Jaida Parker defeated Natalya in a Submission match at Heatwave this past Sunday in Edinburg, Texas, in what was supposed to be a defining victory in her still young career. Instead, she’s facing criticism in the wake of the bout, for work that was decidedly sloppy and not up to par for her standards, nor those of the legend she was in the ring with.
Booker T spoke openly on it during his Hall of Fame podcast:
“I’ve got to be 100 percent because, if I’m not, people are going to call me out on it, and
that’s just not me. That match had a lot of bumps in the road. Jaida definitely… sometimes it’s the moment. Sometimes it’s the bright lights and you get caught up. Sometimes you just don’t have the feel. I’m serious. That’s just the way it is. In that match, you could tell there was some trepidation. You could tell there were some moments where there was some indecisiveness. Under the bright lights, you’ve got to understand you’ve got millions of people watching you. You’ve got the world watching you. I’m sure that match… Nattie went out there and did a hell of a job. She did a hell of a job. But Jaida definitely, like I say, I can’t tell you if it was just an off night or anything like that, but the timing was not 100 percent. She got the job done.”
Booker is a professional, and he walked the line of being critical without trashing anybody. He was entirely fair in his assessment here. Hell, you could argue he was nice about it.
He did go on to say they’ll both look back at the match and think they could have done more with it and it was “just one of those types of matches.” Perhaps that’s true. Everyone at WWE is certainly hoping it’s the case. Parker has shown enough throughout her run that one match shouldn’t speak to her future prospects but it’s truly unfortunate that such a big showcase match fell so flat.
