where does WCW go from here?

Fans, we're reacting and we can only react to what

you see as well.

We don't know.

- A lot of people, uh,

don't realize we didn't get like The Goldbergs,

the, you know, Hall's and Nash's,

their contracts were with, uh, AOL Time Warner.

They weren't with WCW.

So they didn't-

those contracts didn't come with the, you know,

with the acquisition.

- I didn't know that,

- You know, those guys were all under certain contracts

where they didn't come.

Booker T chose to come.

- When I came into WWE, it was-

it was a little different than most.

I couldn't think about coming to WWE and I'm the World Champion.

Erase that.

Start with a clean slate.

I got to prove to these guys that I could make it in the

locker room before I could make it in the ring.

- And when Booker came in, he might have came in with

confidence, but I'm sure there was a little trepidation there

as well because, man, we've been fighting your ass

for a long time now.

Now, here you are in our living room.

- Hello again everybdy.

I'm Jim Ross here at ringside.

We welcome you live

to the ninth King of the Ring.

- Because a lot of the top WCW stars didn't go over to WWE.

When top stars did come over, it was a huge deal.

And that's what happened at King of the Ring 2001.

- Wait a minute.

What the hell?

- Why that's-

that's Booker-

That's Booker T.

He's the WCW champion.

- I'm starting out with the biggest fish in WWE.

I mean, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Doesn't get any bigger than that.

But, uh, that night turned out to be a little

topsy turvy, of course.

- I'll never forget that moment.

Booker T comes out and he picks me up,

and he's just gonna

basically Sidewalk Slam me on the announce table.

- Oh my God.

The Sidewalk Slam

Booker T just threw Stone Cold

right through the announce table.

- And my back hit a chair and it broke three transverse processes

in my back and I was in intense pain.

- I did my job, but when I picked Steve up

and dropped him on the table,

he hit the floor really, really hard.

- I remember everybody talking about it afterwards.

You know, at-at that time,

we're at an all time high.

We're selling out everywhere we go, right?

There's a little group of guys at the top that

that's the-that's the money right there.

And somebody injures the money player.

It's a big deal.

- A lot of people were hard on-

on some of the talent that came over.

Looking for any reason to jump down their throat

'cause they did something wrong.

- Initially I was hot at him, but when I look back at it,

he did everything right and it was just a fluke of me skipping

off and hitting the legs of that chair.

- It was one of those things to where people can think that

you're dangerous or reckless or one of those type of things,

but, uh, I saw Steve the following day and I asked him

if he was okay, and he was like,

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I'm okay."

You know, so I felt like, you know,

I mean, we're good, you know, let's keep this thing rolling.

But did get off a little rocky.

- Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Booker T.

- Hey, Austin,

see last night at King of the Ring.

It was just too easy.

No, it was just too damn easy to take you clean out of the game.

- Who the hell is that son of a bitch think he is calling out

Stone Cold Steve Austin?

I'm the World Wrestling -- champion.

I do not deserve that.

- We knew Booker T was the top talent coming in from WCW,

but we had no idea what we were in for as far as what

Booker T was capable of doing.

- Booker T.

The WCW Champion in Madison Square Garden.

My God, I can't believe this.

- You had all these WCW characters

ready to come in versus WWE.

- Who the hell's that?

- There's a WCW wrestler in Madison Square Garden.

It's Mike Awesome.

- Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

- It's Lance Storm.

It's Lance Storm.

- He's a WCW wrestler.

- There was a lot of money on the table to be made

from the name Invasion.

- Tonight's show will be brought to you by the letter "I"

Invasion.

- Everybody's together under the same umbrella.

All these different WCW guys are now all of a sudden with WWE.

It-it was shocking.

It was really shocking.

- The WCW Invasion is on and it's on all the way.

- The competition was so intense.

When those guys did that Invasion angle,

it was like a shoot.

There's only a limited amount of spots here.

Anybody's a threat, you know what I mean?

- Booker T might show up here tonight.

Booker T is coming tonight.

- Booker T, Booker T, Booker T,

that's all I hear about anymore is Booker T.

- When I first came into WWE,

I can honestly say I really didn't know my place.

You know, I always felt like I was a WCW guy.

I even still kind of feel like

I'm a WCW guy a little bit, you know?

I always wanted to test myself

with the best talent in the world,

and I felt like WWE was that spot.

- We've seen WCW superstars invading WWE,

but now we're finally going to see matches happen,

and it would happen at a Pay Per View,

aptly titled Invasion.

- At Invasion, WCW is going to kick the WWE's ass.

- Welcome, everybody, to Invasion

the future of Sports Entertainment

as we know it will likely be changed forever tonight.

- Two guys like me and Booker lock up?

[Bleep] on.

The Inaugural Brawl underway.

And here comes the leader of the WWE team,

The Ol' Stone Cold

The Texas Rattlesnake is here.

And by God, he's ready to fight.

I'm Jim Ross here at ringside,

and we welcome you to the biggest night

of Sports Entertainment in this company's history.

- That first Pay Per View drew something like,

I think it was like over 800,000 buys, something very,

very successful just because of the sheer novelty of it.

- Introducing first the World Wrestling -- light

Heavyweight Champion, X-Pac.

- All right, so that night I gotta ask a question,

how was the conversation about

which side are you going to be on?

- There was no conversation.

I went with whatever side they told me to go on.

Nobody needed to know about who's side

X-Pac was going to be on.

Like, we were out there to be smoking mirrors.

- That drew a big buyrate, but it was a very lopsided Invasion.

- Everybody from WCW was second hand.

A lot of guys were still, uh,

sitting out their Time Warner contracts.

The guys that we had going into the Invasion angle,

it was no doubt we was going to get our asses kicked,

just, for lack of a better word.

- The Texas Rattlesnake is here.

And by God, he's ready to fight

- Here tonight at Invasion.

Look at the Rattlesnake go.

- In the main event of the Invasion Pay Per View.

The WWE team is captained by Stone Cold Steve Austin.

- Wait.

What the?

Austin just

stunned Kurt Angle.

- What the hell is going on?

- But it's Steve Austin who actually turns on the WWE.

- Oh no.

You gotta be kiddin'

Oh my God.

Austin just cost team WWE the match.

- I think that if you look back on it, most of the top WCW stars

hadn't come over to be a part of this Invasion story.

So Stone Cold Steve Austin being taken off team WWE and siding

with WCW was probably what that team needed to just be portrayed

as a credible threat on WWE TV.

- Steve Austin joins WCW.

Him and Booker T are now on the same side of things.

The Invasion did not end at the Pay Per View though.

It continued for months

this sort of battle between WCW and WWE.

- Booker T he was probably, you know, the best beneficiary

of that in terms of breaking out, to truly shine and be given

the opportunity and run with it,

and I think that's what he did.

- Booker T is a five time WCW champion.

That means the man knows

not only how to win championships,

but to defy the odds.

- A lot of guys that came didn't have the same workmanship that

Booker T did, didn't have the same charisma that Booker T had,

so he had everything.

- I can't tell you how many guys

were rooting for Booker backstage.

Everyone, everyone loved Booker.

Booker is the most important thing we got from WCW.

There's no doubt about it.

Not even close.

- Booker T was the only guy in the initial WCW group

that came over

that became that mega star for WWE.

He took every opportunity to grow and do what he could to-

to be bigger and better.

- The real, most electrifying move in Sports Entertainment

is the Spinaroonie.

- The Spinaroonie.

What talent this man possesses.

- When you come to WWE, you better be able to work

and Booker T could work his ass off.

That's why he ended up making it,

because he had everything you needed

from the looks to the charisma to the work.

Booker checked all those boxes.

- That's the Book End.

- Booker T crashing Rock through the announce table.

- In my opinion, the most electrifying man

in Sports Entertainment today,

Booker T.

Now can you dig that sucka?

- It was a great position to be in-

most awesome position to be in.

When I got in the ring with the Rock, I-I knew I was there.

I knew I had made it in the ring with The Rock.

- He was a great free agent, if you will, coming over from WCW,

and that was a great launching point for him

and it was a great launching point for us.

We knew we had something pretty cool.

- I just remember thinking I wanted to see

the Book End versus The Rock Bottom.

The moves were so similar, I just wanted to see them

in the same ring, same time.

- Book End.

Book End.

- I don't remember any of it cause I was thinking so much,

trying to make everything perfect.

- The Rock nipped up.

Rock Bottom.

Rock Bottom.

The Rock got the leg hooked.

The Rock Bottom.

And he did it.

- But one thing about it,

The Rock said I was one of his best matches.

He put that match over like crazy.

- So after months of battling between WCW and WWE.

Eventually it all comes to a big match to settle

it all at Survivor Series.

- Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the 15th Survivor Series.

Oh, Kurt Angle just-

he just nailed Austin.

The Rock Bottom.

It's over.

The WWE has won it.

- Steve Austin gets pinned.

WCW loses and now, in theory is going to be

disbanded, absorbed by WWE.

As fans, you kind of have no idea what's going to happen now

moving forward.

- The following month, at an event called Vengeance,

Stone Cold Steve Austin had the opportunity to become the first

ever WWE Undisputed Champion.

- This match is between Austin and Jericho

for the undisputed title.

Wait a minute.

- Look at this.

That's Booker T.

Booker T hit Austin in the back of the head.

My God Almighty.

Jericho has done it.

- A mad man named Stone Cold Steve Austin is on the loose and

looking for revenge against Booker T.

- Check that door.

Easy, easy.

Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What the hell is this?

- We had a report of a fire.

We're just here to investigate.

[laughing]

- The stuff-

as a fireman.

The stuff as a fireman.

The-the shenanigans.

This is a fun ride that I really want to be on.

- Hey, it's Stone Cold.

Stone Cold disguised as a fireman.

- Rattlesnake alert.

Rattlesnake alert.

- and Booker T running for his life.

- It was perfect timing for Booker and Steve,

who had never really had a chance to have a memorable

long term program,

to finally engage in it.

- He's chasing him right out of the arena.

- Yeah, Booker T into that-

waiting limousine.

- The chase is on and it leads to one of my favorite WWE

segments of all time.

- You know, all of a sudden creative tells us,

"Hey, man, you and Book

are going to have this brawl in a grocery store."

I've never done anything like this before.

- I think we found out pretty much that day.

It was one shot, one take.

- Stand by.

- Stand by.

- And-

God be with us.

Everybody set.

- We knew Booker was going to be the guy.

We're just hoping that at some point that Booker is going to be

able to break out and then all of a sudden you put him in the

grocery store like that.

- Yeah.

- I was just going to say

we're not going to talk about the supermarket brawl or what?

- That-that could go south real easy.

That could be horrible.

- Check to see if they fresh.

- I think it's Booker T.

- What's he doing?

- He's in the grocery store.

- All of a sudden creative tells us,

"Hey, man, you and Book

are going to have this brawl in a grocery store."

We went there, camera's set up, we got a lay of the land,

and it was kind of one of those run and gun type shoots.

Attention Shoppers, there's cans of whoop-ass on aisle 2.

That's aisle 2.

- Whoop-ass?

- Man, I'm like, here's a blank canvas.

That Booker T and I are going to have an opportunity

to paint together.

- Look at this.

It's Austin.

- He got him

- From behind.

- Booker T may have just twarted Austin, King.

[grunting]

- Get your ass up

- Uh oh.

- That's not Austin.

- Wait a minute.

- Who is that guy?

- He's just a shopper.

- Who the hell are you?

- Oh, no.

- Uh, oh.

- Hello.

Austin.

Austin, attacking Booker T.

[grunting]

- Somebody better call the police.

[grunting]

- Get up you son of a bitch.

- Fighting in the grocery store,

it could really be stupid.

- Into the fruit section

Booker T.

- Not the produce section.

But Steve being the artist that he is

And me being the person I am, I say,

"Man, let's go out and really make this thing memorable."

- Him and I, we're just gonna do a little fight here.

We'll be fine.

And, um-

If we mess anything up, we'll clean it up.

It'll be fine.

Shoo

They're giving out free flowers.

See pretty flowers.

Excuse me sir.

Do you have any Grey Poupon?

Huh?

- Do you have any Grey Poupon?

And he's pouring the Grey Poupon all over the place.

- They're just reaching for stuff, you know.

- Oh Yeah.

- "I'm gonna pour some walnuts on ya."

- Right.

- Oh, no.

- I knew this guy was nuts.

[groaning]

- Oh.

[groaning]

- You on your diet, Booker?

I've never done anything like that before.

Want some beans?

Huh Book?

I-I asked Book a couple of things, is this cool?

but he goes, "Brah-

He goes-he goes, "Man, what- whatever you want to do, Steve."

because he trusted me.

- I let Steve just go off on me that night.

- Oh, no, here come the flour.

- I had a different kind of shampoo in my head.

It was flour and eggs.

[groaning]

- You got one take.

Something goes wrong.

You got to cover it.

- Some damn butter Booker.

Huh?

- They're not sitting out there.

"Here's what we're gonna do.

Put this-

Put your foot here, Put your foot here."

They didn't have any of that.

They just said,

"Here's a grocery store. Tear this sumbitch up."

- Oh man.

- And have some fun.

[groaning]

- When the moon, hits your eye,

like a big pizza pie.

That's Amore

[groaning]

- Huh Book?

I can be a bad ass and I can put all these

surprises on him.

But it's the reaction.

I'm action.

He's reaction.

And his reactions were just off the chart gold.

- Please.

Please no more.

Please.

- What's he got now?

- Please, I don't want to do this.

- It's a Steve-weiser.

- Oh no.

- You thirsty?

- Please, I don't want to do this.

Please.

[screams]

- When Booker screams

[screams]

- That was totally crazy.

He was one of the toughest guys in the history of this business.

Screaming, screaming 'cause he's getting pushed in a cart.

I mean, Booker was you know, Steve made it as well.

But Booker did more than his share.

- Oh man.

[yelling]

- Now where the hell is he going?

- He's got 'em in the back room.

- Oh no.

- We are going to incur whatever costs,

whatever damage they do.

You don't have to worry about decimating

an entire produce section.

Don't worry about the mess.

We are going to pay for all of it.

[groaning]

- Huh?

- That's what you got to love when doing these things.

- Here ya go Book.

- Oh, Booker with a shot to the jaw of Austin.

- Well, it's about time.

- You sumbitch.

Get yo ass.

Get in there.

- This should cool things off.

Let him cool off that Rattlesnake.

[groaning]

- Oh God.

Oh please.

Thank God.

Oh my God.

- Oh no.

- Here's Stevie.

- Thanks Book.

You got Milk?

[yelling]

- And it was one of the most memorable things

that I have done in my career,

people still talk about.

Booker T and Stone Cold in the grocery store.

There you go you lil baby.

You wanna burp?

[screaming]

- I get that to this day, man.

The grocery store fight was the best match I've ever seen

in your career.

And I'm like, "Wait a minute, I won six World Championships.

What are you talking about?"

Hey, it was such an iconic moment.

- When you get a chance to do something out of left field,

you better hit a grand slam.

I dare say I call that a Grand Slam.

[groaning]

- Price check on a jackass.

[groaning]

- Imma get you.

Imma get you.

[groaning]

- Hey, hey Austin.

- Hey, hey, look at this.

- It's me, Booker T.

Yeah, I'm out here in the parking lot right now.

Standing-

Oh, this your truck ain't it.

- I think like the program is enhanced anytime

you can get out of the arena.

There's a lot of fun in seeing,

"Okay, how can we top ourselves this week?"

- This was going to happen to your punk ass.

- What?

What?

- Oh, God.

- Look at this.

Holy mackerel.

Look at this JR.

- You like that dontcha?

Yeah, how bout dat?

Huh?

Yeah.

Austin-

Now, can you dig that, sucka?

You know, how

country guys are rednecks.

They all about-

[laughing]

They all about their trucks.

- Come on you little bastard.

- And there's Booker T,

didn't want to stand and fight King,

even though he had a pipe in his hand.

- Austin's a hunter, so, you know,

I think he just relished playing the the cat and mouse game.

- No, not this again.

- There's Stone Cold in hot pursuit

again, of Booker T.

- A lot of people talk about the whole supermarket deal,

but the one that stands out to

me is the one of him in the church.

- The number is N31.

[cheering]

- Listen, will you please call-

Will you please speed up?

I don't have all night.

Please.

Thank you.

- It's Monday Night Raw.

So what's happening at a church on Monday night?

It's bingo night.

- Come on woman.

- Booker is not a friendly bingo player, as it turns out.

[cheering]

- Yeah

[laughing]

- I got that one.

They don't really pitch that stuff like to me.

There's no script.

There's no real script.

As far as you got to say this, this, this, this.

You got to pretty much ad lib and try to bring it to life.

I'm the bingo man, and I'm finna to win this.

One more number.

Let's go.

- Let's continue the game.

The next one is "A"

As in Austin 3:16.

- What?

- Wait a minute.

What's Austin doing in a church?

- Your ability to make an ass of yourself is an art,

and not everybody's comfortable with that.

So Booker was really comfortable with that.

- What made Booker so special

was his innate confidence.

Booker was like,"I'm so good, I can make this good."

But no matter how bizarre it is,

no matter how stupid it is

no matter how great it is, I can make it even better.

- Yeah, he's perfect for all that kind of crap.

He's just so good.

You know, I guess you'd call it acting.

I don't know what you call it,

but it's-it's instinct to him.

So he has a real good feel about what this business is all about.

- Bless me, father, for I have sinned.

- Ha.

- What?

- You do like the time on that.

I think the segment is about 12 minutes.

Ten minutes and 30 seconds of it is all Booker T

interacting with people, you know what I mean?

Hiding in the confessional.

- That's all off the cuff, by the way.

- That's all.

That's crazy, you know.

- You mean to tell me there are no ladies of the night?

- No father, there are no ladies of the night.

- You mean to tell me you

haven't been smoking the green stuff.

- I don't smoke.

- The marijuana.

- Who? No, not at all.

- And that's what I learned

throughout that time in WWE

was character building.

Building character, trying to really think about

the show and the story and the flow of things.

- Yes, my son.

What do you wish to confess?

- Ah.

- Speak up, sucka.

Whatchu want to confess?

- What?

As much as I pride myself on my work in the ring,

it's the character stuff that really made Stone Cold.

I ain't sinned yet, father.

But I'm fixing to sin.

And it's going to be real, real bad.

What, what, what, what.

- Oh that's Booker T.

Runs like a scolded dog.

Right through church, followed by the Rattlesnake.

- There have been attacks.

There have been fights in grocery stores,

in churches.

So there's a lot of anticipation just to see what it would look

like when you see these guys actually touch each other

in the middle of the ring.

- The complex, controversial Rattlesnake, King,

has been dying for weeks to get his hands on the man

who has cost him the undisputed championship.

That man is Booker T.

- Father Booker, you better say some prayers right now.

If you if you know any Father Booker.

- If I was in the ring with Stone Cold, it was a fight.

- There goes Stone Co-

Stone Cold with a hand full of Booker T.

- The following contest is the First Blood match.

- First Blood rules.

No pinfalls, no submissions,

no disqualifications.

First man to bleed will lose.

The Rattlesnake, King, has been dying for weeks

to get his hands on Booker T.

You better say some prayers right now if you know any

Father Booker.

- The Stone Cold Steve Austin Booker T rivalry is so memorable

because of-of how great the segments are leading

to these matches.

- And, you know, Stone Cold and the hatred he has for this man.

Wait a minute.

The hell is this?

Oh, man.

[bell rings]

- Boss man.

- What the hell is he doing out here?

- But when the matches do happen,

they're quick, or they-

they end in interference.

- There you go.

It's over.

- Austin's livid.

Austin's irate.

- To me-

the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin

or the career of Booker T?

Yeah, he had some great matches.

I had some great matches, but people remember the

character aspects as much, if not more,

than the matches because that

was the reason that they cared about the matches.

- Following contest is a qualifying number one

contenders match.

- And Austin and Booker T

a long history between these two superstars.

- Booker you know he's a- he's a natural athlete,

but make no mistake about it man,

Booker T would knock your head off.

[yelling]

- Oh.

- One thing Steve always talks about,

He say, "You know, the hardest person that ever hit him in the

wrestling ring was me."

- And he did one night.

He just knocked the hell out of me with a with a right hand.

He really caught me.

- I remember hitting him and I go,

"This is not gonna be good."

- It just angered me so much.

And I shot a right hand back.

Just drilled him.

- And here comes Austin.

Unloading with the right hand to Booker T.

- I don't think Booker T believes Austin just did that.

- But that was the beauty of,

you know, two guys from Texas

We know about the receipt.

You know, if you give a guy one,

you can expect a receipt later on.

- Austin with a Stunner of his own.

Goodnight Booker T.

[bell rings]

- What an effort.

The guts of Stone Cold

- Here is your winner Stone Cold Steve Austin

- One of the best times of my career, actually, working with

Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I just regret that Steve and I didn't have, uh, you know,

WrestleMania match.

Bigger angles, more time together.

- You know how did this rivalry between Booker T and Stone Cold

legitimize Booker T in in WWE?

- I think being able to go toe to toe with the best is

it automatically brings you up, right?

You had Stone Cold who was obviously

Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And then when Booker T came and was on that same level as him,

you know, comedically, athletically, physically,

it automatically legitimized him.

- This should be a great match up.

A lot for Booker T to prove here, at least,

if nothing else, to himself.

- He had a Hall of Fame career

in WCW alone.

But this is a new audience.

We knew backstage we knew who Booker was.

We knew Booker could hang with the greatest of all time.

But the WWE fans, they had to see that.

All of a sudden, now these WWE fans look at it and realize

what we knew all along.

This Booker T is special.

He's a once in a generational performer,

just like Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And once the WWE fans realized that,

then all of a sudden you see this

whole Hall of Fame career that followed.

- Man, the last time I was here would be when

Stone Cold Steve Austin and I had the infamous

grocery store fight.

It's the Dollar General now.

Back then it was called the Green Frog,

a little neighborhood grocery store that Steve Austin and I

went in there and pretty much dismantled.

Stone Cold Steve Austin and I, we spared no expense.

We made sure we touched every piece

of that Green frog grocery store.

And I tell you.

It's definitely bringing back memories.

Emotional scars,

as well as physical.

[laughing]

- I think this moment had-

it was such a huge effect on my career because

I think this is the moment where

I felt like I had really arrived as an entertainer.

- Hey, Steve.

- What are you doing you old dog?

You can't sneak up on me.

- What are you talking about man?

- How are you?

Man, we're two guys from South Texas.

He's from Houston.

I'm from 100 miles down the road.

- I wasn't trying to sneak up on you.

- Yeah, you were.

- Nah, man.

- You holdin' a grudge.

- Come on bro.

- We just both believe in hard work.

And we both knew that in this business,

you had to pay your dues.

And there's respect.

- We always smiled with each other.

We always laughed with each other.

And we had great times in the ring.

We had great times on the road.

- How old are you now?

- 49.

- You the same age as me.

I thought I had you by a couple of years.

- No, I just looked good, you know.

[laughing]

- We're brothers who were in the same business,

and we had the same goals,

and the same ideals and ideas,

and just the same mantra.

- It was one of those things to where we look back on it

and say, "Wow, man.

Uh, we we had a hell of a hand in-in creating this thing."

[fireworks]

- Man, this-this is a party right here, dawg.

Wait, wait, I can't stand this man.

I'll be ba- I gotta get in on this.

- Booker T joining the party.

- I tell you, that was a great moment for me.

Georgia Dome.

- Yes, sir.

Here it comes, JR.

- Wrestlemania sized Spinaroonie.

- And the celebration continues

for Booker T and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

- Oh.

- Oh, Stunner.

- What a Stunner on Booker T.

- Was so looking forward to taking a Stone Cold Stunner.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin's music]