The A&E Network series, Biography, is featuring a number of professional wrestlers on its show. This week, the featured wrestler was two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee Booker T. He is a six-time former world champion and an 11-time former tag team champion between WCW and the WWF. However, there is much about Booker T that is not known. This week, viewers learned a lot more about Booker T. Huffman.
Blame John Shaft for Booker T
Booker T’s iconic catchphrase came from his love of movies. His particular favorite ‘Shaft’ starring Richard Roundtree. Booker has seen the movie over 100 times. His catchphrase, “can you dig it, sucka,” was inspired by the dialogue from the movie.
The Harlem Heat Member comes from a Large Southern Family
Booker was born in Plain Dealing, Louisiana, which is about 40 miles north of Shreveport. The family moved to the Houston area when Booker was very young. The former champion was the youngest of 8 children; 4 boys and 4 girls. Stevie Ray is six years older than Booker, and they are the two youngest boys in the family.
Booker lost his mom when he was 13
Booker’s mom passed away at the age of 49 when Booker was 13 years old. Her death was the result of complications from back surgery. The surgery was due to an accident that she had while attempting to repair the ventilation system in the family’s home. Booker lived with his sister in the house with no electricity and no heating until they moved in with their older siblings.
As a young man, Booker T was exposed to the dark side of life…
The neighborhood where the Huffman family grew up had areas of criminal activity. Booker would spend his weekends hanging out with his friends in these parts of town. One of Booker’s first jobs was sweeping floors in a brothel that doubled as a heroin den.
…And later, the life caught up with him
At 21, Booker was arrested for aggravated robbery. Booker and some friends robbed the Wendy’s restaurant where they worked. The boys robbed the location 26 times. Booker was sentenced to 5 years in prison, and he served 19 months. During his time in jail, Booker finished high school and received his GED.
Booker’s family was bigger than he realized
Booker’s first child was born when he was 17. After being released from prison, Booker decided to seek custody of his son. To make money quickly, Booker robbed the drug dealer that his sister worked for. Booker finally got custody of his son, but his life on the road kept him from being a better father. The son is currently doing time in prison.
The brothers’ professional wrestling career came partially from self-storage
While working at a self-storage facility, Booker’s boss paid the cost for Booker to attend Ivan Putski’s wrestling school. One of the main trainers was Texas wrestling legend Scott Casey. When he started wrestling, Booker’s GI Bro gimmick came from an old army hat that Booker found in an abandoned storage unit where he worked.
The tag team came together in the GWF
The brothers tagged together for the first time in the Global Wrestling Federation after lying to booker Eddie Gilbert about being an experienced tag team. Booker T and Stevie Ray chose the team name the Ebony Experience. This was in honor of Mr. Ebony, an African-American masked wrestler.
Racism was rampant in the Sportatorium
Booker T was able to overcome rampant racism aimed at him and his brother in the Dallas Sportatorium. During the team’s debut match, while the fans were hurling racial epithets at the brothers, Booker inadvertently hit his first-ever Spinaroonie. After performing the move, the fans suddenly fell in love with the brothers. Booker had perfected the move as a youth while breakdancing with his friends.
He thanks Brooks and Dunn for the Harlem Heat look
After 18 months in the GWF, the brothers received a call from WCW. Sid Vicious told the WCW office that he thought Booker T and Stevie Ray would do well in Atlanta. Upon arriving in WCW, the boys decided that they needed a new name, and Harlem Heat was born. While searching for a new look to match the new name, Booker noticed Kix Brooks of the country music duo Brooks and Dunn wearing a shirt with flames on the Hard Workin’ Man album cover. Booker bought similar shirts for him and Stevie, cut the sleeves off of the shirts to make the hats, and the Harlem Heat look was complete.
Booker can thank Jeff Jarrett’s selflessness for Booker’s first WCW World Heavyweight Title
At Bash at the Beach 2000, the plan was for Hulk Hogan to lose to Jeff Jarrett. The victory was to solidify Jarrett as a legitimate WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Hogan exercised his creative control and refused to do the honors for Jarrett. Because of this, Jarrett laid in the ring and allowed Hogan to pin him, winning the title. After the match, head writer Vince Russo deactivated the title and instituted a new WCW World Heavyweight Title. Jeff Jarrett and Booker T competed for the new belt. Jarrett suffered his second loss in that match.
Booker T became WCW World Heavyweight Champion for the first time and the first black world champion since Ron Simmons. Booker can thank Jeff Jarrett for his sacrifice.
Five world titles meant nothing in the WWF at first
When Vince McMahon bought WCW, Booker elected to go to work for the WWF instead of just sitting at home until the end of his guaranteed WCW contract. However, Booker received immediate heat from the locker room due to a mistake during his initial appearance with the company. While attempting to put Steve Austin through an announce table, excess sweat caused Austin to slip off of the table and injure his back from the fall. The boys thought that Booker was reckless for having injured the company’s top star. However, after watching the match over, Austin realized what happened. After this, Booker was able to gain respect in the locker room.
The next episode of A&E’s Biography will chronicle the life and career of “The Heartbreak Kid,” Shawn Michaels.
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