The APA’s Farooq (Ron Simmons) and Bradshaw (JBL) were considered two of the stiffest workers in the Attitude Era. Because of this, the duo — especially JBL — never held back, even when it came to Shane McMahon, which JBL admits was something he quickly came to regret.
“Oh, yeah, I almost killed him!” JBL admitted during an interview on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet,” recalling the brutal “Clothesline From Hell” he once delivered to McMahon at ringside. “Shane told me, he said: ‘You’ve got to hit me harder than you’ve ever hit anybody in your life.'”
Simmons chimed in, adding that he warned JBL not to go ahead with it. Nonetheless, as JBL recalls it, the interaction took place at WWE SummerSlam, or another of the company’s major pay-per-views. When the big moment came, JBL saw McMahon running at him full-speed.
“I’m like, ‘You got to be kidding me!’ I hit him so freaking hard, I never hit anybody like that in my life,” JBL said. “I hit him, and as soon as I did, Ron goes, ‘We’re fired.'”
“I just told him, ‘Look, just go back there and start packing.’ I’m just going to go back there and start packing my s**t,” Simmons added. “Only thing I just recall seeing was this part of Shane’s [neck] disappearing so fast! Right? I just stand there shaking my head, like, it’s been a good run, it’s been a good run.”
Despite their fears, McMahon was allegedly thrilled to have been a part of the segment, while Simmons notes he was simply relieved to see his boss’ son still walking and talking after the clothesline.
‘When you are in that ring, you are doing your best portrayal of realism, okay?’
JBL was a stiff worker long before teaming up with Simmons, but together the two encouraged one another. Simmons also recalled the teachings from his wrestling mentor, explaining why he always hit as hard as he did.
“Hiro Matsuda, under his tutelage and his training, when you are in that ring, you are doing your best portrayal of realism, okay?” Simmons explained. Matsuda taught him that even if you’re only getting one punch in, you have to make that punch look good. “And that’s exactly the way I tried to work. Now, some would call it ‘stiff’ or whatever you’d like to call it, but I called it ‘as real as it can get.’ And that’s the way we both worked, and that’s the way [JBL] was taught!”
Simmons acknowledged that not everyone enjoyed the style they worked, but said they would never have done anything to an opponent that they knew they couldn’t be on the receiving end of. “We never injured anybody, never hurt nobody; that’s called: taking your time to learn what you’re doing, you know?” he proclaimed. “I can hear [Matsuda’s] words right now: ‘If you’re doing this, the people right there that’s sitting at ringside, have got to look real hard to see that you didn’t hit him. That’s the way I was taught, you know, and that’s the way things were, back in the day, man!”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet,” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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