411’s WWE Untold Report: The APA on Teaming Together, Dealing With Public Enemy, More

411’s WWE Untold Report: The APA

-Air Date: 02.07.21
-Run Time: 33:00

-Opening bit as the producers are getting Ron and JBL set up with mics and one of producers asks Ron about Florida State football. Ron is disgusted as he doesn’t want to talk about them because they are terrible. Pitt Panthers smacked them around this year which was fun to watch.

-They also talk about filming the bar fights at The Friendly Tap over the years, which was owned by Tim White. They had one take as it was live and whatever they destroyed Vince would replace. Tim would tell them to make sure they destroyed any TVs and the pool table as he was getting bigger and better to replace it on Vince’s dime. Fantastic! Ron say they had to shake Tim down for money because of all the times they helped remodel that place. They had a fake wall once and JBL was to put Bull through it and messed up and they went through a legit wall. Nice!

-This is WWE Untold: The APA!

-Ron tells his upbringing and how he lost his mom and his father disappeared. His brothers left to life with Aunts and he stayed with his grandmother. His grandma was a massive wrestling fan and loved Bob Armstrong. Apparently she put the whooping on people if they talked when Bob Armstrong was on TV.

-JBL grew up in Texas and fell in love with wrestling as he watched with his grandfather. In Texas there are two sports: football and spring football. Back to Ron as his first love was baseball, but as he got bigger coaches called him to the football field. From there he went to Florida State and finished 9th in The Heisman Trophy vote as a nose guard which is insane. He ended up in the College Football Hall of Fame. JBL played small college ball but was an All American. Ron was drafted by Cleveland in the 6th round and it didn’t pan out so he went to the USFL and played with Lex Luger. This show is worth it just for the shot of Luger in his USFL jersey. Ron watched Luger make the transition to wrestling and called him to see if he could give it a shot.

-They show Ron working in WCW with Flair, Steamboat and he was amazed in he was in the ring with these guys. They show him as Tag Champion with Butch Reed (RIP sir). In 1992 Bill Watts tells Ron Simmons he is beating Vader for the World Title and Ron asked why me to which Watts said why not you? They show the amazing moment and again, the kid losing it in the front row is amazing and one of those things engrained in my brain. Simmons was the first African American to win The World Title.

-Back to JBL who was playing football in The World League, but was cut and he decided to become a pro-wrestler. He wrestled around the world for a bit and got the call from the WWE. The idea was Justin Bradshaw and JBL asked if they could add Hawk as he used that before coming to the WWE and when he eventually got fired he could go back to using it. He remembers watching Shawn and Bret at Mania 12 and felt he didn’t belong there and just wanted to go back to Japan.

-Ron decided to leave WCW and Michael Hayes put in a word to Vince McMahon to bring him to the WWE. He laughs talking about Vince introducing the Faarooq character and he loses it talking about the helmet as it was leather. He took the character and was going to do what he could to make it work and it lead to The Nation. He is proud of himself for taking on the character and not bitching about it.

-JBL says that he and Ron both had a lot in common with football and their ring style. They rode together long before they became tag partners. They also enjoyed having a beer or twenty. JBL says guys had to talk to each other back then as they didn’t have cell phones and social media.

-JBL says they had Ron in the dressing room and had nothing for him which he felt was a shame. He understood why they didn’t have anything for him. So they decided to put the both of them together. The debuted on Heat as The Acolytes brought out by Jackal (Don Callis). JBL is the one that drew the symbols on their chests and at times he would draw Teletubbies on Ron’s chest. Amazing!

-JBL puts Ron over for being the steady force of the team. Ron knows they had a rep for beings stiff, but they were going to let you know you were in a wrestling match. That leads to a talk about The Public Enemy who just came into the WWE. JBL says talent had to be at the arena at 1:30 PM and they showed up at 5 PM which was seen as disrespectful. Then just as they were heading out for a match they told The Acolytes they didn’t want to get put through a table. The Acolytes then just went out and beat the piss out of them. Ron “It wasn’t stiff then. It was real.” Damn!

-They beat Kane and X-Pac to win The WWF Tag Titles for the first time. Ron says that moment brought them even closer together. Ron says people would pay them to take them out to get a taste of what life on the road was like with them. That leads to a story about a party for JBL’s birthday as they filled him with all kinds of drinks. JBL was so hung over and Vince told him he was going to put that on television. He wanted to put JBL and Ron on TV drinking beer. JBL told Ron the idea and Ron responded “That’s the greatest idea I ever heard.” I mean it’s good work if you can find it I guess.

-They show The Mean Street Posse paying The Acolytes to protect them and thus The APA was born. They didn’t wrestle much and just got to do fights backstage and bar fights. JBL isn’t sure who came up with the idea for the door and it became a running joke to not have walls and them get pissed when people didn’t come through the door. I always enjoyed that running gag.

-They wanted to make the team about racial equality and Ron shot that down as he said it was more than race and was just two friends. JBL agreed with him and they never touched on that issue with the team. Ron knew it was working when someone at the airport called them twins. We see some outtakes from various shoots and that is where DAMN came from. The writers picked up on it and thus a catchphrase was born.

-Ron loved the fights with The Dudley Boyz as they never bitched and always fought back. They would take turns kicking each others asses and Ron mentions he can work with a team like that. JBL says they beat their ass and they shook their hands afterward and have been best friends ever since. The APA win the Tag Titles a second time as they knock off The Dudley Boyz.

-JBL says he would have been happy being in The APA forever. Ron says you can’t stay somewhere forever and that the good times eventually have to end. Ron decided to retire and was written off the show by being fired by Paul Heyman. Ron knew JBL was ready for a singles run.

-Bradshaw turned his back on Ron and The JBL character is born. He cuts a promo about having a good time and drinking hasn’t gotten him jack. JBL says that Ron told him that one day he would be World Champion and would be carrying the torch. He can never repay Ron for everything he did for his career. JBL beats Eddie for the WWE Title and gets a monster reign with The Title.

-Ron gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by JBL. He knew inducting Ron was something historic and he wanted to live up to that moment of history. He wanted to show Ron the respect he deserved. Ron says being Tag Champions with Bradshaw in the APA was as close to the feeling he had of winning the World Title. We get a nice shot of Bradshaw watching Ron’s speech backstage with tears in his eyes as Ron talks about JBL being a brother. For Ron, JBL filled the void he had of not having his brothers around and he isn’t sure if JBL knows how important that was to him. He loves JBL and calls him his brother.

-We end with The APA separating at a show with a Closed sign hanging from their door.

-This was fun and a decent watch. Having JBL and Ron as the only talking heads as the right call as this was their story. At only 33 minutes they breezed through each man’s career which is kind of a shame as Ron was a legend even before forming the APA. At some point you would think we would get a proper Ron Simmons documentary but again, this was fine. Not the best episode in the series, but something I would say is worth sitting down and watching. Thanks for reading!