Booker T was never really supposed to wrestle Triple H 15 years ago at WrestleMania 19 for the World Heavyweight Championship. It seemed like the stars were aligning for a newly-signed Scott Steiner to be the challenger. But a combination of poor performances, injuries, and age forced WWE to rush through the feud at Royal Rumble and abandon the Steiner/HHH matchup, which left Triple H without a logical challenger. So when a number one contender battle royal took place on the February 24th edition of Monday Night Raw, it seemed like the most likely new opponent would be a returning Rock. Needless to say, it came as a shock when Booker tossed the People’s Champion over the top rope to earn his spot at the World Heavyweight Title.

Booker’s push to the title picture, while shocking, was deserved. He’d proven himself in WCW as a five-time champion. He main evented SummerSlam against the aforementioned Rock, had an unforgettable and iconic grocery store fight with Steve Austin, and had single-handedly turned a simple breakdancing move into one of the more popular acts in all of professional wrestling.

By 2003, Booker was hitting on all cylinders as a babyface performer and was extremely popular. Still, it wasn’t clear that he should have beaten a champion like Triple H, and if not for the angle leading up to WrestleMania, a Booker T loss wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. But given the context of the build-up, what happened at ‘Mania is inexcusable.



To lead up to that match, WWE went forward with an angle that transcends the idea of harmlessness. For WrestleMania 19, Triple H and WWE buried Booker T under weeks of racist epithets and barely-coded language before pinning the five-time WCW champion clean in the middle of the ring. The build-up to the match was so racist that it almost promised us a championship moment for Booker T and black wrestlers in general at WrestleMania. 15 years later, that promise has largely still been unfulfilled.

In 2003, Triple H was a dominant champion who was in the middle of putting together Evolution with Randy Orton, Dave Batista and Ric Flair. It was Hunter’s most dominant year, but also the one he’s most scrutinized for. He headed into 2003 coming off of an angle where he called Kane a rapist, then ended an episode of Raw by having sex with a mannequin in a casket. This was followed by the aforementioned barely-watchable matches with Scott Steiner. He’d close 2003 with disappointing matches with Goldberg and Kevin Nash. It was during this time that the legend of Triple H as someone who buried his opponents by berating them in the ring while lobbying for wins with those in charge started to grow., fairly or unfairly. And right in the middle of it all was his travesty with Booker T.

The first face-to-face confrontation between the champ and challenger on Raw set the stage for what would be an angle based on racial overtones. The promo started with a tirade by HHH that can’t be described as anything but racist: