On the latest episode of “Something To Wrestle With,” Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson covered Faarooq (Ron Simmons) in the WWF. They talked about Faarooq being paired with Sunny, the feud with Ahmed Johnson, the formation of the Nation of Domination, The Rock’s ascension as a star, teaming with JBL, the transformation into the APA, and more.
Here are some highlights (you can listen to the entire show at AdFreeShows.com):
Bruce Prichard talking about the origins of the Faarooq character:
“Vince had this idea of Ron. I think that when he looked at Ron, from basically the eyebrows down, you had this incredible specimen, but yet, Ron had a receding hairline. Vince thought if we could put something on Ron’s head that he could work in like a helmet of sorts that it would take 20 years off his look. He would look 20 years younger. Actually, it really kind of did, but Ron was Ron. Ron looked like a bada** man that would kick your a** if you crossed him in general because Ron’s the real deal. Vince explained that he saw Ron, he had a whole vision of the character of what he saw, Faarooq Asaad, of what he saw there.
He said, ‘I want to change your name. I want you to be Faarooq. I want different gear.’ He saw the blue, and ‘You will pop in the blue.’ Vince had a very specific vision, and the cool thing about it was as we were pitching this, we weren’t just pitching Ron, we were pitching Lottie (his wife) too. Ron brought Lottie to hear this thing out as well to make sure that she was comfortable with Ron going back on the road and that she was comfortable with him continuing his career. Then we got to Sunny. Vince explained, ‘I would like for you to have a manager. The manager is Sunny. She’s a heat seeking missile because I think there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to look at you and want to cheer you, but they won’t cheer you with this heat seeking missile next to you. Let her stir the sh** and you do the work.’ It was a package and it was a vision that was one of those that Vince clearly had in his head.”
Prichard on why they did away with Faarooq’s helmet and Sunny as his manager:
“Now you got it out in front of an audience. You’re seeing what the audience is buying and what Ron may be more comfortable in as you get through the whole thing. Sunny was a move to make her more of an announcer and a personality vs a manager at this point. Ron showed that he can hold his own. Ron can cut a promo. Ron can go. It adapts, and once you get it out there and you see it, it’s one thing to see it in your head, and it can be the greatest thing in the world, but in practicality, as you watch it, it doesn’t always play out like it does in your head beforehand.”
Prichard talking about the formation of Faarooq and Bradshaw as a tag team:
“They were friends outside. It was Undertaker who looked at them and wanted them to be a part of The Ministry of Darkness so they would have something to add to the story, and he liked Ron Simmons, and he liked John, so they became The Acolytes.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
