Booker T Profile

Booker T is definitely one of the most well known wrestlers around the world. His real name is Booker Huffman and was born on March 1st 1965. Needless to say that he is wrestling for TNA at the moment as we all know that already. What is interesting is that he currently owns the Houston based wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Alliance and he is, of course, best known for his wrestling days in WCW and WWE.

There are a lot of things that people do not know about professional wrestler Booker T. For instance, he is also a former amateur boxer. He showed some boxing skills in a commercial for 1-800-COLLECT and Sharmell is his second wife. His first one was Levestia. She also got involved in his wrestling life in WCW in a feud against Jeff Jarrett. What is interesting is that Booker T dated Sharmell for 5 years before marrying her. Booker even wanted to retire in 2005 due to a traveling schedule that kept him from his home life. It was Sharmell that helped him and toured with him, aiding his wrestling career to continue. To combine everything, Huffman is also a drum major and played basketball and touch football. He was also jailed for nineteen months because he robbed a Wendy's fast food store. His life has not been a regular one to say the least.

Booker T's wrestling career is filled with successes. He won a total of 6 world championships in WCW and the WWE. He also won the King of the Ring tournament in WWE in 2006 and the sixteen WWE Triple Crown Champion is a title he also holds. His tag team career is also one that was filled with a lot of success. A lot of people remember his tag team with brother Lane "Stevie Ray" Huffman, the well known Harlem Heat tag team. The tag team of Harlem Heat won the WCW World Tag Team title 10 times. To make it even better, Booker T actually won a total of 14 world tag team titles in the WCW and WWF. We will all remember the fights they had with the team of the Steiner Brothers and Sting and Lex Luger for sure, not to mention the small feuds with the Outsiders and Public Enemy, of course.

Many people feel that Booker T was not used right in the WWE and I do tend to agree. On the other hand we also got to see Booker's profesionalism. He did work hard to become well known in the WWE as he was coming from WCW and this was a problem in itself. The King Booker character was surely hated by most of his fans and it was a blessing, at least it was for me, when he went to TNA and became Booker T again. Well, no matter how much you criticize everything, Booker T is still one of the most sucessful wrestlers ever and we will all remember his signature and finishing moves. This includes the Book End (kneeling side slam), the Scissors Kick, 110th Street Slam (a high angle delayed spinebuster), the arm twist followed by a hook kick, the Harlem Kick (Jumping superkick), the Houston Hangover (Also known as Harlem Hangover - a diving summersault leg drop), the jumping high-angle hook kick to a running opponent, the running knee drop, the missle dropkick, the spinning crescent kick, the Spinarooni and the Sidewalk Slam. Booker T was managed during his wrestling years by The Boss Man, Col. Robert Parker, Shane McMahon, Midnight, Sister Sherri, Sharmell and Jacqueline.

If you want to know more about Booker T you should visit his official web site: www.bookertonline.com

TNA Slammiversary 2008 Review

OK! TNA Slmmiversary is over and I took my time to write my own review because I was a little unsatisfied with it all. The good news is that overall, the wrestling was great, as always with TNA but it felt it had something missing. The first match, Kaz vs Petey Williams was pretty good, just as we would expect from the two. It was obvious that Scott Steiner would get involved but what was not really expected was the end. Petey Williams won, of course, but what was special was the ending that saw Kaz getting beat up and Abyss appearing out of the blue. Then we had the 6 man tag team match that featured the TNA Knockouts, a match that was good but it did feel as simply something extra that needed to be there as the knockouts are popular in wrestling.

Now the next match was one that I wanted to see: LAX vs Team 3D. Needless to say that it is quite special to see LAX with that lovely knockout near them (not to mention she delivered a What's up to Team 3D) and Hector Guerrero of course. As I expected this wrestling match was pretty good with a lot of interference and good double team moves and an ending that was definitely unexpected. Homicide with a quick roll up and LAX maintains the belts.

Awesome Kong then had 2 matches and she also laid out Elvis. That was quite hilarious but the matches against Kong from this invitational are not that entertaining. We basically see Kong destroying every single woman. Now the entire Elvis part was not entertaining at all from my point of view although it is always nice to see that Awesome Bomb delivered. Then we had the wedding with Jay Lethal, something we all knew how it was going to turn out, just like the Edge and Vickie Guererro wedding that will happen in the WWE. Everything was long and the former wrestlers doing it like crazy, including the snake and it all. Not that great but not bad on the whole.

Now the next match was the one that I personally wanted to see: Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles. The entire storyline was well built and these two wrestlers are very good, with a lot of technical skill. We did expect a great match and it was, although it was not the best these two can give. There is the question of whether or not Kurt Angle is 100% but still, by just looking at the entire match we can realize that this is not over. As I expected, AJ Styles won the match after a distraction by Karen Angle. AJ got beat up afterwards but still, a great way to continue a feud.

Next we had the main event: the King of the Mountain match, a very unique one in professional wrestling, one that is sure to be of high quality, no matter what happens. As expected, Kevin Nash got involved in the match but it was all made so that Booker T would have the opening towards a feud with Samoa Joe. Kevin Nash cost Booker the title when he got involved and Samoa Joe retains the title. A pretty good pay per view on the whole but still, I do have the feeling that for a Slammiversary pay per view, TNA could have done better.

Why Sting did not go to WWE

A lot of people keep speculating even now in connection to why Sting did not go to the WWE. He was definitely one of the best wrestlers that WCW had to offer but we all know that Sting was not into WWE and their storylines. Here is a little clip of Sting talking about why he did not go to the WWE. I thought you might want to watch it:

WWE Without the Undertaker

The One Night Stand main event saw The Undertaker fight Edge in a match type that he never competed in before: tables ladders and chairs, one that Edge is an expert in as he competed in a lot of them, just like Tomy Dreamer in the Singapore Cane match. Now the match was truly spectacular and we saw The Undertaker performing an incredible wrestling match and he even went through 4 tables at once when he was pushed off a ladder to the outside of the ring. That was an incredible sight and it did remind me of Mick Foley being thrown off the cage in that huge Hell in a Cell Math some years ago. Now I think most people expected Undertaker to win and the fact that he lost and was forced to retire from the WWE (a part of the storyline, of course) was totally unexpected. It is clear that The Undertaker needed to take some time off and it does look like his injuries are nagging him and it might even be possible that he picked up some more when falling through those tables. In any case, nobody knows when the Undertaker will be back in competition but it is clear that he will come back. This "being forced to leave the WWE" is something that could not have been done to end the career of a wrestler that has been a symbol of WWE his entire life. We all expect the phenom to come back to wrestling and resume his feud with Edge, one that has really been well built with the entire La Familia and Vickie Guerrero although it does make me sick to my stomach to see Eddie Guerrero's wife kissing Edge in such a passionate way. Still, this is supposed to be entertainment and the WWE have really put a great show in this Undertaker versus Edge feud!

William Regal to Leave USA?

William Regal has been living in USA since 1992 but the interesting thing is that he is not a legal US citizen. This basically means that a third strike in the Wellness Policy of the WWE could mean that William Regal would have his contract terminated. Such a fact might make the wrestler have to find a new full-time job or he would not be able to live in US anymore.

In the past we saw Regal quickly finding a job whenever he was let go. He was let go from WCW in 1998 and he quickly started working for the WWE. Then, in APril 1999 he was let go from the WWE and landed a job with WCW. Then, in February 2000 he went back to WWE. The problem is that the only real options that Regal would have if his contract would be terminated stand in TNA and Ring of Honor. These are the only 2 US companies that employ full time wrestlers. There is a possibility that TNA would hire Regal but that is not certain so in this case, if the wrestler gets his WWE contract terminated he needs to either find some work with one of these companies or do something else that is not linked with professional wrestling. A similar thing already happened in the past when at the end of 2006 Psicosis was not able to find a job in the states and had to go to Mexico. It is highly possible that this would happen to William Regal if he is not careful.