WWE Hall of Famer Booker T recently faced online backlash over disparaging comments made towards Adam Cole during a recent episode of his The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast. During the show, Booker T criticized Cole’s body and weight and claimed that his smaller frame was the reason for his recent injury. Booker T clarified his comments in a follow up podcast episode claiming that he did not mean any actual disrespect to Cole and was just trying to give him helpful advice to improve his career.
A recent episode of the MackMania podcast had Eddie Kingston as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Kingston’s thoughts about those who body shame others in wrestling.
“My contract — to all those who tell me to hit the gym — I don’t need to go to the gym, my contract pays me enough to where I’ve got my own gym in my garage. My whole career, I’ve been hearing it. You have to workout. To be a pro wrestler, cardio is the main thing. You hear your whole life ‘you have to look the part.’ There was a shift where, you had to be a muscle guy. When you have that so much, people get sick of it and you have to do a different thing. I grew up on guys that looked tough. There were some muscle guys, but there were also guys like Dick Murdoch and Dusty Rhodes. Those guys, if you want to body shame and knock anyone, would you knock them? Guys like that who look like dudes who would fight you. Then it became the body building era and a lot of those body builders couldn’t fight their way out of a paperbag, let’s be honest. You do have to be an athlete to be in this and you do need to do cardio and work out. Body shaming stuff, here’s my thing, if you don’t like it, don’t watch. If you want to rip on someone and knock on someone then I feel bad for you because if that’s what gets your rocks off, you’re an evil and disgusting human being. I hope you never have someone rip on you like that. You’re a weak person and you’ll probably break down. That’s me taking shots. I get it, but I grew up in an era where we had hillbillies and Texans, the body guys. No one looks the same. If you start looking the same, it gets real boring. Me, I got a little bit of a belly. I like to eat ice cream, I like Five Guys, I like pizza. I also like to lift weights and do cardio and I like to fight, punch people in the face, and chop people. I’m just me. I know this is an old thing to so, but a lot of people who body shame or say negative stuff, besides being disgusting human beings because that’s what gets their rocks off, none of them would ever step in the ring. Not to fight, just to run the ropes, or even step in there. They’re like, ‘That’s not my job.’ Well, my man, you don’t see me bothering you at your job, telling you how to clean the floor.”
Kingston also stated that he believes the reason why Cole gets targeted often over his smaller body frame for a big name star is due to jealousy others have over his successes in wrestling.
“When it comes to Adam Cole, none of y’all are as athletic as him. Also, y’all are jealous. My man is living a good life. He gets to do what he wants to do, he gets paid to play video games, and he’s got DMD [Britt Baker], which a lot of these dudes on Twitter would kill, give up anything for, for a minute with her. Big facts on that. He’s living his good life. Y’all can keep up and be hateful and spiteful and let it eat at you because you’re a disgusting person, he’s living his good life.”
Kingston also gave more thoughts over those who have been trying to body shame him throughout his own career and life.
“When they body shame me or whatever they say about me, I just kind of laugh because I’ve heard this my whole life, my whole career. I’m good with it. All these people who say this stuff will never say it to my face. If they do, we’ll see what’s up. It’s not that deep.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com