All language subtitles for Biography WWE Legends S01 E04 (Biography.Wwe.Legends.S01e04.720P.Web.H264-Dirt.m4v) (ENGLISH)

Growing up with close to
nothing in South Park, Texas,

kicking it around New
York City is kind of surreal.

The sounds, the energy, there's nothing
like it.

It's like another world, man.

It's also a place that I dreamed of as a
kid.

Because of Shaft.

I watched that movie
at least a hundred times

and I literally wanted
to be John Shaft.

You didn't see black guys like this in
movies back then.

He was a bad man and didn't back down from
nobody.

See Shaft, he resonated with me and
inspired the following.

Five words that define the two-time WWE
Hall of Famer.

Can you dig it?

Sucker!

Act one of being a pro wrestler is when
you come through that curtain.

He went in and he took it to the moon.

See how he just soaks up the adulation and
the energy.

It just makes him bigger and bigger and
bigger.

Our two-time WWE Hall of Famer,
Booker T.

Booker's persona is a
street smart, hungry, athletic,

over-the-top, kick-your-ass
professional wrestler.

Make a look at this pulk.

Even growing up, Junior was never afraid
to fight.

He would fight big kids, dogs,
cats.

I mean he just loved to fight and he could
fight very well.

You try to get somebody.

Like, did you see that?

One of the things I loved about Booker T
was his flair for the theatrical side.

And the drama of it.

This is show business.

The key in this business is charisma.

Booker T walks into a room, you notice
him.

Fun, larger than life personality and big
and loves to laugh.

Go to every length just to entertain you.

Tell me I don't look like that!

And let me tell you, Booker is the same
way when he's at home.

I'm like, really?

Are you really doing this right now?

Pioneer, trendsetter, two-time Hall of
Famer, five-time champion.

He's always managed to stay on top.

It's very, very important to see people
who look like you doing great things.

If he's doing it, so can I.

Can you dig that sucker?

This is where it all started so many years
ago.

You don't miss what you don't have.

And we didn't have a lot, but what we had,
it was enough.

It was a lot of shooting dice.

We shoot marbles.

Then we're trying to get some mischief,
looking for some girls.

Don't let nobody push you around,
you know, amen?

If you get into a fight, you know,
make sure you throw the first punch.

You know, and that's
what not my brothers was

teaching me, but my
sisters was teaching me that.

That's what life was here in this
neighborhood.

We moved here back when I was actually
about seven years old.

We moved around Houston till we finally
settled right here in this neighborhood.

And I tell you, just standing here right
now, the memories just, just flood back.

I was born in a little
place called Plain Dealing,

about 50 miles outside
of Shreveport, Louisiana.

I was the youngest of eight kids.

I never knew my father.

He passed away when I was 10 months old.

My mother was a registered
nurse, and she packed up and she

moved us here because she
just wanted more for her kids.

As long as I can remember, my mother
worked from 11 at night.

To 7 a.m.

in the morning.

It was very important for her
to be there when we woke up,

and to be there when we came
home from school every day.

And to make sure that we
were fed, that we did our

homework, and that we
were in the bed before she left.

So, that graveyard shift can be very,
very tough.

But my mom did it, and she did it for us.

We had four girls,
four boys, and some of

the older ones were
already out of the house.

When we moved to Houston.

But she was still a single parent with a
full household.

My older brother, Lash, others know him as
Stevie Ray, his wrestling name.

Booker T, myself.

The three of us were all
three years apart, so we were

the closest, and all three
of us were the youngest.

Sports was always in the equation.

And my brother would always play football
with me and my friends.

For some reason or another, he wanted to
play with us.

Whatever Lash wanted to do.

Junior wanted to do.

Whenever we would get
new mattresses, Junior

and Lash would ask
for the old mattress.

And they'd set it up in the backyard and
make a makeshift ring.

And me and my niece, we were guinea pigs
for the sleeper hold.

He did look up to his big brother.

My mom, not that she didn't love all of
us, but she loved Junior.

Because he was the baby.

He could cry for three hours without
stopping.

Sometimes he'd cry so much, you'd have to
pay him to stop.

And he'd get your money.

And then when she'd come home, he was
crying again so he could plead his case.

My momma would be, oh my baby,
my baby.

And he'd be hugging her and looking over
there, wanking at us.

I was a momma's boy.

I always said one day that I was going to
buy my mother a big house.

And she wasn't going to have to ever work
again.

Just lay on my mother.

You know, just listen to her.

Just listen to her heartbeat.

The relationship was very, very special.

We had an attic fan.

And for some reason, the attic fan had
stopped working.

All my brothers are older.

And she had been trying
to get one of those guys to

go up there and take a
look at it for the longest.

And finally one day she said, I'll go do
it myself.

She went up to the attic to check it out.

You know, she stepped on the sheetrock.

And she fell through the roof to the
floor.

From that point on, she always had back
problems.

And she had to have surgery.

She had the surgery.

She came through.

Everything was fine.

Her leg began to stiffen.

And she was in pain again.

And when she went back to the doctor,
they said that they needed to go in again.

It was basically, I'm going to go to the
hospital.

I'll be there a couple of days.

Here's lunch money.

And you kiss your mom goodnight.

Goodbye.

Something happened.

Complications.

And my heart stopped beating.

And, man, 49 years old.

My mother was gone.

Yeah.

We had lost our leader, our rock,
our provider, our strength.

We had lost that.

Everything changed for me, of course,
being a 13-year-old kid with no parents.

I don't blame any of my sisters and
brothers.

For not stepping up and being, you
know, a father figure, a mother figure.

I don't think anybody was prepared or
equipped for the loss of my mother.

No one was.

We were like little aunts without the
queen.

Everybody was just, like, everywhere.

And it kind of splintered our family
somewhat.

And I know it did me.

And the younger kids, Booker and Benita,
that's all they knew was their mom.

From a legal standpoint, we were orphans.

Because we didn't have a mother or father,
and we were both minors.

For a short period of time, we did
struggle.

Because we were basically the two that
were left in the home after my mom died.

So here's this kid at age 13 living with
his sister in a house that is abandoned.

You know, the electricity's being turned
off.

Now it's becoming a derelict house.

They don't have any food.

They have nowhere to go.

They kept the lights on as long as they
possibly could.

They kept the water on as long as they
possibly could.

And then, no lights, no water,
no gas, no anything.

There was a lot of scary nights in the
house, you know, with candles.

We toughed it out as long as we possibly
could.

The house got foreclosed on.

You know, the bank took it.

My sister actually, you know, took us in.

And we were in better places for us.

We had lights and we had gas.

We had water.

We had food.

But we were still in an environment that
two kids shouldn't have been in.

Right now, we're deep in the heart of
South Park, Texas.

Where I pretty much grew up and,
I always say, created all my dirt.

The lifestyle that I had, you know,
was a little bit different than most kids.

Because, you know, most kids were,
you know, thinking about getting home.

And going outside and playing with their
buddies.

And it was like that for me to a point.

And then after I lost my mother,
things totally went in another direction.

As far as, now I had to police myself.

Now I had, you know, peer pressure.

In the neighborhood,
the kid on the corner is

asking you, hey man, you
want to smoke some of this?

You know, and you go, yeah man,
I'll smoke some of that.

And, you know, that's where it all starts.

One of the first things I saw,
actually we were at the car wash.

A friend of mine by the name of Ted.

He was a kid that I went to school with.

So I'm getting to it with another guy at
the car wash.

And it was just going to be a regular
fight.

And next thing you know, Ted pulls out a
gun.

Boom, shoots the kid.

And then the kid's friend pulls out a
shotgun.

Boom, it kills Ted.

So as a kid, you know,
seeing stuff like that,

you just wonder, man,
what is life all about?

You know, what are we here for?

And how long are we here for?

Life in the neighborhood.

I could pretty much do whatever I wanted
to do.

I didn't have to think about going to
school if I didn't want to go to school.

I would just stay home or just go
somewhere else.

Who was going to tell me it was wrong?

No one.

Who knew I was at school or not?

No one.

Who cared?

No one.

When you find yourself in
that position, you start doing

things a young kid definitely
shouldn't have been doing.

Going out and partying, drugs,
hanging out till 4 o'clock in the morning,

out on the waterfront, watching the ladies
of the night.

Things changed in the
neighborhood, South Park, but nothing,

nothing like when I started
coming in this area right here.

It's called the waterfront area.

You know, the docks is not too far from
here.

Everybody would freak
with this area, you know,

especially on Friday
nights after they got paid.

Prostitutes, gambling, you see gambling on
the corner.

The drug scene.

The needles.

That's what I remember more than anything
is the needles.

Listening to some Willie Hutch.

Some of his music went hand in hand with
the game.

They sit out here and
they'll gamble and they'll

order and they'll try to
make their drug sales.

35 is not a 21.

I can't tell you how sad it is now.

I knew I didn't want to do drugs.

I knew I didn't want to be a pimp.

I knew I didn't want to have that
lifestyle.

I knew I didn't want to do that,
but I was right in the middle of it.

Booker just kind of fell through the
cracks.

Here's a kid that was literally on his
own.

And then he ends up
getting a job sweeping the

floors in a heroin den and
that doubled as a brothel.

He's trying to survive.

He's trying to live.

I had no ambitions.

I was in that whirlwind
and it was spinning and

war had stopped and that's
where I was going to go.

When you have that mindset and you're
stuck in that position, you do things that

are... you look back and say,
well, that was a terrible decision.

You just start making your own rules.

Whether those rules are right or wrong,
you just start making them.

And that's what I did.

I remember hanging out with my buddies and
they became my family.

And we started writing our own blueprints.

So when he sees an option to deal a little
pot or rob a fast food restaurant,

of course he's going to do it.

The robbery.

The incident.

The way it started.

It was myself, a friend of mine, Zachary,
a friend that I grew up with, Wendell.

We worked at Wendy's.

It was this one manager.

Just used to give us a hard time all the
time.

We were talking about it one day,
man, we should rob them.

We go.

We did it.

And we got away with it.

The store that we actually worked in.

And then we did it again.

And we got away with it.

Somebody said, hey man, when we going out
again?

Let's do it.

We got away with it again.

It was like we were ever going to get
caught.

We saw it on the news.

And we were like, man, this thing is
getting crazy.

You know, we're getting really big.

We were like rock stars then.

It's like cat and mouse.

Catch me if you can.

It's hard to understand, how do you think
you know more than the cops?

That's their job.

They'll come to the office.

Only thing they do is sit
around and investigate and

try to figure out how to
catch someone doing wrong.

I was coming home to my apartment.

Came around the corner.

And I saw no one.

It was so quiet that night.

And I just remember, man, just something
does not feel right at all.

And literally, 10, 15, 20 people came out
at the same time.

And they all had guns.

And they were all pointing at me.

That ride from 45 and 610
to downtown Houston to the

county jail, that was the
longest ride I ever had.

I was in Harris County for about eight
months.

I sat in that jail, waiting
on whether I was either

going to go to trial or I
was going to take a plea.

And I was going to take a plea.

I knew I was wrong.

I knew I was guilty.

I knew I would have been convicted very,
very easily.

I took the sentence, which was five years.

I had to go to a place called Pac-2.

It was in Navasota, Texas.

I remember seeing the chain gang on
television.

I didn't think that was a real thing.

I thought it was just something that was
out of date or in the past.

But we really had to wake up early in the
morning.

We'd get on the back
of this big truck and

we would go to
literally just clear a field.

And we would do it pretty much by hand,
pulling up stumps.

And it was for hours.

And I'm like, man, this is real.

This is as real as it gets right here.

It was an education for me as well.

I got a chance to get my GED.

I wanted to go to school.

I wanted to learn more.

I wanted to be able to teach myself.

I got a chance to work on the laundry.

And do a detail from that perspective.

Learning about myself.

Atone for my mistake and try to move on in
life.

I never went to visit him because I never
wanted to see him locked up.

We kept in touch via letter.

In those letters, he talked about his
regrets, his dreams, and his goals.

I've made the mistake.

I own up to it.

I'm going to do my time.

And I'm going to come out and do better.

I remember talking to him about,
stick to the goals.

And not just the dreams.

Because dreams you have to wake up from.

He needed to stand on his own two feet and
be a man.

So he was in the penitentiary for 19
months.

And then he came up for parole.

Booker T.

Yeah, he goes, you're out of here.

I was like, oh man.

You're kidding me, right?

He was like, you're out of here.

Get your stuff.

And when I left that prison wall,
it was just one guard.

And he was sitting on his big horse.

He had his big cowboy hat on.

And he said, I'll see you when you get
back.

And I got my 200 bucks.

They put me on that Greyhound and sent me
back to Houston.

Life was what I was going to make it from
that point on.

One thing that you, when you got out,
you wanted to get your son Brandon back.

You didn't have the money in the bank.

So you pulled one last heist.

I was a kid when Brandon was born,
myself.

I was 17.

His mom and I, we never was anticipating
on getting married or anything like that.

It was two kids.

Having a kid, you know.

Not knowing anything about life.

When I ended up going to prison,
she was on drugs really, really bad.

That's when the CPS came into play.

And took him.

And from that point on, he was in foster
care.

I wouldn't say I abandoned him or anything
like that.

But I definitely wasn't a dad or a father
in the beginning.

Was I going to leave my son in foster
care?

Or was I going to go through the system
and get him out?

And it was a very simple answer.

My mother raised eight kids.

How could I look at myself in the mirror
and not raise one?

When I came home, I was... I
got paroled to my sister's house.

And, you know, she was still in the game
selling weed.

My sister's dealer, you
know, he was supplying,

you know, five pounds
here, five pounds there.

And, you know, one night, I knew where the
stash house was.

It was about five pounds.

I crept in.

I got all of it.

I got out of there.

You stole from a drug dealer?

Stole from the drug dealers.

And, uh... But for
the right reasons.

You wanted to get your son back.

It was for the right reasons.

You got to have money in the bank.

I needed money.

And I needed it quick.

And I just needed a platform, a
springboard to get out of that life.

But I still needed a little bit more help.

And that's when my brother came in.

I asked my brother, you know, for a little
bit of help.

I asked him to help me get a job.

You got to get out of this environment if
you want to be something in life.

And that's pretty much the conversation
that we had.

I've been put in a position.

I've been put in a position to help him.

And that's what I did.

But it's up to you to make it work.

First job he got me was a security guard.

Fresh out of prison, he gave me a job as a
security guard.

And at the time, my brother actually let
me stay with him.

I had to prove to the court system that I
was worthy of being a dad.

And it took me about a year.

Those certain days, I had to make sure I
was there.

Keep a steady job.

And I showed them that.

They ended up granting me full custody
when Brandon was five years old.

You know, we didn't have a lot.

But we had each other.

You know, we had our dog.

You know, we had our apartment.

And I had a job.

Working that security job.

You know, it only lasted for a few months.

And then they found out about my prison
record.

They told my brother that he was going to
have to let me go.

But the guy that I had worked for, his name
is Bruce Kisarch, saw me as a human being.

He saw my character.

I saw how hard he worked and tried.

We found another job for him.

One of the properties we bought was a mini
storage.

And he ended up helping me with that.

Helping me run that property.

Leasing new tenants.

Cleaning up the property.

Making sure that people have paid their
rent.

I was working for Bruce.

My brother was like, hey man, I know this
guy opened a wrestling school.

You want to try it out?

I'm Ivan Putzke.

If you've got what it
takes to be a professional

wrestler, let me
show you the ropes.

You do what you like.

And I love wrestling.

Ivan Putzke's professional school of
wrestling.

I drew... Hey, I
watched him on TV.

People read that and they came in.

And I'm like, hey man, you doing it.

I'll try it out too, you know.

Since I was a kid, whatever my brother was
doing, I wanted to be a part of it.

It was like a tag team even before we were
a tag team.

Wrestling school was $4,000.

I knew I didn't have the money for it,
but I was blessed.

My boss, he sponsored me to go to the
wrestling school.

He wanted to do something to improve
himself.

You want to improve yourself?

And I can help.

I will.

I had the money available.

So I'll help.

And if you're willing to take a little
chance, sometimes it pays off.

When Booker T and
his brother first arrived,

they didn't know a
thing about wrestling.

I mean, they were just green.

I just showed them
how to get the holes on

you, the bumps and the
slams, throw punches.

I taught them how to take their falls,
how you protect yourself.

Then we blend in their personality.

Scott Casey was the main trainer there.

I didn't open the school, but Scott Casey
opened our minds.

We went 7 o'clock
to 10 o'clock Monday

through Friday for like
three months straight.

This is when I clap it on somebody's head
and make it pop.

Goes the weasel.

And after that, they give you a
certificate.

It's kind of like these online gimmicks
that you have today.

You know what I'm saying?

In 90 days, I'm a professional wrestler.

You know what I'm saying?

So it's like, wow.

Booker was what you call a natural.

He caught on so fast.

I always wanted to be the best student,
you know, in the school.

So I would go and push myself.

I would run the rope for five minutes and
I would literally push myself further than

anyone in there could ever think about
pushing me.

Man, I got a jewel here.

Notice how I concentrate mainly on the
sweep.

Right.

We're pumping up these massive quads.

And the GI Bro can only do oh so well.

I was working at the warehouse and I had
to clean out one of the units.

There was an old army hat in there.

And I was like, oh man, I like this hat.

And I went to practice and I wore the hat.

Ivan Pusky goes, that's who you are.

From now on, you're GI Bro.

And I go, GI Bro?

I like that.

That's pretty cool.

Right after we finished the course,
actually, by the grace of God,

Ivan Pusky had local television here.

Fleshes Johnny Valiant watching just like
all you other fans out here in the W.W.A.

of a local favorite here in Houston,
Texas, GI Bro.

This guy is very charismatic.

GI Bro.

GI, brother.

He's cranking it up.

Ah, yeah.

Count him out.

Did he get him?

Yes, he did.

Control.

GI Bro.

I got a chance to wrestle under Sam
Houston Coliseum.

You know.

Eight weeks out of the wrestling school.

I remember after I started wrestling,
I had to take payroll to the bank.

And they go, hey, aren't you GI Bro?

And I was like, yeah, I'm GI Bro.

You know, because they had watched me on
television.

Everybody's favorite GI Bro.

The kids, they would just mob me.

And they would just... And I was
like, man, what is going on here?

I got a new haircut.

Would you like to see it, man?

Yeah, I want to see it.

All right.

That's GI Bro.

GI Bro is my name.

And beating people up is my game.

Look in my eyes.

That's when I'm going
to declare World War III

on you and take you
clean out of the G-Men.

Live!

I don't think I was ever asked one time
what I want to be when I grow up as a kid.

I don't think I was ever asked that once.

Then I found myself through wrestling.

It was an escape.

It was something that I could do.

And I was able to do it.

I could do it very well.

Put my boots on and become like a
superhero for a moment.

I realized I had something.

I had a connection.

And I was like, wow, this is so cool.

And I had so much fun finding myself as
far as possibly who I could be.

After the Western Wrestling
Alliance closed down, Booker T

and his brother went to work
for TAP, Texas All-Pro Wrestling.

I got Stevie Ray in an issue of Wrestling
Main Event magazine.

And he got noticed.

People up in Dallas at the GWF,
Global Wrestling.

Skander Agbar called him.

They wanted him to come up to Dallas.

And him and his brother went up there.

And Agbar and Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert took
a liking to him right off the bat.

They went to give my brother a tryout.

And my brother was
going to Dallas and of

course jumped in the
car and I rode with him.

We finally walk into Israel.

Eddie Gilbert's office and Eddie Gilbert
was like, who's that?

And I was like, hell, that's my brother.

And he goes, is he a worker?

And I goes, yeah, he's a worker.

He goes, have you guys ever done any tag
team?

And we go, yeah.

We were lying.

We had never tagged together before.

Ever.

But we had tagged against each other
before.

That's what we were saying.

We have tagged together.

And I said I wasn't lying.

Boom.

That's how we got started in the Global
Wrestling Federation.

Just by accident.

It was just wrestling.

We had a wrestler back in the day.

His name was Mr. Ebony.

Black guy.

He wore a mask.

I never knew who Mr. Ebony was.

But he was one of the black guys that was
representing us.

So we remembered Mr. Ebony.

Why not be the Ebony Experience?

Booker T and Stevie Ray.

The Ebony Experience.

The Global Wrestling Federation was on
ESPN at the time.

And it was geared towards that afternoon.

Kids coming home from school.

3.30 in the afternoon.

There was a 30 minute show.

And then there was an hour show.

And it was based out of Dallas,
Texas.

In the world famous Sportatorium.

Which I think is just world famous because
it's old.

Ugly.

It stunk.

No air conditioning.

And there were rats.

The size of dogs.

It had atmosphere.

It had atmosphere.

Let's just say that.

It almost took your life in your own
hands.

Back then the police, if
somebody tried to stick you with

a knife or hit you with a
whiskey bottle or something.

They would bring them back to the dressing
room and literally let you beat them up.

It was the Wild West.

But there was a huge racist element there
too.

People would sit there
and shout out some of

the most vile things
imaginable at those guys.

We got called the N-word of course.

They didn't want to see us.

And those people called us every racial
epithet known to man.

It wasn't the first time I had dealt with
racism in my life.

When I first got in the
wrestling business, a

very very famous man
by the name of Ox Baker.

He told me, he said, kid you got a lot of
talent.

But you're going to come up against a lot
of obstacles in this business.

He didn't say racism or anything like
that.

But I knew exactly what he was talking
about.

You got to figure a way around it.

Under it.

You may have to go over it.

And that night we had to go right through
it.

No matter what.

You guys want to see what the competition
is looking like out here?

You got to kill a big homeboy from Houston
that looks like me.

In the situation that you're in,
you got to be able to adapt.

You got to be able to figure it out.

We had to face the fire.

And we dealt with it.

You got to say, where did these guys come
up with this Ebony experience?

What are they, a magazine or something
like that for ugly people?

But I learned the power of entertainment
that night.

I did the Spinaroonie in that match.

He did some type of hop, skip,
spin type thing I never saw before.

Did you see that?

What was that?

They used to have them breakdance moves.

He did some... Same guy
that was calling me the N-word.

He was totally excited when he saw the
Spinaroonie.

It totally changed him all in one breath.

And I was like, whoa, what was that?

The fans started to change.

Now the fans are rooting for us.

It was like the Rocky movie, man,
when Rocky was fighting Drago.

The Russian fans started rooting for the
underdog.

Because when I did
the Spinaroonie, it

seemed like everything
changed in that arena.

I realized how much power the Spinaroonie
had, not just in the Global Wrestling

Federation with those fans, but throughout
my whole career.

We all love to dance.

My mom loved to see us dance.

And we all had good rhythm, too.

Still, still have good rhythm.

My cousin.

Come over here, man.

This is my cousin right here, man.

The neighborhood boys were always trying
to outdo each other.

With their dance moves.

That was the competition.

Michael Jackson had nothing on my
brothers.

We used to break dance on the patio.

That's where I learned the Spinaroonie at.

On his patio.

Right around the corner, you know.

We would be on that patio.

We had a cardboard box out there.

We had a beat box.

We'd be out there breaking ourselves,
man.

But that's where the Spinaroonie came
from.

That's where they learned those moves.

That's where they learned to spin.

So that Spinaroonie came from a pop-lock
dance move.

Ladies and gentlemen, they're dynamic,
they're sensational.

They're the Lockers.

The Lockers, they were it.

That was the best dance group perhaps in
the history of the world.

Fred rerun Barry used to be able to show
what's happening.

He was actually one of the Lockers.

And just watching
these guys move the way

they did and perform
the way they performed.

I wanted to be in a group.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be one of
the Lockers.

When I saw them on Soul Train, I was
like, man, how do I get on Soul Train?

I gotta be a part of this.

The pop, lock and craze
start curving off a little bit

and then the breakdancing
curves start coming around.

I said, man, I'm gonna try this now.

So any wrestling fan
around the world, you say

Spinneruni, they know
who you're talking about.

Bad Bree, you're going down.

We're gonna take you out into the Ebony
Zone.

We're gonna drop you off into some Ebony
Funk, man.

It wasn't about how much money I was
making.

It was just being able
to do something that you

love doing so much that
you would do it for free.

And my brother and I, we was
making 125 bucks, you know,

to make the drive all the
way from Houston to Dallas.

And sometimes we would work four times in
one night.

Sleep on my sister's sofa and then get up
and make the drive back to Houston.

Junior wore out the couch in my den.

Stevie Ray Lash wore out the couch in my
living room.

They would come every Friday and I know
they did that for a couple of years.

It was just a great time to watch them get
better and more popular.

The fans weekly warmed
up and they started liking

something that they
didn't even know they liked.

And then we started getting more black
fans coming into the arena.

You just couldn't say anything anymore.

Within a few months, we were the hottest
thing in global.

Everybody in the place had a sign with the
Ebony Experience on it.

We finally got to that point
to where we had to win the

tag team championship
and all of my family was there.

That night that they won, we screamed and
we cried.

It was so great and
all I could think about

was that I wish my mom
was there to see that.

My brother and I, we had
accomplished something

that we never dreamt of
accomplishing in our lives.

We had watched it wrestling
on television for so many years

and then we're the ones who
got the belts and holding them up.

These guys are superstars.

You knew they were going somewhere.

There was not a doubt in anybody's mind.

It was like Hansel and Gretel.

Somebody was dropping crumbs and we were
picking them up.

My brother and I, we had
regular jobs and we worked

in the Global Wrestling
Federation one night a week.

And we did that for 18 months straight.

We were getting ready to work one night
and the phone rang and a man named Mike

Davis came in and goes, Hey man,
Sid Vicious wants to talk to you guys.

Sid Vicious had been watching us on
television and WCW was interested in us.

We were like really excited.

You know, like wow, Sid Vicious,
man.

Wow.

And WCW, wow.

One of the biggest companies in the world
and we had a great spot.

We just had to come up with a name.

Houston Heat might have been put in there.

Miami Heat.

We was like, what about Harlem Heat?

Harlem Heat, okay, you get a picture in
your mind as to what Harlem Heat should be.

And boom, you start going for it.

Artistically.

We needed some cool shirts and we didn't
have no one to make them for us.

So I didn't know the
country group or anything,

but it turned out to
be Brooks and Dunn.

And they had shirts and they had this cool
flame.

And they had this amazing pattern on them.

So I went and got us some Brooks and Dunn
shirts and had them tailored.

We made the hats out
of the sleeves actually

because they had
flames on them as well.

The ensemble actually came together and
looked pretty cool.

You know, we're going to see a new tag
team, the Harlem Heat.

And what an appropriate
name seeing that Harlem

has been about 100
degrees the last two weeks.

As a kid, you just like all the bright
colors and the energy.

I just feel like they represented us.

You know, it felt like they was from
around my way.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

How they talk, how they dress,
how they carry themselves.

And even their music was tight.

Like, they had the best music on WCW,
like, probably ever.

Harlem Heat had cool ring music.

They were

two guys that were coming in who were bad
to the bone, man.

And they were going
to talk it, they were going

to walk it, and they were
going to kick your ass.

And they had an aura about them.

They were big, they were intimidating, they
were scary like big wrestlers should be.

Battle!

Battle!

Battle!

With the name Harlem Heat, I mean,
come on.

You can't come up with a better name than
that anywhere.

Take a look at this punk!

Stop!

Stop!

All the years my brother and I slept in
the same bed, we were a cohesive unit.

Both of us brought the pain in our own
way.

My brother was grounded, sometimes I would
go air.

But together, we gelled.

It's the Harlem Hangover!

Harlem Heat did not really have a gimmick.

They were just big, black badasses that
really were themselves turned up.

And when they talked, I
felt like if I ran into them

in the street, that would
be exactly how they are.

The moves you punks makin', the routes you
takin', is gonna lead to heartbreakin'.

This country hit town!

Up to below Mississippi, gonna get a lot
of heat raised up!

Any gimmick that really works is an
exaggeration of who you are.

It was so easy to actually go out and know
what it's like to be in a fight.

Because when you've been fighting your
whole life, you know what it feels like.

You know what it's like to get hit in the
mouth as well.

For my brother and I to go
out and produce drama from

a realistic perspective
was just our field house.

We were at home.

We created these two guys.

Now we gotta beat these two guys.

A lot of times I just wanna come out and
just bust out laughin'.

But I gotta hold it in.

And I gotta try to keep this mean look on
my face, man.

I have to put myself into this character.

I got to go into him all the way.

Watch us run them hillbillies straight out
of the hills, sucker!

We had so much fun going down the road in
certain towns.

Somebody is gonna get a Harlem hangover!

People just hating us
to the point to where,

man, they just wanna
kill these black guys.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Black
Hills of South Dakota.

250,000 bikers are here for WCW All Wild.

There's no black folks there.

None.

We're the only two black folks in Sturgis,
South Dakota at that time.

We almost started a riot.

You won't, but you ain't gonna get them.

Just like all these suckers out here,
man.

Even the Steiner
brothers was like, hey man,

don't do what y'all
usually do every night.

Cause y'all got the Hells Angels out
there.

We don't even know who the Hells Angels
are, you know.

We getting ready to go do what we do.

You just gonna have to watch this.

Cause we getting ready
to get in everybody's

you-know-what,
Hells Angels or not.

We get out the ring and start talking
trash to everybody.

You know, I got a problem with rednecks.

And as far as I'm concerned, everybody in
here is a redneck.

You know what I'm saying?

Come on up in this ring and watch what
happened to you.

Not everybody's infuriated.

By the time we got through...

Oh yeah, we got a roar going now.

25,000 motorcycles it sounds like.

As far as you can see,
motorcycles and people, and

all of them revving their
engines at the same time.

They're cranking up the sound.

Oh yeah.

The fans are making noise.

Because we just told them what we thought
of them.

It don't get any better than this.

Harlem Heat was able to
pull it off so well that the people

in Harlem felt represented
by a couple of Texas boys.

The Harlem Heat, they
are bad men off the streets

of uptown Manhattan
in the heart of Harlem.

And gentlemen... Yes, Cole.

Shut up, Mean Gene, before I slap a patch
of hair on the top of your head.

Being able to talk about certain landmarks
in Harlem that we fictitiously,

you know, thought of in our own minds was
really, really cool.

You know, one of the places that we used to
visit all the time was Artie's Pool Hall.

Three blocks south of Artie's Pool Hall.

Right on the corner of 110th Street.

Gene, the graffiti is written all over the
neighborhood.

You're looking at a couple of straight OGs
from the hood.

I've had several
people come up to me to

talk about when we
were kids back in Harlem.

You know, did I remember them from,
you know, back in the day?

And of course you go, yeah, yeah,
yeah, I remember you.

Yeah, yeah, you know, you go right along
with it.

Only clique you need to know about is the
Harlem Heat.

Booker T has the most viral wrestling
moment of all time, I guess, right?

Because he slips up, says the N-word.

We coming for you!

That was the problem with ad-libbing back
then.

That's probably why they write everybody's
stuff today.

And that's a word that we used a whole lot
back in the day when I was coming up.

And that's the first time and the last time
any of my peers ever heard me say that.

It is an interesting lesson in
not getting lost in your character

or not being too real when
you're talking about somebody.

But that's the risk you run when you are
as authentic a character as Booker T is,

right?

That's right!

We've been to hurt these punks Harlem
style, if you know what I'm saying.

When I think about the early 90s and I
think about the black characters like your

Coco Bewares and your
Papa Shongos and people who

fit a lot of stereotypes but
also did not get pushed.

So watching two black guys
who go on to win championships

and did not back down from
who they were was great to watch.

But also what's important is that these
are two brothers, right?

Harlem Heat!

So seeing a familial relationship between
black guys on TV who genuinely loved each

other, who celebrated together, who had
each other's back was really empowering.

That was so important for my brother and I
to go out there and represent because we

knew young guys like we were was watching
us now.

Harlem Heat will go down
in history as being one of the

greatest tag teams that
ever put on a pair of boots.

That was just me and my brother being us.

Natural born entertainers.

And that's what we pride ourselves on.

Those are memories that me and my brother
will live with for the rest of our lives.

It was a journey.

It was the coolest nine years of my life.

All time greats.

We're immortalized forever in the WWE Hall
of Fame.

I never thought about having a singles
career.

Never thought about it until it happened.

Now let's see how Booker T can operate as
a single wrestler.

I never thought about having a singles
career.

Never thought about it until it happened.

I told my brother, man, go ahead and go.

Go ahead and do your thing.

And I gave him my blessing.

As Booker T goes solo...

WCW starts getting to
this point where they're

the biggest wrestling
promotion in the world.

WCW was using money from the Turner
Organization.

They were part of a bigger corporation.

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash end up leaving
the WWE for a lot of money in WCW.

And they start this reality-based
storyline of a takeover.

And formed a group
with Hulk Hogan, who for

the first time in his
career became a bad guy.

Unheard of at the time.

And started the New World Order.

The following announcement has been paid
for by the New World Order.

When I came out as Hollywood Hulk Hogan
and W.O., we took off like a rocket.

So the Monday Night War started getting
really, really intense.

We had Monday Night Raw on the USA
Network.

They had Monday Nitro on TNT, on Ted
Turner's network.

You're looking at every single rating
point.

Every eyeball we were competing for.

They beat us for 83 weeks in the ratings.

WCW became the top game in town.

Honestly,

I really didn't care about the war.

It had nothing to do with me.

I was making a lot of money.

I was in a place in my life that I'd never
imagined being in a million years.

As they're concentrating on the other big
stars.

Booker T, right under
their noses, is just

getting better and better
and better and better.

My peers, they always told me,
there's only one Tiger Woods of wrestling.

And I go, I appreciate that, bro.

That's when he became no longer a tag guy.

That's when it was just like, okay,
he's a star.

You can tell when somebody has the it
factor.

Booker T just looked main event material.

He carried himself like the sky was the
limit.

He had it all.

I used to raise the roof back then.

When I used to raise the roof,
everybody used to raise the roof with me.

And it let me know that, hey, I was moving
up.

And it was the
beginning of my run as a

singles wrestler and
a whole different life.

I was born and raised in Gary,
Indiana.

Had a great childhood.

I caught the entertainment bug very,
very early.

I started doing beauty pageants when I was
12 years old.

So that was always something that I
enjoyed.

And then I was always into dancing.

That was my first love.

So all that ended up paying off.

You know, I went on to become Miss Black
America.

I ended up touring with James Brown,
Godfather of Soul.

So I spent three and a half years on the
road touring with him.

And then ended up in sports entertainment.

Here are the Nitro Girls.

We met back in WCW when she was a Nitro
girl.

We started talking a little bit on the
movie set of Ready to Rumble.

Then we just gradually became friends.

He was always very polite,
very well dressed, and he looked

like a businessman instead
of a professional wrestler.

That was my first impression of him.

But I will never forget when I heard him
listening to Tupac.

And that surprised me
because to me I thought

he would listen to Frank
Sinatra and not Tupac.

So I got to know a few things about him.

He's a great guy all around.

I got to see he's really, really funny.

He's really, really silly.

So we just kind of gelled.

We just kind of meshed.

And it was very exciting to
see Booker be able to carve out

a path for himself because
he was such an amazing talent.

All the backstage drama
that went on that night put

more light on me actually
winning the championship.

Me winning it just would have been me
winning it.

The title match is between Jeff Jarrett
and Hulk Hogan.

The story is that Hulk Hogan wants to win,
doesn't want to lose to Jeff Jarrett.

Jeff Jarrett's the champion.

The writer, Vince Russo, he doesn't want
Hogan to be the champion.

He wants Jeff Jarrett to hold on to it.

They can't come to an
agreement because Hulk Hogan in

real life has a creative
control clause in his contract.

There's a million stories and everybody
has their opinion.

All I know is when I signed on with WCW I
had what's called creative control.

I'm going to exercise my creative control.

I'm going to go ahead and beat Jarrett
one, two, three.

It went right up Russo's ass.

What's Jeff doing?

Russo, I think, told Jarrett to lie.

What in the world, Jeff Jarrett?

I took the belt and I left.

What the hell?

I think we're deviating from the script.

I hesitate to say that, but what the hell
is going on?

Is this storyline?

Is this real life?

Is this some weird mixture?

Vince Russo says they have two world
championships now.

There will be a new WCW belt.

Jeff Jarrett and Booker T fight for it
later on in the evening.

Opportunity has knocked and I will be
damned if I don't win.

I am going to do what I have to do tonight
to take that gold home, take it around my

waist and take it into the next
millennium.

How can you dig that, G?

I can.

Tony, back to you.

Not just did the fans not
expect this to be going

on, me and Booker didn't
expect it to be going on.

I watched everything play out just like
America.

I had about ten minutes to
prepare for the biggest moment of

my life in professional
wrestling, but I was prepared for it.

I got there by working my ass off and I
started at the bottom of that company.

And I went out and I performed every
single night.

It's been a long journey, a lot of titles,
but never the big one.

This is Booker T's chance.

When I finally got in
that position, I always

wondered if the fans wanted
to see a black champion.

WCW hadn't had a black champion since Ron
Simmons.

There was a lot of questions in my mind.

You know, if the fans really, really
wanted to see me in that position,

I'm just so happy that people looked past
my color and said, this is the guy.

Booker T and Jeff Jarrett brawling through
the crowd.

He's the world champion!

The crowd erupted.

They went crazy.

I was like, wow, man, they really care
about me.

They really want to see me win.

It was the moment that changed my life.

It's one of my most fond memories in my
career.

I'm the guy that Booker
beat to become the

world champion for
his very first title reign.

I'm pretty proud of that.

He became champion
and it was a great crowning

achievement for him,
evolving and elevating himself.

And Booker T, especially for black boys and
girls who watch wrestling, he is a hero.

Booker has so much respect from all the
guys and girls in the locker room that

when he came back
through the curtain after

winning, people were
standing there and applauding.

I remember a few of us had tears in our
eyes.

It just really was a special
moment to finally see

him rise to the top because
he really deserved it.

WWE was synonymous with the best in sports
entertainment.

How you doing, pal?

I'm fine, thank you.

And now we were being challenged.

So it creates an atmosphere of having to
fight from underneath, creating new and

unique storylines, new
and unique talents, and

changing the way we
looked at the business.

It made WWE regroup, taking
the gloves off and changing

what the company was and
going with the Attitude Era.

Oh my!

Oh my God!

Good Lord have mercy!

Somebody's gonna get their ass whipped!

When that energy comes out,
that intensity comes out, and I

look like an ass-kicking machine,
it was all about the attitude.

We had a badass locker room full of men
who had starved, kicked, scratched,

clawed to get to the
top, or who weren't afraid

to go out on a limb
and push the envelope.

Oh my God!

Look at this collection!

When we started kicking WCW's ass,
we just took off.

And their infrastructure was kind of
unorganized and kind of...

started falling apart.

And then we just crushed them.

And then, later on down
the road, Vince would buy the

company from Ted Turner
for pennies on the dollar.

I, Vince McMahon, bought my competition.

That's right, I own WCW.

They raised the flag, and they say we won.

The war is over.

For all of us in World
Championship Wrestling,

a historic day in
sports entertainment.

This is the last Nitro on the Turner
Network.

And we're going out with the bang.

All the titles on the line.

I didn't know it was going to happen.

I didn't see it coming.

Until that night, I found out that I was
going to be going out dual champ.

And close the company down as world
champion and as United States champion.

Picks him up, Booker T.

Lanes on his feet.

He's got it!

Booker!

Here it is!

It's one!

Two!

Could it be it?

Yes!

Yes!

Booker T is WCW World Champion!

And it's the last Monday Nitro.

What a night for Booker T.

I didn't feel sad like everybody else did.

I lost my mother when I was 13.

So I always knew nothing lasts forever.

I remember one of
the guys actually talking

to me, and he literally
had tears in his eyes.

He was like, man, Book, it's the end of
WCW, man.

It's over.

He goes, man, what are you going to do,
man?

What are you going to do?

I said, man, I'm going to WWE.

You know what I mean?

What else could I do?

I don't think we knew that we were going
to keep Booker.

I had no idea.

When you're looking at the talent base and
you're looking at talent that's available,

all of these top tier talents chose to
stay on their AOL Time Warner contract.

Stay at home, collect their money,
not go to work.

I stayed at home for 17 months and got
paid bank.

Bank.

But then you have a guy,
Booker T, who did have a pretty

good guaranteed contract,
who said, man, I want to work.

I want to be a star on the biggest
platform I can.

I was a performer.

I was talent.

Something I tell young people all the
time.

You know?

Believe in your talent.

Do not forsake your talent.

Going into the WWE locker room,
those guys didn't too much care for us.

They weren't going to treat us special or
anything.

They didn't want us there.

And I understood that.

I was ready to go out there and show those
guys I was just as good as I said I was.

Booker had enough confidence in himself to
step up and say, put me in.

Man, it was a good night for me.

Debut.

The interview dropped Steve Austin.

Booker T.

I'm off and running.

Everything's beautiful.

My first thought was, hey man,
Booker T just came in here.

He just took away what I do for a living.

Broke three transverse processes in my
back.

And I was in intense pain.

And I was like, what in the F just
happened?

There is that layer of, hey man,
we need to watch this guy.

Or is he safe to work with?

Or is he going to do that to me?

Steve Austin had to kind of stroke at that
time in the company where he could have

went to the office
and said, man, this guy

is reckless and doesn't
know what he's doing.

Even though it wasn't my fault.

When I look back at it, he did everything
right.

He executed with perfection.

But I was so sweaty when I hit the top of
that desk.

I just skipped off and my back hit a
chair.

It was an accident.

Accidents happen.

But hey man, any time the lead guy goes
down and someone has done something to

him, yeah, you might have some heat on you
from the voice.

You walk in the door coming
from somewhere else and you take

out one of the top guys that's
putting food on all our tables.

That's not going to
sit well with a lot of

people because most of
these guys never met him.

Who in the blue hell are you?

Coming into that company, it wasn't going
to be easy for me by any means.

Hell, my name is Booker.

It doesn't matter what your name is!

You can bring someone in up at the top.

It's difficult for them to stay there.

Especially when you have the kind of
personality and the kind of character.

The kind of talent of a Steve Austin.

Rock.

Undertaker.

Rock!

I would say you're the sucker!

Sucker!

Book hung.

Book hung and said, y'all come on up to
me.

The bottom line is, if you come to WWE,
you better be able to work.

And Booker T can work his ass off.

He wasn't accepted just because we liked
him.

He was accepted because he was damn good.

It was kind of the Jack Nicholson,
wait till they get a load of me.

Yeah, Big Henry, you better lace them up
tonight.

Because we finna be moving and flying and
singing, baby.

The greats can't stick to a script.

It's emotional.

To make it real, it's got to look raw.

It's got to look uncut.

If we're close enough to the fans,
I want sweat to fly all over them.

That part is as real as it possibly can
get.

Book has a unique ability to relate to the
audience and conversely.

And that's really what you're looking for.

He's a man who gave it all.

He had an opportunity, he was going with
it.

I want the fan that was watching to have
that same feeling that I did.

It was an out-of-body experience.

I could tell what the fans were feeling
because I was one of them.

You would have never thought that somebody
with...

the talent that he had
in the ring, he would

have just as much
talent behind the scenes.

You can't just define him as a wrestler.

He was an entertainer.

Now can't you dig that?

Booker watches a lot of movies.

He's always studied movies
his whole life, whether it be

kung fu movies or, you know,
any type of action movies.

So I really do believe that if he weren't a
wrestler, he would definitely be an actor.

A lot of those movies
were... my escapes as well.

And I used to skip school and go to the
Majestic OST.

And all of those movies made me feel a
certain way.

I literally would go to that place.

A little bit more structure here.

I literally would be in that movie.

I knew every line.

I knew every scene.

I knew what made that
scene work because of what

happened before it and
what's going to happen after.

And that's what wrestling has always been.

So for me, my WCW career was so serious
all the time.

It was never a laughing moment.

And then when I got to WWE, everything
changed.

Booyah!

Hey, what's up, suckas?

Your ass is about to get waxed by the
fire-type Master Jedi Champion!

Now can you dig that?

He was always a comedian.

He always liked to make people laugh.

Tell me I don't look like that!

That just came.

And we would all do little skits at home
and make up things.

So, you know, just what kids do who don't
have a lot of money.

You have a great imagination.

Imagine what we could be and what we could
do.

You didn't say that.

Tell me you didn't just say that.

You just gave me the key to your heart,
baby.

Yeah!

It's like the actor in a film that you've
only seen play a very serious,

badass role.

Oh, my goodness.

And then you see him in a
buddy comedy and you're

like, oh, my God, I had no
idea this guy was so funny.

And, like, it just opens up a whole new
world for you.

Womp, womp, womp, womp, womp!

Womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp,
womp, womp!

Look, that ain't me, bro.

You know, I got the feel of what I'm
doing, man.

Bitch!

You know, I got the feel.

Now can you dig it?

Suckas!

Just because you know kung fu...

doesn't mean you know shampoo.

But that's all about to change.

Thanks to new...

Yakimoshi Shampoo.

It won't make your hair look as good as
mine.

But you gotta start somewhere.

Give me the script and let me make it what
I want it to be, no matter what it is.

I don't care what it is.

Nah.

Let's see if they're fresh.

The creative tells us,
hey, man, you and Booker

are gonna have this
brawl in a grocery store.

Okay.

Here's a blank canvas.

That Booker T and I are gonna have an
opportunity to paint together.

Action.

We created magic.

Yes!

Austin!

Austin, I got you, Booker T!

Booker!

Booker!

Booker!

Put

some ketchup in that ass, Booker.

Huh?

Booker!

Booker!

Booker!

Booker!

Booker!

I'm a Booker!

I'm walking through the store,
up an aisle, down an aisle.

You're working off of instincts.

I like shopping, Booker.

Booker!

As if you were in the ring.

You know you're trying to entertain
people.

Let's go find some more bars.

Booker with a shot to the jaw of Austin.

Hey, Booker, you got milk?

I'm action, he's reaction, and his
reactions were just off-the-chart gold.

You want a burst?

This is what wrestling is right here.

The stuff that we do in the ring does one
thing, but this is wrestling.

By the time it was all said and done,
it was about $10,000 worth of money.

It was about $10,000 worth of damage to
that store.

Price check on a jackass.

People still remember that line.

Price check on a jackass.

Booker T and I painted
a Mona Lisa with a bunch

of damn stuff that you'd
find in a grocery store.

Who at 6'3 and 260 pounds can do like the
Spinaroonie?

You know, the breakdance and move up on
his shoulders, flip up and...

It starts with the hand, of course,
and then you drop to one knee.

All the centrifugal force comes from the
dress.

You know, once you shake
the dress, it goes through the

body all the way down to the
legs, which gives you torque.

The Spinaroonie in concept is not like
that silly.

Like, it's a cool way
to get up and get to

your feet, and it's just
a charismatic moment.

But over time, the Spinaroonie kind of
took on a life of its own.

Everybody had a Rooney.

The most infamous night was trying to get
the Undertaker to do the Takeroonie.

I think it's time for the Undertaker
Rooney!

If you know the Undertaker, like,
he don't come out of character.

Ever.

I try to get him to do it.

You know, I tell the fans, you know,
get the fans hyped up.

Get up!

And Taker looks at me and he goes,
I'm gonna kill you.

All the name players on the card come out,
and literally, we're 30 minutes after

we're off the air, trying to get the
Undertaker to do the Spinaroonie.

Everybody does the Spinaroonie.

You wanna see The Rock do the
Rock-A-Rooney?

In

hell you can do something like that!

Vince McMahon, he does the worst
Spinaroonie I ever seen in my life.

Out of all the wrestlers, I've gotten
everyone to do it.

Except The Undertaker.

He's the only one still to this day.

Ain't a chance in hell I'm gonna get out
here and do the Spinaroonie.

So you might better send the Calvary.

My first son, he's 35 years old now.

We had a somewhat of a rough life growing
up.

And I thought it was due to me being on
the road a lot.

Being on the road, wrestling.

Not being there.

When I got in the wrestling business,
he went to stay with my sister.

When he'd get a weekend off, he would fly
from Atlanta.

And he'd come back to Houston.

And they'd spend time together.

Still trying to get a relationship with
his son.

It was just a process.

I'm sure they had their ups and downs.

My son turned 16, 17 years old.

And that's when it really got tough
between him and I.

It was always just rocky.

My son ended up going down that same road
that I did.

You know, getting in trouble.

You know, even as an adult.

That's why he's not here right now.

He's sitting in a jail cell.

You know, waiting to see exactly what's
going to happen with his life.

You know?

You know, he's still my son.

I'm still there for him.

It was totally different when I had my son
because I was a kid myself.

You know, I was only 17 years old.

Not having that male presence in my life
was a huge factor.

But I tried my best.

I tried to make sure I did the same thing
that my mom did for me.

And that was work.

My butt off.

I tried to give my son an image that I
wanted him to actually be like.

But I didn't have the
tools to actually be able

to teach him everything
that he needed to know.

Especially from an educational side.

He was so young.

A young, single parent without a wife.

Working hard.

Building up his career.

A lot of time on the road.

But then when that second phase of his
life came around, there was different

dynamics that played into the role of
fatherhood.

He was stable.

He was more established in his career.

He married a wonderful woman.

Booker and I were married February 5th,
2005.

It was a beautiful ceremony in my hometown
of Gary, Indiana.

I only had, I think, three months to plan
the wedding because of our schedule.

Most women want to have a year to plan and
find the perfect dress and all that.

I didn't have time for any of that.

It was definitely a whirlwind and then
right back to work the following week.

I was going to quit the company right
after we got married.

I didn't want to be away from Charmelle.

I didn't want to be on the road all the
time.

He was considering cutting back on his
work.

And all of a sudden they decided to bring
me in.

To bring me back.

So, babe, I don't know how you felt the
first time you saw our action figures.

Because I know you've had action figures
before.

But this was my very first one.

Yeah.

This is amazing.

How many husbands and wives do you think
have this?

Yeah, it's crazy.

He's always called me his queen.

So we kind of just transitioned that into
wrestling.

The true life stories make for the best
work, right?

So it kind of just easily flowed into King
Booker and Queen Charmelle.

It was just entertaining.

It was something that people had never
seen before.

And then they had never seen Booker T in
that light before.

He was always rugged, raw, you know,
tough.

And now he's coming out.

And just like prancing around.

Elegant and classy and pompous.

Contradictory on every level.

I thought it was brilliant.

It was such an awesome, awesome time in my
career.

So much fun.

Man, this fool is crazy.

He really is crazy.

He would just open up the cape and he'd
have his scepter.

And he'd just twirl around and look so
very majestic.

All of the little things that he did
really made that character amazing.

This guy is walking around like he's
royalty.

Holding his pinky up in the air.

I think he was just making it up as he
goes.

As I ponder... He started
speaking in a bad British accent.

...has become a
much, much better place

since I, King Booker,
has become ruler of it.

It was almost like Kevin Costner in Robin
Hood.

Like he would float in and out of the
accent.

If you got him too angry, then his British
accent went right back to the hood.

It's going to be in a steel cage.

Hell no!

Hell no!

Hell no!

People would actually treat me like a king
as well.

I don't think I paid for a meal the whole
year I was King Booker anywhere.

This is Booker Teef reaching that nirvana
of character development.

The culmination of all of Booker Teef's
years in wrestling.

All of that sort of led to him finding this
perfect character that was undeniable.

I mean to the point where you got to give
him the championship.

And he became champion as King Booker.

And it is as memorable as anything he's
ever done in wrestling.

The poor kid from Houston, Texas has risen
to the top of the world.

King Booker!

King Booker!

Give me some, baby.

Come on.

Watch out now.

Man.

We know that.

We're the one person we can count on when
all else fails.

And we really hold that dear.

For us it's been a team effort since day
one.

Us pulling together and now having twins.

A boy and a girl eight years old.

I never imagined in a billion years that
her and I would have kids running around.

It's pretty, pretty special.

Good day at school today?

Yeah.

I've been practicing all day long.

Yeah baby.

Not at all.

Charlmel and I, we
tried to have kids for

three years and things
just didn't work out.

And then, instead of with one,
God blessed us with two.

I've watched them grow over
the last eight years and not be

on the road wrestling on a
weekly basis in a different town.

That part right there I think has been
more special than anything.

That was the only way that I didn't get
you.

Daddy.

Okay, don't eat it all at one time.

I'm not.

I was working on prefixes and suffixes.

So how much did Tessa save?

Seven.

Seven dollars, and how much did...

Seven dollars and seven dollars,
so fourteen dollars.

In some aspects, our kids
are polar opposites, but

they're both extremely
talented and so very, very smart.

Booker is an amazing dad.

He's so playful with the kids.

Come on!

My son Kendrick is now really,
really into wrestling.

I got him now, baby.

A lot of times I catch just spontaneous
moments between the two of them.

Hey, come on.

Oh, my God.

I'm very fortunate for the way our kids
are growing up, and we're just afforded

this family that Booker, unfortunately,
didn't have when he was growing up.

You got it!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Of course, I'm not the only one.

Booker cooks really well.

He can cook better than me.

That's the only time I'll admit that.

So I'll tell you what I can do.

I can turn the oven on for the french
fries.

I get anxiety maybe three days before I
have to leave on a one-day trip.

I literally, I'll be sitting here,
and I go, man, I can't wait to get back.

And he hasn't even left yet.

Yeah.

Every time.

Because I do love being a dad.

I do love being at home.

That's what's cool about, you know,
this stage of life.

And I can honestly say, you know,
it's the best stage.

I do want the memories that my son and my
daughter have of their dad is something

that's going to catapult them throughout
life.

They're going to know exactly what it
means to be a dad.

They're going to know exactly what it
means to be a mom.

And that right there, at the end of the
day, you know, we've done our job.

Look at all that gold.

Congratulations, sir, last night,
part of Harlem.

If you know Booker, I've never seen the
guy in a bad mood.

That felt good right there.

Sports entertainment is in his blood.

Coming to the final chapter of
WrestleMania.

To see the guy that I
first met in the 90s and to

know Booker now, his
legacy just continues to grow.

Because he's one of the guys that wants to
give back, that is giving back.

And I understand exactly what you're
talking about.

People will eat you all week thinking
about that.

I swear.

I appreciate the words of wisdom.

Stay up.

I love being around the events.

To be a mentor.

Shine some knowledge, you know, let
these guys sit under the learning tree.

An African-American kid coming up,
you know, wanting to do what you were

doing, it was always a sense of motivation,
so I'm just trying to pay it forward.

You got to be champion in the ring as well
as out of the ring, all the time.

It doesn't cost you anything to be nice to
people, man.

It'll take you so far in life,
so definitely, man.

Just keep doing what you do, bro.

I love the business.

The business has given me so much.

It starts right here.

I had a dream back in 2005.

I said, one day I'm going to open up my
own wrestling school.

I'm going to teach kids the proper way.

Good job, Kelly.

Good job.

We come here Monday through Friday.

The gym's open from, you know,
normally around 6 p.m.

Goes to the last man leaves.

Bang!

All right, it's got to be that big.

That's the thinking part, guys.

We're trying to think storytelling.

This is my livelihood.

This is what I do.

This is my trade, my knowledge.

It's never going to go away.

And then, bang!

I love doing that spot right there.

Almost more than any spot that I ever did
in professional wrestling.

I swear to God.

Pop the crowd to where they go,
wow, that was awesome.

Add a little bit more on it.

It means something.

Think about the guy in the cheap seats.

I want my youngsters to be able to create
their own stories.

I want to be with you, brother.

Hey, man.

Thank you.

That's what it all
started out as, and then it

manifested into us having
our own wrestling promotion.

This is really exciting to have a huge
crowd tonight.

And all of our hard work I know is going
to pay off.

We're going to have a great show.

Did you hear that crowd behind us?

Now get ready to have some fun.

Then our fans coming to see our own
homegrown talent.

They are the stars of the show.

We got something here and we can take this
thing to the next level.

And we're on our way.

He had all the odds against him.

If you were to pick out the
kid that was going to end up

dead by the time he was 30,
you would probably pick Booker T.

Huffman.

He grew up, he experienced life.

Good, bad, ugly.

Book did what it took.

He never went and said, well, here's a
shortcut over here I can take.

And the rewards matched the hard work that
he put in.

He is a real life success story.

You ain't never coming back.

You going down for the one, two,
three.

Because I got all my people standing
behind me 110%.

Help!

People thought that he
couldn't do something

because of either his
race or where he was from.

Or how he looked or the fact that he
didn't have a formal education.

That's what drove him.

Booker is just a survivor.

And when you see Booker
T, you take people at

face value and you believe
in redemption stories.

Those kids who told me I wasn't going to
be anything.

And I look back on them now and I say,
how you like me now?

Guys, all of you are going to get a chance
to meet me and do that.

Don't let anyone shock you.

Statistically, he wasn't
supposed to be on that stage at

Madison Square Garden and
being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

That made it all the more special.

Because he made it.

He made it.

I always ask God, you know, why me?

I always ask God, you know, why me?

Thirty years later, it's really,
really hard to explain.

The safest place that
I could ever be was in

the middle of the ring
painting my Picasso.

I always wanted to perform at the highest
level and I wanted to be remembered.

Making people feel a certain way when they
watch me.

And if you guys, the
fans, are enjoying it and

having a good time, we're
doing something right.

That's what it's always been about with
me.

Now can you dig that?

Suck it!