Ahmed Johnson reflects on the tail-end of his WWE run.
Laying out The Undertaker to end a pay-per-view was a very rare happening in 1997, but Ahmed Johnson finished the 1997 King of the Ring event by standing over The Undertaker who would not stop attacking Faarooq at the request of Paul Bearer, who was, at the time, blackmailing him by threatening to reveal his dark family secret that eventually led to Kane they debuting in WWE.
Ahmed Johnson, after months of feuding with The Nation of Domination then joined the group and was scheduled to face Undertaker for the WWE Championship at the Canadian Stampede In Your House event in the month of July 1997. Unfortunately, an injury would prevent Ahmed Johnson from competing for the WWE Championship at this event. He would be replaced by Vader.
In a new interview with Gregory Iron, Ahmed Johnson revealed that he believes he was supposed to defeat The Undertaker at that event and win the title for The Nation of Domination. Had he done this, he would have become the first black WWE Champion.
“I think I was. I think I was. I don't know, I can’t say for 100%. but the way they were building it up, I think it was going to be for me and The Nation and it fell through,” Ahmed said.
Johnson also revealed that Vince McMahon made the decision to turn him heel and he was fully on board with that.
“Vince made the decision, I believe, for me to turn. I think it was a good one. Because we had so much heat with each other. I didn't think that the turn was built at the point that they were doing it, but I see why, once you have me give The Undertaker my finish, it started to come together. That's what he was planning on doing.”
WWE would not crown a black WWE Champion for another year and a half until The Rock won the title for the first time at the 1998 Survivor Series. The Rock eventually replaced Ahmed Johnson in The Nation of Domination. Explaining the quick decision to remove him from the nation, Ahmed says that Vince McMahon made the decision based on the visual of the team walking down the ramp saying that they looked too indestructible.
“I think I would have become the leader of The Nation,” Ahmed said. “It would have been a trip but when we broke apart, Vince called us into his office and he was like, ‘Ahmed, I'm going to have to take you out of The Nation.’ I was like, ‘What? You just put me in The Nation.’ We asked him why and he said, ‘I was watching you guys walk down the ramp. There's nobody that's going to believe that you guys can be beaten by anybody so therefore, I'm going to take you out and you can go back to fighting The Nation.’ But by that time, we had been fighting for almost a year. but the crowd loved every minute of every time that we did.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ahmed Johnson spoke about royalties, or the lack thereof, for the two video game appearances he made while in WWE. Learn more here.
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