Listen to Tony Atlas talk now, and the man will tell you that he may understand the backlash to his Saba Simba character of the early-90's, but he doesn't care much, because Vince McMahon helped save his life. Once a keen bodybuilder, going under the moniker 'Mr. USA', Atlas had previously held the WWF Tag-Team Titles (along with Rocky Johnson, father of The Rock) in 1983. Incredibly, Atlas would fall on hard times once he left wrestling in the late-80's, and was reportedly living on a park bench and hooked on drugs before McMahon brought him back to play the African character of Saba Simba. A lot of people felt the gimmick was inflammatory, and borderline racist, with McMahon saying that Atlas had legally changed his name to Simba and was paying homage to his African heritage.The gimmick didn't last too long, and for good reason, fans couldn't believe what they were seeing. This was a pretty ill-advised move from the WWF, and didn't go over well with anybody. Tony Atlas did his best in the role, but it was far from a winner, and could have ruined his career had he played it for any real length of time.