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Old School Profile - Ron Simmons

In the first edition of old school profiles I figured I would kick it off with the stellar career of Ron Simmons. Some of you younger fans may know of him as Farooq of the Nation of Domination or one half of the APA. Even younger fans will think of him as that guy who pops up backstage at WWE shows and hits you a loud "DAMN". Ron is and was much more than the character that you may know today.

The Football Career

When he signed out of Warner Robins High School in Georgia, he was one of Florida State's greatest recruiting victories. Midway through his freshman season, Coach Bowden said, "Simmons is turning the program around." He became a 2 time Consensus All American in 1979 and 1980. In 1980 Simmons was a Lombardi Award finalist, captain of the Seminoles and finished 8th in Heisman voting. He became the 3rd player in FSU history to have his number retired by Florida State University. After a short career in professional football where he played for the Cleveland Browns in 1981, and the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits in 1984 and 1985, but it was in Tampa where he was a teammate of future professional wrestler Lex Luger and Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton.

Wrestling In NWA/WCW

After his football career ended Ron was recruited by Japanese professional wrestler Hiro Matsuda. Simmons trained under Matsuda and debuted in October 1986. Matsuda also is responsible for training a guy named Hulk Hogan.
Simmons teamed up with Butch Reed to form Doom. In the beginning, the members of Doom were masked and only known as Doom #1 and Doom #2, managed by Woman(Nancy Beniot). They later became managed by Teddy Long. Together they had a very successful run and captured the NWA/WCW Tag Team Titles. They feuded with such classic teams as The Steiners, The Freebirds and The Horsemen (Arn Anderson and Barry Windham). After their break up there was a brief feud between Simmons and Reed.
On August 2, 1992, a scheduled title match between Sting and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Big Van Vader was canceled after Jake Roberts injured Sting. WCW President Cowboy Bill Watts responded by holding a raffle to determine the number 1 contender.

Simmons won the raffle and defeated Vader to win the championship. By defeating Vader, Simmons became the first recognized African American WCW World Heavyweight Champion. He was the 1st of only 2 African American Champions ever in WCW with Booker T being the other.

WWF/E Career

After brief stint in WCW, Simmons went on the WWF/E in 1996. He started with the gimmick of of 'Faarooq Asaad', a gladiator who wore a black and blue gladiator outfit with a misshaped helmet and was managed by Sunny. Simmons started his first feud with Ahmed Johnson before shortening his ring name to 'Faarooq'.
Ron soon dropped the gladiator gimmick and started a faction known as the Nation of Domination. The Nation of Domination was loosely based on the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party, although the members of the stable were not exclusively black performers. They feuded with Ahmed Johnson and DOA. The group helped a new young star get over that you now know as The Rock. After his run with the Nation which ended with him being kicked out of the group by The Rock. Simmons later formed a partnership with Bradshaw and were known as the Acolytes. They were apart of The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness.

After separating from the Ministry, the Acolytes went on to tag team success by winning the WWE Tag Team titles 3 times. They also later changed their name to the APA(Acolyte Protection Agency). They were hired by other wrestlers to protect them and watch their backs. In 2006 Simmons became a semi retired wrestler who still makes spot appearances from time to time on WWE programming.


Career Accomplishments
World Championship Wrestling
WCW United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Big Josh
WCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Butch Reed

Championship Wrestling from Florida
NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Federation
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bradshaw

Memphis Championship Wrestling
MCW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time)- with Bradshaw

Ohio Valley Wrestling
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time)- with Bradshaw

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (1992)
PWI ranked him #20 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1992
PWI ranked him #91 of the 100 best tag teams of the PWI Years with
Butch Reed in 2003.
PWI ranked him #108 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years"
in 2003

Its Still Real To Me Damn It

These kind of guys makes people think that Wrestling fans are crazy....

Talking Wrestling 05/04 by Ringtimeprowrestling | Blog Talk Radio

Talking Wrestling 05/04 by Ringtimeprowrestling | Blog Talk Radio

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Extreme Rules Review

I decided to post a blog review of Extreme Rules pay per view from last night. It was a solid overall show but did not offer too many surprises. I give it an overall B-

CM Punk vs Randy Orton
Last Man Standing Match

Randy and CM Punk has a pretty good match to start the show off. Both of these guys did not mess around worked pretty good together. The GM also prevented the Nexus from interfering in this match which made it one on one. Randy went on to win the match with a RKO from the top rope. This was a big win for a guy going over to Smackdown to be their top face.

Kofi vs Sheamus
United States Title Tables Match

This was a fairly decent match and I was very impressed by Kofi and his spots. It was kind of predictable that he won so that the US title can return to Raw. Hopefully the WWE uses this as a time to get something out of Kofi and the US title.

Cole/Swagger vs Lawler/JR
Country Whipping Match

This match was semi entertaining. Anytime JR is on WWE programming it is a good thing but that was all that was good about this match. Hopefully this program is over.

Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes
Falls count anywhere

Easily the best match of the night. These work really well together. Even inspired a "This Is Awesome" and "Holy Shit" chants from the crowd. Not common at WWE shows at all. Rey goes over Rhodes with the Great Muta green mist and the 619. Very classic

Michelle McCool vs Layla

Loser Leaves the WWE

The break up of Laycool has led to this match. They actually put on a pretty good match and had decent time to work. Layla won causing Michelle McCool to have to leave the WWE. Which of course will allow her to spend time with her husband.

Kharma debuts and squashes McCool

Alberto Del Rio vs Christian

Ladder Match for World Heavyweight Title

Christian beats Del Rio keeping the belt on Smackdown. This was actually kind of surprising because Del Rio's rise up the chart but since he was departing to Raw the title I guess had to stay on Smackdown.

Zeke/Barrett (Corre) vs Kane/Big Show

WWE Tag Team Title Lumberjack match

Kane and The Big Show retain. Nothing else really to say about this match..

John Cena vs John Morrison vs The Miz
WWE Title Cage Match

The Triple Threat match involving John Cena, John Morrison and The Miz(champ) for the Miz's WWE title. The match was solid and it had some incredible spots by Morrison. He was able to bring a different element to these matches. I think he filled his role as a person who was not supposed to win but add excitement. The expected R Truth interference happened causing Morrison the match and will probably lead to a feud with those two. The match ended with Cena doing an Attitude Adjustment from the top rope on The Miz. It will be interesting to see how long Cena's title run will be and how Miz will be handled after losing the title. Especially with Alberto Del Rio being on Raw.

Extreme Wrestling

In honor of last nights WWE pay per view Extreme Rules I decided to talk about where it all came from. The birth of this pay per view was from the ECW One Night Stand pay per views which paid homage to the original ECW(Extreme Championship Wrestling). So I decided to post my favorite match from these pay per views.

In my opinion the last real ECW match and one of the best ever was the Rob Van Dam vs John Cena match at the 2nd ECW One Night Stand. The match was called by ECW guys Taz and Joey Styles and was done in what is known as a real ECW crowd. Even the way the match was shot was classic ECW.