Ron Simmons talks about leaving WCW, being Faarooq Asad, and then being the leader of The Nation of Domination, Faarooq.
Ron Simmons was already a history maker when he entered the WWE in 1996. Having been the first black WCW World Heavyweight Champion nearly five years before then, Simmons was no stranger to the spotlight. Eventually, he left the WCW for WWE, explaining to Stone Cold Steve Austin on the most recent Broken Skull Sessions that he really did not feel like those in power at WCW when he left knew what to do with him.
“Here it was all of a sudden, I can go from being World Champion, World Tag Team Champion to now, you're going to tell me I'm among one of five guys, black guys, in the company, right? Then, with the success I've already had, there's nothing now, all of a sudden, that I can do?! This has to do with, in my opinion, that people that they had put into those positions now booking, they had no idea what they were doing. No idea what the business was, like, playing into all the backstage antics, right? So other than me giving into that, that crap, I took the route like I did, going back and forth to Japan,” Ron recalled. “Two of my favorite guys on this planet are Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes. Clearly, I'm sure were seeing what the hell is taking place down here, you know, in WCW at that time, right? Gave me a call. At this time, there were no more contractual obligations with Japan, so I said, ‘Okay, yes. Set up a meeting with myself and Vince.’
Of course, Ron Simmons enter WWE with the character of Faarooq Asad, a take on a gladiator that was managed by Sunny. Speaking about how that came to be, Ron Simmons explains that at first, he was all for playing at the character of a gladiator until he saw the suit.
"[Vince] and I were just talking, just general things are coming and nothing in detail about the character of how are we going to -- [he] softly alluded to the gladiator type of image. But in my mind, I'm thinking, the gladiator image of, this could work out pretty cool, the shiny metal and the real gladiator type of helmet. I mean, this could look really cool. Never in my wildest imagination could I have dreamed that the gladiator solider would be wearing a leather helmet, okay," Ron laughed.
"I'm on the flight up, I'm gung ho," he continued. "I'm excited about this thing when I'm going to be fitted for this outfit and this thing, right? So I'm all getting myself ready for the shiny metal and I envision someone putting it on me in the ring, and all of that, right?"
Ron Simmons then explained how when he got to the fitting, he saw the outfit and his perception immediately changed.
"So when I got to the studio where the guy was fitting me for it, I'm looking around for the objects, normal [gladiator garb] and I don't see it. I asked the dude who was fitting me I said, ‘Where's the suit?’ He said, 'Well some of it is right over there,'" Simmons recalled. “I was speechless. Literally, I could not say anything. I mean my first thought was, ‘I gotta call Vince about this.’ My better judgment prevailed.”
Ron Simmons then explained that even his wife laughed at the idea of the leather helmet and he realized what he would have to do to make the character work.
“So when I doing the research of this character and looking at this outfit, I'm like, ‘Okay, this is how this is gonna go man. It's either you're gonna step out there and you are going to be the laughingstock of this entire business. Or, here's how you're gonna have to do this. You're gonna have to take this guy and make him just kick people's ass.’ Okay, and that was the only other route that was left.”
Eventually, Faarooq would drop his last name and become Farooq, the leader of The Nation of Domination. Ron Simmons does admit that his debut with Sunny by his side did help him become an even stronger character as the leader of The Nation of Domination.
"Well see," Ron carried on. "I'm thankful for that character. Okay, because what he did was that he set up The Nation Faarooq. That Faarooq had a slight bit of that belligerent arrogance in him, although he wasn't as vocal with Sonny being more of a mouthpiece writer, right. But his character was along those lines of militancy, but he actually set this guy up."
Speaking about any real-life influence on The Nation of Domination character, Ron Simmons says that there was, of course, some real influence on the character portrayed. Ron Simmons also discusses shooting down talking points for the character brought to him by creative team members.
According to Ron, creative suggestions had the character being more subtle with his approach and Ron felt that the character needed to be steadfast in his beliefs.
“Absolutely. It was a natural process for that guy to voice out some of the things that he had been holding in that had to do with racial injustice for real in the real-life," Ron answered. "Okay, that had to do with people in general, you know, white and black, how he really felt, in some ways about people. It was a process the way and they would come to me, you know, with some things to say, I'm like,’ Are you kidding me?’ This guy would never say, Oh, and by the way…’” Ron said
Ron Simmons, much like Steve Austin, is one of the pantheons of wrestlers that came through during the new generation era that was able to overcome a less-than-stellar gimmick idea to add on to his Hall of Fame legacy. Simmons was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.
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