Posted on by bdamage1
Griffin Kaye
In August 1992, Ron Simmons made history by winning the World Championship Wrestling title, becoming the first acknowledged African-American world champion. Although undoubtedly a historic feat, it is perhaps best we remember the accolade rather than the title reign which can only be considered utterly underwhelming.
Stilted Win?
To start on the positives, the win was a great moment for Simmons. The electric reaction of the crowd was driven by the energy of a crowd who were excited to see Simmons – long a reliable performer – finally recognised by winning a title many would have doubted he could ever win. The highlight was a young African-American child in the front, jumping with joy at seeing not just his hero Simmons winning but also seeing someone who represents him, someone like him, reach the top of the ladder spite having all the odds stacked against him.
This occurred under the management of Bill Watts. Despite his infamous views on race relations, he had previous form, booking the Junkyard Dog as his top talent during his stint in Mid-South.
However, the victory too had its fair share of conditions that dulled its effect.
Firstly, his pinfall over Vader was not as impressive but the fact Vader had not had the chance to be a dominating champion. In fact, he had only held it for three weeks.
Additionally, Simmons had not been built-up enough to become a world champion. During 1992, he had won the United States belts (the mid-card tag titles) with Big Josh and feuded with Cactus Jack. WCW seemed keen on Simmons due to his legitimate toughness, legitimate sporting background, and immense strength but he was far from a main eventer.
The way he was chosen was not through a number one contendership tournament or battle royal win, say, but rather a raffle held after Vader’s scheduled opponent Sting was kayfabe injured by Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
As the magazine Inside Wrestling put it: “Simmons never would have gotten a shot at the title without the actions of Robert”, adding that he was “a fraudulent champion.”
A Lack of Opponents
It takes two to tango and a wrestler can only be truly memorable if they have sufficient foils.
Previous (and future) WCW champions like Vader, Sting, Ric Flair either had or would have memorable world title programmes with acclaimed rivals – often each other. Ron Simmons did not have any such opponents.
At Clash of the Champions XX, he retained over Cactus Jack, at that point little more than an attraction brawler in the undercard. The next Clash of the Champions event saw him wrestle in the middle of the card in a handicap match in which he was overshadowed by the debuting 2 Cold Scorpio.
His first Pay-Per-View (PPV) defense was against The Barbarian. Although an imposing presence, there was a zero percent chance that the former Power of Pain member would become WCW champion. It was also not the main event as the event was headlined by Jake Roberts and Sting, the latter of whom felt far more like the face of WCW than Simmons.
Seemingly, the original plan was for Simmons to feud with old Doom tag partner Butch Reed however Reed quickly departed WCW due to disagreements with booker Watts.
Simmons’s second and final PPV defense was at WCW’s flagship show Starrcade.
At the biggest show of the year, Simmons was supposed to face Rick Rude. A main event adjacent star, Rude had previously been in the NWA title and a run with Simmons could, for the first time, give Simmons a compelling and significant feud. The angle was set, with Rude piledriving Simmons on the floor during a match and also scoring a pinfall victory over the champ. Sadly, these plans were curtailed by an injury to the “Ravishing” one.
Substituting for an injured Rude was “Dr Death” Steve Williams. A huge star in Japan, he had only had limited exposure to American fans and was not enough of a solo star to attempt a world title challenge at the biggest wrestling show of the year. What Simmons needed was a conclusive win – and he could not even get that. Instead, the duo fought to a double count-out, which was overturned after Williams attacked Simmons post-match, meaning “The All American” emerged victorious via DQ.
Not only was the ending confusing but Simmons failed to get a desperately needed conclusive win over a star little-known to the mainstream American audience on their biggest showcase.
Again, this match was not a main event but the sixth bout on a nine match main card. Instead, the main feature was the BattleBowl match, with Simmons’s name mentioned after lower ranking performers like Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, and Cactus Jack on the PPV poster.
The Final Act
On December 30th 1992, Simmons lost the belt back to Big Van Vader on perhaps the most disappointing note possible.
At the Baltimore Arena, in front of a half-filled audience due to adverse weather conditions in Maryland, Simmons was squashed by Vader. Adding insult to injury, he did not fall to a Vader bomb or a Vader splash but rather a shoulder breaker, which Vader had never won a match with before and never would again.
According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, the means of the loss were a punishment after Simmons had no-showed the night before. A crew had been flown out but the champion was nowhere to be seen. Such an egregious act saw Simmons slapped with a $2,000 fine.
So ended the historic but inadequate reign. Simmons would never recover, never being quite able to reach such heights again. As Wrestling Recaps notes, “after losing the championship, Simmons would never get back to the main event picture as he was virtually off major WCW programming by the fall of 1993. Simmons would be gone from WCW entirely by spring of 1994.” Damn.
david fullam
Had a truly emotional win that was one for the ages. Then gets buried. He may have been the Champ. but was denied being the top star.