10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Sept 1)

6. Watching His World Title Win Still Brings Ron Simmons To Tears

Ron Simmons wcw
WWE.com

Ron Simmons didn't know at the time just how meaningful his WCW World Title win was to the African-American community. Beating Big Van Vader in August, 1992, Simmons became the first ever black performer to win a recognised World Championship. The emotion of that moment still hits the man hard even today.

Telling the Jobbing Out podcast all about how the win has become more special to him over the years, Ron said it's only when he watches old footage of the victory that he realises how much it meant to people. Back then, he was just happy to concentrate on doing a good job and focused solely on the match, but now Simmons is brought to tears when seeing his big win.

That's quite the powerful admission. Ron Simmons would never capture another World Title in either WCW or WWE (partly because the latter put him in a powder blue gladiator helmet, but that's another story), but he will always be able to look back on that win over Vader.

Advertisement
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.