During his appearance on Brisco & Bradshaw, Ron Simmons spoke on beating Vader for the WCW World Title. Here’s what he had to say:
I had no idea of it. I’m asked all the time about that moment, and I say it every time, it was real; I had no idea it was going to take place that night. Never in my wildest dreams did I have any idea it was going to go down like that. It was a real moment that took place. There was no pre-planning, there was none of that at all. I’ve got to take my hat off to Bill Watts for giving me the opportunity, to make that moment happen and having the guts to do it. I showed up there and he called me into his office. My first thought was ‘oh my goodness, what have I done wrong now?’ And Bill said ‘Sting got hurt or something. Tonight we’re going to have some make some changes and we’re going to make a change that’s going to be revolutionary.’ I was like ‘okay, what are you talking about?’ He said ‘tonight you’re going with Vader for the belt.’ At the time I was still midcard, still coming up through the ranks. So we go out, we go through the whole thing of pulling the name out of the hat, and luckily for me, my name just happened to be pulled out of the hat. But that’s exactly how it went down.
I’ve also got to mention that I’m very grateful to Vader for going out and doing business. He could’ve been difficult and said ‘no man, I’m not going to do things this way because Sting’s not here.’ He went out and he went beyond in my estimation what he delivered in the match. We had a fantastic match. It was so unbelievable. It was a real moment in our business. I never in my wildest dreams would’ve thought it had gotten to this point, to where people still ask me about it. Not only that but here’s the thing that I love about it. Young men, young black men, people of all colors, and young women come up to me and say ‘you know what? I want to thank you for what you did for me in my childhood. Because in that moment, seeing it happen, I knew things were possible for me to achieve.’ You can’t get a more powerful testament to what you’ve done in life to have something like that happen to you. And for it to have an effects on people’s lives? I had absolutely no idea that it was going to be that profound to this day. No way. I never would’ve predicted it at all.
Credit: Stories With Brisco & Bradshaw. H/T 411Mania.