The Real Booker T

• Name: De Robert Booker Tio Huffman
• Nickname: Booker T
• Date of Birth: March 1st, 1965
• Height: 6 ft 3 in 
• Weight: 116 kg

WIKI of Booker T

“I've always wanted my fans to love me for coming out and performing.”

When a six-time world heavyweight champion and 13-time tag champion entered the ring, fans throughout the world exploded in applause.

Booker T overcame the moniker of "tag team specialist" and New World Order-centered booking to become a breakout star in Ted Turner's WCW before moving to WWE in 2001 and establishing his position as one of the decade's top talents.

Early Life

Robert Booker Tio Huffman Jr., the father of Booker, was born on March 1st, 1965 in Plain Dealing, Louisiana. His father passed away when Booker was 10 months old, making him the youngest of his mother's eight children. His family moved from Louisiana to Texas as a result of this loss. Booker was raised in Houston's South Park district, where he discovered his passion for wrestling.

Booker's mother lost suddenly when he was 13 due to complications from surgery. Even after the water and power had been turned off, Booker and his next-oldest sister continued to live there by themselves for a while. After that, Booker moved in with an older sister. As a teen, he received no assistance or direction. He was surrounded by drug use and partying while neglecting school. At the age of 17, Booker fathered a child. 

Personal life 

When Booker was 17 years old, Brandon, his son, was born. While Booker was in jail, his teenage girlfriend lost custody of their son, and Brandon was placed in foster care. At the age of 5, Booker was able to obtain custody of Brandon.

On February 5, 2005, Booker and Sharmell Huffman got married. Former Miss Black America Sharmell has toured with James Brown. When she was a WCW Nitro Girl, they first met.

Their marriage was mirrored in their WWE personas: she was Queen Sharmell while he competed as King Booker.

Booker and his wife Sharmell are the parents of twins, a boy and a girl.

Arraignment and Imprisonment

Booker and a few of his friends decided to rob the fast food restaurant Wendy's because the manager was so unpleasant to work for. After they were successful in committing this crime, the crew went on to rob more Wendy's restaurants until they were finally apprehended in 1987.

Booker agreed to a plea bargain and as a result will serve five years in prison. After serving 19 months in prison and obtaining his GED there, he was finally granted parole and allowed to leave.

Legacy

Longtime wrestler Kurt Angle has said the following about Booker: 

"He's done it all... he genuinely is one of the top five best of all time."

Booker was regarded as "one of the best wrestlers alive" and was capable of "any bout, any style" according to a statement made by sports journalist Michael Landsberg in the year 2001. Later on, a veteran of the industry named John Layfield referred to him as "the best acquisition that WWE got when they bought WCW." This transaction took place in 2001.

Booker is the most decorated wrestler in the annals of WCW thanks to his 21 championships with the promotion.

He holds the distinction of becoming the first African American to win the WCW World Television Championship.

The WWE acknowledged Harlem Heat as being WCW's all-time best tag team, placing them in joint first place with The Steiner Brothers.The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) acknowledges Booker as one of the most decorated performers of all time when taking into account his accomplishments in both WCW and WWE.

Booker T became the second African-American to win a global championship in WWF/E (after The Rock), and the first person of non-mixed race to do so. He did this by winning his fifth WCW Championship, which took place in WWF.

“I've never really considered myself a wrestler. I always considered myself an entertainer, but I always wanted to be better than the guy next to me.”

Wrestling Career

 As fans saw during his time with Goldust and his reign over the SmackDown brand as King Booker, the multitalented Booker demonstrated that he was not only an excellent in-ring performer but also a comedic genius.

With an almost 30-year career, Booker entertained millions of people and achieved great success in three internationally renowned campaigns.

In 2013, his brother Stevie Ray gave him a well-deserved induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

“I always wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as all of the great wrestlers.”

Tag Team Champions of WCW

In 1989, Booker T made his professional wrestling debut in Houston, where he was born and raised. He and Stevie Ray were employed by the Global Wrestling Federation, but they soon made their way to WCW where they first gained notoriety as Kane and Kole.

Booker, who was a pillar of World Championship Wrestling until its demise, developed a bond with the fans while forming the Harlem Heat team with Stevie Ray. They engaged in combat together with some of the most successful duos of the 1990s, such as the Nasty Boys and the Steiner Brothers.

Along the way, they won 10 WCW Tag Team Championship titles and rose to the top of the Turner-owned promotion's tag team wrestling hierarchy.

There was little doubt that Booker and Stevie Ray were the best team in the business up until The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) arrived in 1996 and started to rule the division, both on the court and off.

Unfortunately, Stevie's 1997 injury left Booker without direction. At least until he had the chance to attempt a singles run, that is.

He made the full most of the opportunity.

Going Solo

In the absence of his brother, Booker experienced singles success as the New World Order tale started to take over radio waves. He won the WCW Television Championship after competing against Chris Benoit, Fit Finlay, and the surprisingly underappreciated Rick Martel.

Later on, he would get to know two of those three stars even better.

Both admirers and detractors of Booker first started to notice his talent while he was the TV champion. Booker disproved all sceptics by busting his back to show how exceptional he was between bells. He was frequently mistaken for a big guy with some good athleticism but no true ability to put up anything more than a respectable match.

In addition to producing some of the best free television matches of the year, Booker's best-of-xeven Series vs Benoit for the TV title in 1997 gave him the break he needed to reveal his level of talent to the public.

Naturally, Booker's success would lead to conflict with a returning Stevie Ray, who repeatedly misled Booker.

Booker took advantage of a chance provided to him by Vince Russo and realised his dream of one day becoming WCW champion by defeating Jeff Jarrett at the 2000 Bash at the Beach pay-per-view after nearly having all of his momentum destroyed by an awful feud with his brother and the debuting Big T, not to mention the entire G.I. Bro debacle.

In addition to feuding with Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner, with whom he frequently traded the world title, Booker would wrestle Jarrett in a number of rematches. By March, he had won the gold for a fourth time and was unmistakably the company's spokesperson.

However, despite her brilliance, youth, and charisma, Booker was unable to save WCW from bankruptcy by March 2001, and she was one of the few wrestlers eager to accept a deal with WWE.

“For me, fighting is in the blood, and it's something I grew up doing.”

Sailing Away

Though not always easy, Booker was able to achieve considerable success in Vince McMahon's organisation, in large part because to backroom politics involving the former WCW talent.

First, he formed a strange alliance with Goldust that turned into one of the most pleasantly surprising highlights of WWE television. Audiences were entertained by their on-screen chemistry and comic timing, as well as some of the utterly absurd situations they found themselves in, at a time when WWE was desperately trying to establish an identity for its Monday Night Raw brand.

After months of attempting to win the World Tag Duo Championships away from competitors like Chris Jericho, Christian, Lance Storm, and William Regal, the team would finally succeed in doing so at the 2002 Armageddon pay-per-view.

Unfortunately, their reign would be brief as Booker started preparing for his first chance at a major global title and a meeting with Triple H.

XIX WrestleMania

The World Heavyweight Championship bout between Booker T and Triple H at WrestleMania XIX is one of the most contentious topics in the wrestling world, primarily because of the racial undertones of the rivalry between the Raw stalwarts and the underwhelming outcome of their massive title showdown.

In the 2003 March 3 episode of Raw, Booker defeated The Rock and triumphed in a Battle Royal. After that triumph, Booker was given the opportunity to challenge Triple H for the huge gold belt. After two years of putting in a lot of effort and succeeding with fans despite WWE Creative continuously getting him wrong, it seemed as though Booker would finally win the illusive world title on the grandest stage in sports entertainment.

What started as a wrestling feud turned awkward when Triple H started saying that "guys like Booker" and "his people" didn't win major belts. All of a sudden, it appeared as though Triple H was suggesting that Superstars of colour are not championship contenders.

It was a sentiment that was expressed more than once, so Vince McMahon decided to stick with it even after the initial controversy, at least for another week.

It gradually vanished and the tale became more conventional, but everyone was left with a bitter aftertaste.

Achievements

Booker T's list of achievements is quite honestly astonishing:

• 5x WCW World Heavyweight Champion
• 11x WCW Tag Team Champion (10x Stevie Ray, 1x Test)
• 6x WCW World Television Champion 
• 1x WCW United States Heavyweight Champion
• 1x WWE World Heavyweight Champion
• 3x WWE United States Champion
• 1x WWE Intercontinental Champion
• 3x WWE World Tag Team Champion (1x Test, 1x Goldust, 1x Rob Van Dam)
• 2x WWF Hardcore Champion
• Winner of King Of The Ring 2006
• Sixteenth WWE Triple Crown Champion
• Eighth WWE Grand Slam Champion
• Participant of the first Elimination Chamber
• Participant of Money In The Bank match, Wrestlemania 23
• 1x TNA Legends Champion
• Participant in King Of The Mountain match
• PWI Tag Team Of The Year (1995, 1996) with Stevie Ray
• PWI Most Improved Wrestler Of The Year (1998)
• PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler Of The Year (2000)
• PWI Ranked #5 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the year (2000)

Retirement

In 2012, Booker gave up professional wrestling. He then took on the role of SmackDown's general manager and colour commentator for WWE. Additionally, Booker made an appearance as a trainer on the well-liked reality programme WWE Tough Enough.

Booker was able to spread his enthusiasm for the sport by founding his own wrestling academy, called Reality of Wrestling. He orchestrated a Reality of Wrestling promotion using athletes from his school.

Injury

Booker T had a strained groyne muscle during his match on Monday night during a SmackDown live event in White Plains, according to WWE trainer Larry Heck. The event took place on Monday night. According to Heck, the typical recovery time for this kind of injury is between four and six weeks. However, given that Booker is a wrestler, it is likely that he will be prepared sooner.

Controversial Statement

Booker T has expressed a contentious opinion regarding the reactions of AEW fans to the injuries that have been incurred by members of the AEW roster.

CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Hangman Adam Page, Kenny Omega, and Adam Cole are just some of the AEW athletes that have been sidelined by injury over the course of the past year and have needed time off to recover.

WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, who just just returned to his role as an announcer for WWE's NXT brand, has been very public about his criticisms of AEW's product in recent times, and he has fired off another complaint that is sure to get people talking.

When asked about this topic on his podcast, "Hall of Fame," Booker stated that AEW fans don't care who gets wounded as long as they are amused.

He went on to describe:

"Those fans of AEW, man. They don't give a damn about the competitors in the ring. They do not care if those other people are working or not. These guys might treat them as nothing more than toys or video games; that's how they view them.They don't care about the men who are competing in the ring.”

"They don't give a damn about these men going out there and getting hurt if they aren't out there getting a chorus of 'This Is Awesome.'" They certainly do not."

Conclusion

WWE professional wrestler Booker T is a legend. He was orphaned at an early age, battled to make sense of the world in his adolescence, and was sentenced to prison after committing a series of robberies. Booker rose through the ranks of small wrestling organizations’ to achieve national success, first with World Championship Wrestling and subsequently WWE. He won the WCW Tag Team Championship 11 times, and he also won the World Championship six times as a lone performer. WWE's King of the Ring Competition was won by Booker in 2006. He served as a trainer and commentator after giving up wrestling. Additionally, he started his own wrestling academy. 2013 and 2019 saw his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

“The parts of life that drive me are getting that homeless person off the street and helping people receive the education they deserve. I want to be able to help the ones that want the help, but also guide the ones who don't so they are also in a better position.”-Booker T