Booker T Recalls Ultimate Warrior’s “Eerie” Dressing Room
Booker T has told the story of the time he saw the inside of the personal dressing room of Ultimate Warrior, and how he thought it was “a little strange”.
Speaking on the ‘Hall of Fame’ podcast, Booker T recalled that early in his career, when he was still working in the independent scene, he and his brother, Stevie Ray, were invited to the back while at a WWE Show in Houston, Texas.
“I remember the first time I ever had a chance to be just around the Ultimate Warrior. It was one of those shows that came to Houston. It was at the Summit at Lakewood Church. My brother and I, we went down there and we were close enough to where Barbarian saw us and he was like ‘come on guys, come in the back.’ We were working but we were still a couple guys who were still on the independent scene. Barbarian and Meng, for some reason, they used to like us, and they got us into the back.”
The WWE Hall of Famer reminisced on how exciting it was to see the big stars of the time hanging out in the locker room together. However, he also noted that further down the corridor there was another large dressing room that was for Ultimate Warrior alone.
“We went into the locker room where all the boys were. It was crazy; I didn’t know anybody at the time. I remember seeing [Hulk] Hogan and a few of the other guys in there, playing cards. And they were just laughing, it was like a fraternity or something. It was like the clubhouse at the golf club or something with all the boys hanging out. I was pretty excited. I went down a little bit further way and there was this one big giant room. And on the front of it had Ultimate Warrior. Ultimate Warrior, he didn’t dress with anyone, this was his dressing room.”
The future six-time World Champion said he couldn’t resist having a peak inside the room, and was surprised by what he saw. Ultimate Warrior had filled the room with his own merchandise.
“I walked in it, just to peak in it and the whole room was Warrior everywhere. He had Warrior gimmicks all over the room. I was like ‘wow!’ It was just a little strange, a little eerie that he didn’t dress with any of the boys or anything like that.”
Booker T speculated that part of the reason behind Warrior having his own dressing room might have been to help him channel the Ultimate Warrior character before going to the ring, similar to the story of AEW star Darby Allin changing in the boiler room to get into his element.
“He was like, I was reading earlier that for one of the AEW matches, Darby Allin would change in the boiler room. Just to get used to his element. Maybe the Warrior had this just to find his thing. Because to play that character, just looking at some of the behind the scenes, watching the Warrior trying to conjure up that Warrior spirit, it seemed like something that wasn’t that easy to do.”
Booker T was speaking following the airing of the A&E Biography of Ultimate Warrior which aired on May 23rd. The late WWE Champion was also the focus of the most recent episode of Dark Side of The Ring.
Credit: Hall of Fame podcast
H/T for transcription: Wrestling Inc.