Occupational gimmicks were once all the rage in professional wrestling, but that is now seen as a bygone era, and during his latest "Hall Of Fame," Booker T credited the debut of the NWO with the catalyst for that change. "Once the NWO and stuff started happening you couldn't be doing stuff like that anymore," Booker said. "Can you imagine being Glacier on the same roster with the NWO? Can you imagine that, good God man?" Even though the occupational gimmicks began to fade away, Booker still believes that they did work, and served a purpose for the time period that they were in.
"I would not say those gimmicks did not get over, they kind of faded away," Booker continued. "They were there for their time, it worked for their time. I wouldn't necessarily say they didn't work or they didn't get over, they got over and it worked, only for a certain amount of time of course, because the time changed." Lacey Evans recently showed signs of the old occupational gimmicks making a return with the military character that she brought out. It has drawn comparisons to Sgt. Slaughter, which his daughter even complained about, but Booker believes that WWE is trying to recreate those characters with Evans.
"It's just so hard for me to go back to that time," he said. "I just feel like if you don't change with the times, the times will pass you by." Instead, Booker believes that she could make subtle tweaks to the gimmick by putting war paint on her face like a footballer, as that would symbolize where she has been from but in a modern way that doesn't call back to yesteryear.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Hall Of Fame" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Read this next: The Coolest WCW Debuts Of All Time