411’s WWE Table for 3 Report: The Nation of Domination

411’s WWE Table for 3 Report: The Nation of Domination

-They WWE kind of buried this episode behind the Angle/Jordan interview. I assume this one also took place over WrestleMania weekend.

-This is a reunion featuring 3 of the Nation of Domination members: Ron Simmons, Mark Henry, and The Godfather.

-The normal small talk to start and Godfather says he has been running his gentleman’s club and mentions that D-Lo Brown (another Nation member) is working at the club. They all wish that D-Lo was here with them. Ron says they all share a bond that is unbreakable and we get footage of The Nation in their prime.

-Ron is happy now doing the grandfather thing and this is what real life is for him now. They talk about Mark and he is shocked that he is still here after 20 years. He says Father Time is undefeated and he will be done soon and move into an office position. He remembers Ron telling him about longevity and giving back what was given so that is why he is still around to help the company and restock the talent pool.

-Mark talks about his family and how his wife wants him home more to help with the kids. Ron says that is where it is at as he has been into sports his whole life, but now it is all about his family. Godfather mentions that when he retired, he and his wife decided to have 1 more kid because of how much he missed with the other kids due to him being on the road so much. Ron says that you have no clue what all you missed out on until you sit at home and watch the grandkids.

-As they are talking gifts are dropped off and this has to be something from The Rock. Ron gets a flat gift while the other two each get boxes and yeah, this is from The Rock. They each open the card that came with it and it reads “Much love and respect, DJ.” Mark is the only one to put it together that DJ is The Rock. Ron jokes that the gift is the least The Rock can do and is still waiting to get in one of his movies. As expected Godfather and Mark each get Rolexes and Ron gets a framed picture of The Rock. FANTASTIC!

-Video cuts back to when this happened previously and it’s still great. Mark jokes the watches they were given back then were “Nolexes.” Ron says he can’t wait to see him as this time it gets real. This time it is personal and Ron jokes about smashing the frame. Mark says that he should get it signed and Ron says it could fetch something on Ebay. Ron says that Rock needs to thank him for getting him out of that grass skirt. They remember they conversation they had with Vince to let Rock learn in The Nation. Mark says that it was a great place for him as well as he could learn being in Ron’s shadow.

-Ron says that with factions it can go one way or another, and it worked because they all cared and loved each other. Godfather says that they all talk all the time, and it is a friendship that will last forever. Mark says he always goes to Godfather’s club in Vegas and Ron says that his wife will allow him to go now as she trusts The Godfather.

-They talk about the start of The Nation, and Ron starts at the beginning of the Farooq character. He was an Egyptian Tyrant, and brings up the stupid, blue helmet. Vince and company knew what Ron Simmons had gone through in his life and his personality so they gave him The Nation. They didn’t want it to be too offensive so they sprinkled in Crush and Savio to have other nationalities in the group.

-Godfather tells a story of running into Randall Cunningham at a gym and told him to watch it with the group as The Nation of Islam doesn’t take stuff like that lightly. Mark says that he had some Nation of Islam brothers come up to him, and he had to let them know it was just TV. They didn’t mean any disrespect, and Ron says similar thing happened to him as he ran into Nation members in Chicago and they wanted him to speak. He told them he would be there in a few minutes and bailed to get out of the situation.

-They talk about getting death threats, and Mark says they had to hide The Rock in a trunk to get him out of the building because he had so much heat. Fans at the Garden destroyed one of their rental cars as they were pounding on it, and Godfather says at times they had to use an ambulance to get them to the arena.

-They talk about best moments of The Nation and Mark brings up his debut in group. He was a gift from The Rock to Ron as his personal security, and Ron screamed he didn’t need his help. Mark said back that he was there for him, and off script, Ron shouts “shut the hell up.” From then on Mark was quiet. Nice!

-The Godfather brings up DX doing the parody of The Nation. Mark says he didn’t care about them putting on black face paint, and to them it was never anything racial. He mentions that X-Pac came up to him before the segment and told Mark he didn’t want to do it, and Mark told him it was fine. They mention they did get some heat from friends who wanted to know why they let it happen, and again Mark says that it was just TV and there was nothing racial about it.

-Mark tells a D-Lo story about a tag match they had at a house show. D-Low hit Dogg with a springboard legdrop and when he hit the move he had explosive diarrhea. AWESOME! He immediately made the tag and headed straight to the back. Mark teased him for months after by smearing Snickers in his tights. Again, Awesome!

-Mark puts over Ron for being the guy that brought all of them along. The Rock had a hand as well as he had the family ties, but it was Ron that was the proud father passing on all his lessons. Mark brings up being Sexual Chocolate as that all comes from his run in The Nation and The Godfather says that the same thing happened for him as there is No Godfather without The Nation. Everyone in the group came out with long careers, and Ron says all of that came out during their run together. Ron says that even The APA has it seeds in The Nation as his character there had the same principals as the one from The Nation. Henry puts over The Rock as one of the 5 greatest ever and it was an honor that he started in a group with all of them. He just needed polished and a way to find his voice.

-They wrap things up by saying they need an even bigger reunion. Ron jokes about the gifts from The Rock again, and the other two say that they wouldn’t be shocked that if there wasn’t a watch waiting for Ron in the mail.

-Great episode here as this was a lot of fun. The Rock “cameo” was fantastic and they guys had some great stories. This one clocked in at 25 minutes or so, and as with most of this it could have gone for an hour and I would have wanted more. It would be great to see The Rock in one of these, but in this case these three were perfect as The Rock would overshadow a Table like this one. The only thing a little weird was there wasn’t any mention (at least in what was shown) of Owen being in the group. Perhaps that was left on the cutting room floor. A must see episode for fans of the Attitude Era and anyone who wants a glimpse into an often forgotten about faction that ended up being more important historically than realized at the time.