Eight weeks after the training, Booker debuted on the WWA Live! program in 1989 under the ring name "G.I. Bro." The gimmick was supposed to be a take on WWF's Sgt. Slaughter character, as well as a reference to the Gulf War which was being fought at the time.
The WWA folded later on, but Booker went onto the indy scene, often tag teaming with his brother Lane "Stevie Ray" Huffman.
At one of the events they were spotted by Skandor Akbar who hired them immediately to compete for Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) as a tag team.
The brothers wrestled under the tag team name of "Ebony Experience." As the tag team got more popular, there were more people attending the show, and there was a large increase in the amount of African-Americans attending the events. The crowd figures changed from 120 to 200 people, up to 3,500 people in just two years!
The team finally won their first of three tag team championships with the company on July 31, 1992. After finding success in the promotion, the brothers moved on to bigger and better things, and started working for the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion.
When they moved to WCW they were repackaged as "Harlem Heat", with Booker's new ring name being Kole, and Lane's new name being Kane.
They were portrayed as heels and put into the Wargames match at Fall Brawl in 1993 along with Harley Race and Col. Rob Parker, facing the team of Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, and The Shockmaster.
They went on to lose the match, but went over with the fans as genuine contenders because of the quality of opponents they were facing.
For the next five years the tag team, now reverting back to their original names of Booker T and Stevie Ray, feuded with several notable tag teams including the Steiner Brothers, The Nasty Boys, The American Males, Public Enemy, The Outsiders, and the team of Sting and Lex Luger.
Towards the end of 1997, Stevie Ray took five months off to heal an ankle injury. Booker successfully transitioned into singles competition in the next few years, winning the WCW World Television Championship on several occasions before reuniting with Stevie Ray as the "Harlem Heat" tag team.
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