WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T and his brother, Stevie Ray, recently spoke to Busted Open on Sirius XM to discuss Harlem Heat’s induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame. The pair will be inducted – along with other announced inductees such as The Honkey Tonk Man, D-Generation X (Chyna, Billy Gun, X-Pac, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Road Dogg), and Torrie Wilson – the night before WrestleMania 35 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on April 6, 2019.
During their conversation, Booker T revealed how Harlem Heat was able to go from being hated by the entire Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) fanbase, to one of the hottest acts in the building:
(Transcription credit should go to @JonFuentesMMA for Wrestlezone.com)
My brother was talking about our first trip going down to Dallas, Texas. A few miles away from Dallas, you know – 250 miles away here in Houston, and Dallas was an experience that one could never imagine in the wrestling business. It was probably about 50 people or so in that arena. They were all of Caucasian descent, and they HATED Harlem Heat,” Booker T said.
“My brother-in-law was taping it on the recorder, and they were calling us everything in the building that night. The N-word, everything. At one point in the match, I did the Spinaroonie and I saw the reaction of all of the fans. One guy goes, “Oh my God, what was that?!”
From that moment on, we literally changed the people in that (Dallas) Sportatorium. It went from 50 people to that place being sold out on a weekly basis, and those people were coming to see The Ebony Experience. We were like the Von Erichs in Dallas. When we left, I remember it vividly, we were in my Z28, and we would leave and head to Atlanta, Georgia, and all of those people that called us those words, they were there crying, they hated to see us go. I don’t think its ever been the same since The Ebony Experience left Dallas, Texas.
"We were like the Von Erichs there. Things have never been the same since 'The Ebony Experience' left Dallas, Texas"#WWEHOF inductees #HarlemHeat @BookerT5x & @RealStevieRay remember their difficult start in GWF and how they got an entire fan base behind them. pic.twitter.com/AU3XYtCebF
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) March 12, 2019
Related: Harlem Heat On Their WWE Hall Of Fame Induction, How They Hope To Be Remembered
