POST Wrestling’s Andrew Thompson attended the Starrcast panel titled “Making History with Ron Simmons” as the WWE Hall of Famer reflected on his career, winning the WCW title in Baltimore in 1992, his experiences with Bill Watts and other prominent figures throughout the industry.
Below are some of the highlights from the panel discussion:
- The panel host ran down some of Ron’s football accomplishments
- His time in Florida Championship Wrestling was the best. He said there will never be another time period like that again
- Someone shouts out that she loves Ron Simmons. Simmons says he loves her and says “Damn!”
- Talked about being happy to see David and Jim Crockett at Starrcast
- The host described Simmons as “Goldberg before Goldberg”
- He said that back in his day, people took their hardships on the chin unlike some of today’s athletes
- His pride was set aside. If he was asked to do the job, there was no crying, whining or bitching. He would just do it
- Simmons does a Dusty Rhodes impression when talking about his (Simmons’) heel turn
- Ron Simmons talked about eliminating the racial aspect of his match with Junkyard Dog that Teddy Long refereed
- Ron Simmons wants to be referred to as a black American.
- Ron Simmons says there were times when he and Butch Reed almost came to blows and wanted to fight each other
- Ron Simmons agreed that Bill Watts was not afraid to push black wrestlers. Simmons never felt that Watts was a racist and looked at him like a coach. If he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to, the coach would get on him
- Simmons feels that regardless of what color you were, Watts would put you out there if you had the talent
- Simmons talks about Mick Foley’s unorthodox style of wrestling
- Mick once pitched the idea of diving on Simmons while Simmons was laying on a bed of thumbtacks. Simmons said there was no way in hell that was happening
- Simmons talks about when Bill Watts called him into his office about the World Title match. Simmons thought he was getting in trouble
- He doesn’t think there will be another pop like his World Title win because it was real
- Simmons liked the way Vader worked — a lot of people complained but he didn’t mind
- Ron Simmons gets a round of applause when it is mentioned that he was the first black WCW World Heavyweight Champion
- Simmons says working with Dustin Rhodes was easy
- Simmons talked about his time in ECW
- Simmons talked about a Gladiator/Spartan gimmick being pitched to him in WWF. He wanted to go all out with the character
- Simmons expressed that he had a great time as a part of the Nation of Domination. He felt free
- Simmons talked about coming into a hotel with his Nation gear while the real Nation of Islam was having a meeting in that same hotel. One of the members approached him and wanted him to speak to the congregation. Simmons quickly called The Godfather down to the lobby to help. Godfather got him out of the situation
- Ron was all for The Rock joining The Nation. He had no issue with it
- Simmons said he would tell the guys “shut up and know your role” in private and The Rock took it and made a million dollars off it
- He hated The Nation’s split because he loved it so much but knew everybody in the group to break free and become singles stars
- Simmons says he was a “mark” for The Undertaker
- Praises JBL and says they were identical inside and outside of the ring
- Simmons feels that the APA-version of his character is the closest thing to his real-life personality
- Simmons revealed how the “damn” catchphrase came to be via Booker T and John Cena’s verbal on-screen feud
- Simmons said Kofi Kingston put the work in and earned his shot. He is proud of him
- He doesn’t believe another Nation of Domination could fly today simply because it would only be compared to what was done in the past. He said most of the topics that The Nation spoke about couldn’t be talked about topic
- Simmons was asked about Jordan Myles and responded, ‘who the hell is Jordan Myles?’. Simmons agrees that racist things always come about but that’s with all walks of life
- Simmons spoke very highly of Owen Hart
- A man who was there the day Ron Simmons won the World Title has the program for the show. Ron Simmons had already signed the program, but he re-signed it
