Ron Simmons-APA-Dam! Full Career Retrospective
(born May 15, 1958) is an American retired professional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridiron_football and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestler. He is best known for his tenures in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling (WCW). Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Simmons played football as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_tackle in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League (NFL), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Football_League (CFL) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Football_League (USFL) for four seasons during the 1980s. Simmons played https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_State_Seminoles_football and was recognized as an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Football_All-America_Team. He played professionally for the NFL's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Browns, the CFL's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Rough_Riders and the USFL's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Bay_Bandits.
Simmons performed for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling (WCW) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Championship_Wrestling (ECW) under his real name, and in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE (WWF/E) under both his real name and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_name Faarooq Asaad. In WCW, Simmons was a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WCW_World_Heavyweight_Champions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_World_Heavyweight_Champion; as the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_firsts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American to win the title, he is recognized by WWE as the first https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_championship#World_championships in professional wrestling history. He was also a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WCW_World_Tag_Team_Champions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_World_Tag_Team_Champion with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Reed and a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_United_States_Tag_Team_Championship with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Osborne. He was one of the most prominent stars in the WWF in the early https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Erahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Tag_Team_Champions_(WWE)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Erahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_Tag_Team_Championhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Erahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Layfieldhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Erahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acolytes_Protection_Agencyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Dominationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acolytes_Protection_Agencyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_wrestling_terms#Stablehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acolytes_Protection_Agencyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Hall_of_Famehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acolytes_Protection_Agency

He formed the extremely popular tag team Doom with Butch Reed and manager Teddy Long- Soon after, in March 1989, Simmons began showing signs of a heel turn as he got more aggressive in his matches, including a non-title match against fellow babyface, then-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NWA_World_Heavyweight_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_%22The_Dragon%22_Steamboat and a match on the April 29, 1989 episode of World Championship Wrestling, where he broke the rules during what was supposed to be a face vs. face match against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkyard_Dog. Simmons won the match when the referee, Ron's future manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Long made a fast count (Long was fired (kayfabe) as referee by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Herd immediately following this match). He completed his heel turn on the May 27 episode of World Championship Wrestling during a tag team match, where he teamed with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_Ross against the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Headshrinkers as part of a tournament for the vacant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_World_Tag_Team_Championship, leaving him in the ring alone when Long came out. Simmons later teamed up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Reed to form https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(professional_wrestling). In the beginning, the members of Doom were masked and only known as Doom #1 and Doom #2, managed by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Benoit. In their https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-per-view debut at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Havoc_1989, Doom defeated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Steiner_Brothers. In the "Iron Team Tournament" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starrcade_(1989), Doom finished fourth, losing all three of their matches. Doom's misfortune continued as Woman soon dropped the team to manage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Horsemen_(professional_wrestling). Then on February 6, 1990, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_the_Champions_X, Doom hit rock bottom when they were defeated by Rick and Scott Steiner and as a result of the stipulation were forced to unmask. It's been reported at this time that the aging Ric Flair was doing whatever he could behind the scenes to sandbag matches and hold the likes of Ron Simmons, Scott Steiner and Brian Pillman down ultimately crushing WCW and putting it light years behind the well oiled machine of the WWF.
World Heavyweight Champion and final storylines (1992–1994)- Simmons spent the first half of 1992 feuding with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Foley, whom he defeated via pinfall at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperBrawl_II. On August 2, 1992, at a house show in Baltimore, Maryland, a scheduled title match between https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sting_(wrestler) and WCW World Heavyweight Champion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Van_Vaderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerslam#Scoop_powerslamhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Van_Vaderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Van_Vader
World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment- He found his ultimate succes in the Nation of Domination giving a platform for the Rock to be himself and then form the APA with Bradshaw but let him explain how nuch differernt WCW was then WWE and how much fun he had