Original subtitles

[traffic noise]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

\h\h- Growing up with close to nothing in South Park, Texas,

kicking it around New York \h\hCity is kinda surreal.

♪ ♪

The sounds, the energy;

there’s nothing like it.

♪ ♪

It’s like another world, man.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s also a place that I dreamed of as a kid...

♪ ♪

’Cause of "Shaft."

♪ ♪

I watched that movie at least 100 times,

and I literally wanted to be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hJohn Shaft.

We didn’t see black guys like \h\hthis in movies back then.

♪ ♪

He was a bad man and didn’t \h\h\hback down from nobody.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hSee, Shaft, he resonated with me

and inspired the five words

that define the two-time \h\h\hWWE Hall of Famer.

Can you dig it, sucka?

["Rap Sheet" playing]

- Act one of being \h\ha pro wrestler

is when you come through \h\h\h\h\hthat curtain.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe went in, and he took it to the moon.

- Can you dig it, sucka?

[laughing]

- You see how he just soaks up the adulation and the energy,

\hjust makes it bigger and bigger and bigger.

\h\h\h\h\h- Now our two-time WWE Hall of Famer, Booker T.

♪ ♪

\h- Booker’s persona is a street-smart, hungry,

athletic, over-the-top,

\h\h\h\h\hkick-your-ass professional wrestler.

- Take a look at this punk!

[grunting]

♪ ♪

- Even growing up,

Junior was never afraid \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto fight.

He would fight big kids,

dogs, cats.

I mean, he just loved to fight,

and he could fight very well.

[lively music]

♪ ♪

- You try to get somebody like, \h\h\h\h\h\h"Did you see that?"

\h\h\h\h[cheering, indistinct chatter]

- One of the things I loved \h\h\h\h\h\h\habout Booker T

\h\h\h\h\h\hwas his flair for the theatrical side...

[indistinct commentating]

- And the drama of it.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Austin-- Austin attacking Booker T!

- Here you go, brother.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[shouts] - Oh, Booker with a shot.

- This is show business.

\h\h- Booker T! - Hey, Booker!

[cheering]

- The key in this business \h\h\h\h\h\h\his charisma.

[cheers and applause]

Booker T walks into a room, \h\h\h\h\h\hyou notice him.

- [laughs]

Fun, larger-than-life \h\h\h\hpersonality,

and big, and loves to laugh.

- [laughs]

- Go to every length

just to entertain you.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Tell me I don’t look like that!

- Pin him!

- And let me tell you,

Booker is the same way \hwhen he is at home.

- Yes, yes, yes, yes! \h\h\h\h\h\h- Oh, no!

Yeah.

- I’m like, "Really?

Are you really doing this \h\h\h\h\h\h\hright now?"

[laughs]

♪ ♪

- Pioneer, trendsetter,

two-time Hall of Famer...

♪ ♪

Five-time champion.

He’s always managed \h\hto stay on top.

♪ ♪

- It’s very, very important \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto see people

\hwho look like you doing great things.

If he’s doing it, \h\h\h\hso can I.

- Can you dig that, \h\h\h\h\h\hsucka?

[cheering]

♪ ♪

[hip-hop music]

- ♪ Welcome to my home ♪

♪ On the south side ♪

♪ Nah, uh-uh ♪

♪ That’s just the south side \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstyle ♪

\h\h♪ You got a big game, you know what I’m saying ♪

[dogs barking]

- This is where it all started \h\h\h\h\h\hso many years ago.

\h\h\hYou don’t miss what you don’t have.

\h\h\h\h\hWe didn’t have a lot, but what we had, it was enough.

\h\h\h- ♪ South side, the south side, yeah ♪

\h♪ South side, the south side ♪

♪ Everybody do the south side, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe south side ♪

♪ Yeah, south side, \h\hthe south side ♪

- There was a lot of shooting dice.

We’d shoot marbles.

Then we’d try to get \h\h\hsome mischief,

looking for some girls.

[dog barking]

- ♪ South side, yeah ♪

\h♪ South side, the south side ♪

♪ No one but you ♪

\h\h\h\h- Don’t let nobody push you around, you know?

Hey, man, if you get into \h\h\h\ha fight, you know,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmake sure you throw the first punch.

- ♪ You know the south side ♪

\h\h\h- You know, and that’s what--

not my brothers was teaching me,

\h\h\h\hbut my sisters was teaching me that.

- ♪ You know the south side ♪

[indistinct singing]

\h\h- That’s what life was here in this neighborhood.

♪ ♪

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

We moved around Houston

till we finally settled right \hhere in this neighborhood,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I tell you, just standing here right now,

\h\h\h\h\hthe memories just--just flood back.

[hip-hop music]

♪ ♪

I was born in a little place \h\h\hcalled Plain Dealing,

\h\habout 50 miles outside of Shreveport, Louisiana.

♪ ♪

I was the youngest \h\hof eight kids.

I never knew my father.

\h\h\h\h\h\hHe passed away when I was ten months old.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hMy mother was a registered nurse,

\h\hand she packed up, and she moved us here

because she just wanted more \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor her kids.

As long as I can remember,

\hmy mother worked from 11:00 at night

to 7:00 a.m. in the morning.

- It was very important \h\hfor her to be there

when we woke up

and to be there when we came \hhome from school every day

and to make sure that we were fed,

that we did our homework,

and that we were in the bed \h\hbefore she left, so...

That graveyard shift can be \h\h\h\h\hvery, very tough,

\h\hbut my mom did it, and she did it for us.

We had four girls, four boys,

\hand some of the older ones were already out of the house

when we moved to Houston,

\hbut she was still a single parent with a full household.

My older brother, Lash,

others know him \has Stevie Ray,

his wrestling name.

Booker T, myself,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthe three of us were all three years apart,

so we were the closest,

and all three of us \hwere the youngest.

- Sports was always \hin 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, \h\h\h\h\hJunior wanted to do.

Whenever we would get \h\h\hnew mattresses,

\h\h\h\h\h\hJunior and Lash would ask the old mattress,

and they’d set it up \h\hin the backyard

and make a makeshift ring,

and me and my niece, \hwe were guinea pigs

for the sleeper hold.

\h\h\hHe did look up to his big brother.

♪ ♪

My mom, not that she didn’t \h\h\h\h\h\hlove all of us,

\h\hbut she loved Junior ’cause he was the baby.

- He could cry for three hours \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwithout stopping.

\h\hSometimes he’d cry so much, you’d have to pay him to stop,

and he’d get your money,

and then when she come home, \h\h\h\hhe was crying again

so he could plead his case.

\h\h\hMy mama would be, "Oh, my baby, my baby,"

and he’d be hugging her

and looking over there \h\hand winking at us.

[laughs]

- I was a mama’s boy, yeah.

I always said one day

that I was gonna buy my mother \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha big house,

\h\hand she wasn’t gonna have to ever work again.

I’d just lay on my mother

\hand just listen to her heartbeat.

The relationship was very, \h\h\h\h\h\hvery special.

♪ ♪

- We had a attic fan,

and for some reason,

\h\h\hthe attic fan had stopped working.

♪ ♪

All my of my brothers \h\h\h\h\h\hare older,

and she had been trying to get one of those guys

\h\h\hto go up there and take a look at it for the longest,

and finally one day she said, \h"I’ll go and do it myself."

♪ ♪

She went up to the attic, you know, to check it out.

You know, she stepped \h\hon the sheetrock,

and she fell through the roof \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto the floor.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hFrom that point on, she always had back problems,

and she had to have surgery.

- She had the surgery. \h\h\hShe came through.

Everything was fine.

\hHer leg began to stiffen, and she was in pain again,

and when she went back \h\h\h\hto the doctor,

they said that they needed \h\h\h\h\h\hto go in again.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- It was basically, "I’m gonna go to the hospital.

I’ll be there a couple of days.

Here’s lunch money,"

and you kiss your mom good-bye.

- Something happened, \h\h\hcomplications,

and her heart stopped beating,

and bam, 49 years old,

my mother was gone, yeah.

[somber piano music]

♪ ♪

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

\hour strength-- we had lost that.

♪ ♪

Everything changed for me, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof course,

being a 13-year-old kid \h\h\h\hwith no parents.

I don’t blame any of my sisters \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand brothers

\hfor not stepping up and being, you know,

\h\ha father figure or a mother figure,

and I don’t think anybody was prepared or equipped

for the loss of my mother.

No one was.

- We were like little ants \h\h\h\hwithout the queen.

Everybody was just, \hlike, everywhere.

- It kinda splintered our family somewhat.

You know, I know it did me.

- And the younger kids, \h\h\h\hBooker, Bonita,

that’s all they knew, \h\h\hwas their mom.

- From a legal standpoint, \h\h\h\h\hwe were "orphans"

because we didn’t have \h\ha mother or father,

and we were both minors.

[indistinct chatter]

For a short period of time, \h\h\h\h\h\hwe did struggle

because we were basically \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe two

that were left in the home \h\h\h\hafter my mom died.

♪ ♪

- So here’s this kid at age 13 \h\h\h\hliving with his sister

in a house that is abandoned.

You know, the electricity’s \h\h\hbeing turned off now.

\h\hIt’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 \h\h\has they possibly could,

and then no lights, no water, \h\h\h\h\hno gas, no anything.

♪ ♪

It was a lot of scary nights \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the house,

you know, with candles.

\h\h\h\h\h\hWe toughed it out as long as we possibly could.

The house got foreclosed on, \h\h\h\hand the bank took it.

\hMy sister actually, you know, took us in,

and we were in a better place \h\has far as we had lights,

and we had gas.

We had water. We had food.

♪ ♪

But we were still \hin a environment

\h\h\h\h\hthat two kids shouldn’t have been in,

wondering what was next.

\h\h\h- Right now we’re deep in the heart of South Park, Texas,

where I pretty much grew up

\hand, I always say, created all my dirt.

The lifestyle that I led, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

was a little bit different \h\h\h\h\h\hthan most kids

because, you know, \h\hmost kids were,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, thinking about getting home

and going outside

and playing with their buddies,

and it was like that for me, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto a point,

\hand then after I lost my mother,

\hthings totally went in another direction

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\has far as now I had to police myself.

Now I had, you know, \h\h\hpeer pressure.

In the neighborhood, the kid \hon the corner’s asking you,

"Hey, man, you wanna smoke \h\h\h\h\h\hsome of this?"

\hYou know, and you go, "Yeah, man, I’ll smoke some of that,"

and, you know--and that’s where \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit all starts.

[somber piano music]

One of the first things I saw,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hactually, we was at the car wash.

\hA friend of mine by the name of Ted,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhe was a kid that I went to school with.

So I’m getting into it \h\h\hwith another guy

down at the car wash,

and it was just gonna be \h\h\h\ha regular fight,

and next thing you know,

\h\h\hTed pulls out a gun and boom, shoots the kid,

and then the kid’s friend \h\hpulls out a shotgun,

boom, and kills Ted.

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

you just wonder, man, \h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

what is life all about, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know?

\h\h\h\hWhat are we here for, and how long are we here for?

Life in the neighborhood.

\hI 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 at home or just go somewhere else.

♪ ♪

Who was gonna tell me \h\h\h\hit was wrong?

No one.

Who knew I was at school \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor not?

No one. Who cared? \h\h\h\h\h\hNo one.

When you find yourself \h\hin that position,

you start doing things \h\h\h\h\ha young kid

definitely shouldn’t have \h\h\h\h\h\hbeen doing...

Going out and partying, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdrugs,

\hhanging out till 4:00 in the morning out on the waterfront,

watching the ladies \h\h\hof the night.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThings changed in the neighborhood, South Park,

but, you know, nothing,

\h\h\hnothing like when I start coming in this area right here.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIt’s called the waterfront area, you know?

The docks is not too far \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfrom here.

Everybody would frequent \h\hthis area, you know?

Especially on Friday nights \h\h\hafter they got paid.

Prostitutes, gambling,

you’d see gambling \h\hon the corner.

The drug scene, the needles,

\hthat’s what I remember more than anything, is the needles.

- ♪ Talking about Slick ♪ \h\h\h\h\h\h\h- ♪ Slick ♪

\h\h- Listening to some Willie Hutch,

some of the pieces of music

went hand in hand \h\hwith the game.

- ♪ Walking fast, \htalking trash ♪

♪ Trying to beat you \h\hout your cash ♪

♪ Who is he? ♪

♪ They call him Slick ♪ \h\h\h\h\h\h- ♪ Slick ♪

\h\h\h- They sit out here, and they--they’ll gamble,

and they’ll loiter,

and they’ll try to make \h\h\htheir drug sales.

- 35, it’s on a 21.

- ♪ They call him Slick ♪ \h\h\h\h\h\h\h- ♪ Slick ♪

- ♪ Now Slick ain’t got \h\h\h\h\h\hno regrets ♪

♪ Slick ain’t got no sorrow ♪

♪ If he don’t get you today ♪

- I knew I didn’t want \h\h\h\h\hto do drugs.

I knew I didn’t want to be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha pimp.

I knew I didn’t want to have \h\h\h\h\h\hthat lifestyle.

- ♪ They call him Slick ♪

- I knew I didn’t want \h\h\h\h\hto do that,

\h\h\hbut I was right in the middle of it.

♪ ♪

- Booker just kinda fell \h\hthrough the cracks.

\h\h\h\h\hI mean, here’s a kid that was literally on his own,

and then he ends up \h\h\hgetting a job

with sweeping the floors \h\h\h\hin a heroin den,

and it doubled as a brothel.

He’s trying to survive.

He’s trying to live \h\htill tomorrow.

- I had no ambitions.

I was in that whirlwind,

and it was spinning,

\h\h\h\hand where it stopped, that’s where I was gonna go.

- When you have that mind-set

and you’re stuck in that position,

you do things that are--

\hyou look back and say, "Well, that was a terrible decision."

♪ ♪

- You just start making \h\h\h\hyour own rules,

whether those rules are right or wrong.

You just start making them, \h\h\hand that’s what I did.

I remember hanging out \h\h\hwith my buddies,

and they became my family,

and we started writing \hour own blueprints.

- So when he sees an option \h\h\hto deal a little pot

\h\h\h\hor rob a good-- a fast food restaurant,

of course he’s gonna do it.

- The robbery, the incident, \h\h\h\h\hthe way it started.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt was myself, a friend of mine, Zachary,

a friend that I grew up with, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWendell.

We worked at Wendy’s.

There was this one manager

\hwho just used to give us a hard time all the time.

We were talking about it \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hone day,

"Man, we should rob him."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWe did it, and we got away with it,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe store that we actually worked at.

Then we did it again,

and we got away with it.

Somebody said, "Hey, man, \hwhen we going out again?

Let’s do it."

We got away with it again.

It was like we weren’t ever gonna get caught.

And we saw it on the news, \h\h\h\h\hand we was like,

\h"Man, this thing is getting crazy.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, we getting really big."

We were like rock stars then.

It was like cat and mouse,

catch me if you can.

It’s hard to understand \h\h\hhow do you think

you know more than the cops.

\h\h\h\h[laughs] That’s their job.

They were--they would \hcome to the office.

\h\h\h\hOnly thing they’d do is sit around and investigate

\h\hand try to figure out how to catch someone doing wrong.

♪ ♪

I was coming home \hto my apartment.

I came around the corner, \h\h\h\hand I saw no one.

It was so quiet that night,

and I just remember, man,

just something does not \h\hfeel right at all.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd literally 10, 15, 20 people came out

at the same time.

[siren wailing]

They all had guns, and they \hwere all pointing at me.

♪ ♪

[siren wails]

That ride from 45 and 610

to downtown Houston to the county jail,

that was the longest ride \h\h\h\h\h\h\hI ever had.

[desolate music]

♪ ♪

\hI was in Harris County for about eight months.

I sat in that jail

waiting on whether I was either gonna go to trial

or I was gonna take a plea,

and I was gonna take a plea.

\hI knew I was wrong. I knew I was guilty.

\h\hI knew I would have been convicted very, very easily.

I took the sentence, which was five years.

♪ ♪

I had to go a place \h\h\hcalled Pack 2.

It was in Navasota, Texas.

I remember seeing a chain gang \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hon television.

\h\h\h\hI didn’t think that was a real thing.

\h\h\hI thought it was just something that was outdated

or in the past,

but we really had to wake up \h\h\h\hearly in the morning

and get on the back \hof this big truck,

and we would go to literally \h\h\h\hjust clear a field.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

\hAnd we would do it pretty much by hand,

\h\hpulling up stumps, and it was for hours.

\h\h\hAnd I’m like, "Man, this is real.

\h\h\h\hThis is as real as it get right here."

It was a education \hfor me as well.

I got a chance to get my GED.

I wanted to go to school. \hI wanted to learn more.

I wanted to be able \h\hto teach myself.

\h\hI got a chance to work on the laundry, you know,

\h\h\hand doing detail from that perspective,

learning about myself,

atone for my mistake \h\h\hand, you know,

try to move on in life.

- I never went to visit him

because I never wanted \hto see him locked up.

♪ ♪

We kept in touch via letter.

♪ ♪

In those letters he talked \h\h\h\habout his regrets,

his dreams, and his goals.

♪ ♪

"I’ve made the mistake. \h\h\h\hI own up to it.

I’m gonna do my time,

and I’m gonna come out \h\h\hand do better."

I remember talking to him about stick to the goals

and not just the dreams

\h\h\h\h\hbecause dreams you have to wake up from.

- He needed to stand on his own \h\h\h\htwo feet and be a man,

so he was in the penitentiary \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor 19 months,

and then he came up \h\h\h\hfor parole.

- "Booker T." \h\h\h"Yeah?"

\h\h\h\h\h\hThey go, "You’re out of here."

\hI was like, "Oh, man, you kidding me, right?"

\h\h\h\hYou know, he’s like, "No, man, you’re out of here.

Get your stuff."

When I left that prison wall, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthere was--

there was this one guard.

\h\hHe was sitting on his big horse,

had this big cowboy hat on,

and he said, "I’ll see you \h\h\h\hwhen you get back,"

and got my 200 bucks.

♪ ♪

They put me on that Greyhound \hand sent me back to Houston.

\hLife was what I was gonna make it from that point on.

♪ ♪

- One thing that you-- \h\h\hwhen you got out,

you wanted to get your son \h\h\h\h\h\h\hBrandon back.

You didn’t have the money in the bank,

so you pulled one last heist.

♪ ♪

- I was a kid when Brandon \h\h\h\h\hwas born myself.

I was 17.

\h\h\h\h\hHis mom and I, we never was anticipating

\h\hon getting married or anything like that.

\h\h\h\hIt was two kids having a kid, you know,

not knowing anything \h\h\h\h\habout life.

When I ended up going to prison,

\h\hshe was on drugs really, really bad,

\h\h\hand 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 \h\h\h\hor anything like that,

but I definitely wasn’t a dad or a father in the beginning.

♪ ♪

Was I gonna leave my son \h\h\h\hin foster care,

\hor was I gonna go through the system and get him out?

\h\h\h\h\hAnd 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--

\h\h\h\hI got paroled to my sister’s house,

and, you know,

she was still in the game \h\h\h\h\h\hselling weed.

My sister’s dealer, you know, \h\h\h\h\h\hhe was supplying,

you know, 5 pounds here, \h\h\h\h\h5 pounds there,

and, you know, one night I knew \h\hwhere the stash house was,

and it was about 5 pounds.

I crept in.

I got all of it.

I got out of there.

- You stole from a drug dealer?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- I stole from the drug dealers, and--

- But for the right reasons.

You wanted to get \hyour son back.

- It was for the right reasons.

- You gotta have money in the bank.

\h\h\h\h\h- I needed money, and--and I needed it quick,

and I just needed a platform,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha springboard to get out of that life.

\h\hBut I still needed a little bit more help,

\hand that’s where my brother came in.

I asked my brother, you know, \h\hfor a little bit of help.

I said, "I actually need you \h\h\hto help me get a job."

- You gotta get out of this environment

\h\h\hif you want to be something in life,

\h\h\hand that’s pretty much the conversation that we had.

I’d been put in a position \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto help him,

and that’s what I did,

but it’s up to you \hto make it work.

- First job he got me was a security guard.

[laughs]

Fresh out of prison, he get me \h\ha job as a security guard.

\h\hAnd at the time my brother actually let me stay with him.

\h\h\hI had to prove to the court system

that I was worthy \hof being a dad,

and it took me about a year.

You know, certain days,

I had to make sure \h\h\hI was there,

keep a steady job,

and I showed them that.

They ended up granting me \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfull custody

\h\h\h\hwhen Brandon was five years old.

We didn’t have a lot.

\hWe had each other, and we had our dog.

We had our apartment, \h\h\hand I had a job.

Working that security job, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

\h\hit only lasted for a few months,

and then they found out about my prison record.

They told my brother that they \hwas gonna have to let me go,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbut the guy that I had worked for,

his name’s Bruce Gasarch,

saw me as a--as a human being,

and he saw my character.

- I saw how hard he worked \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand tried.

We found another job for him.

\h\h\h\hOne of the properties we bought was a mini storage,

and he ended up helping me \h\h\h\hrun that property,

\h\hleasing new tenants, cleaning up the property,

making sure that people \hhave paid their rent.

- I was working for Bruce,

and my brother, he was like, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Hey, man,

\h\h\h\h\h\hI know this guy opening a wrestling school.

You want to try it out?"

- I’m Ivan Putski.

\h\hIf you’ve got what it takes to be a professional wrestler,

let me show you the ropes.

You do what you like, and I loved wrestling.

Ivan Putski’s Professional \h\h\hSchool of Wrestling,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat drew-- "Hey, I watched him on TV."

People would read that, \h\h\hand they came in.

- I’m like, "Hey, man, \h\h\h\h\hyou doing it,

I’ll try it out too," you know?

\h\h\h\h\h\hSince I was a kid, whatever my brother was doing,

I wanted to be a part of it.

We was like a tag team even \hbefore we were a tag team.

Wrestling school was $4,000.

I knew I didn’t have the money \h\hfor it, but I was blessed.

\h\h\hMy boss, he sponsored me to go to the wrestling school.

- He wanted to do something \h\h\h\hto improve himself.

You want to improve yourself \h\h\hand I can help, I will.

I had the money available, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hso I helped,

\hand if you’re willing to take a little chance,

sometimes it pays off.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h- When Booker T and his brother first arrived,

they didn’t know a thing \h\h\h\habout wrestling.

I mean, they were just green.

\h\h\h\h\hI just showed them how to get the holds on you,

the bumps and the slams, \h\h\h\h\hthrow punches.

\h\h\h\h\hI taught them how to take their fall

and how you protect yourself.

\hThen we blend in their personality.

\h\h\h- Scott Casey was the main trainer there.

Ivan opened the school,

\hbut Scott Casey opened our minds.

We went 7:00 to 10:00 Monday through Friday

for, like, three months \h\h\h\h\h\h\hstraight.

This is what I’m clapping \h\h\hon somebody’s head

and make it pop, goes the weasel.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd after that, they give you a certificate.

It’s kind of like these online \hgimmicks that you have today,

you know what I’m saying?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hIn 90 days, I’m a professional wrestler,

you know what I’m saying?

So it’s like, wow.

- Booker was what you called \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha natural.

He caught on so fast.

- [shouts]

Come on! Get up!

[shouting]

I always wanted to be \h\hthe best student,

\h\h\hyou know, in the school, so I would go and push myself.

- Get up! Get up!

[shouting]

- I would run the ropes \h\h\h\hfor five minutes

and I literally pushed myself

farther than anyone \h\h\h\h\h\hin there

could ever think about \h\h\h\h\hpushing me.

[shouting]

- Man, I got a jewel here.

- Notice how I concentrate \h\h\hmainly on the sweep.

- Right.

\h- We’re pumping up these massive quads,

\h\h\h\h\has the G.I. Bro can only do oh, so well.

[grunts]

\h\hI was working at the warehouse,

and I had to clean up \h\hone of the units.

There was a old army \h\h\hhat in there,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand I was like, "Oh, man, I like this hat,"

and I went to practice, \h\hand I wore the hat.

\h\hIvan Putski goes, "That’s who you are.

From now on, you’re G.I. Bro,"

and I go, "G.I. Bro?

All right, I like that. \h\hIt’s pretty cool."

♪ ♪

Right after we finished \hthe course, actually,

by the grace of God,

\h\h\hIvan Putski had local television here.

- Precious Johnny Valiant, watching just like all you

\h\h\h\h\hother fans out here of the WWA,

\h\h\ha local favorite here in Houston, Texas, G.I. Bro.

This guy is very charismatic.

- G.I. Bro.

- G.I. Brother, G.I. gravy.

\h- Cranking it up. Yeah, count him out.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Oh. - Did he get him?

\h\h\hYes, he did. Control. G.I. Bro.

- I got a chance to wrestle in the Sam Houston Coliseum,

\hyou know, eight weeks out of wrestling school.

\h\hI remember after I started wrestling,

I had to take payrolls \h\h\h\h\hto the bank,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand they go, "Hey, aren’t you G.I. Bro?"

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I was like, "Yeah, I’m G.I. Bro," you know?

’Cause they’re watching me \h\h\h\h\h\hon television.

- Everybody’s favorite, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hG.I. Bro.

The G.I. Bro.

♪ ♪

- The kids, they would-- \hthey would just mob me,

and they would just--you know?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd I was like, "Man, what is going on here?"

\h\h\h\h\hI got a new haircut. Would you like to see it, man?

- Yeah, I want to see it.

All right. - G.I. Bro.

G.I. Bro’s my name, and beating \h\h\h\h\hpeople up is my game.

Look in my eyes.

That’s when I’m gonna declare World War III on you,

and thank you [inaudible]. I’m a demon.

[shouts]

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t think I was ever asked one time

what I want to be when I grow \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hup as a kid.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t think I was ever asked that once.

Then I found myself \hthrough wrestling.

It was an escape.

It was something that I could do,

and I could do it very well,

♪ ♪

\h\hPut my boots on and become like a superhero for a moment.

I realized I had something.

I had a connection,

\h\h\h\hand I was like, "Wow, this is so cool,"

and I had so much fun \h\h\hfinding myself

\h\h\h\h\h\h\has far as possibly who I could be

- After the Western Wrestling \h\h\h\hAlliance closed down,

Booker T and his brother \hwent to work for TAP,

Texas All-Pro Wrestling.

I got Stevie Ray in an issue

of "Wrestling Main Event" \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmagazine,

and he got noticed,

\h\h\h\h\hpeople up in Dallas at the GWF, Global Wrestling.

Skandor Akbar called him

and wanted him to come up \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto Dallas,

and him and his brother \h\h\h\hwent up there,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand Akbar and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert

took a liking to them \h\hright off the bat.

- They wanted to give my brother a try-out,

\h\h\hand my brother was going to Dallas,

\h\hand of course, jumped in the car, and I rode with him.

- We finally walk into Eddie Gilbert’s office,

and Eddie Gilbert was like, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Who’s that?"

\h\h\h\h\hand I was like, "Oh, that’s my brother."

- He goes, "Is he a worker?"

\h\h\h\h\hand he goes, "Yeah, he’s a worker."

\hHe goes, "Have you guys ever done any tag team?"

and we go, "Yeah."

- We were lying.

We had never tagged together \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbefore, ever,

\h\h\h\h\hbut we had tagged against each other before.

\hThat’s what we were saying. We have tagged together, so.

In that sense, I wasn’t lying.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Boom, that’s how we got started

\h\h\hin the Global Wrestling Federation, just by accident.

There was this wrestler \h\h\h\hback 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 \h\hthe black guys

that was representing us,

so we remembered Mr. Ebony.

\h\h\h\h\h\hWhy not be the Ebony Experience,

Booker T and Stevie Ray?

- The Ebony Experience!

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h- The Global Wrestling Federation

was on ESPN at the time,

and it was geared towards

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat afternoon kids coming home from school,

3:30 in the afternoon.

There were 30-minute show,

and then there was \h\h\han hour show,

and it was based out of \h\h\h\h\hDallas, Texas,

in the world-famous \h\h\hSportatorium,

\h\h\h\hwhich I think it’s just world-famous

because it’s old, ugly.

\h\h\h\h\hIt stunk, no air conditioning,

and there were rats \hthe size of dogs.

It had atmosphere. It had atmosphere.

Let’s just say that.

- You almost took your life \h\h\h\h\hin your own hands

in the Sportatorium.

Back then the police,

\h\h\h\hif somebody tried to stick you with a knife

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor hit you with a whiskey bottle or something,

they would bring them back \h\h\hto the dressing room

and literally let you \h\h\h\hbeat them up.

It was the law of the west.

[dramatic music]

\h\h\hBut there was a huge racist element there too.

People would sit there \h\h\h\hand shout out

some of the most vile things \himaginable at those guys.

- And we got called the n-word, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof course.

They didn’t want to see us coons.

- And those people called us

every racial epithet \h\h\h\hknown to man.

♪ ♪

- It wasn’t the first time

I had dealt with racism \h\h\h\h\h\hin my life.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\hWhen I first got in the wrestling business,

a very, very famous man by the name of Ox Baker

\h\h\h\h\h\h\htold me, he said, "Kid, you got a lot of talent,

"but you’re gonna come up \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hagainst

a lot of obstacles in this business."

\hHe didn’t say racism or anything like that,

\h\h\h\hbut I knew exactly what he was talking about.

You gotta figure a way \haround it, under it.

You may have to go over it,

and that night we had to go \h\h\h\h\hright through it,

no matter what.

- You want to see what \h\hthe competition’s

looking like out here?

We got us a couple \hof big homeboys

\h\hfrom Houston, looks like to me.

- In the situation \hthat you’re in,

you gotta be able to adapt.

You gotta be able to figure it out.

You have to face the fire, \h\hand we dealt with it.

\h\h\h- I gotta say, where did these guys come up with this?

The Ebony Experience, \h\h\h\hwhat are they,

\ha magazine or something like that for ugly people?

\h- But I learned the power of entertainment that night.

I did the Spinaroonie \h\h\h\hin that match.

\h\h- He did some type of hop-skip-spin type thing.

I never saw it before. \h\hDid you see that?

What was that, they used to have them break dance moves?

He did some spinning--

- The same guy that was \hcalling me the n-word,

\h\h\hhe was totally excited when he saw the Spinaroonie,

and it totally changed him \h\h\h\hall in one breath,

\h\h\hand it was like, "Whoa, what was that?"

The fans started to change.

\h\h\h\hNow the fans are rooting for us.

- Make it, Booker T! \hMake it, Booker T!

Make it, Booker T! \h\h\h\h\hMake it!

- It was like the Rocky movie, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hman,

when Rocky was fighting Drago.

The Russian fans start rooting \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor the underdog.

- ’Cause when I did \hthe Spinaroonie,

it seemed like everything \hchanged in that arena.

I realized how much power \h\hthe Spinaroonie had,

\h\h\h\hand not just in the Global Wrestling Federation

with those fans but throughout \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmy whole career.

- Spinaroonie [indistinct]. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[laughs]

- We all love to dance.

My mom loved to see us dance,

and we all had good rhythm too, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstill--

still have good rhythm.

\h\h\h\h- My cousin, come over here, man.

This is my cousin right here, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hman, you know?

- The neighborhood boys \h\h\hwere always trying

\h\hto outdo each other with their dance moves.

That was the competition.

Michael Jackson had nothing \h\h\h\h\h\hon my brothers.

- He used to break dance \h\h\h\h\h\hon the patio.

That’s where I learned \h\hthe Spinaroonie at.

On his patio right around \h\hthe corner, you know?

We’d be on that patio.

We’d have the cardboard box \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hout there.

We had a beat box. \h\h\h\h\h\h- Yep.

\h\h\h- We’d be out there breaking ourselves, man,

\h\hand--but that’s where the Spinaroonie came from, yeah.

- That’s where they learned \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthose moves.

That’s where they learned \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto spin,

\hso that Spinaroonie came from a pop-lock dance move.

- Ladies and gentlemen, \h\h\h\hthey’re dynamic.

They’re sensational. They’re the Lockers.

[funky music]

- The Lockers, they were it.

That was the best dance group

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hperhaps in the history of the world.

♪ ♪

Fred "Rerun" Berry,

he used to be on the show \h\h\h"What’s Happening!!"

\h\hHe was actually one of the Lockers,

and just watching these guys \h\h\hmove the way they did

\h\h\h\h\h\hand perform the way they performed,

I wanted to be in the group \h\h\h\h\hwhen I was a kid.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI wanted to be one of the Lockers, you know?

\hWhen I saw them on "Soul Train,"

I was like, "Man, how do I get \h\h\h\h\h\h\hon ’Soul Train’?

I gotta be a part of this."

The pop-locking craze started \h\hcurving off a little bit,

\hand then the break dancing curve started coming around.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI said, "Man, I’ma try this now,"

so any wrestling fan \haround the world,

you say Spinaroonie, they know \h\hwho you’re talking about.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBad Breed, you’re going down.

We’re gonna take you out \h\h\h\hinto the ebony zone.

\h\hWe’re gonna drop you off into some ebony funk, man.

It wasn’t about how much money \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI was making.

It was just being able \h\h\hto do something

that you love doing so much

that you would do it for free, \h\h\h\hand my brother and I,

we was making 125 bucks \h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

to make the drive all the way \h\h\hfrom Houston to Dallas,

and sometimes we would work \h\hfour times in one night,

sleep on my sister’s sofa,

then get up and make the drive \h\h\h\h\h\h\hback to Houston.

- Junior wore out the couch \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin my den.

\hStevie Ray, Lash, wore out the couch in my living room.

They would come every Friday,

and I know they did that \hfor a couple of years.

[cheering]

It was just a great time

to watch them get better \h\h\hand more popular.

[dramatic music]

- The fans weekly warmed up,

and they started liking something

that they didn’t even know \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthey liked.

all: Ebony! Ebony! Ebony!

Ebony! Ebony!

Ebony! Ebony! \h\h\hEbony!

[cheering]

\h- And then we started getting more black fans

coming into the arena.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou just couldn’t say anything anymore.

How you like that, baby?

- Within a few months, we were \hthe hottest thing in Global.

Everybody in the place \h\h\h\h\h\hhad a sign

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith the Ebony Experience on it.

[cheering]

♪ ♪

- We finally got to that point \h\h\h\hto where we had to win

the tag team championship, and \hall of my family was there.

♪ ♪

- That night that they won, \hwe screamed, and we cried.

\h\h\h\h\hIt was so great, and all I could think about

was that I wish my mom

was there to see that.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h- My brother and I, we had accomplished something

\h\h\h\h\hthat we never dreamt of accomplishing in our lives.

♪ ♪

\hWe had watched 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 \hgoing somewhere.

There was not a doubt \hin anybody’s mind.

\h\h\h- It was like Hansel and Gretel.

Somebody was dropping crumbs,

and we were picking them up \hand following the trail.

- My brother and I, we had regular jobs,

\h\h\h\hand we worked in the Global Wrestling Federation

one night a week,

\h\h\h\hand we did that for 18 months straight.

\hWe were getting ready to work one night, and the phone rang,

and a man named Mike Davis \h\h\h\h\hcame in and goes,

"Hey, man, Sid Vicious wanna \h\h\h\h\htalk to you guys."

\h\h- Sid Vicious had been watching us on television,

and WCW was interested in us.

We were, like, really excited, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know?

Like, wow, Sid Vicious, man? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWow.

And WCW? Wow.

- One of the biggest companies \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the world,

and we had a great spot.

- We just had to come up \h\h\h\h\h\hwith a name.

Houston Heat might have been \hput in there, Miami Heat.

\h\h\h\h\h\hWe was like, "What about Harlem Heat?"

\h\h\h\h\h\hHarlem Heat, okay, you get a picture in your mind

as to what Harlem Heat \h\h\h\h\h\hshould be,

and boom, you start going \h\hfor it artistically.

- We needed some cool shirts,

and we didn’t have no one \h\h\h\h\hto make them for us,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hso I didn’t know the country group or anything,

but it turned out to be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBrooks & Dunn,

and they had shirts,

and they had this cool flame \h\h\h\h\h\hpattern on them.

♪ ♪

\h\h\hSo I went and got us some Brooks & Dunn shirts

and had them tailored.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWe made the hats out of the sleeves, actually,

’cause they had flames \h\h\h\h\h\hon them as well.

The ensemble actually \h\h\h\hcame together

and looked pretty cool.

- You know, we’re gonna see a new tag team,

the Harlem Heat, and what an appropriate name,

seeing that Harlem’s been about

\h\h\h\h100 degrees the last two weeks.

- You know, as a kid, you just \h\hlike all the bright colors

and the energy,

\hand I just feel like they represented that, you know?

\h\hIt felt like they was from around my way, like,

you know what I’m saying? \h\h\h\hHow they talked,

\h\h\h\h\hhow they dressed, how they carried theirself,

and even they music was tight.

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

- Harlem Heat had cool \h\h\h\h\h\hring music.

Like duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh-duh.

[funky music]

♪ ♪

- We’re gonna kill somebody \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htonight!

- [shouting] Sucka!

- They were two guys \hthat were coming in

who were bad to the bone, man,

and they were gonna talk it.

They were gonna walk it,

and they were gonna \h\hkick your ass.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

- They had an aura about them. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThey were big.

They were intimidating.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThey were scary, like big wrestlers should be.

♪ ♪

With the name Harlem Heat, \h\h\h\h\hI mean, come on.

You can’t come up with a better \h\h\hname than that anywhere.

- Take a look at this punk!

♪ ♪

\h\hAll the years my brother and I slept in the same bed,

we were a cohesive unit.

♪ ♪

Both of us brought the pain \h\h\h\h\h\hin our own way.

\h\h\hMy brother was ground, and sometime I would go air,

but together we gelled.

♪ ♪

- It’s the Harlem Hangover. Oh!

- Thank you, I’m talking about \h\h\hsuicide Harlem Hangover!

On right now, bro!

\h- Harlem Heat did not really have a gimmick.

\h\hThey were just big, black badasses

that really were themselves \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hturned up,

and when they talked,

I felt like if I ran into them \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the street,

that would be exactly \h\h\h\hhow they are.

- The moves you punks making, the route you’re taking

is gonna lead to heartbreaking.

- This country hick town \hof Tupelo, Mississippi,

gonna get a lot heat \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hraised up.

- Any gimmick that really works

is an exaggeration \h\hof who you are.

\h- It was so easy to actually go out

and know what it’s like \h\h\hto be in a fight

\h’cause when you’ve been fighting your whole life,

you know what it feels like.

You know what it’s like to get \h\h\hhit in the mouth as well.

\h\h\h\hFor 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 be these two guys,

\hbut a lot of times I just wanna come out

and just bust out laughing,

but I gotta hold it in,

\h\h\h\hand 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 \h\h\h\hall the way.

What some [inaudible] hillbillies,

stay on the hill, sucka!

- We had so much fun going down the road

in certain towns.

Somebody is gonna get \h\h\ha Harlem Hangover.

\h\hPeople just hating us to the point that where,

\h\h\hman, they just want to kill these black guys.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the Black Hills \h\h\h\h\hof South Dakota.

250,000 bikers are here \h\h\hfor WCW Hog Wild.

- There’s no black folks there. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- No.

\h- We’re the only two black folks...

- No, none.

- In Sturgis, South Dakota, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hat that time.

♪ ♪

We almost started a riot.

\h\h\h\h\h\hWhat you want, but you ain’t gonna get it!

Just like all these suckers \h\h\h\h\h\hout here, man.

[shouting]

- Even the Steiner brothers \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwas like,

\h\h"Hey, man, don’t do what y’all usually do every night

\h\h\h\h\h\h’cause y’all got the Hells Angels out there."

We don’t even know who the Hells Angels are, you know?

\hWe’re getting ready to go do what we do.

They’re 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 \htalking trash to everybody.

[loud shouting]

You know, "I got a problem with rednecks,

and as far as I’m concerned,

everybody in here’s a redneck," \h\h\hyou know what I’m saying?

- [laughs]

\h\h- "Come on up in this ring and watch what happen to you."

Now everybody’s infuriated,

\hand by the time we got through...

\h\h\h- Aw, yeah, we got a [inaudible] going now.

- 25,000 motorcycles, \h\h\hit sounds like.

- As far as you could see, motorcycles and people,

and all of them revving their engines at the same time.

- They’re cranking up \h\h\h\h\h\hthe crowd.

- Oh, yeah.

- The fans are making noise.

- Because we just told them \h\hwhat we thought of them.

\h\h\h\h- It don’t get any better than this.

[upbeat music]

[cheering]

- The Harlem Heat was able \h\hto pull it off so well

that the people in Harlem \h\h\h\hfelt represented

by a couple of Texas boys.

- The Harlem Heat, \hthey are bad men

\h\hoff the streets of uptown Manhattan

in the heart of Harlem, \h\h\h\hand gentlemen--

- Shut up, Mean Gene, ’fore I slap a patch of hair

out of the top of your head.

\hBeing able to talk about certain landmarks in Harlem

that we fictitiously, you know, \h\hthought up in our own minds

was really, really cool, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know?

One of the places that we used \h\h\h\h\hto 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 looking at a couple of straight OGs from the hood!

\h\hI’ve had several people come up to me to talk about

when we were kids \hback in Harlem,

\hdid I remember them from, you know, back in the day,

and of course you go, "Yeah, \hyeah, yeah, I remember you.

\h\h\h\h\hYeah, yeah, right." You go right along with them.

Only clique you need to know \h\h\habout is the Harlem Heat.

- Booker T has the most viral wrestling moment of all time,

I guess, right?

’Cause he slips up, \hsays the n-word.

- We coming for you, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[bleep]!

[somber music]

\h\h\hThat was the problem with ad-libbing back then.

That’s probably why they write \h\h\heverybody’s stuff today,

and that’s a word that we used \h\ha whole lot back in the day

\h\hwhen I was coming up, and that’s the first time

and the last time \hany of my peers

ever heard me say that.

- It is a interesting lesson \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto not get lost

\h\hin your character or not being too real

when you’re talking \h\habout somebody,

but that’s the risk you run

when you are as authentic \h\h\h\h\h\h\ha character

as Booker T is, right?

- That’s right, we finna hurt \h\hthese pups Harlem-style,

if you know what I’m saying.

- When I think about \h\h\hthe early ’90s

\hand I think about the black characters

and your Koko B. Wares

and your Papa Shangos

\hand people who fit a lot of stereotypes

but also did not get pushed.

[bell dinging]

♪ ♪

\h\hSo watching two black guys who go on to win championships

and did not back down \h\hfrom who they were

was great to watch,

but also what’s important

\h\h\h\h\h\h\his that here were two brothers, right?

- Harlem Heat!

\h\h\h\h\h\h- So seeing a familial relationship

between black guys on TV

\h\hwho genuinely loved each other,

\hwho celebrated together, who had each other’s back

was really empowering.

♪ ♪

- That was so important \hfor my brother and I

to go out there and represent

\h\h\h\hbecause we knew young guys like we were

was watching us now.

♪ ♪

Harlem Heat will go down \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin history

\h\h\has being one of the greatest tag teams

that ever put on a pair of boots.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h- That was just me and my brother being us,

natural-born entertainers,

\h\h\hand that’s what we pride ourself on.

\h- Those are memories that me and my brother

\h\h\h\h\h\hwill live with for the rest of our lives.

- It was a journey.

\h- It was the coolest nine years of my life.

All-time greats,

we’re immortalized forever \hin the WWE Hall of Fame.

♪ ♪

\h\hI never thought about having a singles career,

never thought about it \h\huntil it happened.

- Now let’s see how Booker T \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcan operate

as a single wrestler.

\h\h- ...somebody. Now can you dig it?

\h\hI never thought about having a singles career.

- A chance to reverse...

- Never thought about it \h\h\huntil it happened.

- Oh! - Oh!

\h- 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 \h\hto this point

where they’re the biggest \h\h\hwrestling promotion

in the world.

\h\h\h\h\hWCW was using money from the Turner Organization.

\h\h\h\h\hThey were part of a bigger corporation.

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash \h\hend up leaving the WWE

for a lot of money in WCW,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand they start this reality-based storyline

of a takeover and formed a group with Hulk Hogan,

\hwho for the first time in his career became a bad guy,

unheard of at the time,

\h\h\h\hand started the New World Order.

- The following announcement \h\h\h\h\hhas been paid for

by the New World Order.

\h\h\h\h- When I came out as Hollywood Hulk Hogan,

nWo, we took off like a rocket,

so the Monday night war started getting really, really intense.

- We had "Monday Night RAW" \h\h\h\hon the USA network.

[upbeat rock music]

They had "Monday Nitro" \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hon TNT,

on Ted Turner’s network.

\h\h\h\h\hYou’re looking at every single rating point,

\h\h\h\h\hevery eyeball we were competing for.

They beat us for 83 weeks \h\h\h\h\hin the ratings.

\h\h\h\h\h- WCW became the top game in town.

- The most powerful \h\h\horganization

in professional wrestling.

- Honestly, I really didn’t \h\h\h\hcare 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

\hthat I’d never imagined being in a million years.

- As they’re concentrating \hon the other big stars,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBooker T, right under their noses,

is just getting better \h\h\h\h\h\hand better

and better and better.

\h\h\h\h- My peers, they always told me,

"There’s only one Tiger Woods \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof wrestling."

[laughs]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd I go, "I appreciate that, bro."

- That’s when he became \hno longer a tag guy.

That’s when it just--like, \h\h\h\hokay, he’s a star.

- You can tell when somebody \h\h\h\h\hhas the it factor.

Booker T just looked main event material.

He carried himself like the sky \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwas the limit.

He had it all.

- I used to raise the roof \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hback then.

When I used to raise the roof,

everybody used to raise \h\h\hthe roof with me.

♪ ♪

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

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, it was the beginning of my run

as a singles wrestler

and a whole different life.

[funky music]

- I was born and raised \h\h\hin Gary, Indiana,

had a great childhood.

I caught the entertainment \h\h\hbug very, very early.

I started doing beauty pageants \h\h\hwhen I was 12 years old,

so that was always something \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat I enjoyed,

and then I was always \h\h\h\hinto dancing.

That was my first love,

so all that ended up \h\h\h\hpaying off.

You know, I went on to become \h\h\h\h\hMiss Black America.

I ended up touring with James Brown,

the Godfather of Soul,

so I spent three and a half \h\h\h\h\hyears on the road

touring with him

\h\h\hand 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

\h\h\hon the movie set of "Ready to Rumble."

Then we just gradually \h\h\hbecame friends.

- He was always very polite, \h\h\h\h\hvery well dressed,

and he looked like \h\h\ha businessman

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hinstead of a professional wrestler.

That was my first impression \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof him,

but I will never forget \h\h\h\hwhen I heard him

listening to Tupac,

and that surprised me \h\h\h\hbecause to me,

\h\hI thought he would listen to Frank Sinatra, not Tupac,

\h\h\hso I got to know a few things about him.

He’s a great guy all around.

I got to see he’s really, \h\h\h\h\h\hreally funny.

He’s really, really silly,

but we just kinda gelled.

\h\hWe just kinda meshed, and it was very exciting

\h\h\h\h\hto see Booker be able to carve out a path for himself

because he was such an amazing talent.

\h\h\h\h\h- WCW welcome you to the summertime tradition,

\h\h\h\hthe World Championship Wrestling’s Bash at the Beach!

- All the backstage drama \hthat went on that night

put more light on me actually \h\hwinning the championship.

Me winning it just would have \h\h\h\h\hbeen me winning it.

- The title match is between

Jeff Jarrett and Hulk Hogan.

The story is that Hulk Hogan \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwants to win,

doesn’t want to lose \h\hto Jeff Jarrett.

Jeff Jarrett’s the champion.

The writer, Vince Russo,

he doesn’t want Hogan \hto be the champion.

He wants Jeff Jarrett \h\hto hold on to it.

They can’t come to an agreement \h\h\h\h\h\hbecause Hulk Hogan,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin real life, has a creative control clause

in his contract.

- There’s a million stories,

and everybody has \htheir opinion.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAll I know is, when I signed on with WCW,

I had what’s called \hcreative control.

\hI’m gonna exercise my creative control.

I’m gonna go ahead and beat \hJarrett, one, two, three.

It went right up Russo’s ass.

- What’s Jeff doing? - Hang on a minute.

What’s Jeff doing?

Russo, I think, told Jarrett \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto lie down.

\hWhat’s going on? - Jarrett’s down.

\h\h- I know, and Hogan is as shocked as we are.

- What in the world? \h\h\hJeff Jarrett.

- Oh, God, this is real life. \h\h\h\h\h\h\hOne, two, three.

- I took the belt, and I left. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h- What the hell?

I think we’re deviating \h\h\h\hfrom the script.

\h\h\hI hesitate to say that, but what the hell is going on?

- Is it a storyline?

\h\h\h\hIs this real life? Is this some weird mixture?

Vince Russo’s says they have two world championships now.

- There will be a new WCW belt.

- Jeff Jarrett and Booker T \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfight for it

later on in the evening.

- Opportunity has knocked, \h\h\hand I will be damned

if I don’t answer that door.

I am gonna do what I have to do tonight to take that gold home,

take it around my waist,

\h\hand take it into the next millennium.

Can you dig that, Gene?

- I can. Tony, back to you.

\h\h\h\h- Not just did the fans not expect this to be going on.

Me and Booker didn’t expect \h\h\hfor it to be going on.

- I watched everything play out \h\h\h\h\h\hjust like America.

I had about ten minutes \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto prepare

for the biggest moment \h\h\h\h\h\hof my life

in professional wrestling,

but I was prepared for it.

\h\h\h\h\hI got there by working my ass off,

and I started at the bottom \h\h\h\h\h\hof that company,

and I went out and I performed \h\h\h\h\hevery single night.

- It’s been a long journey, \h\h\h\h\h\ha lot of titles,

but never the big one.

This is Booker T’s chance.

♪ ♪

- When I finally got \hin that position,

\h\h\h\hI always wondered if the fans wanted to see

a black champion.

\h\h\hWCW hadn’t had a black champion since Ron Simmons.

It was a lot of questions \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin my mind,

you know, if the fans really, \h\h\hreally wanted to see me

in that position.

I’m just so happy

that people looked past \h\hmy color and said,

"This is the guy."

♪ ♪

- Booker T and Jeff Jarrett

brawling through the crowd.

[indistinct shouting]

Two, three!

[cheers and applause]

- We’ve got a new champion! \h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Oh, my God,

Booker T’s the world champion!

- The crowd erupted. \h\hThey went crazy.

\h\hI was like, "Wow, man, they really care about me.

They really wanted \hto see me win."

\h\h\hIt was a moment that changed my life.

[dramatic music]

- It’s one of my most fond \h\hmemories in my career.

I’m the guy that Booker beat to become the world champion

for his very first time around.

I’m pretty proud of that.

♪ ♪

- He became champion,

\h\h\h\h\hand it was a great crowning achievement for him

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hevolving and elevating himself,

and Booker T, especially for black boys and girls

who watched wrestling, \h\h\h\h\hhe is a hero.

♪ ♪

- Booker has so much respect \h\h\h\h\hfrom all the guys

and girls in the locker room

that when he came back through \h\hthe curtain after winning,

people were standing there \h\h\h\h\h\hand applauding.

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

It just really was \ha special moment

to finally see him \h\hrise to the top

because he really deserved it.

- Look at the fans standing,

and they’re raising the roof \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith Booker T,

the world heavyweight \h\h\h\h\h\hchampion.

What a moment in WCW history \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthis is!

- WWE was synonymous

\h\h\h\h\hwith the best in sports entertainment.

\h- How you doing, pal? - I’m fine, thank you.

- And now we were being challenged,

\hso it creates an atmosphere of having to fight from underneath,

\h\h\h\h\hcreating new and unique storylines

new and unique talents,

\h\h\hand changing the way we looked at the business.

♪ ♪

- It made WWE regroup,

\h\htaking the gloves off and changing what the company was

\hand going with the Attitude Era.

♪ ♪

\h\h- Oh, my. - Oh, my God.

- Good lord, have mercy.

- Somebody’s gonna get \h\htheir ass whipped!

When that energy comes out, \hthat intensity comes out,

\h\h\h\hand I look like an ass-kicking machine,

it was all about the attitude.

- Stone Cold is here!

Oh, yeah!

He got McMahon!

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Ahh! - What do you think about that?

Huh?

♪ ♪

- A badass locker room \h\h\h\h\hfull of men

who had starved,

kicked, scratched,

clawed to get to the top

and who weren’t afraid \hto go out on a limb

and push the envelope.

- Oh, my God!

- The Rattlesnake \h\h\hhas struck!

[indistinct shouting]

- When we started kicking \h\h\h\h\h\hthe WCW’s ass,

you know, we just took off,

and their infrastructure was \h\h\h\h\hkind of unorganized

and kinda started falling \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hapart,

and then we just crushed them,

and then later on down the road \h\hVince would buy the company

\h\h\h\h\h\hfrom Ted Turner for pennies on the dollar.

\h\h- I, Vince McMahon, bought my competition.

That’s right.

I own WCW.

- They raised the flag, and they said, "We won.

The war is over."

- For all of us at World Championship Wrestling,

\h\h\h\h\ha historic day in sports entertainment.

This is the last "Nitro" \hon the Turner Network,

so we’re going out with a bang, \h\hall the titles on the line.

\h\h\h- I didn’t know what was gonna happen.

I didn’t see it coming \h\h\htill that night.

I found out that I was gonna \hbe going out a dual champ.

♪ ♪

They closed the company down

\h\h\h\h\h\has World Champion and as United States Champion.

- Picks him up, Booker T, \h\h\h\hlands on his feet.

He’s got him! \h\hBook end!

\h- Book end! - Here it is!

One, two, could it be it? \h\h\h\h\h\h\hYes, it is!

- Yes, yes!

\h\h\h- Booker T is WCW World Champion!

- That is the last \h"Monday Nitro,"

what a night for Booker T.

\h\h- I didn’t feel sad like everybody else did.

I lost my mother \hwhen I was 13,

\h\h\hso I always knew nothing lasts forever.

I remember one the guys actually talking to me,

\h\h\hand he literally had tears in his eyes,

and he’s like, "Man, Book, it’s the end of WCW, man.

It’s over."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe goes, "Man, what are you gonna do, man?

What are you gonna do?"

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI said, "Man, I’m going to WWE."

\h\h\h\h\h\h[laughs] You know what I mean?

What else could I do?

♪ ♪

[laughs]

- I don’t think we knew

that we were gonna keep Booker, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhad no idea.

When you’re looking at the talent base

and you’re looking at talent \h\h\h\h\h\hthat’s available,

all of these top-tier talents

\h\hchose to stay on their AOL Time Warner contract,

\h\h\hstay at home, collect their money,

not go to work.

- I sat at home for 17 months

and got paid bank--bank.

- But then you have a guy, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBooker T,

who did have a pretty good \h\h\hguaranteed contract

\h\h\h\h\h\hwho said, "Man, I want to work.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h\hI want to be a star on the biggest platform I can."

- I was a performer. \h\h\h\hI was talent.

Something I tell young people \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hall the time,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know, believe in your talent.

Do not forsake your talent.

Going into the WWE locker room,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthose guys didn’t too much care for us.

They wasn’t gonna treat us \h\h\hspecial or anything.

They didn’t want us there, \h\hand I understood that.

I was ready to go out there \h\h\h\hand show those guys

I was just as good \has I said I was.

- Booker had enough confidence \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin himself

to step up and say, \h\h\h"Put me in."

[cheering]

- Wait a minute! \hWhat the hell?

[cheering]

- Booker T,

he’s the WW--WCW champion.

- The WCW champion

\h\h\hhas just attacked Stone Cold Steve Austin!

Oh, my God!

- Man, it was a good night \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor me,

debut, drop Steve Austin.

\h\h\h\h\h- Booker T! - I’m off and running.

Everything’s beautiful.

\h\h- Right through the announce table!

- My first thought was, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Hey, man,

Booker T just came in here,

\h\h\hhe just took away what I do for a living,"

broke three transverse \hprocesses in my back,

and I was in intense pain,

\h\h\hand I was like, "What in the eff just happened?"

[somber music]

♪ ♪

\h\hThere is that layer of hey, man, we need to watch this guy,

or is he safe to work with,

or is he gonna do that to me?

- Steve Austin had the kind of \h\h\h\h\hstroke at that time

\h\h\hin the company where he could have

went to the office and said,

\h"Man, this guy’s 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, \h\h\h\hbut I was so sweaty,

when I hit the top \h\hof that desk,

\h\hI just skipped off, and my back hit a chair.

It was an accident.

Accidents happen,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbut hey, man, anytime the lead guy goes down

and someone has done \h\hsomething to him,

yeah, you might have some heat \h\h\h\h\hon you from the boys.

\h\h- You walk in the door coming from somewhere else,

\hand you take out one of the top guys

that’s putting food on all our tables,

that’s not gonna sit well \h\hwith a lot of people

’cause most of these guys \h\h\h\h\hnever met him.

- Who in the blue hell are you?

- Coming into that company,

it wasn’t gonna be easy for me \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hby any means.

- Hell, my name is Booker--

- It doesn’t matter what your name is!

[cheers and applause]

- You can bring someone in \h\h\h\h\h\hup at the top.

It’s difficult for them \h\h\h\hto stay there,

especially when you had the kind of personality

and the kind of talent of \h\h\h\h\ha Steve Austin,

Rock, Undertaker.

- Stepping into the ring with \h\h\hthe five-time former W--

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Here we go, Booker T on the offensive!

- Booker T [inaudible] \h\h\hThe Undertaker.

\h\h\h- Rock, I would say you’re the sucka, sucka.

- Look out! Rock Bottom!

Rock Bottom! Rock Bottom!

- Book hung.

\h\h\hBook hung and said, "Y’all come on up to me."

- The bottom line is, \hif you come to WWE,

you better be able to work,

\h\h\h\h\hand Booker T could work his ass off.

\h\h\hHe wasn’t accepted just ’cause we liked him.

\h\h\h\h\hHe was accepted because he was damn good.

\h- It was kind of a Jack Nicholson,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h"Wait till they get a load of me."

Yeah, Big Henry, you better \h\h\hlace them up tonight,

\h\h’cause we finna be moving and flying and singing, baby.

The greats can’t stick \h\h\h\h\hto a script.

It’s emotional.

♪ ♪

\h- To make it real, it’s gotta look raw.

It’s gotta look uncut.

We’re close enough to the fans

\h\h\hthat want sweat to fly all over them.

♪ ♪

\h\hThat part is as real as it possibly can get.

♪ ♪

- Book has a unique ability

to relate to the audience \h\h\h\h\hand conversely,

and that’s really what you look for.

He’s a man who gave it all.

If he had an opportunity, \h\h\hhe was going for it.

- I wanted the fan that was watching

to have that same feeling \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat I did.

It was a out of body \h\h\h\hexperience.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI could tell what the fans were feeling

because I was one of them.

♪ ♪

- You would have never thought \hthat somebody with the talent

that he had in the ring,

he would have just as much \htalent behind the scenes.

You can’t just define him \h\h\h\h\has a wrestler.

He was a entertainer.

- Now, can you dig that, sucka?

[cheers and applause]

[indistinct chatter]

- Booker watches a lot of movies.

He’s always studied movies \h\h\h\h\h\hhis whole life,

whether it be kung fu movies

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor, you know, any type of action movies,

so I really do believe

that if he weren’t \h\h\h\ha wrestler,

he would definitely \h\h\hbe an actor.

- For you today. \h\h\h- [laughs]

- The doctor authentic-- \h\h\h- I’m serious, man.

- A lot of those movies were my escapes as well,

\hand I used to skip school and go to the Majestic OST,

\h\h\h\hand all those movies made me feel a certain way.

I literally would go \h\h\hto that place.

- A little bit more structure \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhere.

- I literally would be \h\h\h\hin that movie.

I knew every line. I knew every scene.

I knew what made that scene work

because of what happened \h\h\h\h\h\h\hbefore it

and what’s gonna happen after,

and that’s what wrestling \h\h\h\hhas always been.

\h\hSo for me, my WCW career was so serious all the time.

\h\hThere was never a laughing moment,

and then when I got to WWE, \h\h\h\heverything changed.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBooyah! Hey, what’s up, suckas?

Your ass is about \hto get whacked

\h\hby the five-time master Jedi champion!

Now, can you dig that, sucka?

[cheers and applause]

- He was always a comedian.

\h\h\hHe always liked to make people laugh.

- Tell me I don’t \hlook like that!

- That just came,

and we would all do little skits at home

and make up things, \h\h\hso, you know,

\h\h\h\h\h\hjust what kids do who don’t have a lot of money.

You have a great imagination.

- [exhaling sharply]

- Imagine what we could be \h\h\hand what we could do.

- [laughing]

You--you didn’t say that.

Tell me you didn’t just say that.

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

Yeah.

\h\h- It’s like the actor in a film that you’ve only seen

play a very serious, \h\h\h\hbadass role.

- Oh, my goodness.

- And then you see him \h\hin a buddy comedy,

and you’re like, \h\h"Oh, my God,

\h\h\h\h\hI had no idea this guy was so funny,"

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

- Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah-wah, \h\hwah, wah, wah, wah, wah-wah.

Look, that ain’t me, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbrother.

You know, I got to feel \h\h\hwhat I’m doing, man.

I got bass!

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou know, I got to feel, man,

can you dig it, sucka?

[cheering]

Just because you know \h\h\h\hkung fu--wah!

Doesn’t mean you know shampoo,

but that’s all about to change

\h\h\hthanks to new Yakamoshi 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.

Now let me check to see \h\h\hif they’re fresh.

- Creative tells us, \h\h\h\h\h"Hey, man,

"you and Booker are gonna \h\h\h\h\hhave this brawl

in a grocery store."

Okay.

Here’s a blank canvas \hthat Booker T and I

are gonna have an opportunity \h\h\h\h\hto paint together.

- Action.

[can pops open]

We created magic.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Austin-- Austin attacking Booker T!

[both grunting]

- Get up, Booker. \hWe ain’t done.

Want some ketchup on that ass-whupping, huh?

[both grunting]

I’m walking through the store, \hup an aisle, down an aisle.

\h\hYou’re working off of instincts...

I like shopping, Booker. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAhh!

As if you were in the ring.

You know you’re trying \hto entertain people.

Let’s go back for more burgers.

- Oh, Booker with a shot \h\hto the jaw of Austin.

- Hey, Book, you got milk?

\h- Got milk! - I’m action.

\hHe’s reaction, and his reactions

were just off-the-chart gold.

You want to burp?

[both grunting]

- This is what wrestling is \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hright here.

The stuff that we do \h\h\h\hin the ring,

\h\h\hthat’s one thing, but this is wrestling.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- By the time it was all said and done,

\h\h\h\h\hit was about $10,000 worth of damage to that store.

"Price check on a jackass,"

people still remember \h\h\h\h\hthat line.

Price check on a jackass.

[siren wailing]

- [Booker moaning]

Oh, I’ma get you.

- Booker T and I painted \h\h\h\h\h\h\ha Mona Lisa

with a bunch of damn stuff that you’d find in a grocery store.

- Who wants to see \hthe Spinaroonie?

- Who, at 6’3" and 260 pounds,

\h\hcan do, like, the Spinaroonie, you know,

\h\h\hthe break dancing move up on his shoulders, flip up and?

- It starts with the hand, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof course,

and then you drop to one knee.

All the centrifugal force \hcomes from the dreads,

\h\h\h\h\hyou know, shake-- once you shake the dreads,

\h\hit goes through the body all the way down to the legs,

which gives you torque.

- Oh, wait a minute.

I think Booker T’s \hgonna give him--

he’s on the ground,

and he’s taking a big old-- \h\hand it’s a Spinaroonie!

- A Spinaroonie! \h\h- Oh, yeah!

- Spinaroonie! \hSpinaroonie!

- Can you dig that, suckas?

♪ ♪

- The Spinaroonie in concept \his not, like, that silly.

Like, it’s a cool way to get up \h\h\h\h\hand get to your feet,

\h\h\h\hand it’s just a charismatic moment,

but over time,

the Spinaroonie kinda took on \h\h\h\h\ha life of its own.

- Everybody had a roonie.

The most infamous night was trying to get the Undertaker

to do a Taker-roonie.

\h\h\h\h\hI think it’s time for the Undertaker-roonie.

[cheers and applause]

- If you know the Undertaker,

like, he don’t come out \h\hof character ever.

- I tried to get him to do it.

You know, I tell the fans, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

get the fans hyped up.

Get up!

[cheers and applause]

[fans chanting]

And Taker looks at me, \h\h\h\h\hand he goes,

"I’m gonna kill you."

All the named players on the card come out,

and literally,

we’re 30 minutes after \h\hwe’re off the air

trying to get the Undertaker \h\h\hto do the Spinaroonie.

Everybody does the Spinaroonie.

- You want to see the Rock \h\h\hdo the Rock-a-roonie?

[cheers and applause]

- There ain’t no way in hell

\h\h\h\hyou could do something like that.

♪ ♪

- Vince McMahon.

He does the worst Spinaroonie \h\h\hI ever seen in my life.

♪ ♪

Out of all the wrestlers,

I’ve gotten everyone to do it, \h\h\h\hexcept the Undertaker.

He’s the only one, still to this day.

- There ain’t a chance in hell \h\h\h\hI’m gonna get out there

and do the Spinaroonie,

so you might better \hsend the cavalry.

♪ ♪

\h\h- Booker T had done [mysterious piano music]

\h\h\h- My first son, he’s 35 years old now,

\h\h\h\h\hwe had a somewhat of a rough life growing up,

and I thought it was due to me \h\h\hbeing on the road a lot,

being on the road wrestling, \h\h\h\h\h\hnot being there.

\h\h\h\h\hWhen I got in the wrestling business,

he went to stay with my sister.

- When he’d get a weekend off, \h\hhe would fly from Atlanta,

and he’d come back to Houston,

and they’d spend time together,

\h\h\h\hstill trying to get a relationship with his son.

It’s just a process.

\h\hI’m sure they had their ups and downs.

- My son turned 16, \h\h\h17 years old,

and that’s when it really got \h\h\htough 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 \h\h\h\h\h\h\hright now.

He’s sitting in a jail cell,

you know, waiting to see

exactly what’s gonna happen \hwith his life, you know?

You know, he’s still my son.

I’m still there for him.

♪ ♪

It was totally different \h\h\hwhen I had my son

because I was a kid myself, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou 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 a image

\hthat I wanted him to actually be like,

but I didn’t have the tools \h\h\h\hto actually be able

to teach him everything that he needed to know,

\h\hespecially from a educational side.

♪ ♪

\h\h- He was so young, a young single parent

without a wife, \hworking hard,

\hbuilding up his career, a lot of time on the road,

\h\hbut then when that second phase of his life came around,

there was different dynamics

\h\h\hthat played into the role of fatherhood.

\h\h- Booker T! - Hey, Booker!

- He was stable.

He was more established \h\h\h\h\hin his career.

He married a wonderful woman.

- All right.

♪ ♪

Booker and I were married

February 5, 2005.

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

I only had, I think, \h\h\h\hthree months

\h\hto plan the wedding because of our schedule.

Most women want to have a year \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto plan

and find the perfect dress \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand all that.

I didn’t have time \hfor any of that.

It was definitely a whirlwind

and then right back to work \h\h\h\hthe following week.

- I was gonna quit the company \hright after we got married.

I didn’t want to be away \h\h\h\h\hfrom Sharmell.

\h\h\hI didn’t want to be on the road all the time.

\h\h- He was considering cutting back on his work,

\h\h\h\hand 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 action figures

’cause I know you’ve had action figures before,

but this was my very first one.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah. - This is amazing.

How many husbands and wives do you think have this?

- Yeah, it’s crazy, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyeah.

- He’s always called me \h\h\h\h\h\h\hhis queen,

so we kinda just transitioned \h\h\h\h\hthat into wrestling.

\h\h\h\hThe true life stories make for the best work, right?

So it kinda just easily flowed \h\h\h\h\h\h\hinto King Booker

and Queen Sharmell.

All hail King Booker!

- Oh, look at this!

- Oh, must be good--must be nice to be the king.

- It was just entertaining.

It was something that people \h\h\hhad never seen before,

\hand 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 \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand just,

\h\h\h\hlike, prancing around, elegant and classy and pompous,

contradictory on every level.

I thought it was brilliant.

[regal music]

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

so much fun,

but man, this fool’s crazy.

He really is crazy.

- He would just open up \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe cape,

and he’d have his scepter, and he’d just twirl around

and look so very majestic.

All of the little things \h\h\h\h\h\hthat he did

\h\h\h\h\h\hreally made that character amazing.

- This guy is walking around \h\h\h\h\hlike he’s royalty,

holding his pinkie \h\hup in the air.

\h- I think he was just making it up as he goes.

- As I ponder.

\h- He started speaking in a bad British accent.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Has become a much, much better place since I,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKing Booker, has become ruler of it.

\h\h\h\h\h- He was almost like Kevin Costner in "Robin Hood."

\h\hLike, he would float in and out of the accent.

- If you got him too angry,

\h\h\hthen his British accent went right back to the hood.

- It’s going to be \h\hin a steel cage.

- Oh, hell no!

- What? Oh, baby, baby.

- Hell no! Oh, hell no! - \h\hCome on, baby, you--

- Oh, oh, oh. \h\h\h\h\h\hOh, oh.

People would actually treat me \h\h\h\h\hlike a king as well.

\h\hI don’t think I paid for a meal the whole year

I was King Booker anywhere.

\h- This is Booker T reaching that nirvana

of character development,

\h\h\hthe culmination of all of Booker T’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 gotta give him \h\h\hthe championship.

He became champion \h\has King Booker,

and it is as memorable

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\has anything he’s ever done in wrestling.

- The poor kid from Houston, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hTexas,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhas risen to the top of the world.

- All hail King Booker!

♪ ♪

- King!

Booker!

[laughter]

Ooh, give me some, baby.

♪ ♪

[camera shutter snaps]

- Watch out, now. And...

We know that...

\h\h\h- [laughs] - You look great.

We’re the one person \h\hwe can count on

\h\h\h\h\hwhen all else fails, and we really hold that dear.

[light music]

\h\h\h\h- For us, it’s been a team effort since day one,

\h\hus pulling together and now having twins...

\h\h\hHey, guys. A boy and a girl,

eight years old,

\hI never imagined in a million years

that her and I would have \h\h\hkids running around.

It’s pretty, pretty special.

Good day at school today?

- Yeah. - Yeah?

\h\hI’ve been practicing all day long, yeah, baby.

[laughs] \h\h- No.

- [laughing]

You know, Sharmell and I,

we tried to have kids \h\h\hfor three years,

and things just didn’t work out,

\h\h\hand then, you know, instead of one, you know,

God blessed us with two.

♪ ♪

\h\hI’ve watched them grow over the last eight years

\hand not being on the road wrestling

\hon a weekly basis in a different town.

- How do you do a Spinaroonie?

Whoa!

[clapping]

[laughter and chatter]

- That part right there, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI think,

has been more special \h\h\hthan anything.

♪ ♪

\h\h- Wait. [laughter]

Okay, don’t eat it all at one time.

- I’m not. - [laughs]

- I was working on prefixes \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand suffixes.

- So how much did Tessa save? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Seven.

- $7? And how much did-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- $7.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Mm-hmm. - $7 and $7, so $14.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- In some aspects, our kids are polar opposites,

\hbut they’re both extremely talented

and so very, very smart.

Booker is an amazing dad.

He’s so playful with the kids.

- Come on!

[laughing]

Finish him! \h\h- Yes!

- Oh, no.

- My son, Kendrick, \h\his 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. \h\h- [laughs]

Oh, my God.

- I’m very fortunate

for the way our kids \h\hare growing up,

and we’re just afforded \h\h\h\h\h\hthis family

that Booker, unfortunately, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdidn’t have

when he was growing up.

- You got it! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! \h\h\h\h\h- Oh, no!

- Yes! Yes! [laughter]

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Of course, Booker cooks really well.

He can cook better than me.

That’s the only time \h\hI’ll admit that.

So I’ll tell you what I can do.

I can turn the oven on \hfor the French fries.

- I get anxiety maybe three days

before I have to leave \h\h\h\hon a one-day trip.

\hI literally--I’ll be sitting here, and I go,

"Man, I can’t wait \h\h\hto get back,"

\h\h\hand I haven’t even gone. - And he hasn’t even left yet,

\h\h\h\h\h\hYeah. - [laughs] So...

- Every time.

- Because I do love \h\h\hbeing a dad.

I do love being at home.

\h\hThat’s what’s cool about, you know, this stage of life,

\h\h\h\hand I can honestly say, you know, it’s the best stage.

\h\h\hI do want the memories that my son and my daughter

have of their dad

\h\h\hbe something that’s gonna catapult them throughout life.

They’re gonna know exactly \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwhat it’s--

what it means to be a dad.

They’re gonna know exactly what it means to be a mom,

\hand that right there, at the end of the day,

you know, we’ve done our job.

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h\h- Let’s bring in now our two-time WWE Hall of Famer,

our good friend, of course, \h\hBooker T, to the panel.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Whoo! - Let’s see those rings.

- Which one of these? \hWhere my camera at?

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Right there. - Right there? Oh. [laughs]

- Look at all that gold.

- Congratulations, sir, \h\h\h\h\hlast night--

- If you know Booker,

I’ve never seen the guy \h\h\h\hin a bad mood.

♪ ♪

- That feels good right there.

- Sports entertainment \h\h\his in his blood.

- Coming to the final chapter \h\h\h\h\h\hof Wrestlemania.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- To see the guy that I first met in the ’90s

and to know Booker now,

\h\h\h\h\h\hhis legacy just continues to grow

because he’s one of the guys \h\hthat wants to give back,

that is giving back.

- And I understand exactly what you’re talking about.

\h\h\h\h\hIt will eat you all week thinking about that, I swear.

- I appreciate the words of wisdom.

- Holla. Stay up.

I love being around the events \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto be a mentor.

- Off the European tour.

- Shine some knowledge, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know,

let these guys sit under \h\h\hthe learning tree.

- An African-American kid coming up, you know,

wanting to do what you were doing.

\hIt was--it was always a sense of motivation,

so I’m just trying to-- trying to pay it forward.

- So you gotta be champion \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the ring

as well as out of the ring, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hall the time.

It doesn’t cost you anything \h\hto be nice to people, man,

and it’ll take you \h\h\hso far in life,

so definitely, man, just keep \h\h\h\h\h\hdoing what you do, bro.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah. - I love the business,

\h\h\hand the business have given me so much.

- Oh!

- It starts right here.

I had a dream back in 2005.

\hI said, "One day I’m gonna open up

my own wrestling school.

I’m gonna teach kids \h\hthe proper way."

Good job, Callie, good job.

We come here Monday \h\hthrough Friday.

The gym’s open from normally \h\h\h\h\h\haround 6;00 p.m.

\h\h\h\hIt goes till the last man leaves.

\h\h\hBang, all right? It’s gotta be that big.

That’s the thinking part, guys.

\h\h\h\h\hYou’re trying to think storytelling.

This is my livelihood. \h\hThis is what I do.

This is my trade.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMy knowledge is never gonna go away.

And then bam.

I loved doing that spot right \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthere

almost more than any spot \h\h\h\h\hthat I ever did

in professional wrestling, \h\h\h\h\h\hI swear to God.

Pop the crowd to where they go, \h\h\h"Wow, that was awesome."

Add a little bit more on it. \h\h\h\h\hIt means something.

Think about the guy in the cheap seats.

I want my youngsters \h\h\h\h\hto be able

to create their own stories.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hOkay, bro. - I want to be with you,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbrother. - Hey, man, welcome to the club.

- Thank you.

- That’s what it all \h\hstarted out as,

and then it manifested into

\h\hus having our own wrestling promotion.

♪ ♪

\h- This is really exciting. We have a huge crowd tonight,

\hand all of our hard work, I know it’s gonna pay off,

and we’re gonna have \h\h\h\ha great show.

- Yeah, do you hear that crowd \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbehind us?

They’re getting ready \h\hto have some fun.

[indistinct shouts]

Then our fans coming to see \hour own homegrown talent,

they are the stars of the show.

[indistinct shouts]

I mean, we got something here,

and we could take this thing \h\h\h\hto the next level...

♪ ♪

And we’re on our way.

♪ ♪

- Hey! [indistinct shout]

- [laughs]

- He had all the odds \h\h\h\h\hagainst him.

If you were to pick out \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe kid

that was gonna end up dead \h\hby the time he was 30,

you would probably pick \h\h\hBooker 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 \hover here I can take,"

\h\h\hand the rewards matched the hard work that he put in.

♪ ♪

He is a real-life \hsuccess 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%!

Hey!

\h- 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’s just a survivor,

\h\hand when you see Booker T, you take people at face value,

\h\h\hand you believe in redemption stories.

\h- Those kids who told me I wasn’t gonna be anything,

I look back on them now,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand I say, "How do you like me now?"

Guys, all of you gonna \h\h\h\h\hget a chance

to make it through that.

Don’t let anyone stop you

from making...

[cheering]

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\h- Statistically, he wasn’t supposed to be

\h\h\h\h\hon that stage at Madison Square Garden

\h\h\h\hbeing inducted into the Hall of Fame.

\h\hThat made it all the more special, because he made it.

He made it.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- I always ask God, you know, \h\h\h\h\h\hwhy me, you know?

I’ve always asked God, \h\h\hyou know, why me?

♪ ♪

30 years later, it’s really, \h\hreally hard to explain.

♪ ♪

\h\hThe safest place that I could ever be

was in the middle of the ring \h\h\h\h\hpainting my Picasso.

♪ ♪

I always wanted to perform \h\hat the highest level,

and I wanted to be remembered

making people feel a certain \h\hway when they watch me.

♪ ♪

[inaudible]

♪ ♪

\h\h\h\hAnd if you guys, the fans are enjoying it

\h\h\hand having a good time, we’re doing something right.

That’s what it’s always \h\hbeen about with me.

♪ ♪

Now, can you dig that...

all: Sucka!

♪ ♪

- I just want to say it’s on

like a big pot of neck bone, baby.

I’m gonna put you in the pot like I do the neck bone.

I’m gonna stir it up, and it’s gonna be on, daddy.

We gonna turn the thing up to 1,000 degrees,

and we gonna burn everybody!

Five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time,

five-time WCW champion!

Now, can you dig that?

[crowd cheering]

Sucka!