I saw Ron in the Atlanta Airport at a bar with someone I didn't recognize. Ordered him and his friend a beer; told him it was for all he's done for wrestling, both in and out of the ring. Dude sat there for a second, shook my hand, and said "No thank YOU". Very humble and well-spoken guy.
WWF/WWE was always about money and ratings. If the opponents are not a top superstar, as Hogan, HHH, and Stone Cold, etc., well then WWE will never bounce them to the top. Great example, in 1995 when Wrestling Journal rated Rowdy Roddy Piper the #1 most popular WWF wrestler and their World Champion, Hogan was #2, suddenly the WWF claimed Piper was out with an injury.
As great as the Attitude Era was, it definitely had some of the greatest controversies in professional wrassling like not a single black wrestler becoming WWF Champion.
Ron Simmons is 10 of the "wrestler's I'd never wanna upset" list. Man was a phenomenal athlete and had a legit mean streak if you upset him. As a Road Warrior fan he was so good in Doom, and also in Nation of Domination. An when he won the title off Vader it was a huge thing and a heck of neat match.
@@David-hz8kt Erm....personal (hearsay) only, everyone knows Haku was legit, Andre too, not size, just meanness if tweaked. I have heard both Rick Rude and Curt Hennig could also if pushed really go. Danny Spivey, Arn Anderson, William Regal, Harley Race, Undertaker and definitely Terry Funk. And this list is by no means in order and is of men in the business who could go legitimately, but had to be pushed a little, not men looking for a reason to go, looking to go as a last resort which I have much more respect for.
People just let the internet rot their brains and just bash everyone they see everyone else bash like mindless sheep... They completely forgot, or weren't even born, in 1995-96 when Ahmed was the new 1990 Ultimate Warrior... Goldberg in 1998 wasn't the "new" Ultimate Warrior, he was the new Ahmed Johnson... That's how insanely over he was
He was over and they messed him up. You don’t take a hot baby face and make him heel. I liked him because I remember thinking damn he slammed the hell out of someone. He made wrestling look real. As far as his mic. I liked it because it was his own persona. It was good enough to know what he was saying despite the jokes. But more than anything he was believable as an intense unstoppable force. These trolls come out and then get picky to say why things didn’t work out. Things didn’t work out for Ahmed Johnson because of politics. If Ahmed did everything JR wanted he would just a mid card jobbing to everyone and would still be on his way out or just be there getting a check.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 Problem is that Ahmed was very Injury prone. Dude couldn't remain healthy to warrant a main event push. I do agree his heel turn and joining the nation was one of the dumbest things.
Sure.... but probably do believe something that pretty much every damn person in the business says about him. These are far from the only people who have said Ahmed was a terrible locker room presence, a bully, and a dangerous/sloppy wrestler.
I was huge Ahmed fan as a kid. He was the first autograph I ever got. I always wondered why he never went further since all the kids seemed to like him, so I know it wasn't just me. Now it makes sense.
I remember JR talkin about wrestlers having the "boo boo face" when they didn't like what was going to happen in a match. I don't think there is a better example of that, than Ahmed waiting to get squashed by 97 Kane.
Big Ron Simmons fan it's a shame he didn't have more success in WWE as a singles wrestler, though the APA become a legendary tag team so he did pretty well for himself. Heard lots of people say he was a legit badass outside of the ring no one messed with him.
Yeah his personality and recklessness really did him no favours. Why go with someone who can't work and injures other talent, when you've got a talent pool that's filled to the brim with far more skilled workers who are able to get over just as much, or even more, without putting each other out of action nearly as much due to the types of botches only someone who is totally green should ever be able to pull off. He may have been over for a little while, but there wouldn't a whole lot of places left to go with him beyond a Goldberg-like run of squash matches, as anything else would have exposed him, and he was always a liability to the company's other talent. Goldberg and Warrior had great runs in terms of drawing power in spite of them not being very talented wrestlers, but they're also pretty good examples of how that type of wrestler has a limited shelf life. So yeah, sure they probably could have made him a bigger deal for at least a little while, but considering his record when it comes to injuries, considering he was strongly disliked in the locker room and nobody really wanted to work with him, would the benefits have outweighed the cost in the long term? There comes a certain point where someone is so prone to injuring other wrestlers you don't really want them to have extended programs with other main event talent. Sure an angle between Ahmed involving Bret, HBK, Taker, Austin etc would have drawn money. But it be worth the risk of any one of those guys suffering a serious injury that ends up putting them on the shelf for an extended period of time (which was a much bigger risk with Ahmed than any other main event level talent around that time). Looking at the WWE now, with no talent really being over on a mainstream level, if Ahmed Johnson had been around today and if he'd been as capable of getting over as he's was in the mid-90s I'd say hell yeah, pull the trigger on the guy. But when Ahmed was around the WWF's roster was so stacked with main eventers that were either already household names or on the verge of becoming them, they had the luxury of being able to dump the lousy worker to protect the more talented members of the roster who could draw just as well or even better than Ahmed, with none of the headaches that Ahmed gave them, either due to his recklessness in the ring, or his inability to get along with others. I can totally understand what the WWF saw in him initially, but I can also totally understand why they ended up abandoning the project that was Ahmed's wrestling career.
I only saw them win one time. It was against Kane and X Pac. There were plenty of tag teams but it was mainly little guys. It was like APA had decided to wrestle after seeing 👀 Kane compete. Everyone else was little. All the heavy weights were solo.
They won the tag belts on three occasions that I remember, first two times in the Summer of 1999 they beat X-Pac and Kane, then they lost the belts to The Hardyz only to win them back later, then the other time they beat The Dudleys in the early Summer of 2001 on the same night that the Dudleys along with 8 other former ECW wrestlers and Paul Heyman merged with the WCW Invaders to form the Alliance
Met Ron at a convention. By far the nicest guy there. Called my back over after he signed my picture and took a photo with me just to talk. We talked for probably 5 minutes. I asked him about his blue helmet with the Spartacus outfit, his APA and Nation days, just the nicest guy.
Ahmed's Pearl River Plunge was EPIC. I even wanted to root for him in WCW as "Big T" ........but he's just a guy who went out of his way to make it hard to root for.
When Ahmed came in and slammed Yokozuna, the crowd went crazy. He was awesome, although I didn't understand some of his talking. He just looked like a bad man. I think most fans had no clue about his reputation, but we loved the character.
He could do the moves and he was big, but when you show no respect for anyone outside of management and the whole locker room hates you, you ain't gonna go far. Ahmed had no friends in the business, and Vince had had enough of Ultimate Warrior kind of guys, that come in and think their shit don't stink when they're still greener than RVD's pot.
When I watched during the Attitude Era, even though Ron was a heel with The Nation of Domination, I always liked him. Mainly bc of his charisma and how he conducted himself.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 likely the latter, sadly. I really try not to pull the race card because I know it cheapens the dialogue when it's unwarranted but, I think it's obvious here. The industry didn't know how to market a black champion back then, especially a dominant one, no pun intended. Bobby Lashley is the first black wrestler to receive this kind of push as world champion in WWE. Almost three decades after Ron. Yeah we had the Rock and Booker but they aren't the Ron/Bobby type. That's ridiculous. Can you imagine a Ron/Austin feud and the promos they would cut?!?! The Nation of Domination angle was written perfectly except they should have gotten more wins and more titles. That angle got us to the Rock we know today.
@@3d1k3 You basically blame race then give examples of black champions. Should every champion be black? Modern wrestling (90s up) was actually its own sort of great equalizer rather than a form of blacksploitation. Booker and Farooq were 2 of this white boys favorite wrestlers
The plan b thing was told to Nash by Chief Jay Strongbow. He said to him "what do you need, an apartment to live in when you're off the road, and if you have a kid a house so the kid has s room and maybe a yard to play in, that's it." Or something to that effect.
@Redbo Black Yes, it's because of racism that Ahmed Johnson was an untalented, mush-mouthed failure who couldn't work and didn't belong in the main event. And Ron Simmons was a total racist for beating him too. All because of racism.
Ahmed didn't play the game backstage, which is why he didn't get elevated past IC belt. He would do high flying stuff and asked by Shawn not to do that, his fault for listening. Then when his sister was dying in the hospital he outright walked out. I'd do the same. Then his crappy wcw run and he was not as big and to be honest, was fat. So what he couldn't work, ultimate warrior couldn't either and hurt a bunch of guys.
@Redbo Black nah, Vince actually pushed Ahmed because of his build and primal persona. Vince like big cut dudes like Utimate Warrior. Ahmed just didn't put in the work and sometimes hurt opponents in the ring.
@@rodinowright6591 Exactly. Bruce Prichard even said Vince had stars in his eyes when he saw Ahmed. There was even talk about him being the first ever black WWF Champion..but his unsafe ring work and inability to cut a coherent promo held him back. It feels as if after he recovered from his kidney injury..he was a shell of what he once was, especially with his feud with The Nation Of Domination that dragged on for two years. Not to mention Ahmed had a HORRIBLE backstage attitude. Road Dogg even spoke about him bullying younger guys and he even had a fight backstage with D'Lo. The guy was supposed to be the next big superstar..but in ring issues and being a headcase to deal with backstage held him back, he was his own worst enemy.
The character of Ahmed was awesome but if the locker room stories and shoots from the talent he worked with are to be believed he was too wrapped up in his own hype and had such an ego he didn't care about the well being of his coworkers.
@@Eckalicious technically, he was always obese because obesity is about height age and body weight. He just lost the muscle or put a ton of fat on top of it. Not good either way.
It was bad ass that The Godfather went and sat with JR when Ahmed came in. Shows how much respect JR had from the boys. Also, listening to stories about Ahmed, he really was a POS. Still listening to these stories from the Attitude Era is amazing.
when ahmed first came into the WWF, he looked amazing. great physical charisma, intensity, first class finisher, a few other decent moves that were surprising (like that somersault plancha). he looked like one day he could be The Man. but his interviews were nearly indecipherable and he was more like an updated version of the Ultimate Warrior. then the injuries started happening, the rumors of him being sloppy or hurting people, etc. and that potential started spiraling downward fast. and like The Warrior, it sounded like his big problem was how he took himself too seriously and really never developed the psychology and appreciation of what the business should be. Ron Simmons by this point had earned a lot of people's respect. Loved him with Butch Reed and Teddy Long in Doom, even though initially I hated them because I liked the Steiners around that time. But loved their size, the look, their moves and Teddy Long being an arrogant smack talker. Fast forward a bit to Ron winning the WCW world title which was awesome, guy definitely deserved it and it put him on a different plateau finally. Hated the Farooq gimmick. Just a lame looking costume that killed off what he established in WCW. But his finisher was super cool. It's odd hearing their actual rivalry now though. Again it just sounded like Ahmed took himself too seriously and disrespected the business and that Ron had to humble him.
@@Runforestrun yep that's why ron beat the shit out of him he kicked ron in his liver messed ron up he was out 9 months when he come back he beat the shit out of him during a match one night people said they never saw ron as mad as he was that night dude was a idiot nobody liked him
Road Dogg contradicts himself. He said everybody was afraid of Ahmed Johnson but you got to know your role. Road Dogg refused to do a job for RVD. Was all angry at Vince but says he got Vince’s respect for that. But let that be Ahmed Johnson who was already over. JR is leaving out the fact they were sabotaging him. Pulling stunts like he suppose to job for Chyna and be tarred and feathered. Everybody else is trying to get paid or come up so they listened (The rest of NOD). Soon as The Rock got his push he was arrogant as arrogant can be. But all you’ll hear is a bunch of phonies talking good about Triple-H, Shawn Michaels and The Rock.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 the rock is very good at keeping his image clean he is smart, His whole Instagram just makes him seem like such a douche. always banging on about being the hardest worker and yada yada, very self-congratulating. His workouts kick his ass
I like JR but in the business like any other business or job we can be biased. We will agree with our guys over someone we don't like even if it's not 100 percent right. Also say things ud they are not 100 percent true. There were many egomaniacs. Brock Lesnar JBL,HbK,Hhh The Rock once he got over.
Yeah JR was very hypocritical when everybody had bad things say abt Warrior. I sense more to JR's rant then meets the eye... Ahmed was legit over nobody can deny that
Ron Simmons is from my home town. My buddy and I ran into him at a bait and tackle shop one day. We were leaving the store and my buddy, who grew up a few houses down from where Ron grew up, took a hard left and walked up to the biggest human being I'd ever seen. We talked to him for a few minutes, he showed us the fish he'd caught with some kids that were with him (I don't know if they were his kids or like his nieces and nephews or something). One was a HUGE bluegill. He was coming back from fishing in one of those huge, expensive Mercedes Benz sedans that was close to six figures in 91. Definitely NOT what you picture when you think "fishing". Massive guy. Intimidating as hell. He didn't think nothing of wasting a few minutes talking to a couple of teenage fans that just walked up to him on the street. It was awesome.
Ron Simmons should have been the first black WWE champion and it really was an injustice that they didn't put the belt on him. Kameron Golden is truly right about that. Ron is truly a great guy and a true world champion
1996 was all about Hart vs Austin. Why destroy that momentum putting the belt on simmons. 97 had hbk and bret fueding as well as the rise of the Rock . I can go on for 98-2002 . The point is the timing was never right.
i'll always remember, Ahmed and Faarooq were the black guys in WWF War Zone for Nintendo 64 Technically The Rock is too but I didnt' know that at the time lol
that game sucked. I remember it was hard to play it control-wise. Thank God for Wrestlemania, that cool WCW game..all u had to do was hold a button and toggle the joystick to do a finisher. Warzone was so difficult to play as a kid lol. And The Rock is SAMOAN, a Pacific Islander. He falls within the category of "Asian" moreso than Black. Although, all humans originate from Africa. Just like Arabs are technically "Asians" because they're in Western Asia. Although "Asian" isn't really a definitive race or ethnic group, The Rock is still ethnically a descendent of the Original Peoples of the Pacific..and they were African-Descent..It gets so complicated..forget race, We're all human lol.
@@sabot4ge The Rock is half black. His dad was black but yeah his mom's side of the family is Samoan. . Warzone definitely had a steep learning curve and was not as fun as the N64 Wcw games (you're thinking of World Tour and Revenge). But i think warzone was much easier than the sequel WWF attitude. I fucking hate that game so much. It was impossible to do any moves at all in that one
Damn, Ahmed Johnson was my favorite New Generation back in the day. I remember him body slamming Yokozuna clean like it was nothing. Much better than Lex Luger's half body slam imo. But now I gotta go back and watch Ahmed videos to see if he really did have tricep implants lol. I didn't even know that was a thing. I knew about calf implants, so I guess tricep implants would have been feasible, although I would think they would hinder your performance in ring, although from all the stories that have come out, Ahmed didn't seem like the brightest guy anyway. You would think Buff Bagwell would have gotten them too, given that he got calf implants. I always thought that Buff's triceps super small, it made his arms look unproportioned. He even alluded to it in a shoot about Scott Steiner, and how he would always turn sideways to show his physical superiority over Buff lol.
The interviewer wanted JR to speak about the Farooq - Ahmed fight that Mark Henry had described. The interview spends 2-3 minutes reading Mark Henry's description of the incident but JR just beats about the bush and never speaks anything about it.
You're right. I've noticed that JR rarely buries people or hypes up a scandal. For lack of a better word, his speech can be quite "lawyerly" insofar as he avoids implying that he has personal heat with anyone, or saying anything that makes it seem like he's siding with one person over another. Seems like he tries to be diplomatic and respectful, even where other people have said that a particular individual is an asshole/unsafe/etc. Not a bad way to be tbh.
I've searched high and low on the Internet and haven't found anything confirming Mark's story. I don't think it happened. According to the internet, Johnson was fired after disappearing from an event to visit his dying sister.
@@MaximumRabbit It never happened, Mark Henry was either confused or building on the the bullshit story that Ahmed himself told about hurting Ron Simmons, breaking his ribs, and puncturing his lung. Mark Henry said that Ron was out for "9 months of more," which is absolutely false. There is no record of Ron Simmons ever being out for 9 months straight, or even sustaining a kidney injury and broken ribs during that match (the Chicago Street Fight during WrestleMania 13). As a matter of fact, during the match, after being put through the announcer's table Ron later gets up and continues to wrestle normally, there is absolutely zero signs of him being seriously injured. He gets into a few exchanges with Ahmed, he hits Hawk and Animal with a trash can then gets hit with the trash can himself, gets hit with a road sign a couple of times, gets pulled from the top rope to the outside of the ring by Animal, and gets body-slammed in the middle of the ring, then rolls out and stays outside the ring until Hawk pins Crush to win the match. According to Ahmend, Ron would've done everything I just mentioned with broken ribs and punctured lung... I don't think so.
JR saying that Ahmed Johnson got hired because he was black and looked like a Greek god, and for a while was over, pissed me off. Not because he was wrong; I have no doubt that JR is entirely correct. But the WWE/F already had a black superstar who looked impressive, and his name was Ron Simmons. They could have put Farooq over instead of Johnson, and as far as I can see Simmons deserved it more. It just pisses me off that Vince and Co. thought they had to go get another Ron Simmons when they already had the original recipe Ron Simmons, and he was championship material.
My favorite Ahmed moment was when Kane dropped him on his head... Bye bye. His career was obviously done when WWE was going to have him face Steve Austin that night then "Well we are really going to let you become a Kane jobber instead"
I remember this. Ahmed was fighting with The Rock about using Taka’s move, and when the rock told him that it wasn’t a good idea, he got upset and when D Lo intervened, Ahmed tried to hit him with some weapon and got stretched out hahaha
@@michaelbull4344 yeah. D lo tried to deescalate the situation but Ahmed was on one and got snatched up hahaha he burned his bridge with Mark Henry as well when he put something in his drink.
@@ScarFeiss JR is a clown. When Farooq got injured that was Ahmed Johnson returning a favor for the time Farooq kicked in the kidney. When Farooq got injured that should’ve been the end of it and they shouldn’t even be in a match. But here go good ol JR talking like it’s just Ahmed Johnson at fault.
Wwe never fired ahmed, he quit during a live taping of raw before he was scheduled for a beatdown by truth commission after getting news his sister battling cancer was at her last stage,she died a week later, he had bad luck, was scheduled to face taker and hbk for the title,they really tried to make the guy main event status and eventually champion, but his injuries prevented it, and wrestlers didnt like him probably cause he was too intense for them in the ring and would "injure them".
No, other wrestlers didn’t like him because he was picking fights with nearly everyone backstage over things that weren’t true. Listen to DLo Brown, Stevie Ray, and other’s interviews about him, as they’re all consistent about his behavior.
Ron as "Farooq" would have NEVER worked as WWF world champion. His character was too polarizing. Some people say Nash was the worst drawing WWF world champ of all time. With "Farooq" as champ house shows & ppv buys would have gone way down. It's also been said Ron injured Tony out of jealousy. He was never as over as Ahmed in his WWF run
You’re a fucking idiot lol Ahmed was over in 96, nobody cared about him after his IC title reign, he was over for literally a few months. Marks like you act like you know about the business, it’s so annoying. Diesel was and is the worst drawing champion, it’s not just what “some people” say, it’s a fact of life. The NOD angle probably made you uncomfortable because you’re probably a racist. 😂
When Ahmed became a member of the nation it was already done for him. Yes he was over with the crowds, he body slammed yokozuna and was over over. He injured people and was himself injury prone. As for the farooq stuff, I don't see how he gets a pass purposely injurying Ahmed in a wrestling match.
@@louspock007 I think short term it coulda worked......imagine the return matches with Taker. Long term? Maybe it'd not work, but....short term it coulda. And with Taker's storyline with Kane and Paul Bearer ongoing at the time, a title change coulda made sense too. Have it passed off as Taker being distracted cause of Kane being held over him, as he was in different matches at the time anyway. Then just have Taker get it together enough to win it back, say at Canadian Stampede. Simple enough booking to me.
Joe is a little erratic. Faarooq was almost 40 by the time he came to WWF. For a roster whose main acts were so much younger, putting the belt on him would have made no sense since the view then was that you age out past 40 until your injury risks increase substantially, so it's a liability. This is further compounded by the fact that talent still takes a good 18 months, especially then to get over. So you're looking at age 40 or so. Faarooq was never going to be champion, nor should he have been. There's a reason why he was doing a lighter schedule in a B-rate tag team once he hit that age As for Johnson, regardless of how bad he was, I don't doubt at all that there was a lot of jealousy. Wrestlers who labor for years to get over do not like a noob coming in and becoming the 2nd hottest face in the company As for the rest, I doubt that fight happened. It's more likely that Henry has brain damaged, then concluded his dream for something that happened. It's wrestling revenge porn Johnson got the push he deserved, by which I mean end it once his merchandise wave ended. He didn't have the personality, intelligence, altruism, and character to lead the roster.
There's no way that actually happened. If so, the way he tells the story bears no resemblance to how it played out. The more likely scenario is that Henry has brain damage
JR gives no details. All he says is I had Ron Simmons talk to him. This interview is weak. JR ain’t truly talking and Ron Simmons injured Ahmed Johnson first so who’s really right and who’s really wrong. They took a baby face that was over like movie credits and turned him heal so fast with no good reason. WWE is trash. WCW was just more dysfunctional and that’s how they won the wars.
Ahmed Johnson reminds me of a black version of the Ultimate Warrior. A terrible worker who can't do a coherent promo that was difficult to deal with backstage. Both were push to the moon due to their physiques and intensity, but were terrible in just about every other aspect and both didn't last very long.
Wouldn't say Ahmed was pushed to the moon. TUW held the world and IC titles simultaneously and beat Hogan clean. That's a push to the moon. Ahmed didn't get anything close.
Warrior could work just was bat shit crazy with promos 🤣 he was the original Goldberg that can work but squashed people. Think about this in they primes what skills did Stone Cold Rock show they punched and kicked a few slams and ok submissions
WWE 6x Hall Of Famer 2 Ron Simmons/Farooq of The Nation Of Domination, The Ministry Of Darkness, DOOM, Acolytes, APA, & solo run as a Wrestler should've been WWE Heavyweight Champion with a long Heavyweight Championship Title reign. 🌌💀🌌
I always wished they had Farooq win the Heavyweight title and then do an immediate face turn when Ron stated that he was clamoring about poor race relations but the fans cheering him as he won (and they would have cheered) has shown him that wrestling is where talent and ambition overcome the color of your skin and then have him run with a year long title reign taking down the cocky kids of WWF
I believed the Ron Simmons/Ahmed Johnson story Mark Henry presented, but going through WWF match results there's no period between 96-99 when Ron Simmons missed more than a week, so the "out 9 months with a lacerated kidney" story doesn't add up. And Whilst Ahmed was often injured for weeks at a time none of his injuries corresponded with matches against Ron Simmons. No doubt they disliked each other but Mark Henry's tale of retribution probably belongs in the Hall of Embellished Wrestling Stories alongside most of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan's anecdotes.
@@skepchica What I don't understand about that dark match is that it's listed for the Intercontinental title. Why would Ron Simmons wrestle for the title before making his televised debut? It's also listed on July 22, 1996... which is the same day he debuted and attacked Johnson. Even if that match did happen, the whole 9 months out didn't happen at all. Six months before his WWF debut Ron had a match at MWCW, and six months before that he was still with NJPW. Mark's story still doesn't add up whatsoever.
I remember mark henry telling this story. If you do injure Simmons (and that would be the silliest thing to do by accident, let alone on purpose!), then make sure you call everyday, check in on him and make sure he’s ok. Because one day he will be back! The crowd or the 140lb ref won’t stop the shoot. It’s meant to be real, so if it is, who’s going to complain?
He was great in WCW, he could talk and was a believable badass as the leader of The Nation (yes he was outshined by The Rock who was swiftly rising but who wouldn't be?) I loved him in APA but he could have for sure had a main event run.
@Jacki Conklin it's not real and they didn't draw. Those are facts and you remaining ignorant instead of being honest to yourself and admitting it won't change that. While thinking everyone pointing that out is racist you are exposing yourself as being racist and a dumbass that doesn't know anything about this topic whatsoever 🤣🤣
No. Ahmed was a sloppy worker and he hurt Ron in a dark match. Ron came back it was actually his first night in that ridiculously gladiator gimmick and ended up injuring one of Ahmeds kidneys. They went back and forth for a bit but Ahmed wasn't a safe worker and his attitude didn't serve him well with the guys in the locker room. Getting nasty with Jim Ross was probably when enough was enough.
Vince loved Ahmed because he had the look but he was a nuclear heat magnet in the locker room which is why Vince was hesitant to push him to the moon and top but still gave him exposure and a decent push and he got over big time for a moment. But the moment he had gotten injured and was out of shape because of his constant injuries, he was done. It wasn't one thing that folded his career. He had terrible wrestling skills, heat with the boys, messed around a locker room leader like Ron, and was constantly injured that Vince ultimately decided, he wasn't worth keeping anymore.
I remember that the one that started the beef was Ron Simmons when he debuted as the Spartan with Sunny and he kicked Ahmed in the kidney, damaging it, Ahmed was injured and out for a while. When Ahmed return he injured Ron as payback and their beef continued for a while until Ahmed was out of WWF
I don't think Ron will get pissed off if you made him mad but I think he would tell you something in order to straighten you out same thing for the undertaker. They'll give you a warning but if you keep on doing it hell yeah you going to have some problems
I love Jim Ross.. I came from the era with Bobby the brain and gorilla monsoon as commentators.. they were great.. Miss those dudes.. then in comes Vince McMahon.. I really loved him on commentating.. he always kept me at the edge of my seat fully invested and interested in what's going on no matter what match it was and Jim gave me that same feeling as Vince.. And for laughs I loved The King Jerry Lawler and JBL.. Good old days of commentary
Just a list of former wrestlers in there prime that should of been WWE Champion.. Ron Simmons, Rowdy Piper, Mr. Perfect, Davey Boy Smith, Owen Hart.. the list goes on.
I saw Ron in the Atlanta Airport at a bar with someone I didn't recognize. Ordered him and his friend a beer; told him it was for all he's done for wrestling, both in and out of the ring. Dude sat there for a second, shook my hand, and said "No thank YOU". Very humble and well-spoken guy.
That Is an awesome story
I was hoping you would say he look at you shook your hand and said DAMN!!!!!
Damn!
Wow great story! Class Act Mr Ron Simmons 👍🏿👍🏿
@@theadventuresofkellzmania 😂😂😂
Not putting the WWE belt on Ron was and always will be an injustice!
When WCW was smarter than WWF(E), and put the belt on Ron Simmons. That should tell you EVERYTHING you need to know.
Yes if only just for one night it would have been good and lost it to the undertaker like Kane did or yokozuna 🤦🏾♂️💔
100% he was a very underrated performer, he's a real man
WWF/WWE was always about money and ratings. If the opponents are not a top superstar, as Hogan, HHH, and Stone Cold, etc., well then WWE will never bounce them to the top. Great example, in 1995 when Wrestling Journal rated Rowdy Roddy Piper the #1 most popular WWF wrestler and their World Champion, Hogan was #2, suddenly the WWF claimed Piper was out with an injury.
Hey, at least he can claim that he was the first Black world champion in a major company.
Can we take a moment to acknowledge that the Attitude Era was so awesome that people still want to hear stories about it 25 years later?
Always. Glad we lived through it, best time for wrestling fans
As great as the Attitude Era was, it definitely had some of the greatest controversies in professional wrassling like not a single black wrestler becoming WWF Champion.
@@mrdude88 the rock says the n-word he is black
@@Mitchell4131 the rock is considered Samoan.. you never hear him as a black champion .
@@zackaryperry8586 actually, he's biracial - both black and Samoan. Have a seat.
Ron Simmons is 10 of the "wrestler's I'd never wanna upset" list. Man was a phenomenal athlete and had a legit mean streak if you upset him. As a Road Warrior fan he was so good in Doom, and also in Nation of Domination. An when he won the title off Vader it was a huge thing and a heck of neat match.
who are the other 9?
@@bluestang302 Ron is 1 through 10 lol
Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, and Minoru Suzuki are on that list.
@@David-hz8kt Erm....personal (hearsay) only, everyone knows Haku was legit, Andre too, not size, just meanness if tweaked. I have heard both Rick Rude and Curt Hennig could also if pushed really go. Danny Spivey, Arn Anderson, William Regal, Harley Race, Undertaker and definitely Terry Funk. And this list is by no means in order and is of men in the business who could go legitimately, but had to be pushed a little, not men looking for a reason to go, looking to go as a last resort which I have much more respect for.
Yea Ron was an absolute monster. Crazy powerful and explosive.
Man, I remember loving Ahmed. Just seems like nobody else did.
People just let the internet rot their brains and just bash everyone they see everyone else bash like mindless sheep... They completely forgot, or weren't even born, in 1995-96 when Ahmed was the new 1990 Ultimate Warrior... Goldberg in 1998 wasn't the "new" Ultimate Warrior, he was the new Ahmed Johnson... That's how insanely over he was
@@Nostalgicguy2242 I did 2.
But its another example of it doesn't matter what we think
It's like enzo. Everyone loved enzo except the locker room
Me too, were you very young at the time?
He was over and they messed him up. You don’t take a hot baby face and make him heel. I liked him because I remember thinking damn he slammed the hell out of someone. He made wrestling look real. As far as his mic. I liked it because it was his own persona. It was good enough to know what he was saying despite the jokes. But more than anything he was believable as an intense unstoppable force. These trolls come out and then get picky to say why things didn’t work out. Things didn’t work out for Ahmed Johnson because of politics. If Ahmed did everything JR wanted he would just a mid card jobbing to everyone and would still be on his way out or just be there getting a check.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 Problem is that Ahmed was very Injury prone. Dude couldn't remain healthy to warrant a main event push.
I do agree his heel turn and joining the nation was one of the dumbest things.
As a teenager in the 90's I thought Ahmed was cool, I had no idea there were so many problems with him in the locker room.
Lol word. 10 year old me, Ahmed was basically the Black Ultimate Warrior. I loved Ahmed as a kid
Me too
Don't believe everything you hear btw.
Sure.... but probably do believe something that pretty much every damn person in the business says about him. These are far from the only people who have said Ahmed was a terrible locker room presence, a bully, and a dangerous/sloppy wrestler.
Same.
I was huge Ahmed fan as a kid. He was the first autograph I ever got. I always wondered why he never went further since all the kids seemed to like him, so I know it wasn't just me. Now it makes sense.
I was a ball boy for the Bandits in the USFL in '84 and Ron Simmons played LB. He was a beast.
He don't remember you though.
@@davidcook680 Duh, Captain Obvious.
@@davidcook680 I'm sorry that someone hurt you
@davidcook680 your mom remembers me
@@jaquabrown7703 My mother died 32 years ago. You dug her up and fukd her corpse?! You're a sick puppy.
I remember JR talkin about wrestlers having the "boo boo face" when they didn't like what was going to happen in a match. I don't think there is a better example of that, than Ahmed waiting to get squashed by 97 Kane.
As long as they're not me
Ha ha I remember
I was hurt by how Ahmed was fed 2 Kane
@@dominiquejones3805 I laughed when that happened.
@@dominiquejones3805who?
Big Ron Simmons fan it's a shame he didn't have more success in WWE as a singles wrestler, though the APA become a legendary tag team so he did pretty well for himself. Heard lots of people say he was a legit badass outside of the ring no one messed with him.
Ron should of been the 1st black champion
@@dominiquejones3805 At least he was in WCW.
Dude was a legit badass. Even the Steiner brothers respected him. Doesn't surprise me that he ran over Ahmed in an actual shoot fight.
@@Adrian21 Ron was JACKED back in his days with Doom. Doom had great matches with the Steiners
@Redbo Black - this comment... is gold!
If Ahmed Johnson hadn't been such a meat head, he could have had a Goldberg type career. He was over.
He certainly injured enough guys to be considered in the same category as Goldberg!
@@nonautomaton6230 got em.
That's true
Yeah his personality and recklessness really did him no favours. Why go with someone who can't work and injures other talent, when you've got a talent pool that's filled to the brim with far more skilled workers who are able to get over just as much, or even more, without putting each other out of action nearly as much due to the types of botches only someone who is totally green should ever be able to pull off.
He may have been over for a little while, but there wouldn't a whole lot of places left to go with him beyond a Goldberg-like run of squash matches, as anything else would have exposed him, and he was always a liability to the company's other talent. Goldberg and Warrior had great runs in terms of drawing power in spite of them not being very talented wrestlers, but they're also pretty good examples of how that type of wrestler has a limited shelf life.
So yeah, sure they probably could have made him a bigger deal for at least a little while, but considering his record when it comes to injuries, considering he was strongly disliked in the locker room and nobody really wanted to work with him, would the benefits have outweighed the cost in the long term? There comes a certain point where someone is so prone to injuring other wrestlers you don't really want them to have extended programs with other main event talent. Sure an angle between Ahmed involving Bret, HBK, Taker, Austin etc would have drawn money. But it be worth the risk of any one of those guys suffering a serious injury that ends up putting them on the shelf for an extended period of time (which was a much bigger risk with Ahmed than any other main event level talent around that time).
Looking at the WWE now, with no talent really being over on a mainstream level, if Ahmed Johnson had been around today and if he'd been as capable of getting over as he's was in the mid-90s I'd say hell yeah, pull the trigger on the guy. But when Ahmed was around the WWF's roster was so stacked with main eventers that were either already household names or on the verge of becoming them, they had the luxury of being able to dump the lousy worker to protect the more talented members of the roster who could draw just as well or even better than Ahmed, with none of the headaches that Ahmed gave them, either due to his recklessness in the ring, or his inability to get along with others. I can totally understand what the WWF saw in him initially, but I can also totally understand why they ended up abandoning the project that was Ahmed's wrestling career.
Yep.
Ahmed Johnson had a million dollar body, but he had ten cents brains.
"God built me strong! Forget to give me brain!"
as they say: "he's as big as an ox, and almost as smart."
Lmao. True. And yet injury prone to
@@BeastNationXIV John Cena verbally mauled Brock Lesnar that night 😂
@@BeastNationXIVthe problem was he is ignorant and had a huge egos.
Ron Simmons is someone I not only look up to, but respect as a man. Not for all he’s faced, but for what all he didn’t do in the face of adversity.
Man this is blunt talk from JR. I like it .
Vince never used Ron Simmons right. He should have let the APA win the tag titles like other teams were doing at the time.
Huh i assume they won it but if they didn't then it was like an undertaker big characters that didnt need to hold on to the titles
I only saw them win one time. It was against Kane and X Pac. There were plenty of tag teams but it was mainly little guys. It was like APA had decided to wrestle after seeing 👀 Kane compete. Everyone else was little. All the heavy weights were solo.
They won the tag belts on three occasions that I remember, first two times in the Summer of 1999 they beat X-Pac and Kane, then they lost the belts to The Hardyz only to win them back later, then the other time they beat The Dudleys in the early Summer of 2001 on the same night that the Dudleys along with 8 other former ECW wrestlers and Paul Heyman merged with the WCW Invaders to form the Alliance
Vince was racist
Ahmed couldnt deliver a promo and didnt protect 4 shit but me as a kid loved him. Warzone he was my favorite character then Shamrock
they are right tho. Ahmed was just as over as a burgeoning heel Steve Austin. he was OVERRRR lol than all of a sudden it was just over lol crazy story
Can't forget his theme music 🔥 🔥🔥🔥
Yess his move set in warzone was bomb
You go try slamming Yokozuna and protecting him. Damn near the whole WWE roster wouldn’t be able to do it.
His promos were fucking awesome. Couldn't understand a lot of them, but they were awesome and certainly got the point across
Met Ron at a convention. By far the nicest guy there. Called my back over after he signed my picture and took a photo with me just to talk. We talked for probably 5 minutes. I asked him about his blue helmet with the Spartacus outfit, his APA and Nation days, just the nicest guy.
Ahmed's Pearl River Plunge was EPIC. I even wanted to root for him in WCW as "Big T" ........but he's just a guy who went out of his way to make it hard to root for.
Same boat.
Lol at the Centurions in the background 😂
Centurions yeah??
Is that what they are called?
When Ahmed came in and slammed Yokozuna, the crowd went crazy. He was awesome, although I didn't understand some of his talking. He just looked like a bad man. I think most fans had no clue about his reputation, but we loved the character.
Listen to Stevie ray talk about the time he forgot his match with booker t wax funny or hearing about dlo fight with Ahmad was funny
@@jimbowlan5804 Stevie Ray tells some great stories.
He could do the moves and he was big, but when you show no respect for anyone outside of management and the whole locker room hates you, you ain't gonna go far. Ahmed had no friends in the business, and Vince had had enough of Ultimate Warrior kind of guys, that come in and think their shit don't stink when they're still greener than RVD's pot.
When I watched during the Attitude Era, even though Ron was a heel with The Nation of Domination, I always liked him. Mainly bc of his charisma and how he conducted himself.
All this experience that Ron had and Vince/ WWE still didn't know how to market him as the champion that he is.
Didn’t know or was not trying to?
Exactly. Ron never got the push he deserved but still remained relevant for years.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 likely the latter, sadly. I really try not to pull the race card because I know it cheapens the dialogue when it's unwarranted but, I think it's obvious here. The industry didn't know how to market a black champion back then, especially a dominant one, no pun intended. Bobby Lashley is the first black wrestler to receive this kind of push as world champion in WWE. Almost three decades after Ron. Yeah we had the Rock and Booker but they aren't the Ron/Bobby type. That's ridiculous. Can you imagine a Ron/Austin feud and the promos they would cut?!?! The Nation of Domination angle was written perfectly except they should have gotten more wins and more titles. That angle got us to the Rock we know today.
@@3d1k3 You basically blame race then give examples of black champions. Should every champion be black? Modern wrestling (90s up) was actually its own sort of great equalizer rather than a form of blacksploitation. Booker and Farooq were 2 of this white boys favorite wrestlers
@@mrsmokestacks21 you don't read do you?
The plan b thing was told to Nash by Chief Jay Strongbow. He said to him "what do you need, an apartment to live in when you're off the road, and if you have a kid a house so the kid has s room and maybe a yard to play in, that's it." Or something to that effect.
.......I remember being a huge mark for Ahmed, and wondering why he went from being this beast, to Farooq basically taking his spot
other emerging names probably sabotaged him at the time. he probably didn't have a personality that helped him out either. ie not "political" enough
@Redbo Black Yes, it's because of racism that Ahmed Johnson was an untalented, mush-mouthed failure who couldn't work and didn't belong in the main event. And Ron Simmons was a total racist for beating him too. All because of racism.
Ahmed didn't play the game backstage, which is why he didn't get elevated past IC belt. He would do high flying stuff and asked by Shawn not to do that, his fault for listening. Then when his sister was dying in the hospital he outright walked out. I'd do the same. Then his crappy wcw run and he was not as big and to be honest, was fat. So what he couldn't work, ultimate warrior couldn't either and hurt a bunch of guys.
@Redbo Black nah, Vince actually pushed Ahmed because of his build and primal persona.
Vince like big cut dudes like Utimate Warrior. Ahmed just didn't put in the work and sometimes hurt opponents in the ring.
@@rodinowright6591 Exactly. Bruce Prichard even said Vince had stars in his eyes when he saw Ahmed. There was even talk about him being the first ever black WWF Champion..but his unsafe ring work and inability to cut a coherent promo held him back. It feels as if after he recovered from his kidney injury..he was a shell of what he once was, especially with his feud with The Nation Of Domination that dragged on for two years. Not to mention Ahmed had a HORRIBLE backstage attitude. Road Dogg even spoke about him bullying younger guys and he even had a fight backstage with D'Lo. The guy was supposed to be the next big superstar..but in ring issues and being a headcase to deal with backstage held him back, he was his own worst enemy.
Ahmed was probably thinking "Damn" to himself during the Simmons beatdown 😂
🤣🤣🤣
"DAYUM!"
Was always a fan of Simmons, even more the more I hear about him.
I have never heard anyone say a bad word about Ron Simmons.
DAMN!!!!! How bout now?
The character of Ahmed was awesome but if the locker room stories and shoots from the talent he worked with are to be believed he was too wrapped up in his own hype and had such an ego he didn't care about the well being of his coworkers.
Godfather backing up JR is awesome. I was always a big fan all the way back to Papa Shango.
Apparently the godfather has a very good relationship with Vince too.
@@pi3856also a legit guy too
Ron Simmons is one of the 3 classic wrestlers who should've had the belt. Mr. Perfect. Earthquake. Ron Simmons
Earthquake would have needed a custom belt. I remember when he teamed with Tugboat.
You don't tug on superman's cape, ya don't spit in the wind, ya don't grab the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger AND YOU DONT MESS AROUND WITH RON.
Well said but change the last word to SIMMONS!!!
For the longest I wanted to hear this story 👏
I wanna know the official reason for his departure. I've heard and read different things. I believe JR could set it straight
Rons finisher the dominator..... was my go to finisher in every wrestling game I ever played....
Raw power
Nah, clothesline from hell
Nah hold my Red G-string, Pearl River Plunge Warzone style
I like Ron's spinebuster myself. I call it the Sitcho ass down!
@@joolsmacgrools1288 😂🤣😂🤣
@@joolsmacgrools1288 Well I like Pearl-River G-String Plunge, Cuz inda real bad moon😡
I remember the legendary run of Ahmed in wcw as Big T.....lol. he fought booker for possession of the letter T
The fact that was an actual angle shoes why WCW needed to go out of business.
At that point his greatest battle was his fight against obesity.
and he said fight and beat dwayne because of their last name
@@nothing5283 would that make his name "Big Johnson"? 😁😁
@@Eckalicious technically, he was always obese because obesity is about height age and body weight. He just lost the muscle or put a ton of fat on top of it. Not good either way.
It was bad ass that The Godfather went and sat with JR when Ahmed came in. Shows how much respect JR had from the boys. Also, listening to stories about Ahmed, he really was a POS.
Still listening to these stories from the Attitude Era is amazing.
Yea that was dope man!
when ahmed first came into the WWF, he looked amazing. great physical charisma, intensity, first class finisher, a few other decent moves that were surprising (like that somersault plancha). he looked like one day he could be The Man. but his interviews were nearly indecipherable and he was more like an updated version of the Ultimate Warrior. then the injuries started happening, the rumors of him being sloppy or hurting people, etc. and that potential started spiraling downward fast. and like The Warrior, it sounded like his big problem was how he took himself too seriously and really never developed the psychology and appreciation of what the business should be.
Ron Simmons by this point had earned a lot of people's respect. Loved him with Butch Reed and Teddy Long in Doom, even though initially I hated them because I liked the Steiners around that time. But loved their size, the look, their moves and Teddy Long being an arrogant smack talker. Fast forward a bit to Ron winning the WCW world title which was awesome, guy definitely deserved it and it put him on a different plateau finally. Hated the Farooq gimmick. Just a lame looking costume that killed off what he established in WCW. But his finisher was super cool.
It's odd hearing their actual rivalry now though. Again it just sounded like Ahmed took himself too seriously and disrespected the business and that Ron had to humble him.
I loved the Pearl River Plunge
You didnt mention though he rejeuvenated that career aGAIN with the Acolytes/APA cool tag team
Ahmed was so over with the fans but everyone in the lockeroom hated him. Mark Henry, The Rock, D Lo Brown, HHH, and Ron Simmons really hated him
And Steve Austin too
He was a dumbass from all accounts and dangerous in the ring. He was known for injuring guys all the time.
@@Runforestrun yep that's why ron beat the shit out of him he kicked ron in his liver messed ron up he was out 9 months when he come back he beat the shit out of him during a match one night people said they never saw ron as mad as he was that night dude was a idiot nobody liked him
Austin REALLY hated him to the point where he did not want to work with him.
It be naive to think as over as Ahmed was that there wasn't jealousy. Obviously he was a pain but come on there were clearly others in business
Ron Simmons was a total package in the business. He would have been a great main event champion
What Ross said can be said many wrestlers.
Road Dogg contradicts himself. He said everybody was afraid of Ahmed Johnson but you got to know your role. Road Dogg refused to do a job for RVD. Was all angry at Vince but says he got Vince’s respect for that. But let that be Ahmed Johnson who was already over. JR is leaving out the fact they were sabotaging him. Pulling stunts like he suppose to job for Chyna and be tarred and feathered. Everybody else is trying to get paid or come up so they listened (The rest of NOD). Soon as The Rock got his push he was arrogant as arrogant can be. But all you’ll hear is a bunch of phonies talking good about Triple-H, Shawn Michaels and The Rock.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 the rock is very good at keeping his image clean he is smart, His whole Instagram just makes him seem like such a douche. always banging on about being the hardest worker and yada yada, very self-congratulating. His workouts kick his ass
I like JR but in the business like any other business or job we can be biased. We will agree with our guys over someone we don't like even if it's not 100 percent right. Also say things ud they are not 100 percent true. There were many egomaniacs. Brock Lesnar JBL,HbK,Hhh The Rock once he got over.
Yeah JR was very hypocritical when everybody had bad things say abt Warrior. I sense more to JR's rant then meets the eye... Ahmed was legit over nobody can deny that
@@hakeem2369 because he is Black, right? Ron Simmons is Black, but you ignore him?
Props to J.R for telling it like it is. Rare quality in people these days
When I saw Ron Simmons win the WCW world championship, I thought it was just the greatest.
I always loved Ahmed’s entrance at KOTR 1996, the way he barged the doors open before coming down the aisle 😂
Ron Simmons is from my home town. My buddy and I ran into him at a bait and tackle shop one day. We were leaving the store and my buddy, who grew up a few houses down from where Ron grew up, took a hard left and walked up to the biggest human being I'd ever seen. We talked to him for a few minutes, he showed us the fish he'd caught with some kids that were with him (I don't know if they were his kids or like his nieces and nephews or something). One was a HUGE bluegill. He was coming back from fishing in one of those huge, expensive Mercedes Benz sedans that was close to six figures in 91. Definitely NOT what you picture when you think "fishing".
Massive guy. Intimidating as hell. He didn't think nothing of wasting a few minutes talking to a couple of teenage fans that just walked up to him on the street. It was awesome.
Ron Simmons should have been the first black WWE champion and it really was an injustice that they didn't put the belt on him. Kameron Golden is truly right about that. Ron is truly a great guy and a true world champion
1996 was all about Hart vs Austin. Why destroy that momentum putting the belt on simmons. 97 had hbk and bret fueding as well as the rise of the Rock . I can go on for 98-2002 . The point is the timing was never right.
One thing about JR is he is gonna let you know that he was the talent relations guy at the height of the business lmao
Jr is annoying company man / Mark. After all the disrespect Vince has show him, he still towes the company line ..
Ron Simmons had SO MUCH respect in the locker room that the Steiners never messed with him!
Ahmed to D'Lo:"Ima moke ya a.."😂
I read this in his voice and spit my drink 🤣
I love that interview 🤣😆
“Imma deal with you in a minute” 😂😂😂
Ahmed Johnsons cut scene promos in the Warzone video game is legendary
"Nobody's gonna 'moke nobody"
My fav ahmed moment was when goldust kissed him and he freaked the fk out
That was the best thing ever cracked me up dying fun part guess he never knew was gonna happen lol
i think he liked that,he let goldust do that TWICE.........
And choked up bob holly who was alot smaller without the juice
He couldn't have done anything about it either because Dustin Runnels would have whipped his ass too.
@@stonecold6521 the legendary rattlesnake my all time favorite wrassler
i'll always remember, Ahmed and Faarooq were the black guys in WWF War Zone for Nintendo 64
Technically The Rock is too but I didnt' know that at the time lol
Same
@Lamont Norwood he is pure samoan nowadays even back then he was pure samoan
@@nothing5283 what? He’s as much black as he is Samoan. He didn’t change his dna lol
that game sucked. I remember it was hard to play it control-wise. Thank God for Wrestlemania, that cool WCW game..all u had to do was hold a button and toggle the joystick to do a finisher. Warzone was so difficult to play as a kid lol. And The Rock is SAMOAN, a Pacific Islander. He falls within the category of "Asian" moreso than Black. Although, all humans originate from Africa. Just like Arabs are technically "Asians" because they're in Western Asia. Although "Asian" isn't really a definitive race or ethnic group, The Rock is still ethnically a descendent of the Original Peoples of the Pacific..and they were African-Descent..It gets so complicated..forget race, We're all human lol.
@@sabot4ge The Rock is half black. His dad was black but yeah his mom's side of the family is Samoan.
.
Warzone definitely had a steep learning curve and was not as fun as the N64 Wcw games (you're thinking of World Tour and Revenge). But i think warzone was much easier than the sequel WWF attitude. I fucking hate that game so much. It was impossible to do any moves at all in that one
So much valuable insight for JR as usual.
That gladiator shit was DOA!!!🤣🤣🤣
Terrible gimmick. The WWF had just as many writing blunders as WCW, they just had a few more wins.
I can't believe they'd even do Ron Simmons like that. Well, it's WWE so of course they did.
Damn, Ahmed Johnson was my favorite New Generation back in the day. I remember him body slamming Yokozuna clean like it was nothing. Much better than Lex Luger's half body slam imo. But now I gotta go back and watch Ahmed videos to see if he really did have tricep implants lol. I didn't even know that was a thing. I knew about calf implants, so I guess tricep implants would have been feasible, although I would think they would hinder your performance in ring, although from all the stories that have come out, Ahmed didn't seem like the brightest guy anyway. You would think Buff Bagwell would have gotten them too, given that he got calf implants. I always thought that Buff's triceps super small, it made his arms look unproportioned. He even alluded to it in a shoot about Scott Steiner, and how he would always turn sideways to show his physical superiority over Buff lol.
You’d think with Conrad having an ad every 2 minutes he could afford to fix then popping in the audio. Smh
His profits goes toward his eating bill.
Conrad is the worst part of these podcasts
The interviewer wanted JR to speak about the Farooq - Ahmed fight that Mark Henry had described. The interview spends 2-3 minutes reading Mark Henry's description of the incident but JR just beats about the bush and never speaks anything about it.
Probably due to respect idk
You're right. I've noticed that JR rarely buries people or hypes up a scandal. For lack of a better word, his speech can be quite "lawyerly" insofar as he avoids implying that he has personal heat with anyone, or saying anything that makes it seem like he's siding with one person over another.
Seems like he tries to be diplomatic and respectful, even where other people have said that a particular individual is an asshole/unsafe/etc. Not a bad way to be tbh.
I've searched high and low on the Internet and haven't found anything confirming Mark's story. I don't think it happened. According to the internet, Johnson was fired after disappearing from an event to visit his dying sister.
@@MaximumRabbit It never happened, Mark Henry was either confused or building on the the bullshit story that Ahmed himself told about hurting Ron Simmons, breaking his ribs, and puncturing his lung. Mark Henry said that Ron was out for "9 months of more," which is absolutely false. There is no record of Ron Simmons ever being out for 9 months straight, or even sustaining a kidney injury and broken ribs during that match (the Chicago Street Fight during WrestleMania 13). As a matter of fact, during the match, after being put through the announcer's table Ron later gets up and continues to wrestle normally, there is absolutely zero signs of him being seriously injured. He gets into a few exchanges with Ahmed, he hits Hawk and Animal with a trash can then gets hit with the trash can himself, gets hit with a road sign a couple of times, gets pulled from the top rope to the outside of the ring by Animal, and gets body-slammed in the middle of the ring, then rolls out and stays outside the ring until Hawk pins Crush to win the match. According to Ahmend, Ron would've done everything I just mentioned with broken ribs and punctured lung... I don't think so.
JR saying that Ahmed Johnson got hired because he was black and looked like a Greek god, and for a while was over, pissed me off. Not because he was wrong; I have no doubt that JR is entirely correct. But the WWE/F already had a black superstar who looked impressive, and his name was Ron Simmons. They could have put Farooq over instead of Johnson, and as far as I can see Simmons deserved it more. It just pisses me off that Vince and Co. thought they had to go get another Ron Simmons when they already had the original recipe Ron Simmons, and he was championship material.
Vince likes to create his own toys
Could Ron Simmons slam Yokozuna?
In terms of a plan B I always wonder about HHH because all of Kliq and DX eventually met that end of their run, he hasn't but we know why
I remember a guy I went to school with saying Ahmed was his favorite wrestler. I was really shocked to be honest.
My favorite Ahmed moment was when Kane dropped him on his head... Bye bye. His career was obviously done when WWE was going to have him face Steve Austin that night then "Well we are really going to let you become a Kane jobber instead"
What’s the clip name?
Well, Austin did not want to work with that idiot. I do not blame him.
Good discussion. How about a clip or a sliver of video besides looking at a boring screen?
Hope that Plan B talk went over well with Ric Flair
Right,, he's having another retirement match.
Bless you oh great Ron Simmons.
I remember this. Ahmed was fighting with The Rock about using Taka’s move, and when the rock told him that it wasn’t a good idea, he got upset and when D Lo intervened, Ahmed tried to hit him with some weapon and got stretched out hahaha
D lo told the story he did disrespect the rock. D lo tried to help and defended himself against Ahmed
@@michaelbull4344 yeah. D lo tried to deescalate the situation but Ahmed was on one and got snatched up hahaha he burned his bridge with Mark Henry as well when he put something in his drink.
Oh;
@@georgerg79 yeah man. Ahmed like spiked mark Henry’s drink or something, knowing he was straight edge.
Ron Simmons wasn't the one to mess with.
Ron Simmons damn near killed Ahmed and didn’t get a title to show for it. Ross be exposing himself and this dirty business without even knowing it.
91 to 99 wwe sounded like jail
@@ScarFeiss JR is a clown. When Farooq got injured that was Ahmed Johnson returning a favor for the time Farooq kicked in the kidney. When Farooq got injured that should’ve been the end of it and they shouldn’t even be in a match. But here go good ol JR talking like it’s just Ahmed Johnson at fault.
@@dontdoittoyoself6786 exactly.
Ahmed wasn't the best person but he didn't deserve that
Whoever booked that knew how it would play out. They should have been fired for fucking with money.
@@mothegrouch909 lmao The naivety is astounding.
... Why are Roman soldiers marching in the background?
DAMN!
Love RON
As the late Sylvester Ritter once said: “jr I’m the junkyard dog but you’re definitely the junk food dog!”
Wwe never fired ahmed, he quit during a live taping of raw before he was scheduled for a beatdown by truth commission after getting news his sister battling cancer was at her last stage,she died a week later, he had bad luck, was scheduled to face taker and hbk for the title,they really tried to make the guy main event status and eventually champion, but his injuries prevented it, and wrestlers didnt like him probably cause he was too intense for them in the ring and would "injure them".
That’s sad to hear about his sister ☹️
No, other wrestlers didn’t like him because he was picking fights with nearly everyone backstage over things that weren’t true. Listen to DLo Brown, Stevie Ray, and other’s interviews about him, as they’re all consistent about his behavior.
No he was kinda like the ultimate warrior backstage. He didn't respect the business or anyone in it. Ask anyone.
He also overslept/noshowed. Ask Cornette.
@@kingoffarts8352 wrong
ahmed johnson was my favorite as a teen.
Ron as "Farooq" would have NEVER worked as WWF world champion. His character was too polarizing. Some people say Nash was the worst drawing WWF world champ of all time. With "Farooq" as champ house shows & ppv buys would have gone way down. It's also been said Ron injured Tony out of jealousy. He was never as over as Ahmed in his WWF run
You’re a fucking idiot lol Ahmed was over in 96, nobody cared about him after his IC title reign, he was over for literally a few months. Marks like you act like you know about the business, it’s so annoying. Diesel was and is the worst drawing champion, it’s not just what “some people” say, it’s a fact of life. The NOD angle probably made you uncomfortable because you’re probably a racist. 😂
@@heelturnsface 😂
When Ahmed became a member of the nation it was already done for him. Yes he was over with the crowds, he body slammed yokozuna and was over over. He injured people and was himself injury prone. As for the farooq stuff, I don't see how he gets a pass purposely injurying Ahmed in a wrestling match.
@@louspock007 I think short term it coulda worked......imagine the return matches with Taker. Long term? Maybe it'd not work, but....short term it coulda. And with Taker's storyline with Kane and Paul Bearer ongoing at the time, a title change coulda made sense too. Have it passed off as Taker being distracted cause of Kane being held over him, as he was in different matches at the time anyway. Then just have Taker get it together enough to win it back, say at Canadian Stampede. Simple enough booking to me.
Joe is a little erratic. Faarooq was almost 40 by the time he came to WWF. For a roster whose main acts were so much younger, putting the belt on him would have made no sense since the view then was that you age out past 40 until your injury risks increase substantially, so it's a liability. This is further compounded by the fact that talent still takes a good 18 months, especially then to get over. So you're looking at age 40 or so. Faarooq was never going to be champion, nor should he have been. There's a reason why he was doing a lighter schedule in a B-rate tag team once he hit that age
As for Johnson, regardless of how bad he was, I don't doubt at all that there was a lot of jealousy. Wrestlers who labor for years to get over do not like a noob coming in and becoming the 2nd hottest face in the company
As for the rest, I doubt that fight happened. It's more likely that Henry has brain damaged, then concluded his dream for something that happened. It's wrestling revenge porn
Johnson got the push he deserved, by which I mean end it once his merchandise wave ended. He didn't have the personality, intelligence, altruism, and character to lead the roster.
I like how JR says school. “Skewl”. Reminds me of my papa.
Normally I say be professional and deal with issues in the back but sounds like Ahmed had an ass whooping coming regardless
Especially when you make a big thing about possibly kicking JRs ass. Like what's that going to prove?
There's no way that actually happened. If so, the way he tells the story bears no resemblance to how it played out. The more likely scenario is that Henry has brain damage
JR gives no details. All he says is I had Ron Simmons talk to him. This interview is weak. JR ain’t truly talking and Ron Simmons injured Ahmed Johnson first so who’s really right and who’s really wrong. They took a baby face that was over like movie credits and turned him heal so fast with no good reason. WWE is trash. WCW was just more dysfunctional and that’s how they won the wars.
Manny Fernandes with the WW2 shrapnel fragments
Ron Simmons was a man's man's man's man.
They screwed up with Ahmed. Who cares if he caused some drama backstage, so do dozens of wrestlers who get pushed
Exactly
@@3d1k3 you don't piss off the boys backstage especially if you ain't got Vince all the way backing
Shawn Michaels was a dope but everyone says he was a great worker. No one says Ahmed Johnson was a good worker.
the Ron Simmons tune on the WCW Slam Jam 1 cassette is incredible.
Ahmed Johnson's videos on war zone are gold
Jim Ross loves to talk shit about people but everyone always makes out like this dude is a good man🙄
Ahmed Johnson reminds me of a black version of the Ultimate Warrior. A terrible worker who can't do a coherent promo that was difficult to deal with backstage. Both were push to the moon due to their physiques and intensity, but were terrible in just about every other aspect and both didn't last very long.
Wouldn't say Ahmed was pushed to the moon. TUW held the world and IC titles simultaneously and beat Hogan clean. That's a push to the moon. Ahmed didn't get anything close.
Warrior could work just was bat shit crazy with promos 🤣 he was the original Goldberg that can work but squashed people. Think about this in they primes what skills did Stone Cold Rock show they punched and kicked a few slams and ok submissions
@@3d1k3 true, he wasn't as pushed as much as Warrior, I think very few people were pushed that much, but I will say that Ahmed did get a big push
@@travionjohnson3975 Warrior could NOT work. Honestly, Warrior was a terrible in ring worker
Two of the best ever... Ahmed & Warrior
WWE 6x Hall Of Famer 2 Ron Simmons/Farooq of The Nation Of Domination, The Ministry Of Darkness, DOOM, Acolytes, APA, & solo run as a Wrestler should've been WWE Heavyweight Champion with a long Heavyweight Championship Title reign. 🌌💀🌌
I always wished they had Farooq win the Heavyweight title and then do an immediate face turn when Ron stated that he was clamoring about poor race relations but the fans cheering him as he won (and they would have cheered) has shown him that wrestling is where talent and ambition overcome the color of your skin and then have him run with a year long title reign taking down the cocky kids of WWF
Ron's a legit bad ass! #ICON
Ron Simmons would have been such a great WWF champion back in the day..
Ron Simmons was not to be played with. I hate that Vince only relegated him to one word. DAMN.
I'd love to see footage of Farooq having his way with Ahmed.
I believed the Ron Simmons/Ahmed Johnson story Mark Henry presented, but going through WWF match results there's no period between 96-99 when Ron Simmons missed more than a week, so the "out 9 months with a lacerated kidney" story doesn't add up. And Whilst Ahmed was often injured for weeks at a time none of his injuries corresponded with matches against Ron Simmons.
No doubt they disliked each other but Mark Henry's tale of retribution probably belongs in the Hall of Embellished Wrestling Stories alongside most of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan's anecdotes.
Ron told me the story. They had a dark match before he came in with that ridiculous gladiator gimmick. Marks saying it the way it happened.
@@skepchica What I don't understand about that dark match is that it's listed for the Intercontinental title. Why would Ron Simmons wrestle for the title before making his televised debut? It's also listed on July 22, 1996... which is the same day he debuted and attacked Johnson.
Even if that match did happen, the whole 9 months out didn't happen at all. Six months before his WWF debut Ron had a match at MWCW, and six months before that he was still with NJPW. Mark's story still doesn't add up whatsoever.
I remember mark henry telling this story. If you do injure Simmons (and that would be the silliest thing to do by accident, let alone on purpose!), then make sure you call everyday, check in on him and make sure he’s ok. Because one day he will be back! The crowd or the 140lb ref won’t stop the shoot. It’s meant to be real, so if it is, who’s going to complain?
The quote was Ahmed said he was gonna “moke” him not “make” lmao cuz he couldn’t pronounce “smoke”
He was great in WCW, he could talk and was a believable badass as the leader of The Nation (yes he was outshined by The Rock who was swiftly rising but who wouldn't be?) I loved him in APA but he could have for sure had a main event run.
For them to be MATCHED against each other in the first match back, Vince knew...
Damn right... it was def a setup. Ron probably asked for it.
I always have needed a Ron Simmons autograph
I just watched the clip of Mark's story of this while ago.
I bet Vince told both Ron and Ahmed ,upon signing, that they’d be the first black champion, and that’s where the problem came from
I believe that...I heard he told JYD and Bad News Brown,,they would be the first..
Well to be fair to Vince none of those four would be great for business as a world champion
@Jacki Conklin it's not real and they didn't draw. Those are facts and you remaining ignorant instead of being honest to yourself and admitting it won't change that. While thinking everyone pointing that out is racist you are exposing yourself as being racist and a dumbass that doesn't know anything about this topic whatsoever 🤣🤣
Except Vince wanted to put the whc on Ahmed but he refused. That's on Ahmed not Vince.
No. Ahmed was a sloppy worker and he hurt Ron in a dark match. Ron came back it was actually his first night in that ridiculously gladiator gimmick and ended up injuring one of Ahmeds kidneys. They went back and forth for a bit but Ahmed wasn't a safe worker and his attitude didn't serve him well with the guys in the locker room. Getting nasty with Jim Ross was probably when enough was enough.
Ron Simmions should have been WWF World Champion!!!
This story is great and everything but Ahmeds wwe career folded because he was constantly injured not because one night Simmons kicked his ass 🙄
Vince loved Ahmed because he had the look but he was a nuclear heat magnet in the locker room which is why Vince was hesitant to push him to the moon and top but still gave him exposure and a decent push and he got over big time for a moment. But the moment he had gotten injured and was out of shape because of his constant injuries, he was done. It wasn't one thing that folded his career. He had terrible wrestling skills, heat with the boys, messed around a locker room leader like Ron, and was constantly injured that Vince ultimately decided, he wasn't worth keeping anymore.
DAMN! What good story
I remember that the one that started the beef was Ron Simmons when he debuted as the Spartan with Sunny and he kicked Ahmed in the kidney, damaging it, Ahmed was injured and out for a while. When Ahmed return he injured Ron as payback and their beef continued for a while until Ahmed was out of WWF
When did Ahmed injure Ron? Is there a match
Ron Simmons is definitely on the list of wrestlers that I'd never want to piss off. He's somewhere between Undertaker and the Wild Samoans.
I don't think Ron will get pissed off if you made him mad but I think he would tell you something in order to straighten you out same thing for the undertaker. They'll give you a warning but if you keep on doing it hell yeah you going to have some problems
I love Jim Ross.. I came from the era with Bobby the brain and gorilla monsoon as commentators.. they were great.. Miss those dudes.. then in comes Vince McMahon.. I really loved him on commentating.. he always kept me at the edge of my seat fully invested and interested in what's going on no matter what match it was and Jim gave me that same feeling as Vince..
And for laughs I loved The King Jerry Lawler and JBL..
Good old days of commentary
Just a list of former wrestlers in there prime that should of been WWE Champion.. Ron Simmons, Rowdy Piper, Mr. Perfect, Davey Boy Smith, Owen Hart.. the list goes on.