Booker T talkedto the Orlando Sentinel about his suspension in WWE, his decision to walk away from WWE, and his future in an article yesterday. The following are key excerpts:

--"I feel that I wasn't protected by the (WWE). I feel like I got suspended without just cause. I feel like it wasn't right, and that's the reason why I chose to leave WWE because in order to protect my reputation, I have to believe in something."

--"I've never heard my name come up in any scandals or anything like that. You've never heard of Booker T having a late-night party or was drunk on the town naked. I've been a total role model as far as my professional wrestling career goes. I just want to keep it that way. I've got a lot of fans out there. A lot of kids look up to me."

Booker T and Stevie Ray [photo by Jerry Wilson (c) PWTorch]

--"I knew that at this stage in my career it was time for me to take a step back from the WWE because I wasn't willing to keep putting myself out there and wake up 50 years old one day pushing a walker."

--"My time on Smackdown, it was a great run. It was beautiful, just pushing for whoever was the champion over there. We really didn't care who was the champion. There were no politics, no hassles. Then going back over to Raw, it was like a dark cloud coming over. I just knew it wasn't the place where I wanted to be. There are a whole lot of politics. You have to deal with a lot of garbage. I just knew, for my mental state, it wasn't going to be a good place."

--"[King Booker] was my creation, my persona and everything that I did was all m. I'm trying to reinvent myself , and being that character gave everyone the opportunity to see me in a different light. The fans loved it and fell into the character of King Booker."

--"That's where the business part comes in, the politics come in. I really feel like it should have been me and Jerry Lawler at Summerslam. I'm a professional, and I go out there and do my job. It wasn't what it could have been. I can honestly say I have never watched that match on tape because I felt like my body was out there but my mind wasn't."

--"One reason why I opened my wrestling school was to teach guys the real way of going out there and doing this -- knowing the psychology of professional wrestling, knowing how to be that fan sitting in the audience as you're in the ring doing your thing,'' says Booker T. "That way you know exactly what that fan is looking for. They go out there and do their routine, and that's pretty much it."

"[I'm] definitely not retired. When I retire, you're going to see the fireworks, everything."

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