Booker T WCW
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Booker T World Championship Wrestling Booker T and Lane signed with WCW in the mid-1990s. They were originally slated to debut as two wrestling slaves called The Ghetto Blasters. This gimmick was aborted, however, due to the racial insensitivity of the planned characters. They debuted as the tag team Harlem Heat, with Booker T renamed "Kole" and Lane renamed "Kane". At their request Kole and Kane were once again named "Booker T" and "Stevie Ray" respectively. and would hold the WCW World Tag Team Championships a record ten times. In the late 1990s, Booker T began competing as a singles wrestler, while his brother was injured and then became a member of the nWo, then became a color commentator. Booker T won the WCW World Television Championship five times, and defeated Chris Benoit in a "best of seven" series on Nitro, Thunder and pay-per-views, for a match against the TV Champion, Fit Finlay. Booker T was the first ever African American to hold the title. During 2000, Stevie Ray reformed Harlem Heat with Big T, and had lawyer J. Biggs strip Booker T of his right to use the letter "T" as part of his name. Throughout this period, Booker T was referred to simply as "Booker". Booker T would eventually completely change his in-ring name, joining General Rection's military-themed Misfits In Action faction as G.I. Bro. He regained his more popular alias shortly before his World Title win. Booker T was elevated to the main event in 1999; Lane Booker T has speculated that this could in part have been due to a number of racial discrimination lawsuits filed against WCW. After WCW booker Vince Russo grew disgruntled with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan's alleged politicking, he fired Hogan during the live broadcast of Bash at the Beach 2000 and announced an impromptu match between Jeff Jarrett and Booker T for the now-vacant World Title. Booker T won the match, in the process becoming the second ever African American Champion. He was then defeated by Kevin Nash. He regained the title a few weeks later in a steel cage match with Nash, but would again losr the title, this time to Vince Russo himself in a cage match (Russo was speared out of the cage by Goldberg, and won the title), Russo vacated the title and Booker T won it for the third time in a San Francisco 49ner Box Match against Jeff Jarret. Booker T's next feud was with Scott Steiner, whom he would eventually lose the title to. Steiner would go on to be WCW's longest reigning champion in years, whilst Booker T was breifly out with an injury. In 2001, Booker T returned to the roster and defeated Rick Steiner for the WCW United States Championship, and on the final episode of Monday Nitro, defeated Steiner to win the World title for the fourth time. Booker T went on to win the title once more, feuding with and defeating Kurt Angle on WWE Raw whilst performing for the World Wrestling Federation (he lost the belt to The Rock. Coincidentally, the similarity in gimmicks between the two wrestlers has called into question who was the originator of said gimmick). Booker T won a total of twenty three titles in WCW, making him the most decorated athlete in the history of the organization. Booker T WCW |
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