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Ron SimmonsBetween The Ropes
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Central Florida’s Sports Radio 740 The Team
Simulcast online at BetweenTheRopes.com

On Wednesday night, December 19, Ron Simmons joined hosts Brian Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci live on Between The Ropes on Central Florida’s Sports Radio 740 The Team to discuss his famous “Damn” catchphrase, his role in the WWE, how he broke into the business, and much more.

Things kicked off with Ron being asked about his recent trip to Iraq with the WWE. Ron said the trip went really well and noted that it was his fifth time. He also talked about a “Damn off” that occurred with some of the troops. “I had a “Damn off” with a couple of people. There were a couple of them that tried to out damn me and I couldn’t let them do that, I had to take them on. But they didn’t know what I was doing, I had a bit of trickery in it because some of them were good. I told them to give me a damn with a southern accent, then give me a damn like you lived in Boston. That threw them off so that way they couldn’t get deep into their voice.” Ron then proceeded to do a damn in a Boston accent.

Continuing on the topic of Ron’s popular catch phrase he was asked whether he could have ever have imagined a 4 letter word changing his life like this? Ron laughingly replied “well, no, but I know a lot of 4 letter words in the past that have changed a lot of other people’s lives, and it wasn’t damn.”

Regarding his current role with the WWE Ron admitted that he misses being in action full time after 21 years in the business. He also hinted at a further APA reunion, saying “He (JBL) is a very good friend of mine, I can’t speak of him enough. We spent 7 years together as tag team partners and in the future we might spend some more time together.”

Ron then discussed whether he preferred being in singles or tag team competition. He said he had no preference between the two because “once you get into it and immerse yourself into it you put everything you’ve got into it there’s no partiality to one. You don’t care if it’s singles or a tag team, you just want to get in there and perform and do the best you can and give a good performance for the people.”

On being the first African American World Champion in pro wrestling history: “It came as a total surprise to me. I just showed up there and something happened. They had a drawing out of a hat and my name was pulled. They said, ‘Ron, you’re going for the World’s Heavyweight Championship tonight’ and I said ‘what? You’ve got to be kidding me, I just showed up here to have a match.’ It meant a whole lot. That meant a lot for myself and for a lot of other young African Americans who came along. They saw that if you work hard things are possible and can happen.”

Lastly, Ron talked about his interesting transition from being a college football great at Florida State to becoming a professional wrestler. “Initially I wanted to go into communications and I was doing voiceovers for a while in Tampa. Somehow or another I walked right into a Japanese trainer by the name of Hiro Matsuda. He asked me if I still had good joints and I said ‘yeah, why?’ ‘I’d like to put you in the ring as a wrestler.’ I said ‘no, I don’t think so that’s not possible.’ Hiro said I could do really well and asked me how much money I was making and I said ‘nothing.’ Hiro told me he’d triple that and so I said ‘I’ll be there tomorrow, what time?”

To listen to the Ron Simmons interview, including his thoughts on the current tag team division and his thoughts about his time in Doom, as well as the entire December 19 edition of Between The Ropes in streaming audio, visit the show online at http://www.BetweenTheRopes.com. Join us for
Between The Ropes for two hours every Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET on
Central Florida’s Sports Radio 740 The Team and worldwide on
BetweenTheRopes.com.