Booker T

[6.0] "Booker T had some very high highs but I feel like there's a lot of pockets in his career that have been huge lulls too. Not to mention, I cannot stand his commentary. Definitely one of the better acts in late WCW and he had some solid runs during his WWE time too, especially King Booker and the Goldust tag team."

[7.0] "As a wrestler I'd give him about a 7, he was in the upper average range for his time and he had surprising athleticism for his size and a unique moveset. His promos were actually pretty good, in fact he had some memorable promos back in the early 2000s.He has also contributed in a pretty big way to wrestling with his school Reality of Wrestling. As a commentator he is absolutely beyond horrible and annoying! He almost never has anything meaningful or insightful to say, embarrasses himself often and mainly just blabbers the same exact pointless catchphrases over and over again in his unusually hoarse voice. He actually so bad at commentating that he makes Pat Macafee seem good and he makes me want to mute NXT."

[5.0] "honestly, I've never been a fan of him. his personality just doesn't click with me, always seemed a bit overhyped! in the ring he was pretty normal and acceptable. but overally, I don't see anything so special in him that really stands out. so for me, he's a 5."

"Booker was decent as a wrestler, but he is easily the worst color commentator in wrestling. How can someone be a "young OG, " for example? You can't. Oxymoron. Another peeve...He needs to watch some Deion Sanders footage from his NFL playing days to figure out what "high stepping" really is. He just annoys me the majority of the time. If NXT is the training ground, then why isn't a younger person learning/doing color commentary? Let Booker focus on training or collecting wrestling artifacts."

[7.0] "Rock solid wrestler and performer who had a role and always nailed it in many spots, but gets a ZERO as a commentator. You have to listen to NXT on mute thanks to Booker T. In fact, he drops from an 8 career to a 7 rating only because his absolutely terrible work on commentary. "YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH MAAAAAANNNNNNN""

[2.0] "As a wrestler in Harlem Heat and on his own, he's a 6. As a promo guy, he's a 2. He has a fun catchphrase but he never had a great promo. No, accidentally calling Hogan the n word isn't great. It's funny, but memes are for children. As an announcer he's fucking horrible. He's just as bad as Pat McAfee for someone not on a one off broadcast or very short term like Rob Bartlett. He's inarticulate and for someone who actually wrestled, sounds like he's watching it for the first time. For the last year I don't know if he has CTE or some kind of cognitive issue but many times during matches he simply grunts and mumbles. Or if he sees Stephanie Vaquer's ass he has a meltdown like a 14 year old looking at his first naked tiddy."

[4.0] "He's good when he tries to make you laugh with or at him but when he's being serious he has some terrible promos & an average worker in the ring.I just never got him growing up, was never my thing, average on the mic"

[7.0] "Magnificent talent in the ring. A shining light in the dark abyss that was death-spiral WCW (one stupid feud over letters of the alphabet aside). An honest crime against common sense that he didn't go over Triple H at Mania XIX, a match that spawned multiple narratives about Vince, Triple H, and Booker himself. But ever since he hung up his boots? That's a whole different story. Annoying supplicant to the company line -- it's 2025, Booker, there's no reason for you to defend Vince McMahon dropping racial slurs with a hard-r in front of your face! -- and on commentary, the only thing that makes you reach for the remote to mute the TV quicker is Saraya's theme tune. Between years of "shucky ducky quack quack" on pre-show panels, months of gooning over any female NXT wrestler, and his inane comments with no substance? Jesus Christ, I'd rather have Pat McAfee on the headset. The longer he's behind the desk, the more damage he does to his legacy."

[8.0] "It's frustrating what a mealy-mouthed company man Book's become, because in his day he was fucking electric. Among the many tragedies of WCW's decline and eventual collapse is that he never got a solid run in a top spot which showed off his athletic prime."

[8.0] "Booker T was special. He was one of the very few to quickly enter WWE (WWF at the time) after WCW was purchased by Titan Sports. As far as I'm concerned, he is the only star from WCW who excelled in WWE. I wish he had more Wrestlemania moments in his career, he deserved to win over Triple H at Wrestlemania XIX. Still a multi-time World Champion in WCW/WWE, he was OVER for his entire run. Even when he shifted to King Booker he took it and ran with it. He had memorable feuds, and routinely has gotten big pops since 2001. He also is a great commentator, he offers a unique perspective and character to the announce team on NXT these days. Overall, I believe he could have had more main event matches but he still accomplished a lot. Tons of charisma and had the crowd in his hands. SUCKA!"

[10.0] "Booker is massively underrated in pro wrestling canon and instantly sticks out in my mind when I think of the greatest wrestlers of all time. His work across both tags and singles has withstood the test of time and he's easily one of the three or four top talents ever produced in WCW. Now that I think about it, is Booker legit just the most decorated wrestler point blank period? He clawed his way to the top of both of the biggest promotions in history and convincingly dominated every single role there is for a wrestler to play, from the undercard titles up to the world championship. If we're talking ring work, it's challenging to think of a heavyweight from any era more athletically impressive than Booker, whose agility seemingly defied physics and was only enhanced when paired with someone like Stevie Ray. As far as his character/persona, he was already solid on the mic essentially right out the gate in WCW (as Hulk Hogan would notoriously find out) but when he went to WWE Vince was able to unearth all of his latent abilities and then some. From the hilarious spout-offs with guys like Goldust and The Rock to the unhinged King Bookah run, it felt like Booker was only a hair below the pantheon of shit talkers like Flair and Jericho by the time it was all said and done. My only reservation with Book is that I really wish he would have spent the last few years of his singles run in WWE rather than TNA, it felt like he left right when he became a cornerstone of the company."

"(Review of only his commentary): Up there with one of the worst colour-commentators. He often makes mistakes, or says something unintentionally funny. He interrupts his fellow commentary team all the time, and it feels like he always needs to say something, even if he has nothing of importance to say. When the match allows for it, he can be entertaining, but having him on every week is a big reason why I don't watch NXT each week. I won't give him an official rating since i'm only basing it off his commentary. [2/10]"

"Booker T had arguably the most unique wrestling style in history, and had endless charisma in the ring. You could have him wrestle in a full body suit, and be able to tell it's Booker in about 2 seconds. Body always looked great, never gassed out, moves were crisp and stiff, with good psychology ESPECIALLY in tag matches. As far as "in ring" performers go, he is a top 10 to me for sure. Promos, and segments he was hilarious, and because he was having a good time, it rubbed off on the audience, and we had a good time watching him. One of the all time greats for sure... NOW CAN YOU DIG THAT?"

[8.0] "Booker T to me was always a B+ worker for WCW from his days in Harlem Heat and then proving himself to be a solid singles wrestler as well. I think however his push to the main event in 2000 was more of a case that all the other top guys were jumping ship. I mean how much more ironically symbolic can it get that the show where Booker won his first world title in WCW was the one where Hulk Hogan publicly quit the company. In WWE of all wrestlers brought over from the WCW buyout, Booker T was the one who had the less "stink" of WCW on him enough to get a brief push as world champion."

[10.0] "I cant believe I have to put a comment on why Booker deserves a 10. One of the most innovative wrestlers of all time and shouldve won multiple world titles in WWE. His King Booker character is also of course extremely great because of his acting. Also made any tag match he was part of fantastic as he has great tag match psychology."

[6.0] "As a wrestling standpoint, I'd give him an 8 or 9 for WCW, he was one of the best on the ending roster and an underrated talent for the rest of his way through, WWE I would give him a 6, since the whole time he was more annoying once he stopped hanging around with Goldust and the Stone Cold feud, his work as King Booker is completely over rated and he is honestly one of the worst kings IMO, half for sharmell alone, who had no place in WWE, never did, never will. TNA was completly botched, but short enough to where it doesn't matter. His training I'll give credit too, Roxxy is one of my all-time favorite women's wrestlers. But then we get to the commentary, this is so abismal he needs to drop down a lot, he ruins the show, brings a sour taste to everything, and needs to get taken off there ASAP. I woulda dropped him down to a 2 or 4 if it weren't for WCW."

[8.0] "8 Growing up I started watching wrestling when I was about 11 years old. WCW was the only thing on tv here in Belgium and I quickly became a fan. My favorite wrestler was Booker T. Around that time (must have been 99, 00, 01 that I watched) Booker T was a main event singles wrestler and I fondly remember him as World Heavyweight Champion. I basically missed his time as part of Harlem Heat and knew nothing about it. Since then I've watched just about everything from Booker. I watched his WWE run, the grocery store brawl, King Booker, I even watched his tna stuff. I'm not very familiar with Reality of Wrestling but I'm aware of it and his Hall of Fame podcast. That being said, recently I tried to reminisce about all the great Booker T matches... And than I realized... I couldn't really think of many. A large part of that is because WCW wasn't really build on having great matches at that time. But honestly Booker T's career wasn't really because he was the greatest in ring talent. He was very good, but not one of the greats. Booker T's legacy is mostly build on his character work. His promo's, his look, his charisma, his ability to adapt (tag team player, singles player, serious main event star, comedy stuff... he did everything) and the fact that everything he did was different. He looked different, he talked different, every move he did looked different than anyone else. He was extremely athletic with those long legs of his for a guy his size. He's still one of my favorites of all time. Lack of great matches throughout his career keeps him from truly being one of the greatest. Everything else was top notch."

[7.0] "Booker T was very talented as his best of 7 series in WCW with Benoit showed, but we didn't see that talent enough, late WCW had no idea how to showcase talent and this hurt what should have been Booker's prime, in WWE he was decent but again, never really showcased."

[9.0] "Booker T was one of the few things that was good about WCW in it's dying days where he was a breakout singles wrestler after a lot of years teaming with his brother in Harlem Heat and was the last champion with the company. He rose above the many bad stop/start pushes he got in the WWE and got himself over because he was very charismatic and his matches was always fun to watch. The 'King Booker' gimmick was a great heel gimmick that finally got him to the top. His commentary is bad, but thats not what I'm rating him on."

[8.0] "Some of these ratings and reasoning for them are crazy. Booker T is awesome, regardless as to what he says on his podcast nowadays... this is all about him as a wrestler. Didn't see any of his Harlem Heat stuff so I can't comment on that, I do know he did a pretty damn cool finisher off the top rope though. Got a big break in the final year of WCW, fully deserved too, he could've easily carried WCW on his back (well, with the help of Goldberg, Steiner, Mysterio, etc., ) around that time, but despite WCW going out of business, he picked up even more steam when going to the WWF. His debut was legendary, had so many classic moments from then onwards. The whole Goldust stuff was great, I felt like once they became a team though, it wasn't so good. Was kinda losing momentum after the HHH feud, getting drafted to SD didn't work out so well in the beginning but he really turned things around when he became King Booker. The stuff he said around that time was hilarious, great heel and really made the gimmick work. Didn't like his TNA run at all, felt like he wasn't fully invested in it. Love him on commentary, though it's not because I think he's decent... it's quite the opposite, he's pretty bad BUT he makes up for it by just being Booker T. Couldn't rate him higher than an 8 though, whilst he's a legend in wrestling, he slowed down quite a fair bit towards the end and it kind of hinders his rating for me. High 8 for sure."

[4.0] "As a wrestler, I'd give him a 7 or 8. However as a commentator, he is absolutely awful. Never gives any interesting insights and the only thing he adds to the commentary desk is over reactions and talking for the sake of talking. His commentary ruins NXT to me and I find it near unwatchable when all I hear is "let me tell you something" a million times per show. 8 out of 10 as a wrestler, 0 out of 10 for commentator so averaged out at 4 out of 10."

[10.0] "Booker T's wrestling career is a testament to his unparalleled athleticism, charisma, and longevity in the industry. Starting as one-half of the tag team Harlem Heat in WCW, Booker T quickly rose to prominence, showcasing both his in-ring prowess and microphone skills. As a singles competitor, he achieved incredible success, becoming a multi-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Booker T seamlessly transitioned to WWE, where he continued to make a significant impact, winning numerous championships and earning accolades for his captivating performances. Beyond his in-ring achievements, Booker T's contributions extend to his engaging commentary work, providing insightful analysis and entertaining fans worldwide. With a Hall of Fame career spanning decades, Booker T remains a beloved figure, leaving an enduring legacy in the world of professional wrestling."

[8.0] "Everything you gave Booker, he made the best of. There's no reason King Booker should have worked, but he leaned into it and ended up being a bright spot during a terribly boring time in wrestling. I don't think he ever got the run in WWE he deserved, and came up during the dying days of WCW, but was a great entertainer with good storytelling in the ring."

[5.0] "I really liked Harlem Heat but that was mainly because two big jacked dudes who looked tough looked cool to a small child from England. Booker T got decent at the tail end of their run. I am not really a huge fan of singles run but WWE did him dirty and it was just too chaotic when he was on top in late era WCW. He might just be the worst colour commentator of the 21st century."

[7.0] "Purely speaking from the WWE perspective and not the WCW one. Booker was a good worker , with good gimmick, good character work, mic skills, decent enough ring work. I especially loved his run as King Booker during his first and only World Championship run in WWE."

[8.0] "Booker is a very good wrestler. In the ring he was great and at times showed up the rest of the rosters he was on. He had amazing charisma and is a funny guy when he tries to be comedic. He has some controversial takes on social media at times and his commentary career was not great. He is very talented at training pro wrestlers as you can see by some of the young wrestlers he trained."

[10.0] "Booker T has had a decades-long career but it still feels like his in-ring work is underrated. From his time in Harlem Heat to being WCW champion to King Booker to Black Snow to his current role as the insane commentator on NXT, he's never not entertaining to watch."

[8.0] "Booker T had a great run as a five-time WCW World Champion, which he definitely was a good enough worker to achieve. There, he was additionally a solid tag team wrestler, achieving loads of success as part of Harlem Heat. He had some hilarious segments and storylines once coming to WWE, and perhaps his most remembered moment is being on the receiving end of Triple H's golden shovel (which he didn't deserve). He's an alright commentator and has a few funny catchphrases."

[8.0] "I don't really think it's fair to dock Booker points for his commentary (or his recent string of bad takes), because that just isn't what he's going to be remembered for. If only they actually knew how to use him in WWE until right before he left."

[8.0] "Booker T est un parfait commentateur, il commente aussi bien qu'il catchait. Il a entrainé beaucoup de jeunes talents comme Roxanne Perez."

[8.0] "Loved Harlem Heat! Booker looked like a guy who was destined to break out of the tag ranks and hit the singles and he eventually did in 98 and had a good list of matches with guys like Saturn, Martel, Benoit and Finlay. Unfortunately, Booker had that concrete ceiling that was the nWo and Goldberg and he didn't smash through to the main event scene until that controversial day in 2000 at Bash At The Beach. He finally became a champ in WCW's terminal decline period and when he went to the WWF in the buyout, they made him out to be a goof. Started turning things around with his team with Goldust, then got jobbed hard to HHH's ego at Mania 19 which royally pissed off the IWC but he managed to stick around for a few more years."

[8.0] "Like a lot of other people, I feel like Booker was held back for the most of his career. He's not a generational talent, but given the right opportunities he excels and is good at getting himself over. He's more than serviceable in the ring and really is capable of working anyone in any style. That said, he's been in plenty of mediocre-to-bad matches. His unique and distinctive offense in Harlem Heat is some really great stuff though- Harlem Heat as a tag team I think I'd give a 10. Like many, as he rose the ranks he had to take on a more conservative style which is disappointing, but he got more opportunities for character work which is where he really shines, especially in the ring. Great body language/pantomime/facial expression guy. The best of seven with [redacted] is some top tier shit, and most of his work in WCW is good. I did say he has plenty of bad matches, but when it came to pay per views, he usually delivered. Anyone decent usually had a very good match with him at a pay per view. Including the supermarket match with Austin. His Impact run is pretty good too. His character work really outshined his wrestling though. The King Booker thing was spontaneous, goofy, and fun. It's stuff like that I watch wrestling for. The only must-see stuff I would say is the Harlem Heat stuff, matches with [redacted] and Finlay in WCW, and winning the WCW title at Bash at the Beach. Now that I'm thinking of it, he really does have a lot of great matches with a lot of people, just none that are that memorably good. A few great 4 ways and free for all ladder matches too, which is tough to pull off. He's one of the best names to see is on a show, no matter what he's doing. He's love him or hate him on commentary, but I think he's a fun flavor to have in the booth, and even at his worst isn't that annoying. Keeps in the game with a surprisingly listenable podcast and his school seems to turn out some promising workers. Very much a lasting contributor to the business. Harlem Heat alone makes him hall of fame worthy in my opinion. B worker, B look, B promo. He's a pretty hard B for me. Not the best ever but rarely disappoints."

[6.0] "My experience with Booker T only began with the Invasion storyline, so maybe he was amazing in WCW, but he just never clicked with me. I think his ring work is mediocre, and unless he's in a comedic role, his promo work is similarly average. I like the spinaroonie, and he's got an all-timer entrance theme, but once the bell sounds, I'm out. Similarly, I don't care for him on commentary - I don't think he adds much to the match, and his banter and catch phrases are more distracting than anything."

[8.0] "Good commentator, GREAT performer, Booker has had an illustrious career in both WCW and WWE and deserves all the praise he gets. His commentary on NXT is usually of a good standard"

[10.0] "EDIT: He had THE best looking turnbuckle assisted sunset flip! Man I love watching this guy! I was lucky enough to have watched this man's career since its inception. Fond memories of the first time I saw The Ebony Experience on Global when I knew I was seeing a future superstar. Untouchable charisma. I loved the pairing of the two brothers as Harlem Heat with Sherri Martel, perfect combo. Despite his unorthodox style, he had great matches with all sorts of different wrestlers & styles over many years and in ring trends. Give him anything/anyone and he will make it work! Even if the rest of the show or card was rotten, Booker always put a smile on my face (well, mind you I'm trying to block out the memories of WCW Russo era here). Post WCW purchase, he was thrown into the WWF main event scene to sink or swim and did absolutely phenomenal work, especially considering the immense professional/political pressure. Who doesn't love the perfect odd couple pairing with Goldust? While it took a very long time to drag out a colorful personality from the man, once it occurred his mic skills began to flex their muscles as well. An all time personal favorite overall and some of the best ring entrance music ever! (also, he got some bonus brownie points from me as a young lad by "borrowing" alot of Iceman King Parsons material, that was one of those "little things" that always made me mark out.) I never saw "King Booker" but I hope to soon as I watch WWE from years past that I missed the first go'round. Suuuuckaaaaaaaaa!"

"The best he ever was was when he did the initial mid card wcw best of 7 with Benoit. They worked their asses off in those matches. Funny work with Austin too highlights his career. Ok announcer on Raw and smackdown but lousy on NXT."

[8.0] "I always liked Booker T's entrance theme, I remember as a kid liking his stuff, but over the years I realized it was his worst moments. I wish I could have seen him in the WCW era."

[9.0] "i love this guy. great promo and charismatic wrestler who could put on a great match as well. not a whole lot of gimmick changes, but the ones he did have were fun. a top ten talent for me personally"

[10.0] "A legendary performer who could utilise both babyface roles well such as his time in WCW and early WWE period as well as the heel role as seen with his King Booker gimmick. Boatloads of charisma as well make him an all round great performer."

[10.0] "Such an entertaining character was Booker T! Incredibly charismatic and entertaining as a babyface or heel. His angles with the Main Event Mafia, Goldust, and as King BOOKAH are some of my favorite storylines he was a part of, and Booker is a crucial reason why. Always liked his moveset, felt like he had a great variety of kicks and strikes. I really feel like they missed the mark in 2003 when he was at his highest point and really could have been a believable face World Champion in WWE, especially after proving himself in WCW for years. All of this in mind, I consider Booker T my favorite African American wrestler of all time."

[7.0] "Booker was extremely charismatic, and a great athlete. I think he was held down for too long-- it took them too long to break Harlem Heat up and to recognize Booker could make it work on his own. I also think there was something missing in his world title runs in WCW; although he was credible, I don't know if he ever managed to be the top guy in the company. By the time he got to WWE they kind of buried him and then he was past his prime. Very good career, but I'm left thinking that it could have been great with better handling."

[10.0] "Great promo most of the time, fantastic in ring work and athletic ability. Top babyface who never quite got the right breaks in wwe, though his King Booker run is right legendary"

[9.0] "Not that Booker T didn't have an illustrious career, but imagine if he got the push he deserved earlier. Fire on the mic and fire in the ring, dude looked insane and carried himself incredibly well both in tag teams and solo."

[10.0] "Boy booker t is criminally underrated. But I honestly think king booker might be the most underrated gimmick in all of professional wrestling. Him and sharmell could not have portrayed those characters any better then they did and I think that gimmick was arguably the best gimmick of the last 15 years. It is also along with the American badass, the greatest reinvention of a character I? ve ever witnessed. He was a hall of famer before it but that put him completely over. Every single segment they did was pure gold. I mean seriously what? s better than booker t dropping 10 dollar words left and right and then somebody would inevitably get him to break character. It was genius. He single handedly made being king of the ring something prestigious again. Dig that succcccckkkkkkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

[9.0] "When I started watch wrestling, he became instantly one of my favorites. Booker got everything: Tons of charisma, his moveset was good and spin-a-roonie is one of best taunts of alltime. I am still mad about his loss against Triple H on Wrestlemania XIX. He was on his prime but WWE drop the ball for some reason. At least he got World championship run as King Booker and It was good run. But It became too Late, because he was never the same after WM XIX."

[8.0] "Booker T was extremely entertaining, looked and carried himself like a potential main-eventer, and was good in the ring. Not much more you could ask out of a wrestler. Deserved a lot better in the WWE, especially early on, but he was still fun to watch no matter what company he was in."

[9.0] "Highly athletic in his prime back in WCW. Amazing tag team wrestler, but there's a reason he started breaking out solo wise. His charisma was too much just to only be in tag matches. Held every title you can think of in the WWF, WCW, and Impact. Dopest Scissors kick ever. Even when his athleticism started to decline, he never got to the point of looking out of it like other veterans. Booker T is capable of hoping in the ring at this very moment and putting on a good match, that's how good of shape he is in. His promo skills and charisma was equally as nice as his wrestling. He was very versatile as well, whether a bad ass face, comedic heel, comedic face, or dastardly heel. He should've won the top WWF title much sooner than he did, because he was a bonafide legit star coming out of WCW."

[10.0] "Great tag wrestler, great WCW singles wrestler on every tier even to the final days, always made the best out of what WWE gave him even when they sometimes gave him some awful hash."

[5.0] "He's good when he tries to make you laugh with or at him but when he's being serious he has some terrible promos & an average worker in the ring."

[8.0] "Booker T was pretty much a all rounder: physically talented, skilled in the ring, had tons of charisma, and could work tag and single matches, both to strong successes. The problem was that his push in WCW came way too late and he became basically a panic champion due to wrestlers leaving, and when he made it to the WWE, he was jobbed out by The Rock, Steve Austin, made to join a horrible NWO, and then got jobbed out again by Triple H despite him being massively over as a underdog babyface. Again, by the time he became a world champion, it was far too late, and he had a pretty goofy gimmick to boot. While he was talented, he never got the chance to really show that talent outside of matches here and there. He could have easily had a strong run as a top card wrestler."