Shining a Spotlight 8.16.07: Ron Simmons

Yes, I do have some feelings on “Hard Justice” but I’m waiting for the initial smoke to clear and plans for the future to take shape before I dictate on them more. But between jobbing out XXX, making Dustin lose in his first try-out with his new gimmick, still continuing the Roode-Eric Young feud, having a barbed-wire cage match where a guy is able to run away and topping it all off by having the crowd favorite lose to a former WWE guy thanks to a swerve finish is not exactly giving me a good feeling on TNA’s future.

Well, I’m unusually good noting anniversaries in wrestling but I just realized that one passed by last week that I somehow missed. It was 15 years ago that we saw the crowning of pro wrestling’s first recognized black world champion, a moment that really should have been major but sadly was soon forgotten. However, the worker behind it has gone on to achieve a rather interesting career one that, today, has gotten him popularity not for his great power or ring skill but rather by his verbal skills. That is, just one word at all.

This week the spotlight is on Ron Simmons, a man I’ve always rather respected and enjoyed. He’s a man who’s gotten a good career for himself with a lot of star power but has never really had the long main event run most expected. Yet, he remains highly popular and that’s continued today with his appearances on WWE. But for those who only know him as the “Damn!” guy, I think it’s important to go a bit back in time and show how big Simmons once was.

Like many pro wrestlers, Simmons learned his toughness on the football field. Born in Georgia, he attended Warner Robins High School, playing as a tight end and linebacker. In 1976, he was named lineman of the year and first team All-State, pretty big achievements for the high schooler.

He naturally didn’t have a problem getting a football scholarship to Florida State University, playing under the legendary Bobby Bowden. Bowden took a shine to Simmons, teaching him the game and Simmons even came to regard Bowden as a second father. He spent four years as a defensive nose guard and his achievements were so great that in 1988, his number 50 jersey was retired by the school, only the third time ever such an honor was given. He was also inducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame.

He tried his hand in the NFL, drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1981 but later release. He moved to the USFL, playing for Tampa Bay and Memphis (where one teammate was a young Lex Luger) but eventually moved out of it due to injuries. He was soon intrigued by wrestling, traveling to Japan to train with Hiro Mastuda and debuted for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1986. His first few years were solid but not really spectacular, mostly “dark” matches and such. But 1989 would bring a shift for him…although no one really knew it at first.

In mid-1989, a storyline began of Rick Steiner, who, with brother Scott, were the NWA tag team champions, getting involved with a woman at ringside named Nancy (Nancy Sullivan, later Benoit). At first an innocent-looking teen in pigtails and glasses, she’d act like the brothers’ biggest fan, especially intrigued by Rick. At the time, Rick was portrayed as a mentally slow type with a good heart and he soon began to return her adulation. Eventually, he asked her out for a date but Nancy showed up sans glasses, her hair in a wild ‘80’s perm, decked out as a leather sexpot, the first showing of her Woman character.

Rick would continue to go after her, showering her with expensive gifts and ignoring Scott’s warnings that Woman was just using him. That changed when Scott was attacked by a pair of beefy black muscle men in masks and tights in a parking lot. Rick would face them himself before it turned out the two men were managed by Woman, who called them Doom. For the next few months, the Steiners would face Doom at several events, including an Iron Man tag team bout at Starrcade ’89. However, while okay, Doom never really got that much offense on the Steiners and were routinely beaten.

At the Clash of Champions in February of 1990, Doom were beaten one last time and were forced to unmask, revealing themselves as Ron Simmons and veteran Butch Reed. It was seen as a major comedown for the two men to be forced into this role as a pair of simple thugs and that seemed to be the end of it all. But then something weird happened: For once in their history, WCW actually managed to improve on an angle, taking this seemingly failed experiment and turning it into one of their best teams of that time.

Simmons and Reed seemed demoralized by their series of losses, even more when Woman dumped them. They seemed ready to quit when they were approached by Teddy Long. A former referee fired for blowing some matches, Long had turned to a heel manager with a “slick street” style. He informed the two men that the masks had given them a built-in excuse to lose and now that everyone knew who they were, they’d have to work that much harder to succeed. He promised that hiring him as their manager would lead to success and they decided to take a chance.

It was an inspired grouping. Simmons and Reed already had the skills to be a good tag team but Long gave them a new drive and, more importantly, was their big mouthpiece to get them over. All three presented themselves as tough-as-nails street guys willing to do whatever it took to get ahead. What made things unique was that there really weren’t that many black stars for NWA/Crockett at the time so they stood out even more. They were soon powering their way back through the tag ranks, trashing teams with great power double-teaming moves and Long’s cheating ways. It all culminated at May’s Capitol Combat PPV where, with a little help from Long, Doom beat the Steiners to win the NWA World Tag Team championship.

Most thought it would be a quick reign but instead, the duo would hold the belts for the reminder of the year, facing every major team in the company. The Steiners would be shifted down a bit by winning the US Tag Team titles and feuding with the likes of the Nasty Boys. Doom would have good matches against the Rock n Roll Express at the Great American Bash and at Halloween Havoc, they would earn respect by taking Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to a double-countout. Their reign finally ended in January of 1991 where they lost to the Freebirds. Immediately, the team was split up over the loss with Reed a heel and Simmons turned to a face. He beat Reed in a Thunder Dome Cage Match at Superbrawl and spent the rest of the year bouncing around the midcard with matches against the likes of Oz (Kevin Nash) and the Diamond Studd (Scott Hall). He was getting over well however with his tough attitude and good ring style that mixed power with some nice technical stuff.

In October, a build-up began for a Halloween Havoc match with Lex Luger, then the WCW champion. The two had several good matches that show how, at one time, Luger really wasn’t that bad in the ring. They had several build-up matches to highlight the big one and a press conference where Luger really made himself a heel by telling Simmons that after it was all over and he lost, Luger might take pity and hire him as a chauffer, causing Simmons to attack him. They fought in a two-out-of-three falls match with Ron winning the first and Luger using the help of Harley Race to get Simmons DQ’ed for the second then cheating to win the third. With that big push out of the way, Simmons once more started to fade into the WCW shuffle. In early 1992, he and Big Josh would team to win the US tag team titles, losing them weeks later to Greg Valentine and Terry Taylor. At Superbrawl, he’d have a match with Mick Foley that Foley, in his autobiography, would call one of his hardest ever, citing Simmons’ stiff work.

As 1992 went on, all of WCW was affected by Bill Watts taking over and instituting rules from no top rope maneuvers to backstage rules that rankled some wrestlers. Watts always had an affinity for tough guys so Simmons was a fave for him. More importantly, Watts had experience with building black superstars. He’d made the Junkyard Dog one of the biggest-grossing acts the business had seen so he figured he could do the same with Simmons on this much bigger stage. (Of course, the cynics could say Watts thought putting the belt on a black wrestler would defuse rumors about his own racism). In July, Vader had beaten Sting for the WCW World title and on the date of the rematch, August 2nd, Sting was attacked by new WCW arrival Jake Roberts, who gave him a pair of DDTs on a chair, putting Sting out. Watts announced that all the challengers would have their names placed in a hat and he picked Simmons as the challenger for Vader that night. After several hard-hitting and bruising minutes, Simmons power-slammed Vader to win the title and become wrestling’s first recognized black World champion.

At the time, it was a great moment and the fans were huge for it and it seemed a surefire successful reign for Simmons. However, there were problems. For one, as good as Simmons was and as popular as he was, he appeared to fall into the trap that has hit wrestling for so many years: He was one of those workers who fans loved to see chase the belt and loved to see win it but when it came time to actually defend it as a regular champion, the fan adulation cooled. While good on the mic, Simmons could come off rather stiff at times, not as charismatic as the likes of Sting or even Luger, and it got harder for fans to get behind him. Of course, it hardly helped that his challengers weren’t that good. Watts’ old-school mentality and hard-line ways had driven out talent like the Steiners and Rick Rude, who would have been a good opponent for Simmons. While he had bouts against the likes of Cactus Jack, Simmons didn’t have the massive wealth of opponents who could have made his reign more memorable.

The height of this had to be at Halloween Havoc when Simmons was set to defend the WCW World title against the Barbarian. Yes, you read that right, the Barbarian. The man long consigned to the lower depths of WWF programming was facing off for the biggest title in the company. I remember a reader for the year-end Pro Wrestling Illustrated sent in a list of “10 reasons why WWF is better than WCW” and three of the ten were “The Barbarian a world title contender?!” That pretty much summed it all up as Simmons, the champion, was often pushed to the side for stuff like Sting-Vader and of course, the push for Watt’s son, Erik. At a November Clash, Simmons would team with Too Cold Scorpio to take on Jack, Barbarian and Tony Atlas, whose alliance with the heels was never properly explained. While it’s unfair to blame Simmons for the slump WCW had in 1992, the fact was that fans just didn’t seem excited to buy tickets to see him on top and house shows and ratings plummeted to near-record depths. Watts himself was soon in hot water with the Turner execs and by the end of the year, he was gone with Eric Bischoff winning the battle to take over. The first order of business was to get the belt on someone a lot more marketable and so, on December 28th, at a simple house show, Simmons dropped the belt back to Vader in a rather one-sided battle.

His star quickly faded as the chaos of 1993 WCW took hold. He was shuffled down to the mid-card and the lower card, popping up at Clash shows for stuff like fighting Dick Slater. He seemed lost, unable to really break through even with his mic work and ring work but then, giving proper pushes to people really wasn’t a strong suit for WCW in that year. They tried to reinvigorate him with a heel turn but that didn’t really take and by early 1994, Simmons was out of the company. He would drop by ECW for a brief spell and did his best to repair his tough guy image but he was soon forced to leave due to an injury. Eventually, he decided to go back to the big leagues and accepted an offer from WWF in 1996.

His debut was less than stellar as he came out on a July episode of RAW in an incredibly goofy costume that was meant to look like a gladiator but ended up like a poor kid’s attempt at a Mortal Kombat outfit. I mean, the skullcap alone…Anyway, he was paired with Tammy “Sunny” Stych, who announced him as Farooq Asad (in a rare moment of acknowledging a wrestler’s past, Jim Ross actually talked about him being Ron Simmons at first). Farooq would set his sights on then-Intercontinental champion Ahmed Johnson, the two having several brawls with Farooq claiming he wanted to show Johnson some real street mentality. As fate would have it, Johnson would suffer a severe kidney injury and be forced to give up the IC belt with Farooq claiming that he was responsible. He would thankfully drop the gladiator outfit for black tights and a cap but keep up the street persona which would soon lead to his biggest claim to fame in the WWF.

The first step came in November as Farooq got Clarence Mason (WWF’s obvious parody of Johnnie Cochran) as a manager and announced plans to sue Ahmed for various reasons. Soon Farooq started to come to the ring with an entourage of men dressed mostly like a Nation of Islam meeting, one of whom was D-Lo Brown. They would aid him in attacking Johnson, Sid, Savio Vega and others. At the 1997 Royal Rumble, the two would fight to a double DQ. Later, during the Rumble match, Farooq would come out early and distract Johnson, leading to his being dumped. Johnson would retaliate by attacking Farooq with a 2X4 later to eliminate him. Farooq soon began to add more men to his group, which he now called the Nation of Domination, with Crush (the late Bryan Adams), white rappers PG-13 and Vega, who turned heel by attacking Johnson during a tag match.

Farooq was the boss and really let his verbal skills loose, pushing how the Nation was tired of being held down by white bosses and were ready to do whatever it took to make their name, pretty edgy stuff for its time. Farooq would challenge Ahmed to a street fight at Wrestlemania 13 but Johnson would recruit the Legion of Doom for help. The fight was a wild brawl ending with Johnson and the Nation victorious. As spring came around, Farooq was getting tired of the Nation bungling attempts to put Ahmed down and, after a loss, fired everyone but D-Lo, announcing he was going to start a “new Nation, a blacker Nation!” The next week, Farooq and Brown took on Ahmed and the Undertaker in a tag match which first had Kama Mustafa interfering to aid then Johnson suddenly turning heel to join the Nation. It was a pretty big step to accept Johnson working with the guys he’d been feuding with but their whole “black power” theme did make it work a bit.

This unfortunately led to one of the more infamous bits of WWF in 1997, one that’s long been criticized: The gang wars. First Crush recruited some motorcycle-riding leather clad thugs for his gang, the Disciples of the Apocalypse. Then Savio brought in a trio of Hispanic guys, coming up in blue shirts, white pants, suspenders and bowler hats, called Los Boricuas. Soon, all three groups were brawling around with one another all over the place, including multi-tag matches with WWF apparently thinking it was a good idea. Of course, many criticized how they were playing to the lowest common dominator with the whole race card thing and that may be true. However, in many ways, the constant battles with no one group truly face or heel, would be one of the heralds of the upcoming attitude era. Johnson was going to face the Undertaker for the title but he was once more injured which made the Nation take a hit. Eventually, he returned only to have the rest of the Nation turn on him. They would soon be joined by a new member: Rocky Mavia. As most know, Maivia had been introduced as a smiling babyface fans couldn’t stand but an injury had forced him to take time off. His joining made sense as he said he was sick of giving his best and being booed for it so he might as well join some guys who could understand him. Soon, Rocky Mavia was turned into the Rock.

Farooq would still lead the Nation for a while and seemed to get a push as 1997 went down. He went to the finals of the tournament for the vacant IC title, losing to Owen Hart after Steve Austin attacked him (the story of course that Austin wanted to beat Owen for the belt himself) and later faced off against Bret Hart for the WWF title on RAW. At the 1998 Royal Rumble, he was number 27 and ended up eliminating Brown and new Nation member Mark Henry before being dumped out by the Rock. By this point, the Rock was showing off his arrogant jerk persona with nice touches like giving Farooq presents of appreciation that turned out to be all Rock merchandise. At Wrestlemania, Farooq prevented the Nation from aiding the Rock in his IC title defense against Ken Shamrock and a few weeks later, called for the Rock to be kicked out of the group. Unfortunately, it was Farooq who was kicked out as the Rock took over and began his role to mega-stardom.

Farooq would go around as a face for a bit, feuding with the Rock and other Nation members but didn’t seem to be getting any real push and it looked like he was going to fade into the background once more. That was, until the WWF decided to remake the Undertaker as a cult leader and, for some reason, figured that Farooq and Justin Bradshaw (JBL) would be a good pairing. The two would be put together as the Acolytes, basically flunkies wearing body paint with weird symbols and doing the Undertaker’s dirty work. One unique bit had them failing to beat the Brood (Edge and Christian) and punished by the Undertaker but were back working with him the next week, showing they were willing to be chastised. It was a bit of a comedown to see the normally hard as nails Simmons willing to be bossed around. However, he and Bradshaw proved to be an excellent team with their power and especially their stiff styles so their bouts came off as punishing affairs.

By May of 1999, the Undertaker’s Corporate Ministry was going out but the Acolytes remained a team and, with help from Shane McMahon, won the tag team titles from Kane and X-Pac. They would hold them until July (save for a bizarre bit where Billy Gunn won a triple threat match to claim possession of both belts only to be beaten by Bradshaw the next night to reclaim them), losing to the Hardyz. However, only three weeks later, they would regain the belts in a handicap match against the Hardyz and manager Michael Hayes, losing them back to Kane & X-Pac in August. They bounced around the tag ranks for a while, including some multi-team matches but it was in October that they hit upon their new gimmick of the Acolyte Protection Agency. Basically, both took that classic wrestling adage that the best characters are just the real person turned up a few notches. They would be shown as a pair of card playing, beer-drinking tough guys willing to take on jobs for anyone. Their “office” would basically be a spot backstage with an obviously fake wooden door nearby and their backstage bits would soon be some fun parts of WWF programming. The WWF did their best to give them a push with stuff like showing them smashing up a bar in a fight and they still were shown in the tag ranks a lot. They would be pushed aside a bit due to the long feud with the Hardyz, the Dudleyz and Edge & Christian which squeezed other teams out but were still good to see in the ring for various shows.

When the Invasion angle began, the APA were shown as leaders of the WWF side, even attacking those they thought showed disloyalty to the company. In July, they beat the Dudleyz to win the WWF tag team titles once more, eventually losing them back after Test (beaten up by the APA who mistakenly thought he was an Alliance spy), interfered. They would keep up as side players for the rest of the year and be part of a four-team title match at Wrestlemania 18. However, the brand split would also split them up, Bradshaw to SmackDown and Farooq to RAW where he really slumped once more. He was mostly seen taking bets before stuff like Mark Henry doing a test of strength but never got any real push. He announced in 2002 he was taking time off to care for his wife who was suffering vision problems. When he returned in 2003, he was back to using Ron Simmons (apparently Farooq was too close to the name of an Al-Queda training camp) but didn’t really get any push. Eventually, Bradshaw returned and the APA were back to their usual antics with some fair tag team matches on SmackDown, including a nice Christmas in Iraq win over Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas.

However, in 2004, Simmons was let go by WWE as part of one of their massive talent cuts. In truth, Simmons had been wanting to retire anyway due to his age and the various injuries over the years. It was actually worked into a storyline as SmackDown general manager Paul Heyman demanded that APA apologize for disrespecting Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XX. Simmons refused and was fired while Bradshaw did apologize, stayed and soon achieved his great success as the heel JBL. Simmons seemed to fade away and that seemed to be the last we’d see of him.

But, after hinting at the 2006 Orange Bowl he’d like to get back in wrestling, Simmons started to get back in shape and was eventually hired for sporadic appearances. It was simple at first, just him showing up without warning to yell “DAMN!” at people. It was a simple goofy gimmick but, like many a goofy gimmick, it managed to catch on with fans and it occurred more and more. It does say a lot that Simmons’ appearance can be the best part of a RAW show many weeks but it’s obvious he’s having fun with it. He’s made a few ring appearances but it’s clear he’s satisfied with his “comic relief” role and the way he makes it work (like twisting the catchphrase with stuff like “SPAM!” or “SCRAM!”) is giving the gimmick a bit more life.

Some might argue it’s a bit sad that the man who was the first black world champion and had the potential to be a major star has been relegated to small appearances now. But Simmons was always a tough guy and it’s nice to see him having some fun now that his best days have passed by. If nothing else, he still has the love and respect of the fans, something a lot of former wrestlers can’t say about themselves and he still has a great legacy to leave behind. 15 years after making history, Ron Simmons is still getting some great pops from the crowd and that is one DAMN fine thing for a veteran worker to have.

Well, onto reader mail. Chris Jacobs had a couple of questions on my War Games column:

Sid’s powerbomb, the first time I heard about it, I heard Pillman told him to do it again, and he really didn’t get hurt???

What about the triple tier cage with DDP, Jarret, Arquette?

I hadn’t heard about Pillman wanting him to do it again. Watching it on the DVD, it looks like Pillman’s completely out of it and unable to do much of anything really and Sid just decided to “correct” it on his own. As for not getting hurt, he landed right on his damned neck, I’m pretty sure there was an injury from that which could have been nasty. As for the triple tier match, I try my best to block out anything about Arquette’s title reign and that really wasn’t a War Games type matchup.

Onto my column about heels, Tim had this about where the “heel” term came from:

This may be completely nerdy of me to know this but… oh well. I’m not sure when the term heel came about but since a good guy is known as a babyface, top part of the body, the bad guy is known as the heel, bottom of the foot. So, the face and foot are opposites of each other.

That is a good explanation but it’s still almost impossible to tell when the word became short-hand for bad guys backstage. But that’s a good reason why the term itself was created.

On my injury article, Marilyn Flores dropped a nice line complimenting me on it while Nintendo DS808 had this comment too:

Hey, just read your column on the Joe-Angle feud and I enjoyed it. However, this email isn’t really feedback, it’s a question. Where do you find how many PPV buys TNA PPV’s do? I’ve looked everywhere on the net and haven’t been able to find the numbers.

411 pretty much does the numbers among the news columns and I’m pretty sure they’re reported elsewhere online too. It’s sometimes tricky thanks to companies keeping things quiet (especially with poorer rates) but it can be found.

Moving to my Angle-Joe column, John Reid has one of his nice detailed letters:

Thank you Michael, for putting together a solid column based on how TNA has absolutely blown it when it comes to developing their own stars. They blew it with Monty Brown (I know his work ethic wasn’t the greatest, but they could’ve pinned him as their Rock with his charisma) with Daniels-Sting, and now Joe-Angle. Growing up a WCW/NWA fan I always enjoyed how they were more wrestling based and not gimmick based. However a lot of what TNA is doing reminds me so much of the dying days of WCW. Funny how you mention TNA giving away ppv matches on free TV, WCW’s decline began basically after putting Goldberg-Hogan on free TV.

I have a bad feeling that in 5 years we’ll be seeing “The Rise and Fall of TNA” DVD with this sorry booking the reason behind it. Keep up the great work.

Given the outcome of “Hard Justice” and the whole Pacman mess, TNA is getting into some trouble. I plan to touch on it more next week but I think Russo is less the problem than his bosses, who keep thinking they’ve got the cash to blow on this stuff and that any publicity is good instead of driving away fans. TNA used to be more match-based in 2005 but the gimmicks are taking over and that’s led to the poor showing of late that we can only hope they pull out of before your Rise and Fall DVD comes true.

Another detailed letter comes from Andrew Jeffrey:

Hello, I am a long time reader of your column (as in since you started writing them) and I just wanted to compliment you as in my opinion you have the most well written column on 411.

Now about your column about the Joe/Angle feud. I completely agree with you. TNA has screwed up everything they have done with Angle since he got there. They blew dream matches against Sting and Styles on Impact. They didn’t define whether he was a face or heel for months and they blew what could have been the feud of the decade by:
1. They had the first match too soon
2. Angle broke Joe’s undefeated streak (really should have been a rising star not someone who is already a star like Angle)
3. They had two more matches after the first one making this feud like just about every other feud in TNA last too long.
4. Neither one was a face or heel for the feud
5. I don’t really like the whole two guys teaming together despite feuding with each other.
6. They kept teaming up then turning on each other I don’t know how many times.
7. Match of Champions was a bad idea and was done even worse
8. Having every title on one person is a horrible idea
9. Having one tag team champion is just plain stupid and with X Title not being defended it looks like the division is pretty much dead.
10. Plus they’re adding too much wacky and stupid stuff to go along with this feud
11. And to top it all off the thing almost everyone wants to see (Joe winning the title) doesn’t look to be happening anytime soon (Angle vs. Jarrett for Bound For Glory? ugh).
Wow when you look at like this it becomes clear that we need a new alternative to WWE. Cause TNA is really, really horrible right now.
That’s about it. TNA sucks

Well, we can now add to that list:

12. Adding on the needless soap opera antics of Angle’s wife leaving him.
13. Have her speech about abuse be uncomfortably close to the whole Benoit/Nancy Sullivan press for many fans.
14. Focus on Angle’s breakdown more than the actual match.
15. Have the whole thing be a SWERVE! that lets Angle win all the belts, a move no one wanted and puts yet another former WWE guy on top of a TNA star.

I don’t want TNA to fall but if they let Joe slip out of their hands now…Well, it reminds me of how the AWA eventually pushed out Hulk Hogan and we all know how that helped ended the company.

Also thanks to Andrew Critchell for his good words too.

Also around 411mania:

Schmoozes and Screwjobs does a two-parter on the Elimination Chamber

Julian counts down the Top 10 missed opportunities and it’s sad we may need to move Joe in TNA to that list.

The Shimmy looks back at 2004’s top matches.

Can They Be Champ looks at the SummerSlam contenders.

Piledriver Report has a great comparison of the steriod scandals in wrestling and baseball.

The Fink continues to try to save SmackDown.

Don’t forget Column of Honor, Triple Threat, 3 R’s, Ask 411, Fact or Fiction and the rest.

Next week is another status report on TNA…and it ain’t gonna be pretty. For now, the spotlight is off.