Booker T
Booker T. Huffman Jr.[a] (born March 1, 1965)[1] better known by his ring name Booker T, is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter and color commentator. He is signed to WWE, and is also the owner and founder of the independent promotion Reality of Wrestling (ROW) in Texas City, Texas. Booker has been named by peers and industry commentators as one of the best professional wrestlers of his era; he was voted WWE’s greatest World Heavyweight Champion in a 2013 viewer poll.
Booker is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E), and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), holding 35 championships between those organizations. He is the most decorated wrestler in WCW history, having held 21 titles including a record six WCW World Television Championships (along with being the first African American titleholder), and a record eleven WCW World Tag Team Championships: ten as one half of Harlem Heat with his brother, Lash “Stevie Ray” Huffman in WCW (most reigns within that company), and one in the WWF with Test. Booker was the final WCW World Heavyweight Champion and WCW United States Heavyweight Champion within the active WCW organisation.
Booker is a six-time world champion in professional wrestling, having won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship five times, and WWE’s World Heavyweight Championship once. With his fifth WCW Championship win (which occurred in the WWF), Booker T became the second African-American to win a world championship in WWF/E (after The Rock), and the first to be of non-mixed race. He is also the winner of the 2006 King of the Ring tournament, the sixteenth Triple Crown Champion, and the eighth Grand Slam Champion (under original format) in WWE history. As the ninth WCW Triple Crown Champion, Booker is one of five men to achieve both the WWE and WCW Triple Crowns. He has headlined multiple pay-per-view events for the WWF/E, WCW and TNA throughout his career.
Booker was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6, 2013, by his brother, Lash. Both he and Lash were inducted together into the 2019 class on April 6, 2019 as Harlem Heat, rendering Booker a two-time Hall of Famer.
As a single father working at a storage company in Houston, Texas, Huffman was looking to make a better life for himself and his son.[8] His brother Lash (Stevie Ray) suggested that he and Booker check out a new wrestling school being opened, run by Ivan Putski, in conjunction with his Western Wrestling Alliance organization.[8] His boss from the storage company sponsored the money to pay for the wrestling lessons.[8] Booker trained under Scott Casey, who helped to turn Booker’s background as a gangster and dancer into “sports entertainment”, teaching the newcomer in-ring psychology and ring generalship.[8]
Eight weeks later, Booker debuted as “G.I. Bro” on Putski’s Western Wrestling Alliance Live! program.[8] The character was a tie-in to the raging Gulf War and the WWF’s Sgt. Slaughter angle.[8] Even though the WWA met its demise some time later, Booker continued to wrestle on the Texas independent circuit, often with his brother Lash, who performed as Stevie Ray.[16] They were spotted by Skandor Akbar who hired them to work for the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), where he and Eddie Gilbert were involved.[16][8] Gilbert teamed Stevie Ray and Booker T together as the Ebony Experience,[8] and they won the GWF Tag Team Championship on July 31, 1992. During their time with GWF, they held the tag title a total of three times.[16] Subsequently, Booker T and Stevie Ray left the GWF to work for World Championship Wrestling.
