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Profile: King Booker
Having worked on the Texas indy circuit, named The Ebony Experience in the Global Wrestling Federation, the team of Booker T and his brother Stevie Ray signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1993 as Harlem Heat. Originally, Booker was named Kole while Stevie Ray became Kane, before acquiring Sister Sherri (Martel) as a manager and reverting to their more familiar names the following year. In December '94 they won their first of ten WCW World Tag Team Championships by defeating Stars & Strikes (The Patriot and Marcus Alexander - later Buff - Bagwell).
In October '96 they turned babyface after losing their seventh tag titles to The Outsiders, beating up manager Colonel Rob Parker before winning a feud against his new team The Amazing French Canadians. About a year later, they replaced Sherri with Jacqueline, before Stevie Ray was put on the shelf with an ankle injury.
For the next five months Booker went it alone, going on to win the WCW Television Championship - the first African American to do so - a record six times. In '98 he feuded with Chris Benoit, entering a "Best of Seven" series for a shot at Fit Finlay's TV Title. Despite interference from a heel Bret Hart, Booker won the series 4-3, and defeated Finlay for the gold. Booker then wrestled Hart and suffered a knee injury, leaving his newly returned brother to take over as champion in his place.
In 1999, Harlem Heat would reunite when Stevie Ray left the New World Order, and continued amassing their record number of World Tag Team Title reigns. By the end of the year, the team were joined by Midnight, a female bodybuilder, whose help was rejected by Stevie Ray. After losing to Midnight in a match, he turned on both her and Booker T, forming his own heel faction to feud with his brother.
Booker would briefly resurrect his GI Bro soldier gimmick from his indy days as part of Misfits In Action, a squad led by General Rection (Hugh Morrus) in 2000, before reverting back to the name Booker T. After the controversial stripping of Hulk Hogan as WCW World Heavyweight Champion at Bash at the Beach 2000, Booker was placed by Vince Russo in a match against Jeff Jarrett later in the evening for the vacant title, which Booker won for his first of five WCW World Titles. He would briefly trade it with Kevin Nash, before losing his second title to Vince Russo himself in a cage match, when a well-meaning Goldberg speared Russo through the cage to victory. After Russo vacated the title again, Booker regained it in a gimmick match with Jarrett.
After losing the title to Scott Steiner, Booker was briefly sidelined with an injury before taking the WCW United States Title from Scott's brother Rick at WCW's final pay-per-view, Greed 2001. On the final episode of Monday Nitro, he ended Scott's relatively long reign with the World Title, becoming a four-time and double champion as the company closed.
Booker made his World Wrestling Federation debut at King of the Ring 2001, attacking Steve Austin as part of the WCW Invasion. Still recognized as WCW Champion, he defeated Buff Bagwell in the first "WCW match" on an episode of SmackDown. After handing the US Title to Kanyon, Booker traded the WCW Title with Kurt Angle, making him a five-time champion before losing it for the last time to The Rock at SummerSlam, in a feud based on their character similarities while in rival promotions.
As the Invasion wore on, he won his eleventh WCW World Tag Team Championship with Test, and went on to win his first WWF (WWE World) Tag Team Title with the same partner. After the Alliance was finally defeated and disbanded in November, he feuded with Steve Austin, the man he originally attacked back in June, resulting in a memorable beating by Austin in a grocery store.
In mid-2002, Booker began teaming with Goldust but briefly joined the New World Order, before being kicked out by Shawn Michaels. Now a babyface, Booker slowly embraced his tag team success with Goldust, finally winning his second WWE World Tag Team Title in December for a three-week reign, before Goldust insisted on letting Booker pursue singles glory. At WrestleMania XIX, he came up short in his challenge for Triple H's World Heavyweight Title.
Booker tasted his first Intercontinental Championship gold in 2003 in a feud with Christian, but had to drop the title back to him at a house show due to injury. In early 2004, he teamed with Rob Van Dam to secure more tag team gold, before being traded from Raw to the SmackDown brand where he turned heel, complaining that SmackDown was a step down for him. Though RVD was traded at the same time, Booker turned on him and defeated him in singles competition. Later in the year, he won an eight-man elimination match for the vacant WWE United States Title.
After turning babyface later in October, Booker feuded with JBL for the WWE Championship but never won the title. Another heel turn came in 2005 during a feud with Chris Benoit for the US Title, when Booker's wife Sharmell helped him cheat Benoit out of the gold. The two would embark on another "Best of Seven" series, harking back to their WCW days, with Booker again coming out on top, though due to injury he was replaced in several matches by fellow heel Randy Orton.
In May 2006 his gimmick took a drastic change when he defeated Bobby Lashley in the finals of the newly revived King of the Ring tournament. As King Booker, accompanied by Queen Sharmell and briefly flanked by Finlay and William Regal as The King's Court, he proudly wore his crown and robe, while adopting a comically false English accent. Quickly becoming the most hated heel on SmackDown, he relieved Rey Mysterio of the World Heavyweight Title at The Great American Bash, proclaiming himself the King of the World. Later that year, with the help of Kevin Federline, he defeated WWE Champion John Cena and ECW World Champion The Big Show in a non-title triple threat match at Cyber Sunday to be crowned Champion of Champions.
A rejuvenated main eventer, King Booker now finally enjoys stability as a top star in WWE, after many years of struggling up the ladder.
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