The Rise and Fall of Ahmed Johnson
Standing at 6’2 and weighing close to 250 pounds, Tony Norris could easily be described as a mountain of a man. A standout football player, Norris decided, given the recent boom of professional wrestling throughout the mid-1980s that given his size and physique that perhaps it would be a path to follow to find great success. Trained by a dizzyingly talented team including journeyman wrestler Scott Casey, WWE Hall of Famer Ivan Putski and wrestling legend (and a man who should be in the WWE Hall of Fame) Skandor Akbar, Norris was able to parlay his incredible look and agility throughout the independent circuit before landing a spot in the Global Wrestling Federation, where he was soon dubbed as Moadib, The Nubian Terror.
Norris would eventually catch the eye of the World Wrestling Federation. They were starting to feel the crunch of World Championship Wrestling’s ascent and breathing down their necks, in addition to the after-effects of the infamous Steroid Trial. Debuting in 1995, Norris became Ahmed Johnson and immediately slotted into the upper mid-card of the New Generation phase of the promotion’s history. Given that Bill Watts was having a cup of coffee as part of the creative team, it was easy to see why Ahmed was making a splash, something that Jim Ross would confirm years later on his Grilling JR podcast.
“African-American, big gruff voice that’s distinguishable, looked like a million bucks. Was he a great worker? No. Watts liked him because he reminded Bill of Junkyard Dog because JYD wasn’t a great worker either. He just sold money in merch.”
Ahmed Johnson would officially debut in the WWF with perhaps his most understandable promo ever on the October 23, 1995, episode of RAW, previewing his spot in the upcoming Wild Card Survivor Series match. The next week during a beatdown perpetrated by Camp Cornette, Johnson would appear out of nowhere and slam the gargantuan Yokozuna, immediately solidifying himself as a powerhouse star. In the mid-1990s, slamming Yokozuna seemed to be the go-to in establishing a main event babyface. Johnson would go on a tear from here, standing tall at Survivor Series alongside Shawn Michaels. The latter was beginning his build to become the WWF Champion at WrestleMania the following year. Ahmed would constantly be put in prime spots over the following months, leading to a controversial feud with Goldust over the Intercontinental Championship.
A much-talked-about moment during this feud would be when Goldust delivered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a knocked-out Johnson, something that Johnson claims Goldust went into business for himself with the real-life kiss that occurred on the air, which resulted in him stiffing Goldust in their King Of The Ring PPV match. Johnson himself would discuss this on The Unsanctioned Podcast in 2017.
“I love Goldust. Goldust is one of the best workers there is. What happened was, is I told him not to be kissing me and stuff for real, because we had rehearsed it to where he was supposed to put his hand over my mouth and kiss his hand. Because it was live TV I couldn’t move if he did whatever he did that he said he would. And he didn’t do it. He kissed me for real. And I was like, ‘uh-huh’. That was blow-up time.”
That very King Of The Ring match would result in history, with Ahmed Johnson becoming the first African American Intercontinental Champion. Unfortunately for Ahmed, this would be immediately overshadowed by the iconic Austin 3:16 promo later that evening. There are rumors of a horrific message being scratched into his vehicle after the show, but we won’t go into that.
The rocket was officially strapped, and it seemed like a no-brainer that Ahmed was headed to the main event full-time. The following month at In Your House: International Incident, he would reteam with the now WWF Champion Shawn Michaels and the returning Sycho Sid, filling in for the once again departed Ultimate Warrior, against the Camp Cornette squad of Vader, British Bulldog and Owen Hart. This match, of course, was nothing more than a setup for the upcoming SummerSlam main event match between Vader and Shawn Michaels.
Sadly, this is where Ahmed’s run begins to go downhill. Shortly after this match, Ahmed was diagnosed with a severe legitimate kidney damage issue, which the WWF turned into a kayfabe injury caused by the recently debuted Ron Simmons, now known as Faarooq Asad. This would also result in Ahmed not only having to vacate the Intercontinental Title but a WWF Title match he had earned by winning his final match before leaving.
Johnson would be gone but would return at the end of 1996, continuing his feud with Faarooq and his new Nation of Domination running mates. This feud would carry on for the next several months, with some of the highlights being when Ahmed chased Faarooq right out of the 1997 Royal Rumble match with a large 2x4 and, of course, their iconic Chicago Street Fight at WrestleMania 13, which saw Ahmed get the ultimate rub from The Legion of Doom, teaming with him to defeat the Nation. He would continue his battles against the Nation, even playing a pivotal role in the group's first incarnation being disbanded, seeing Crush and Savio Vega, along with the other tagalongs like PG-13 and Clarence Mason, dismissed by Faarooq from their roles.
As Faarooq was rebuilding his New Nation of Domination, he and Ahmed seemed to always be at odds, culminating in a tag team match where Faarooq introduced Kama Mustafa as the newest member of the Nation, teaming with him against Ahmed Johnson and WWF Champion The Undertaker. Following the match, the unthinkable would happen when Ahmed drove the WWF Champion into the mat with the Pearl River Plunge, then standing tall with the New Nation. This was seemingly the last-gasp effort to make Ahmed relevant, and a main event talent in an ever-shifting landscape as the Attitude Era began to move into full swing. Ahmed was set to face off with The Undertaker in a WWF Title match at In Your House: Canadian Stampede but would once again be plagued with an injury, leaving Vader to step into the title match in his place.
It seemed inevitable that Ahmed Johnson wouldn’t make it at this point. It is well known in the wrestling industry that if a promoter or booker can’t rely on the talent, they will give up, for better or worse. Upon his return later in the summer, Ahmed was nearly immediately turned on by the Nation, effectively ending his heel-turn experiment and turning him back into a babyface. He would languish in the mid-card for the rest of his run, which would last only half a year before he was gone from the Federation.
In later years, Norris would reveal that his sister was terminally ill, and he wanted to be with her at the end, so he left the WWF without telling anyone. He felt if he brought up his reasoning for leaving, it would appear that he was looking for sympathy.
Norris seemingly vanished from the professional wrestling landscape but would re-emerge the following year in World Championship Wrestling, now playing the role of Big T, a new muscle for Stevie Ray as he feuded with his brother Booker T. Unfortunately, the Norris that showed up was very out of shape and had gained a considerable amount of weight. He would win the right to use the letter T in his name from Booker, but beyond that, he did not make much of an impact before being released a few months into his run due to weight issues.
In the years since his disappearance from the wrestling world, Norris has become known to have had a lot of heat with many of the boys, with many claiming he was reckless in the ring, had a bad attitude, and was generally disliked by many of his peers. One of wrestling’s worst-kept secrets is the bad blood between Ron Simmons and Ahmed, which carried over into some of their battles in the ring. Simmons is considered one of the most respected and most formidable men to ever lace up a pair of boots, so you can imagine how that went. This bad blood also seemed to carry over to other Nation members, as Ahmed made headlines last year criticizing D’Lo Brown for the accident that ended Darren Drozdov’s career and left him paralyzed. His claims of D’Lo never following up with Drozdov leaving a bad taste in his mouth, and calling D’Lo an unsafe worker was almost immediately refuted by Mark Henry, who had some additional claims about Ahmed on Busted Open Radio.
“This [Ahmed Johnson] is a bad human being. Your credibility is shot. Nobody, nobody in wrestling will say anything good about this guy. And since when did being professional, being on time, working hard and being able to coexist with your co-workers become being a kiss ass? When? I’ve never heard anybody say anything good about him. Not one. Not one time. So, before you start trying to tear down D’Lo Brown, a future Hall of Famer, before you tear down a guy that actually was a world champion, why don’t you look in the mirror? Your credibility is shot. Your slip is showing.”
In the end, Ahmed Johnson has become an interesting footnote in the history of professional wrestling, somewhat of a punch line for podcasters like Bruce Prichard and Jim Cornette. They will immediately say “Great googly moogly” when his name is brought up due to his incomprehensible promo style. Regardless, as someone in the perfect age group when he debuted in the WWF, I can’t deny that he was appealing as all hell and was a favorite of mine for years before I learned to better analyze what I saw in wrestling. The man’s legacy has become a joke in recent years, primarily due to those hilarious videos of his promos from the WWF War Zone PlayStation game that have new subtitles. Still, at the time, it seemed like the sky was the limit for the former Nubian Terror. Unfortunately, a bad attitude and being significantly injury-prone cut it all short for the man who once seemed poised to become the first African American WWF World Champion.
I suppose the saying is true in this case, you reap what you sow.
