Ahmed Johnson

[2.0] "Man, this guy stinks. Terrible, dangerous wrestler, promos are awful and laughable most of the time and I think his entire moveset consists of a spine buster and the Pearl River Plunge and that's literally it. It's a mystery why he wore knee pads on his thighs and elbow pads on his biceps. Why no one ever told him how goofy that looked is beyond me. His body looked good and that's the only reason he was on TV, but he's definitely a Butterface. One of the most incredibly infuriating and annoying things about this dude is how his tights would immediately get pulled up his butt- where they would remain for the remainder of his matches. He would just wear that wedgie and never pull it out, all the while forcing us to have to watch his terrible work with his butt half out. Have you ever noticed that? It happens in every single one of his matches so if you've seen even one Ahmed Johnson match then I must assume you've seen it before. Anytime any other performer gets a gnarly wedgie- they will pull it out immediately. As would we because wedgies are incredibly uncomfortable and best eliminated upon arrival. Not Ahmed Johnson though. He'll finish out his TV time with it."

[5.0] "Guy came in like he was going to be the next big thing. He had good booking until his injury. Had a great look, the ability to connect with the crowd and some good power offense. Going out with an injury at his peak really hurt him. The decision to have him join the Nation was a peculiar one. The less said about his WCW run the better."

[8.0] "DIdn't really dislike Ahmed Johnson that much, thought he was alright in the ring and managed to fill a fairly decent hole in the roster that was around just before the attitude era. promos lacked but a lot of people's did back then, look at the "promo coach". Some of his highlights was his 1997 Royal Rumble performance, where he ended up eliminating himself to get to Faarooq, and a few other decent matches"

[4.0] "The only reason I'm giving him as HIGH as a 4 is actually because of his promos. They sucked. But they were similar to B-rate movies, where they sucked so bad it actually made it fun and amusing to watch. As far as watching his matches, they were a car crash. This time not as enjoyable as the promos because then you saw him brutally cripple a fellow worker on the most basic of moves. I didn't even know he had that reputation until recently, but apparently his reputation is universal as a dangerous guy."

[5.0] "Looking back at his promos is one of my favorite hobbies as I can't help but laugh out loud. He was obviously the shits in the ring, but fans loved him during his run in the 90s. It's a shame he got injured in the summer of 1996 as he was so over."

[5.0] "Did people come to this guy's page just to bury him? This guy had a freakish physique, he was massive and made a very intense and believable powerhouse. His problem was just that he wasn't safe to work with just like many other powerhouse wrestlers."

[5.0] "Ahmed Johnson had a great presentation in the WWF where he had a unique look and fans loved him because of his raw intensity and his ridiculous promos even though you could never understand a word he was saying! Unfortunately his main drawback was that he was not good to watch in the ring. He ended up with a bad reputation for hurting his opponents, was injury prone and looked prone to gassing very early in matches. His most enjoyable feud was with Faarooq and the Nation of Domination which peaked with a chaotic street fight where he teamed with LOD at Wrestlemania 13. Easily the second best match on that show."

[7.0] "I cannot really explain why but I just think Ahmed Johnson is sweet. He's not a very good worker but I just love. He just has a look and the vibe that checks off so many boxes for me. I haven't seen any of his stuff outside of WWE so idk maybe he gets worse but man I love this guy. The really chaotic street fight with LoD at Mania is the kinda style he should've just done forever. Chaotic stupid brawls."

[5.0] "Ahmed Johnson gives you a thrill that modern wrestling just doesn't deliver anymore, namely will he hit a really looking cool move or will he accidently cripple his opponent. A short and sweet Ahmed match is a guilty pleasure. I loved him as kid because he looked cool as hell and twice as tough."

[7.0] "Ahmed certainly wasn't a polished worker and it was hard to understand him a lot of the time. But very few people in the history of the business had the combination of look, charisma, intensity, unpredictability, and believability Ahmed had. He could have been a huge star in this business if he stayed healthy and had a better attitude backstage."

[6.0] "I think Ahmed Johnson is very under rated here. The guy had an excellent look and a dope finish. He was just overshadowed by much better wrestlers In the late 90s. he fit in very well In mid to early-late 90s new generation WWF roster but by the time rhe attitude era rolled around he was lost in the shuffle. It's really sad he delt with so much racism and bullying and because of that he rightfully he hates the WWE and we will probably never see him get celebrated by the fed. the less that is said about his wcw run the better however and I don't blame anyone for letting that run effect his overall rating."

[4.0] "Hey, the WWF tried, honest! They gave Ahmed a boat load of pushes and every freaking time he started rolling, he got injured! Ahmed came in to the WWF in late 95 and he already had the look, but that was pretty much it. His finisher was cool but he was pretty sloppy in the ring by accounts and was prone to hurting people. He was also notoriously glass jawed. Lastly, he was pretty lousy on the mic. At least Ultimate Warrior spoke words you could recognize most of the time, even if they didn't string together good! After his IC title run ended on an injury, he slowly fell down the card and most people stopped caring about him by the time they turned him heel and he joined the Nation Of Domination, only to get kicked out and started feuding with them again? Feh! It's sad how far and fast he fell. I will give him a 4 out of 10 for being popular in 1996 and early 97."

[6.0] "I really thought he was gonna end up becoming one of the next great big man workers of his era when I first saw him. Especially as a babyface. Because I remember when he came in, they were putting him with guys who could well enhance what he could do, and he kept the crowds up. He was doing the suicide dives through the ropes, the stuff off the top ropes, the power moves, then he'd PRP the guy, and pin them. On top of that, he was very intense (sometimes to the point of not being able to be understood), he looked like a million dollars.... like a real brick house, and like a guy who overall you just didn't wanna mess with. However, I think that injuries aside, land mark accomplishments aside ( he was the 1st black IC champ and Kuwaiti cup winner), I don't think they had any serious idea as to who he was, what was supposed to be, or what to do with him after a certain point . I mean...Ahmed is a muslim name for starters and he looked everything but. He came in on top feuding with camp cornette which was the main heel stable at the time, then he feuded with another muslim character (Ron Simmons as Faarooq), they did for close to a year along with the nation, only for him to end up joining them. By the time he got to WCW... it was a wasted opportunity."

[3.0] "There's always been some uncertainty as to how old Ahmed is but he was definitely a late starter, which is never going to lend itself to a long career when you're juiced to the gills. He looked amazing though but his work was clunky at best when he wasn't injured. I learned only a few weeks ago that he did a tour with Big Japan pre-WWF and there's some footage of him doing a tope suicida. Maybe he could have been the star Vince believed him to be in an alternate universe. But not this one."

[4.0] "Big Ahmed. He was super over in 1996-97, but consistent injuries derailed his career. His post-WWF career absolutely sucks."

[2.0] "He isn't very good in the ring and WWF made him look strong but never pulled the trigger on a push and made him lose any big match."

[3.0] "Looked like an absolute freak, but was shallow as hell other than that. Little to no impact in the ring and while he wasn't the worst on the mic, he was faaar from the best. His feud with the Nation of Domination was sorta interesting, and during the same period he was over as hell with the crowd, but nothing interesting really came of it."

[6.0] "This dude was the epitome of being juiced to the tits on roids. He had the look and the finisher to be a multi time world champion and his matches weren? t boring from what I remember. He completely blew my mind, as an 8 year old, when he slammed Yokozuna."

[6.0] "Ahmed looked like a million bucks, had the power and intensity that some wrestlers dream of, and was insanely over from 1995-1997. The crowd LOVED him even though they could barely understand what he was saying in his promos, which weren't good at all, but spoke them with so much confidence that people didn't even mind. In the ring, he was reckless, and often tried to do too much (dude was 300+ pounds doing suicide dives and Scissors kicks). He was basically the black Ultimate Warrior or Ryback, where he was tons of uncontrolled power and intensity. He was basically a shell of himself come the Royal Rumble in 1998, and completely out of it by the time he got to WCW in 2000. It's a shame the way his career turned out, cause the WWF was VERY behind him and adamant about him becoming a star, but being reckless and injury prone cut his career short."

[3.0] "It's easy to forget in hindsight how much Ahmed Johnson looked like a huge star when he started out. He was massive and ripped and also just looked like an absolute badass monster. He had a real aura around him. People make fun of how marble-mouthed his promos they were, and it's true, he was almost incomprehensible at times, but you know, that could've worked for an unbeatable monster character. But it all went very badly wrong. The first problem was that he just couldn't work at all. Even by the standards of the WWF midcard in mid-90s, he was really bad in the ring. The Pearl River Plunge was a solid finisher, but that was really all he had. It just kept getting worse from there. He kept getting injured, over and over. He hurt other guys in the ring, too. And then they ruined whatever momentum he had left with one of the most ill-conceived heel turns ever, where they just had him join his hated arch-enemies who he'd been trying to kill for months... for no particular reason. Then he got hurt AGAIN, and that was the last straw: the WWF finally gave up and released him. The final nail in the coffin came a couple years later when WCW decided to give him a chance for some reason, but he showed up so massively out of shape (and as part of the terrible Harlem Heat 2000 angle) that it eventually became his gimmick that he would wrestle for food. Once even WCW gave up on him, he was finally totally done. 3 points for a couple of good moments in the WWF and for the potential he once seemed to have."

[6.0] "Man, poor guy. If only he could've avoided injuries and injuring his opponents, we'd be talking about the first black WWF World Champ here. He has a look built for wrestling stardom and his in-ring work is fairly underrated."

[1.0] "Big and with a great physique but one of the worst wrestlers I have ever seen. As another Inmate wrote he was basically the African-American Ultimate Warrior, only worse. He has a nasty but deserved reputation for being a careless worker, resulting in far too many injuries, both to himself and to others, and his promos... my God... they made Warrior sound like Patrick Stewart. If we really want to sink the knife a little more in he had no charisma to speak of as well and never showed any love for the business: amazing that he last all of four years in WWE."

[6.0] "I know Ahmed has heaps of hate now (and even a lot back when he was around) but I didn't dislike him as much as most others. He was around when I was kind of first getting into wrestling & when I saw him first debut to give Yoko a super impressive looking slam, I was immediately a fan. He was intense & powerful at a time when someone like that was really a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, he lasted for little more than a cup of coffee & his true colors were shown."

[3.0] "Looking back now this guy was not good at all. He was a popular in the WWF in 1996 when the company was not doing well and losing its ratings to WCW. He excited fans because of his physique. One point for body slamming Yokozuna. Two for his feuds with Goldust and Farrooq were great. The better feud was with Farrooq. Third point was when he turned heel that was great as he joined Nation of Domination. After leaving Nation he was terrible. He injured people and that's why he was released by WWF . He was trash in WCW and should have never been there. A big steroid user."

[1.0] "Ahmed gets a point for being an imposing physical force. But beyond that, he offered less than nothing. He was a poor worker he kept injuring people, he had a bad attitude, and his interviews were among the worst to ever see the light of day."

[5.0] "Big, athletic and strong, it seemed he had all the physical tools to make it in the WWE but then they gave him a mic. One of the funniest things i've ever heard, did anyone understand a word he said? He was never a favourite of mine but a bit of polishing and I could have seen him making something out of his wrestling career."

[7.0] "I always thought he was a solid mid-carder and he was obviously physically imposing. I'm a bigger fan than the average user on this site."

[0.0] "I'll give him credit for cutting some of the most hilariously terrible promos of all time but his work stank, his psychology was nonexistent, and his mic skills were as stated before laughably bad. Hes always a pain to watch in the ring. I kinda feel bad for him but hey some people got it and some don't."

[5.0] "Ahmed Johnson is not the best wrestler but he defiantly deserves a higher rating than this. He was a true powerhouse and had some memorable moments like when Goldust gave him mouth- to -mouth for example. He also had some really good tag matches with the likes of Shawn Michaels and The Road Warriors. Overall i will rate Ahmed Johnson a 5/10."

[3.0] "A huge powerhouse of a man, Ahmed Johnson looked like a can't-miss prospect when he arrived in the WWF in 1995 and within his first year had already claimed the Intercontinental Title. However, his skills remained unrefined and he proved to be injury prone, and his push quickly dried up. He floundered on the midcard when not on the injured list and left the company in 1998. He turned up in WCW in 2000 under the name "Big T, " teaming with Stevie Ray as "Harlem Heat 2000" in a feud against Stevie's brother and former partner Booker T, but between the lame storyline and the fact that Johnson was out of shape by this point, the run didn't amount to much. Johnson did a bit of work on the indies in the early 2000s before fading away. A case of "coudl've been, maybe should've been, but wasn't. ""

[6.0] "Ahmed was a poor worker who got a reputation for hurting his opponents. This ultimately killed his push even though he had an amazing appearance. Ahmed's out of ring lifestyle likely also cost him some political heat with the front office. There are so many guys who don't get the push because of some sort of conflict with the promotion. Ahmed was one of these guys after enjoying a very hot push as a rookie in the WWE."

[4.0] "He is basically the black Ultimate Warrior. Very buff, poor ring skills, nonsensical promos. Except, in the case of the Warrior, there was some charisma there. People loved the Warrior back in the day. Ahmed Johnson was always just the buff guy that people pretended they could understand. Plus his trunks show too much of his ass, and that makes me uncomfortable."

[3.0] "Great look but that's sadly all Ahmed Johnson had. He was terrible on the mic, in the ring and even though he was pushed heavily in late 1996 - early 1997 failed to get over even if he wasn't injured all the time. Ahmed will always be remembered for his feud with the Nation (Faarooq in particular). The highlight of his career is the month he chased the Nation around with a 2x4 (Ahmed was even terrible at using the 2x4, I seriously cringed every time he used it on somebody). My favorite Ahmed Johnson match is the Chicago Street Fight from WrestleMania 13."