Ron Simmons Interview
Posted by David Damage on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Under: Interviews
Ron
Simmons was on Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman. You can
hear Busted Open on Sirius 94, XM 208, and Sports Zone 860 on the
internet.
Ron Simmons on the Hall of Fame:
These past few
years have been very rewarding for me from an athletic standpoint. I
have had the honor of being inducted into some very prestigious Halls of
Fame, starting with the state of Georgia, the Collegiate Hall of Fame,
and now the WWE Hall of Fame. But I think this one by far will hold the
dearest to my heart because I know the individual effort that it takes
not only to succeed but to sustain it in this business. So this one is
going to take the cake for me. This tops it off for me.
Ron Simmons on becoming the first ever African-American world champion:
I’ve read a lot of stories about Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali and
people of this nature and how that must have felt to cross those racial
barriers and to try to make it to even the playing field level not only
for all African-Americans, but for all people. So I now get a feeling of
how they felt and that feeling is only something you can go through to
describe it. I know this, it feels great to be in that situation, to
open doors not only for African-Americans but for anyone that is
inspiring to succeed not only in professional wrestling, but for
anything that you want to do. If you stick with it and are dedicated to
it, it can happen and I am living proof of that.
Ron Simmons on Bill Watts:
There is a lot of things when it comes to promoters that he and I did
not see eye to eye on. But I can tell you this, that is the one man I
can say that had the courage and the guts to say “you know what, it’s
time for this to happen. The guy has the credentials to do this. He is a
renowned athlete. He has proven himself in the ring” Bill had enough
guts to say “kid if you are willing to do this with me and hang in there
with me, we can make this happen.” My hat is off to him and I will be
forever grateful to him.
Ron Simmons on The Rock:
They
kind of kicked around a lot of ideas with him and a lot of gimmicks he
went through, but he just couldn’t quite get the niche. So until he got
with me and in the Nation of Domination, and he kind of off-springed
from me and with that relationship he kind of got on his way from there,
and found the right situation to be in, and the right persona for him.
As far as getting as big as he did, I don’t even think he knew he would
get this big. I can say I am proud of him and the only thing I would
like for him to do is offer Farooq a part in one of his movies. Let me
be a stand in, I don’t even need a speech, just offer me something
(Laughing)
Ron Simmons on his relationship with JBL:
I
can’t say enough about him. When I was growing up as a kid and I didn’t
have the good fortune of growing up in a household with my brothers and
sisters the way that I wanted to. I often wondered what it would be like
in a household setting that shared things with my brothers. But due to
misfortune in my family, I didn’t have that. Later on when I got to tag
with him the relationship we had was just that close. He was like a
brother to me. I found out what that would be like, to share things with
a brother, love, laugh, disappointment. That’s what he means to me and
still does. I am very grateful to this day for that. He is like a
brother to me.
In : Interviews