It probably means the early reports of the Hart Foundation entering this year’s WWE Hall of Fame won’t be coming true, but the WWE has officially announced that Harlem Heat, one of the most decorated tag teams in all of professional wrestling, will be entering the WWE Hall of Fame, Class of 2019. Namewise, it’s a solid geographical choice considering WrestleMania 35 is in the New York/New Jersey area, despite the fact the Huffman brothers are actually from Texas.
BREAKING: #HarlemHeat joins the @WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2019, as first reported by @USAToday! #WWEHOF @BookerT5x @RealStevieRay https://t.co/hrEEMPxdUk
— WWE (@WWE) March 11, 2019
Brothers Booker T and Stevie Ray Huffman first began working together as a tag team in the Texas territories of the early 1990s, with Eddie Gilbert‘s Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), as The Ebony Experience, winning the GWF North American Tag Team titles twice during their time there. They didn’t last long there before they were signed by WCW in 1993 and after a couple early gimmick changes – as The Posse (Kane & Kole) and then Chi-Town Heat, they were repackaged as Harlem Heat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQAGtxT80U
As Harlem Heat was finding their footing in WCW’s early days, it was an unlikely benefactor backstage that helped convince WCW management to hand the tag team ball to the duo. Despite his recent controversies, Booker T credits Hulk Hogan as the man who got Harlem Heat into the main event of the tag team division. In an interview on his podcast Heated Conversations in May of last year, Booker said that “back in day, if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, I don’t know if Booker T and Stevie Ray would’ve gotten the push that we got. Back in the day, Sister Sherri was an intricate detail, she was an intricate part of Harlem Heat and our success, and it was all because of Hulk Hogan saying, ‘those are the guys you should be putting your money behind.'”
By the end of 1994, they were feuding with the likes of The Nasty Boys, and had become impact players in WCW’s tag team division and won their first WCW World Tag Team titles in December of that year, holding them for 164 days. They would spend 1995 feuding with the Blue Bloods (Bobby Eaton & William Regal).
In 1996, they began epic rivalries against the likes of the Steiner Brothers (Scott & Rick Steiner) and The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) and did their one and only tour of NJPW, where they competed for the IWGP Tag Team titles.
By the late 1990s, Booker T would start to get pushed as a singles wrestler, while Stevie Ray would join the New World Order (nWo) as one of the sergeants in the White and Black team. But during their entire WCW run, they would amass a record 10 WCW World Tag Team title reigns, as arguably WCW’s most dominant tag team of the 1990s, and one of the most decorated tag teams in wrestling history.
The induction also makes Booker T just the third man to enter the WWE Hall of Fame twice, joining Ric Flair (single and with the Four Horsemen) and Shawn Michaels (single and with DX this year).
Thank you @WWE for this incredible honor and thank you to all the fans of #HarlemHeat! #HallofFame https://t.co/vxg8GQnbFe
— Booker T. Huffman (@BookerT5x) March 11, 2019
