Ron Simmons: You “DAMN” Right
The Black history icon I wanted to spotlight today is Ron Simmons. Born May 15th, 1958 in Perry, Georgia, Simmons is a former NFL player, professional wrestler, and the first officially recognized African American to be crowned World Champion in wrestling history. In college, Simmons was an All-American defensive tackle at Florida State University. He later had a brief career in football after he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round of the NFL Draft in 1981. He also played for the Tampa Bay Bandits from 1983 to 1985 in the United States Football League.
A year later in 1986, Simmons joined what was the largest wrestling federation at the time, WCW/NWA (World Championship Wrestling/National Wrestling Alliance). There he worked his way up the professional ladder during a time in which minorities were often undervalued and pushed to the side to promote Caucasian and more well-known personalities. When one of those personalities was unable to compete at a show on August 2, 1992, Simmons was slotted into the role through a raffle and successfully became the first African American World Champion. He held the title for a few months before losing it and eventually leaving the company in July 1996 to join the rival professional wrestling company WWF (what is now known as WWE) under the name Farooq.
As Faroq, Simmons would lead a group called “The Nation of Domination” formed of disgruntled Black wrestlers who felt like they were passed over. There he would mentor and help elevate the career of a young Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson until Johnson’s superstardom eventually ousted Simmons/Farooq from the group. The mega popularity and brashness of a young Johnson often makes people forget Simmons was the original founder of the group.
From there Simmons would spend his final few years as an active wrestler in a popular tag team called “The APA” with John “Bradshaw” Layfield. The two would become a fan favorite duo for drinking and bar fighting antics, no-nonsense bravado, and being the first notable team composed of a Black and white wrestler.
Once Simmons’ in-ring career concluded in the spring of 2004 (officially leaving behind an eighteen year career as a wrestler) he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012. He even makes sporadic cameos across their programming to plug his famous catchphrase: “DAMN.”
Simmons might not be as well known as other African American wrestlers, and sometimes I feel like the wrestling community may have forgotten about him. However, he paved the way for a lot of them and deserves his recognition and spotlight, and I’m sure if he read this right now he’d say I was DAMN right.