JBL & Ron Simmons Discuss Knowing They Had Lighting in a Bottle With The APA, Why It Came to an End

During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE Hall of Famers Ron Simmons and JBL, formerly The Acolytes and The APA, spoke about The Acolytes transitioning to The Acolytes Protection Agency, realizing the gimmick was lightning in a bottle, and then why the duo ultimately came to an end. Below are some highlights from Insight:

JBL on When They Realized They Had Lightning in a Bottle With The APA

“Pretty quick. One thing we realized, right away, we started getting over. When everybody was crowding for the camera when we’re with The Nation, with The Ministry, with Undertaker and all the guys, everybody’s crowding for the camera. Meanwhile, I thought, why would we fight for the camera? We can stand at the back and be noticed by everybody. We’re two pretty big guys at the time. We would just stand at the back and just stand there and let everybody else fight for the camera, and people were starting to notice that these two big guys don’t care, which really didn’t.

“Then when we got with APA, it just started working. I don’t know if we noticed it with the fans right away, but we noticed it with the boys. The boys will always tell you if something works or not, because they’ll tell you how much they like it, because they watch everything, and the boys are a great indicator. The boys were like, ‘Dude, that was funny, that was great.’ Or, ‘That was a lot of fun.’”

Ron Simmons on Why APA Came To an End and It Being Time for JBL’s Run at the Top

“You know, we did it for 5 or 6 years. It was good though; at that point it had come to that because it come to the point where we were on top with doing it, and we had a lot of success with it. Myself having already gone through being world champion, had good singles thing behind me. He had been through the ropes. His thing was struggling coming up through the ranks, man. The time was perfect for him to go on and do his thing. It was perfect timing for him to go on from there, from that momentum we had, and to go on and do what he did.”

Ron Simmons on The APA Possibly Going in the Hall of Fame Together

“I don’t see why not. Why wouldn’t it be?”

On Why They Got Paired Up With Michael Cole Who Drove Them Around

JBL: “We liked him. People say, ‘Oh, you had somebody driving you?’ Yep, not because you didn’t like him, because you did like him. We liked Michael.”

Ron Simmons: “Once again, they knew that. We’ll go out and just wanted to have fun and love being around people as much as we could. Sometimes, with Cole, I understand him. Sometimes the job got under his skin, so it was a good thing to get away from that. So that was a good avenue for him to come with us. He had a couple beers, and we shoot the sh*t. Because yeah, he gets in there with us, and it’s not just the business; it’s just having fun.”

Ron Simmons on When He Knew ‘Damn’ Got Over as a Catchphrase

“When we were working together, and I’d pull a muscle or do something, or somebody would do something stupid in the ring, and I’d just stand there, ‘Damn!’ Because something that just happened that we didn’t agree on, or I didn’t agree on, right? So the people, and we would go back to the towns each time. So the people in the first 10 rows could hear me. They just start saying, ‘Damn.’ So I look at them, and I said, ‘Hey, man, what the hell are they saying that for?’

“He said I think you say that when something screws up, or something goes wrong. So the writers, they got wind of it, right, and said, ‘Look, the next time that Booker T and John Cena were having an exchange in Chicago, just walk out there, simply say, ‘Damn’ after they finish with their exchange.’ When I did that, the people sat there for a moment, then they just went crazy, and that’s when Damn was born.”

Ron Simmons was individually inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2012. JBL was later inducted individually in the Class of 2021. WWE has yet to induct the wrestlers under their tag team act, The APA or The Acolytes.