King Booker's Court - History

History

Prior to Booker T becoming "King Booker", he would often enlist the aid of Finlay to do his dirty work for him.

The King's Court was unofficially founded on the May 26, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, when King Booker had his Coronation Ceremony, celebrating his King of the Ring tournament final victory at Judgment Day over Bobby Lashley. The ceremony was led by Sir William Regal, playing the role of a town crier and repeatedly shouting "All hail King Booker!" as Booker walked to the ring. Sharmell was anointed by King Booker as his Queen, and Finlay/Sir Finlay joined the group to help Booker continue to feud with Lashley.

King Booker would soon end his feud with Lashley after losing to him in a steel cage match for Lashley's United States Championship. He then became the number one contender for Rey Mysterio's World Heavyweight Championship after winning a battle royal. Finlay would go on to defeat Lashley during this time to take Lashley's WWE United States Championship.

At Great American Bash pay-per-view, King Booker became the World Heavyweight Champion, defeating Rey Mysterio with help from the heel turn of Chavo Guerrero. The Great American Bash also saw Finlay take on Regal in a one on one match for the United States Title, Sir Finlay coming out victorious with help from the Little Bastard. These events repeated themselves via rematches on the July 28 episode of SmackDown!, at first making it unclear whether Sir Regal or Finlay had turned face, or whether they would even remain in the King's Court. At Summerslam, King Booker would lose to Batista by disqualification, thus retaining the title and Finlay and William Regal, along with Mr. Kennedy (who defeated Finlay for the U.S. Title), the Spirit Squad and the Big Show attacked D-Generation X during their match against Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon.

On the August 25 episode of SmackDown!, the two members were "knighted" together - thus renaming them as "Sir" William Regal and "Sir" Finlay, as well as signalling the official founding of the King's Court - before teaming up with their King in a 3-on-2 Handicap Match against Lashley and Batista later that night, which they lost.

Booker would later defeat Batista thanks to inference by Sir Finlay, who would continue to attack and bloody him afterward, igniting a feud between the two. The Court's issues with the peasant Bobby Lashley continued as he was set to take on Booker at No Mercy, however the SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, announced the match to be a fatal four-way match that also involved Finlay and Batista.

On the October 6 edition of SmackDown!, Booker and Lashley were each able to pick the other's opponent for that night. Booker had to fight Finlay so he asked Finlay to be a good knight and lay down, but Finlay said that he never lays down for anybody. They went on to have the match, in which Finlay picked up the victory. Afterwards, they interfered in the Lashley vs Batista match, (Batista being the "poison" that King Booker picked). Following this, Theodore Long announced the previously mentioned 4 way at No Mercy, and then booked Batista and Lashley vs Finlay and King Booker. Finlay and King Booker, however, did not get along.

At No Mercy 2006, King Booker retained his title in the Fatal-4 way match when he pinned Finlay after a Batista Bomb from Batista. Prior to the match, after failing at his task to get Finlay to be allies with Booker, King Booker called Regal pathetic and slapped him in the face. Regal could have no more so he punched Booker and walked away.

After this 'incident' the court disbanded with Regal dropping the 'Sir' part of his name and going into the tag team division with partner Dave Taylor and Finlay taking on Booker and Batista in singles matches (with Booker losing the World title in the process to Batista at Survivor Series 2006).

The court returned on the December 8 edition of SmackDown! (without Regal) when they attacked Batista in his match with Finlay with a chair and a shillelagh, leading to a tag team match at Armageddon with Batista choosing a mystery partner which turned out to be WWE Champion John Cena. Batista and Cena would win the match. Finlay and Booker would reunite in various tag team matches on SmackDown! as temporary allies since then.

The April 6 episode of SmackDown! seemed to be the end of the court. King Booker attempted to take revenge on Matt Hardy for trying to set up Sharmell for a twist of fate in the Money In The Bank match at WrestleMania 23. He lost the match to Hardy, however, and Sharmell berated him, declared him to be a disappointment and slapped him. Booker tried to impress her by attacking The Undertaker but got a Tombstone Piledriver on the announce table. It was announced on WWE's official that he suffered a sprain and strained contusion of the neck and would also be treated for his previous injuries of chronic knee pain, where he has a meniscus tear, and a chronic elbow strain and he would be out for several months. The court would then disband for the final time. During the 2007 WWE Draft King Booker (along with Queen Sharmell) made his return to Raw and William Regal also returned to Raw in a Supplement Draft from SmackDown!, becoming the Raw General Manager. On October 16, 2007, it was officially announced on WWE's official website that King Booker and Queen Sharmell would be released from their contracts effective October 27, 2007, thus completely destroying any possibility of a reunion. However, Booker T returned to the WWE minus Sharmell in January 2011 as a WWE Tough Enough trainer and SmackDown commentator since then.