That Booker T. TV Title Reign

Back in the 90's, The WCW TV Championship was WCW's workhorse championship. Generally held by a very solid to good mid carder who could potentially be a main eventer one day. The championship was known for its 15 minute TV time limit rule during matches.

I was a huge fan of the championship back then. For one just about everyone who was champion could work their ass off. The other thing was I thought the design of the title just looked cool as hell. Top Ten championship designs in my book.

The title was held by some big names in the business. Ricky Steamboat, Stunning Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Steven Regal, Tully Blanchard, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit to name a few. None of those names stand out to me like Booker T's. title reign. It's been 25 years since Booker T. first won the championship, he won on December 29th, 1997 on the Nitro after Starrcade defeating Disco Inferno. Rewatching that match it is a criminal offense that the announce team completely no sold the happenings of the bout, instead discussing the aftermath of Starrcade.

However big of a crime that was, it's not the focus here. The focus was that win which I was by happenstance first Stevie Ray was injured for an considerable amount of time, so WCW decided to give Booker a solo run until his return. Second Rick Martel was originally slated to win the championship from Disco, but apparently forgot his boots according to Book.  That led to people really realizing how special of an talent Booker T. was and began the path to his legendary career across WCW, WWE, and TNA/Impact.

Throughout 1998 especially when you heard Harlem Heat's theme, and saw Booker T. come out you knew you were about to see a damn good wrestling match. Booker did not disappoint rewatching the matches from that time period I could not find a bad one, sure they may not have all been great but they were entertaining quality matches. It also helped that he had a solid core of competitors to go up against. Rick Martel (don't sleep on him), Perry Saturn (so underrated), Fit Finlay and of course Chris Benoit. Before we get into those two, watch Booker T's. back to back title defenses first against Rick Martel and then against Perry Saturn at SuperBrawl 8 in '98.

Now onto Booker vs Benoit. Those two frequent time limit draws and eventually best of seven series are what draws fans in and gets them emotionally invested in wrestlers. Those matches honestly should played at every wrestling school and a mandatory watch for any aspiring wrestler. Even kudos to WCW for those matches, it was a simple story of two men wanting to be the best and trying to one up each other for the championship. They both respected one another but it was definitely a may the best man win angle.

Booker T's first reign lasted 49 days, losing to Rick Martel only to win it right back and holding it for another 67 days. In total he held the TV championship 6 times and a total of 204 days. He likely would have held it much longer, but his star was ascending so fast it couldn't be ignored. 

You want to see something special? From the December 29th, 1997 episode of Nitro until late July of '98, watch every Booker T. match on Nitro, Thunder, WCW Saturday Night and any pay-per-views during that time period. You will be in awe in just how good that reign was.

Booker T. as WCW Television Championship was THAT Guy! Dig It Sucka!