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During the mid 1990s, Ahmed Johnson was a major player on WWE television.
The Pearl River Powerhouse is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion. When Johnson won the Intercontinental Title in 1996, he became the first African American to win a singles championship in WWE, a huge landmark moment in professional wrestling history.
During his career with WWE, Ahmed Johnson had memorable feuds with Goldust and The Nation of Domination before eventually joining The Nation in 1997.
Despite such a large amount of success in a short period of time with WWE, Ahmed Johnson left the company in February 1998.
Recently, Ahmed Johnson sat down with Sportskeeda's Dr. Chris Featherstone for an episode of UnSKripted. In what was a fantastic and revealing interview, let's take a closer look at 5 things we learned from Ahmed Johnson's recent Sportskeeda interview.
#5 Goldust "pulled a fast one" on Ahmed Johnson during the infamous WWE kissing angle
During the interview, Ahmed Johnson was asked if the infamous "kissing angle" with Goldust in 1996 was planned ahead of time.
At the time, Ahmed Johnson was feuding with Goldust for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. The Bizarre One was quickly making a name for himself with his outrageous androgynous antics. This includes kissing a prone Ahmed Johnson during their Intercontinental Championship match at King of the Ring 1996.
Johnson revealed that Goldust and himself had discussed the spot backstage prior to the match, but Goldust "pulled a fast one" and changed things:
"He pulled a fast one on me. You know we had discussed it in the back where he was supposed to put his hand over my mouth and kiss his hand. But, he didn't do that. He went on and kissed me and he knew I couldn't do nothing because we were live on TV and everyone's watching so I'm like, 'I'm going to kill you when I get up, I'm going to kill you.'"
Despite the change of plans and possible "rib" pulled on him by Goldust, Ahmed Johnson holds no ill will towards the now Dustin Rhodes. The Pearl River Powerhouse was complimentary about his former opponent:
"No, we joked about it, man. He's a good dude man."
#4 Why Ahmed Johnson was removed from The Nation of Domination
After feuding with Farooq and The Nation of Domination in 1996 and 1997, Ahmed Johnson shocked the WWE Universe when he turned on then-WWE Champion The Undertaker and sided with The Nation in mid-1997, becoming a heel in the process.
The intention was for the turn on The Phenom to set up a WWE Championship match between The Undertaker and Ahmed Johnson at Canadian Stampede in 1997. Unfortunately, Ahmed would be struck down with a knee injury preventing the match between the two from taking place.
However, this alliance between Ahmed and The Nation was shortlived. After returning from a knee injury in August 1997, The Nation of Domination quickly turned on Ahmed Johnson, making The Pearl River Powerhouse a babyface once more.
When asked about his recollection of being part of The Nation of Domination, the former Intercontinental Champion revealed why WWE Chairman Vince McMahon felt that Ahmed Johnson needed to be removed from the faction, suggesting that it wasn't believable that the group could be defeated:
"It was good but it was too many powerhouses in one stack. Like Vince said, Vince called us all in the office and said, 'Ok Ahmed, I'm going to take you out of The Nation.' and we were like 'Why?' And he said, 'Because nobody's going to believe that you. Farooq, Mark Henry and The Rock can all be beat at one time.' You know who's going to beat that team there? I don't even think the 'heartbreak crew' could have done that."
#3 Why Ahmed Johnson won't be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame
Given what Ahmed Johnson achieved during his short career with WWE, many have raised the question of why The Pearl River Powerhouse hasn't been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame yet.
Being the first African American to win a singles championship in WWE, Ahmed Johnson is a pioneer in professional wrestling. Therefore, some would consider him a natural pick for the Hall of Fame.
However, when asked why he hadn't been inducted into the Hall of Fame, Ahmed Johnson revealed that his WWE departure and subsequent falling out with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is the reason why he has yet to be inducted:
"Because me and Vince had a falling out. Right when i left. We had a falling out. He told me then i wouldn't be in the hall of fame because of our falling out. He actually told me that."
Johnson was then asked if his WWE departure and falling out with McMahon stemmed from contractual differences or anything else:
"It was that and other little things. But yeah, it was a lot of contractual differences."
Despite not yet being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Ahmed Johnson did reveal who he would like to induct him should he ever get the call from WWE and Vince McMahon:
"Who would i want to induct me? There's some good questions. Let me see, probably Al Snow. Because we didn't just have a match. Al took me in and taught me a few things. He was kind of like an off the clock instructor."
#2 Ahmed Johnson's WWE push didn't end because he was injuring superstars
Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently made headlines when discussing the career of Ahmed Johnson in WWE. Russo claimed that the push of The Pearl River Powerhouse was cut short by Vince McMahon due to Ahmed Johnson regularly "hurting" opponents in the ring.
Ahmed Johnson was quick to dispel these rumors and stated that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon never brought up the issue of hurting opponents with him. Furthermore, the only people that know the true reason for Ahmed Johnson's WWE departure are himself and the WWE Chairman:
"No, that's not why. Everybody thinks they know why and what went on behind closed doors. When I left, it was a behind the doors closed meeting just me and Vince, we're the only two that know why I left. And Vince never once got on me about hurting anybody. Never."
However, Ahmed Johnson did admit that he may have purposely hurt an opponent on occasion. But, in his opinion, his reasons were justified because they had hurt him first, therefore the stiff in-ring response was merely retaliation:
"And one time I hurt somebody, I'll be honest. If you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back. So, I cant say i didnt hurt some people, but they hurt me so I hurt them back. Because if you didn't back then, people would shoot on you all the time. They would shoot on you. They would try to hurt you if they knew you weren't going to fight back. Like a bully in school. If a bully keeps picking on you and you let them keep picking on you, then hey you're going to have one bad school career."
#1 Owen Hart ribbed Ahmed Johnson into thinking he was going to be a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
As is the case when most WWE Superstars from the 1990s are interviewed, Ahmed Johnson was asked if he could recall any great Owen Hart ribs.
If you're not familiar, Owen Hart is arguably the most prolific and all-time greatest ribber/prankster in the history of professional wrestling. Anyone who's ever known The King of Harts for a prolonged period of time has an Owen Hart rib story, and Ahmed Johnson is no different.
Ahmed Johnson recalled that during WrestleMania weekend, Owen Hart pranked Ahmed Johnson into thinking he was booked to be a guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno:
"He got me one time, he did a rib on me. WrestleMania. I was in my room and I got the phone call from The Jay Leno Show. He was telling me what time to be there, we talked a little bit. He was sending a limo to pick me up at 4 o'clock and I was ready to go. And, so I'm sitting outside at 4 o'clock. I went and bought me a new suit, I bought me new shoes, new watch and I was ready for the show. I was decked out. And then all of a sudden, Owen and Davey came out. They kept just standing outside staring at me. And I was like, 'Why are they out here?' and then Owen just bust out laughing. He was laughing so hard that he fell into the bushes. And I'm like, 'What's wrong with these two clowns?' Then Bret came out and told me 'Owen did that Ahmed, Owen called you. That wasn't The Jay Leno Show. That was Owen."
