In the lead up to the match, HHH kept making all sorts of racist comments to Book only to bury him in the end.
I hate how Booker already knew about it and all that matter to him is the check clearing at the end of the day. It was horrible optics. If they where gonna have to make it racial. You're kind of fukked regardless. The belt had to go back to HHH in WWE's mind for HHH vs. Goldberg being their biggest Raw program of the year. You give Booker the big moment at Mania and lose the definite match.
WWE put themselves in a corner and they shouldn't. Yet, they had no drama for the match. Booker's background was clearly the easiest and biggest short cut to create drama. If I recall correctly, Booker gave the okay. I don't think WWE expected Booker to blow up as much as he did in XIX. His hype really went through the roof. It fukking work. Booker went into his bag with getting HHH to put out his only decent match of 2003. So, I respect Booker being a professional and busting his ass to make himself look great.
Regardless how I feel, Booker isn't invest in wins/losses/big moments and that is probably the best mindset to have about the business.. WWE should of had the common sense that this would create a black eye on their image... but they've run of eyes for the black eye's they give themselves over the last 20 years.