Booker T

Born Booker Huffman, Booker T grew up on the streets of Harlem with his older brother, Stevie Ray, at least according to storylines. The two got out of Harlem in 1989 when they ran into wrestler Scott Casey while on vacation in Houston, Texas. Soon, the two brothers had moved out to Houston in order to train with Casey. Six months later, they made their in ring debut for the Texas-based WWA. Booker T, along with his brother, spent three years down there. Booker's only feud was with Tiger Conway Jr. Booker T and Stevie Ray were the best in the promotion, and caught the attention of GWF scouts. A few months later they were both signed to the GWF as "The Ebony Experience." The two went on to success in the GWF, winning the tag straps on July 31, 1992, yet they lost the titles three months later to Stevie Dane and Johnny Mantell. Stevie Ray became sidelined with a knee injury, and Booker went on his own. Booker won his first singles title, the GWF North American Championship, when he defeated Rod Price on February 5th, 1993. Booker would never lose the belt, but dropped it when he signed with a national promotion.

Booker's first match in the now defunct WCW was a 6-man tag, Booker, his brother Stevie Ray, and Sid Vicious against 2 Cold Scorpio, Van Hammer and Marcus "I'm buff, and I'm on some stuff" Bagwell. Booker T teamed with Stevie Ray to form Harlem Heat. Harlem Heat didn't recieve a good push and feuded with The Cole Twins(Keith and Kent Cole). At this time Booker and Stevie were know as Kole and Kane, but the names were dropped due to the fact they got no pops nor heat from the crowd. Harlem Heat's big break came at Fall Brawl in 1993. They were the surprise addition to the team of Sid Vicious and Big Van Vader, although the fans expected The Road Warriors and not Harlem Heat. They wrestled against (I have to chuckle, I wish I saw this match) Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes and The SHOCKMASTER! (and Harlem Heat lost too!)

Harlem Heat floundered in the mid-card for a year, until Ric Flair lost a Loser-Must-Retire match to Hulk Hogan. This freed up Flair's then manager, Sensational Sherri Martel, who then joined with Harlem Heat as Sister Sherri. She would be the first in a number of bad black female managers Harlem Heat would have.

Harlem Heat would win WCW gold on December 8th, 1994. After Sherri distracted the ref, Stevie interfered and took out The Patriot so Booker could score the pinfall. The Heat had no real competition for the next two years, while they didn't dominate the circuit, they didn't have anyone good to wrestle against, until 96, when WCW started to pick up. They wrestled against the Nasty Boys, the Steiner Brothers, the Road Warriors, and Public Enemy. After victories over some of these teams, Booker T and Stevie Ray finally achieved recognition as one of the best tag teams in wrestling history, eventually with seven title reigns to their merit.

Booker T was given the push however, leaving Stevie Ray in the shadows as Booker T went on to become WCW World Television Champion...making things worse for Stevie Ray, an injury would put him out of commission for many months in 1997 and 1998 while Booker T became hotter than ever...upon Stevie’s return on Thunder in early 1998, Stevie questioned Booker’s toughness after Booker T was involved in a verbal dispute with Chris Benoit...the tension continued between the two over the following weeks, and the cohesiveness that epitomized Harlem Heat became a thing of the past...and to add to this, after Booker T was sidelined with a knee injury, Stevie Ray shockingly came out on television with his brother's WCW TV title and announced himself as champion...though WCW Chairman JJ Dillon initially refused to accept Stevie as champion, Stevie defended the belt against jobbers on several occasions with the title on the line...and after Ray lost the title to Chris Jericho on national television, the decision stood...during this match with Jericho on WCW Monday Nitro, the Giant came out and chokeslammed Stevie, apparently showing that Jericho was on the side of the nWo...as this question remained unanswered, Stevie became involved in a verbal feud with the Giant, though the two did not wrestle each other.

On the August 24 edition of Nitro, Booker finally returned and confronted Stevie about his actions over the previous months, and Stevie offered little as explanation...however, later in the broadcast a locker room camera showed Stevie Ray standing over his fallen brother as Booker T held his knee in pain, and Stevie Ray later joined nWo Hollywood, betraying his brother and officially breaking up Harlem Heat for good. After coming to each other's aid several times, Stevie abandoned the crumbling Black & White to reunite with his brother. The two brought back Harlem Heat and immediately went into Tag Title contention. They won the titles three more times; beating Page & Kanyon, losing to The Windhams, beating the Windhams, losing it to Konnan & Rey Mysterio Jr., beating Konnan & Rey, and losing them to Konnan & Kidman. Stevie Ray took a brief leave of abscence, but returned. By the time he returned, Midnight had joined Harlem Heat, and the trio took on WCW. Midnight soon left WCW under contract problems, but Stevie and Booker broke up before she left. Booker briefly aligned himself with Kidman against Harlem Heat 2000 (Stevie, Big T, Cash, and Biggs) before Russo & Bischoff regained power.

Since the sell of WCW to the WWF Booker T has maintained his main event status. He was a star on the side of the Alliance when he first came in, feuding with The Great One for a short while. Booker T currently is feuding with Stone Cold Steve Austin. He's done some funny stuff, like hotwiring Austin's truck and trashing a convenience store. Part of his current gimmick is to stare at his gloves and call people sucka. I don't get it, but man, I love pro wrestling.

• The Spinaroonie
• The Harlem Sidekick
• The Bookend

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