On the latest edition of his Something To Wrestle podcast WWE executive Bruce Prichard looked back on the career of Ahmed Johnson, and how the potential top star hurt his chances due to hurting other wrestlers in the ring and not being liked backstage. Highlights are below.
Says many wrestlers did not want to work with Johnson:
“I don’t know about respect, but they didn’t like working with him because he was stiff. I think Ahmed also had a bit of an attitude and feeling that he was already over and should’ve been the top guy without ever having come in and done the work and gotten to the point to where the audience got him over and wanted him to be the top guy. So, while we wanted him to be a top guy and, shit, quite possibly if he got there to be the top guy, I don’t know that he ever reached it. But in Ahmed’s mind, he was already there.
Johnson sabotaging his own push by hurting other wrestlers:
“We used to call that cockstrong because he was just so fucking strong that he would catapult himself. Look, Ahmed didn’t discriminate. He would hurt himself as much as he hurt other people……we were all high on Ahmed, and we all thought there was a lot of potential there and that we could get there with Ahmed. But you needed the commitment from Ahmed to be able to do what it took to get to that place. I don’t know that we were really seeing that commitment from Ahmed. We all wanted him to make it. Good lord, man, he had charisma. He had a look that doesn’t grow on trees. There was an unspoken animal charisma on Ahmed Johnson that you looked at him, and brother, you believed. That was something you can’t teach.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)