The WWE LFG coaches open up about the challenges of their roles.
Earlier this year, WWE and A&E launched a new reality competition series, titled WWE LFG, chronicling the journey of 16 rising talents vying for a WWE NXT contract. Along the way, talents are mentored by four WWE legends — The Undertaker, Booker T, Mickie James, and Bubba Ray Dudley. Even with their experience, though, the legends have come face-to-face with some obstacles along the way as well.
“I think the biggest challenge was basically for me personally trying to figure out how hard I could push,” The Undertaker said during the WWE LFG panel at WWE World. “We’re kind of the dinosaurs from a different era and we came up a lot harder and we got a lot of in your face. So it took me a minute to figure out how hard for that that I could push. I can say this, when next season comes along, there won’t be a feeling out process and I know exactly how much they can take.
“You look at them, all these are D1 athletes,” he continued. “They’ve all been coached hard and they can take it. That was, for me, is trying to bring my era to them in a way that they understood. They’re just all competitors and there was nothing that I said or nothing that I did that anyone knew was anything malicious. It was all for their betterment. Once we got that figured out, it’s been a smooth process.”
According to Bubba Ray Dudley, The Undertaker coming aboard as a fellow coach was the “most intriguing” aspect of the show’s initial pitch as he already knew the extent of Booker and James’ work with people and as coaches elsewhere. In the case of The Undertaker, it was quite the opposite.
“With [Undertaker], it’s like he only just recently pulled the curtain back a little bit. Now we’re going to see the Undertaker training kids that are like 60 years younger than him,” Bubba joked. “That’s crazy to me.”
Mickie James Had Some Doubts Heading Into LFG
In the squared circle, Mickie James is now a 26-year veteran. Still, she admittedly had some internal doubts heading into filming for WWE LFG.
“I think, just for me personally, I’ve walked in learning from these guys and I respect them all so much. I think it was just on a personal note feeling like I could coach to the same level that they could, that I belonged, and that I was at equal in a sense. That was hard,” James said.
“I’ve always admired all these gentlemen and looked up to them and shared these locker rooms as a young talent, making all my mistakes and all the things, to now as a young talent.”
James made her WWE debut in October 2005. At that time, Booker reigned as the WWE United States Champion, while The Undertaker remained ingrained in a fierce feud with Randy Orton. Meanwhile, Bubba Ray had transitioned to TNA Wrestling alongside D-Von Dudley.
Booker T Came In With A Competitive Edge
For Booker T, the biggest challenge was the inherent competition amongst the coaches themselves.
“I guess for me knowing that all the young talent, they all come from the same place. And for guys like myself, Shawn [Michaels], Taker, Bubba, Mickie as well being in that female locker room, trying to get these young kids to realize how big of an opportunity this was and how big of a competition this was,” Booker said.
“I know I was always competing against Shawn; I wanted to be better than Shawn. I was always competing against Taker and Bubba from a tag team, that’s why we talk the way we do it. In actuality, it’s almost real because we were competing to be the best and to actually now be having our own team, to actually go against each other, to get in their head that this is a dog fight. At the end of the day, only one can win. For me, that’s what I took away from it.”
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