Booker T

Booker T. Huffman Jr. (born March 1, 1965), better known by his ring name Booker T, is an American retired professional wrestler and commentator.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he serves as a color commentator on the NXT brand, and is also the owner and founder of the independent promotion Reality of Wrestling (ROW) in Texas City, Texas.

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.

During that time they also worked for Network Of Wrestling in Japan.

Booker and his brother Stevie Ray 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 WarGames match at Fall Brawl 1993 on September 19 against Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, and the Shockmaster.

They lost the match but were over as heels because of the caliber of faces they wrestled.

In 1994, they acquired the services of 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 World 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 Championship at Fall Brawl 1995, defeating Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck.

Their third title reign only lasted one day, but the duo regained the tag team title nine days later from the American Males (Buff Bagwell and Scotty Riggs).

He is also the winner of the 2006 King of the Ring tournament, the 16th Triple Crown Champion, and the eighth Grand Slam Champion in WWE history.

As the ninth WCW Triple Crown Champion, Booker is one of four 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 has been frequently named by peers and industry commentators as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time; he was voted WWE's greatest World Heavyweight Champion in a 2013 viewer poll.

Booker is known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E), and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling 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 11 WCW World Tag Team Championships: 10 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 under the WCW banner.

Booker is an overall 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 also the first to be of non-mixed race.

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, making Booker a two-time Hall of Famer.

Huffman was born the youngest of eight children, in Plain Dealing, Louisiana, though his birthplace is often misidentified as Houston, Texas.

By the time Booker was 13, both of his parents had died and he lived with his 16-year-old sister.

He would move in with his older brother Stevie Ray at age 17.

In high school, Huffman was a drum major.

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 (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.

His boss from the storage company sponsored 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 "professional wrestling", 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.