When you hear the name Booker T in 2023, it usually is a news story that has him reacting positively or negatively to whatever the news is in AEW, WWE or some type of story he’s giving his opinion on. The mileage of his opinion may go far with you or not at all. That’s not the Booker T I’m here to write about today.

The Booker T I became a huge fan of was the guy that worked his way from the bottom rung of WCW, into becoming a World Champion. Were they perfect circumstances? In a word? No. However, Booker had one of the most linear, classic rises of a talent that I’ve seen in my near 30 years of fandom.

Akin to the likes of Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels, Booker shone primarily as a tag team competitor in his formative years with his brother Stevie Ray in the tag team Harlem Heat, who captured 10 WCW Tag Team championships. In that WCW tag division, he got to match up with The Steiner Brothers, Nasty Boys, Hall & Nash and more. Without much microphone time, Booker instead yelled at the camera as his ALL-TIME theme music played and got over his intensity. What a stroke of genius choosing that theme out of the Turner Library was; the song has stuck with him until this day.

What always stood out about Booker T was his ability to move around the ring the way he did at his size. He was just as comfortable getting vertical as he was maneuvering on his feet trading lefts and rights. Like Scott Hall he was a large man that was a natural opponent to those smaller or bigger than him due to his willingness to bump for whoever was in the ring with him. We don’t speak about Chris Benoit anymore, but Booker’s 7 match series with him stood out to me at the time as something that literally moved him from one level to the next as a performer.

In 1998, at Bash at The Beach Booker T faced Bret Hart. I remember going back to watch this around the time the initial WWE Network launched, and there are not many times where Bret Hart just looks completely overmatched physically, athletically, and aesthetically, but I would encourage anyone to check out that match to see what a wrestler who is on the verge of tapping into what all their potential was.

In those days, Booker T. was a true workhorse. Going through the TV and United States division there wasn’t a WCW show he wouldn’t show up on. I’m talking about Saturday Night, Worldwide, Thunder, WCW Pro in addition to Nitro of course. The more at bats he got the more he was able to forge a bond with audiences that naturally moved him toward where he would end up being.

Booker T is more than his WCW career, but I felt it was very important to highlight that because we saw him figure out nearly every aspect of what would make him the wrestler he was in that promotion. They weren’t doing comedy with him, but he was learning to connect with white audiences who raised the roof along with him in jubilation. While Harlem Heat was meant to give off a thug type persona, (the less said about the early ideas for Harlem Heat the better) by the end of WCW Booker T just came off as a proud man who we all saw go through years and years of being ready. Jeff Jarrett once noted one of the proudest moments of his career was being the man that was able to put over Booker T for his first world title.

In WWE, Booker T’s peak came early on when he was able to headline Summerslam 2001 with The Rock. This was part of the Invasion storyline, so it gets lost because there are so many moving parts that many observers tend to look back on negatively. On a personal note, I was excited as hell to see two black men, champions in their own worlds, rivals from afar…get to it.

His feud with Triple H is not a career highlight for Booker T in my opinion. It just represents the lowest of low stories, and the execution of the match could be an entire column itself. I’ll just present this as a question. If these are the things Booker T had to fight through ON SCREEN, can you imagine the stuff he went through off it?

Later, Booker was able to tap into his more comedic side which allowed him more career longevity, as he formed cool tag teams with the likes of Rob Van Dam, and Goldust, and transitioned into somewhat of an elder statesman. He’s Uncle Book to a lot of us. Somewhat of a Shannon Sharpe like figure for pro wrestling. His King Booker run is looked back on fondly through newer fans eyes, and WWE documentary history but I’m here to correct that.

Legacy

The Booker T that was SPECIAL, existed in serious form. He came to the ring with flames on the side of his pants in 1998, when he took off the singlet top. He was calling Hulk Hogan exactly what you’re thinking of and telling him he was going to get him. Booker was among the most versatile wrestlers that have ever come along, and the time period he did it in, spared him from some of the things black wrestlers before him faced, but still allowed him to knock down doors for those that came after him.

Booker’s current role in wrestling is as the head trainer of his Wrestling School/promotion Reality Of Wrestling. The school has become a destination for young wrestlers looking to find their way into the business much in the way Booker T did when he showed up with his brother to Ivan Putski’s facility. He keeps in the public eye with his podcast and doing commentary for NXT and various WWE panels. When those days are over, he will remain right here, in the Wrestling Headlines Hall Of Fame.