Stevie Ray was the most recent guest on Chris Jericho’s podcast Talk Is Jericho. During the interview Stevie revealed that WWE wouldn’t let him say Fruit Booty in his Hall of Fame Speech. Stevie also details what it was like with WWE trying to script his speech.
Jericho asked: What do they say to you at the actual Hall of Fame? Is there rules? Are you backstage talking to Vince? How does that day kinda go for you? (YouTube timestamp 14:06)
“I’ll tell you this. Vince is very meticulous when it comes to everything thats going down. He’s got this one writer who’s just hounding my ass about, ‘What am I gonna say on my speech? I need to take this to Vince.’ This that, and the other. I’m in catering and I’m like, ‘Look dog, I don’t work like that bruh. Holy shit. Get off my ass man. Please. I don’t work like that.’ I understand that [everything is monitored by Vince and his staff]. But like I told them. Ain’t nothing changed since the last time I was here. This is the way I do speeches. I don’t write speeches out and remember them word for word. I don’t do that. I ain’t got nothing against people that do that. And I don’t read a teleprompter. I talk to people all the time. I’m used to it. So, just give me a microphone and I’m gonna rock it. The speech is in my head. I told them as much as I could and take that to Vince and maybe you can get off the hook. But these guy are so on pins and needles. I’m not used to that. I ain’t never been around that before bruh.”
Jericho asked: What is a Fruit Booty. The term Stevie used to say on WCW commentary. (YouTube timestamp 1:01:48)
“Did you know they wouldn’t let me say Fruit Booty in the WWE Hall of Fame speech? They [WWE] said it could sound like its making reference to gay people and the LGBTQ community. Fruit Booty is just a saying. A buddy of mine said it one day to me. I thought it was so funny. So between 2 or 3 of us that’s just a saying that we would say. Just in conversation, ‘Ah man, forget that Fruit Booty’. You know what I’m saying? Something like that. I started saying it on television and people loved it. [laughs] Then I got to say a lot of other adjectives in front of it but you end with Fruit Booty. ‘You no good for nothing fruit booty.’ All the boys thought it was so funny and the people started having fruit booty signs. I was like, ‘Hey, this thing is really taking off’. ”
Listen to the full podcast below:
Stevie Ray is a WWE Hall of Famer, and he’s talking about what it was like to be inducted earlier this month alongside his brother, Booker T, as one half of the Harlem Heat tag team! Stevie’s telling stories from their early days at Global, making the move to WCW, working with everyone from the Steiners to the Nasty Boys to Nash & Hall to Sting & Macho Man and Eddie Guerrero too! Stevie Ray explains why he didn’t go to WWE after Vince McMahon bought WCW, and what he thinks caused WCW’s demise. He’s got a great story about Chavo Sr, and the one time that Ted Turner and Jane Fonda showed up at Center Stage in Atlanta.
