Booker T Addresses JBL's 'History' Comments From WWE WrestleMania 37
WrestleMania was headlined by two African American women for the first time on Saturday
Apr 15, 2021
History was made on night one of WrestleMania 37 as for the first time ever, The Showcase Of The Immortals was headlined by two African American women in Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks. The two women fought back and forth over the SmackDown Women's Championship in a widely praised main event and The EST Of WWE picked up the win with the KOD after 17 minutes.
The importance of the main event was focussed upon on the WrestleMania 37 night one Kickoff Show, during which JBL said the match wasn't about black history or women's history, but history.
"You know what's cool about that is like Teddy Long said about Ron Simmons when he broke the colour barrier in 1993 becoming the first black heavyweight champion, recognised world heavyweight champion. This isn't about black history. This is about history. This isn't about black history tonight, this isn't about women’s history. This is about history. These two women are there not because of race, not because of gender. These two women are there because they are incredible athletes and they deserve to headline this show tonight," Layfield said.
JBL's fellow panellist Booker T didn't necessarily agree with what he said, though, and the six-time world champion addressed Layfield's comments on the Hall Of Fame Podcast.
"JBL said that wasn't black history, it was just history. It wasn't the right time, it was black history as far as I'm concerned because the last time two African Americans stood in the ring in the main event in that company was 20 years ago and it was me and The Rock at SummerSlam [2001]. It was 20 years ago, two African Americans stood across the ring from each other and combatted each other. So it was Black history and I'll correct JBL on that at another time," Booker T stated.