WWE Hall of Famer Booker T Announces In-Ring Return

Booker T is set to compete in his wrestling promotion Reality of Wrestling in the new year. The WWE Hall of Famer faced off against Zilla Fatu, an independent wrestler with ties to WWE’s Bloodline as he’s the son of Umaga.

Booker hasn’t stepped inside a ring to wrestle publicly since 2023 when he made his shocking return in the Royal Rumble. “You know, I think that spot was a great swan song for me doing it at that time, it was one of those unexpected entries,” Booker told Insight with Chris Van Vliet. “It was a moment, it’s kind of hard to really create those moments, duplicate those kind of moments, replicate that. So I think Rumble for me, I’m not looking to do anymore.”

As for retiring? He doesn’t view himself as fully retired as he’s made several appearances in ROW and he clearly intends to keep doing so. “Well, I’m never gonna retire. I’m definitely gonna get back in the ring at some point in time to do something. But it’s gonna be here, in Reality of Wrestling, or in Saudi [laughs].”

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The match between Booker and Zilla is set for the January 11th Reality of Wrestling show. The Hall of Fame wrestler, now 59, hasn’t wrestled a singles match since 2019 but has kept himself in great shape.

Additionally, he’s kept himself busy in wrestling-adjacent roles. Alongside his commentating duties in NXT, earlier this year he revealed he’s working to adapt his story to film. This would follow in the footsteps of A24’s highly-rated The Iron Claw. That led the the way for other wrestling and fighting movies to come to fruition, like Queen of the Ring starring several AEW and WWE talent, and Dwayne Johnson’s The Smashing Machine.

Zilla is a rising star in independent wrestling, having wrestled for some of the biggest companies on the circuit. Game Changer Wrestling parted ways with the 25-year-old earlier this year, stating they’d “reached an impasse” and wouldn’t be working with him again for the foreseeable future.

The ROW brand recently became one of WWE’s inclusions in the WWE ID program. It will help develop independent wrestlers in hopes of finding the next generation of stars to sign. Alongside ROW, the Rhodes family’s Nightmare Factory and Seth Rollins’ Black and Brave are among the other schools involved.

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