WWE Hall Of Famer Accused Of Injuring Rival Due To Jealousy

Jealousy can drive people to do some strange and terrible things and according to former WWE Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson, it drove Ron Simmons to deliberately injure him in the ring.

The New Generation may not be the highlight of WWE’s business over the years to many but it did play host to the monumental rise of Ahmed Johnson. Johnson joined WWE in 1995 and won his first gold in the company in June 1996 when he dethroned Goldust for the Intercontinental Championship.

Ahmed Johnson began a short-lived alliance with WWE Champion Shawn Michaels and when the two men teamed up on Raw to take on The Smoking Gunns, Johnson got more than he bargained for.

Faarooq Asad made his WWE debut during the bout, attacking Johnson. Fans of WCW were able to look past the blue gladiator hat Faarooq was wearing to see that he was in fact former WCW World Champion Ron Simmons. During his attack on Johnson, Simmons kicked the star causing a kidney injury that caused Johnson to miss five months of action and meant he had to vacate his title.

Speaking on the Pounding The Meat podcast, Ahmed Johnson explained why he thinks Simmons injured him deliberately and claimed he was on course to become WWE Champion if the injury hadn’t happened:

“Yeah, I think he did [deliberately cause injury]. I think he was also jealous and upset because here he was, the first black champion in WCW, and then here I was becoming the first Intercontinental black champion in WWF [WWE]. I think there was some jealousy there.”

“The recovery set me back a little ways, man. It messed my shot up at the world title with Shawn, which I heard I was gonna get the belt then. It really set me back, man. He really threw my career off track when he did that.”

Johnson returned to action in December 1996 but his career in the company never hit the same heights and he competed in his final bout in the company in February 1998 at In Your House: No Way Out Of Texas.

h/t Sportskeeda