WWE Monday Night Wars Elite Booker T review (2025)
Booker T was one of the WCW fixtures basically since he arrived with Stevie Ray as Harlem Heat. After years of dominating the tag team scene, Booker T got an opportunity to shine on the solo front.
Not surprisingly, he excelled eventually becoming the final WCW champion before it was absorbed by WWE. Booker’s run started when he defeated Disco Inferno to become the TV champion.
This era is the focus of his second Monday Night Wars figure, which is a look I’ve been anticipating for a while.
Packaging: I really like the setup for the Monday Night Wars packaging. It’s definitely got a bit more of a WCW Nitro flair than WWF RAW, which is nice.
It’s got a nice portrait of a focused Booker T ready for action. The side features that same portrait while the rear has a reference photo, and the usual excellent bio write up. Below is the cross sell for the other figures in this wave to complete the Build-A-Figure Golga.
Likeness: Mattel has stayed consistent for the Nitro era torso for Booker. It’s the leaner muscular one that’s still thicker than the cruiserweight option.
Booker T has a very solid intense expression. It’s a great new head sculpt for him as it’s absolutely a common expression he would use in raising the roof and getting hyped up during his big comeback.
In another appreciated touch, Mattel actually gave Booker his small flared out fingerless gloves. Rather than just have them painted on, Mattel created a new glove sculpt to get them just how he wore them during his solo run. That’s a cool bonus and shows Mattel’s WWE team is fully capable of nailing these very specific costume details of figures.
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Scale: Booker T is 6’3”. Mattel has yet to make versions or figures of his main rivals Rick Martel in his WCW non-gimmick era, Perry Saturn and understandably Chris Benoit. He did face the 6′ Bret Hart, the 5’10” Fit Finley and the 5’8″ Eddie Guerrero and 5’11” Rick Steiner so there are some viable opponents for him.
Paint: During his solo run, Booker T slightly tweaked the Harlem Heat attire going with more pronounced flames on both sides of his tights and adding one in the crotch portion as well.
His gloves also had the flame within a flame setup as well.
The paintjob is clean from Booker’s Breathe-Rite strip, his teeth and tongue and the very clean application of the yellow and red flame against the black.
Mattel gave Booker the chase in this wave and he’s also got a dominant white attire. I always thought this looked really clean on Booker.
He had a figure from Toy Biz’s WCW line in these colors so this is a sentimental favorite. I was worried I was going to strike out with him, but an order from Walmart resulted in two chase figures.
Like the black, the white paint is sharp with no fading or bleeding with the flames. And the chase features a red Breathe-Rite strip.
Articulation: Booker T had a wide array of quick strike moves. From the spinning leg lariat, the standing leg lariat, scissor kick, side salto slam, lariat and missile dropkicks, Booker was a versatile wrestler.
Since Booker didn’t indulge in a ton of submission moves, the Elite articulation is mostly accurate for pulling off his signature moves like the flapjack, spinneroni and the Harlem Hangover.
That doesn’t mean I don’t want an Ultimate Edition WCW era Booker T preferably Harlem Heat with Stevie Ray in the tag team series.
Unlike some Elite figures, Booker has very fluid movement and is very fun to pose.
Booker T has:
- neck
- shoulders
- elbows (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees
- ankles
Accessories: Booker T gets a solid amount of accessories. First is a swappable set of fists.
Next are a pair of sunglasses. Mattel has gotten a lot better with the snug fit of these compared to the early days.
Finally, he’s got the WCW TV title. This is a title we’ve seen a few times now, but it’s not one that’s been so overused that everyone has a ton of these in their belt pile. I appreciate that the belt plating actually has some blue, red and black paint applications to make it more accurate.
It would have been cool for Mattel to include a neutral expression for Booker even if it was just the one that’s come with previous Harlem Heat Booker figures.
Worth it? WWE figures go for $19.99 at Wal-Mart, which is a great price…provided you can find them in stores.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Short of this look being done in an Ultimate Edition format, this is a really nicely done solo WCW Booker T figure. The only slight gripe is a lack of a neutral expression.
Where to get it? Booker T was a Walmart exclusive, but Mattel has also made him available at Creations.Mattel.