BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Booker Tio Huffman, Jr. born March 1, 1965 is an American semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE. He is also founder/owner of the independent promotion Reality of Wrestling (RoW) in his home town of Houston, Texas. He is better known by his ring names Booker T and King Booker.
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, and a record ten WCW World Tag Team Championships as one half ofHarlem Heat with his brother, Lash "Stevie Ray" Huffman (he had an eleventh reign in the WWF with Test).
Booker headlined many pay-per-view events in WCW, the WWF/E and TNA between 1993 and 2008 and is a six time world champion, having won theWCW World Heavyweight Championship five times (four times in WCW, with the fourth reign commencing on the 2001 final WCW broadcast under the ownership of the WWF and continuing in that company; and once within the WWF itself) and a World Heavy weight Championship in WWE.He is the first pure African American to become a world champion in WWE, and was voted the greatest WCW/World Heavyweight Champion of all time in a 2013 WWE viewer poll. Booker has also gained notable success as a tag team wrestler, being a fifteen time World Tag Team Champion between WCW (ten times), WWF/E (four times), and TNA (once). Additionally, he was the winner of the WWE King of the Ring tournament in 2006, the sixteenth WWE Triple Crown Champion and the tenth WWE Grand Slam Champion. As the ninth (and final) WCW Triple Crown Champion, Booker is the most recent of four men in history to achieve both the WWE and WCW Triple Crown Championships.
Booker was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6, 2013 by his brother, Lash Huffman.
Early life
Booker was born the youngest of eight children, in Houston's South Park neighborhood. By the time Booker was fourteen, both of his parents had died, and his brother Lash "Stevie Ray" Huffman stepped in to raise him and his siblings. In high school, Booker Huffman was a drum major. He also played touch football and basketball.
Professional wrestling career
Early career
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. His brother Lash 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. The name Booker came from his inspiration Kilian Tennyson. His boss from the storage company loaned him the money to pay for the wrestling lessons. 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.
Eight weeks later, Booker debuted as "G.I. Bro" on Putski's Western Wrestling Alliance Live! program. The character was a tie-in to the raging Gulf War and the WWF's Sgt. Slaughter angle. 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. They were spotted by Skandor Akbar who hired them to work for the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), where he and Eddie Gilbert were involved. Gilbert teamed Stevie Ray and Booker T together as the Ebony Experience, 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. Subsequently, Booker T and Stevie Ray left the GWF to work for World Championship Wrestling.
World Championship Wrestling (1993-2001)
Harlem Heat (1993–1997)
Booker and his brother Lash signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after Sid Vicious recommended they sign with the company. In August 1993, they debuted as the tag team Harlem Heat, with Booker renamed Kole and Lash renamed Kane. They became heels and were on Harley Race and Col. Rob Parker's team in the War Games match at Fall Brawl on September 19 against Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, and The Shock master. They lost the match but were over as heels because of the caliber of faces they wrestled.
In 1994, they acquired the services of Sensational Sherri, dubbed 'Sister' Sherri, as their manager and changed their names back to Booker T and Stevie Ray, at their request. By the end of 1994, they held the WCW Tag Team Championship after defeating Stars and Stripes (The Patriot and Marcus Alexander Bagwell) in December. After dropping the title to The Nasty Boys, Harlem Heat regained the belts on June 24, 1995.
Afterward, Harlem Heat got into a feud with Col. Parker's "Stud Stable" of "Dirty" Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck. Parker and Sherri were carrying on a love affair and Parker eventually left the Stud Stable in favor of the Heat to be with Sherri. Harlem Heat won the WCW World Tag Team titles at Fall Brawl 1995, defeating Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck.[16] Their third title reign only lasted one day,[17] but the duo regained the tag team title nine days later from The American Males (Buff Bagwell and Scotty Riggs). On the June 24, 1996 Nitro, Harlem Heat defeated Lex Lugerand Sting to capture their fifth WCW World Tag Team titles.
Three days after losing the tag team titles to the Steiner Brothers, Harlem Heat regained the straps back from the Steiners on July 27. On September 23, Booker T and Stevie Ray were defeated by Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) but took the titles back for the seventh time on October 1.
They lost the Tag Team Championship to the Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) on October 27. Subsequently, they fired Col. Parker and beat him up and became full-fledged faces. They then entered into a brief feud against Col. Parker's newest team The Amazing French Canadians, a feud they won. In 1997, they feuded with Public Enemy (Grunge & Rocco), The Steiners, and the nWo. In fall 1997, they fired Sherri and added a new manager, Jacqueline. They were briefly put out of action by the nWo and returned to feud with the Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian). Stevie then took five months off from WCW to recover from an ankle injury and Jacqueline left for the WWF
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