Original subtitles

Hello. How's it going?

Good. How are you? Good.

How you doing, guys?

Good. Good morning.

Good morning.

So is this just me, or are you interviewing Ron also? Okay.

How's Florida State doing this year? Man, don't mention them.

Terrible.

Can you talk about filming those bars?

Often we're at, watch you guys tear up those bars and everything.

Was that real?

Tim White was the owner of the Friendly Tap.

And listen, we must have tore his bar for about six or seven times.

I'm going to kick your ass.

So much for happy hour. And he had those Nanitude televisions.

They replaced them all with HD televisions on Vince McMahon's bill.

We renovated the entire Friendly Tap.

He remodeled his pool table. He did the doors.

He will even be standing behind the scene, run, don't forget the back

tear it up too.

We'll start asking him, hey, listen, if we're going to be tearing your bar up

this much, man, you're going to have to start paying us.

So we had to shake his ass down too.

We had one take because it was live and guys were going to get busted open.

We had a fake wall one time. I had Bull Buchanan, and I was about to throw him

through the wall, and he said, wrong wall. I said, too late.

Thank goodness he found it funny.

That's where the real APA came into effect, all right? We were the real

brother. There wasn't nothing fake about us.

I'm a guy that had come up the hard way. My mother died when I was eight. My

father just drifted off, took a right turn, and never saw him again.

Coming out of a small town of Warner Robins, Georgia, I wasn't fortunate

where I was going to be able to share the upbringing with my brothers because

aunts had to come and get them and take them out of my life, and I had to stay

behind. We're going to move into our first match. Bob Armstrong, who has

the Caribbean Heavyweight Championship tournament, is seen now as he battles

tough Hungarian Chris Markoff.

My grandmother was a big, and I mean a big fan.

of professional wrestling, and her favorite was Bob Armstrong.

Listen, if you didn't shut up when Bob Armstrong came on the TV, it was not a

spanking. What I call a whooping, okay, was in the future for you.

Professional wrestling at its very best. World class championship wrestler.

Look at that streak in that Von Erich kid. My earliest memory was watching

wrestling with my grandfather.

I always told him I want to be a wrestler one day and I want to be world

champion one day.

Grew up in Seawater, Texas.

So we had two sports. We had football and spring football and football with

King. Well, actually, baseball was my first look, you know. I started to grow.

And that's when the coaches started to notice me being more of a football

player, you know, than a baseball player.

And I found out, hey, you know, this hitting people ain't that bad. You know,

kind of like this thing, you know.

Played at Florida State University from 1977 to 1980.

1979, I was ninth in the Heisman Trophy. I don't think there's another true

nose guard that has ever done that.

And I have the privilege of also being in the College Football Hall of Fame.

When I grew up in Sweetwater, everything I did, I idolized the football players.

Everybody did. And, you know, to have my picture there, even though I'm holding,

which is not good, but wasn't called, by the way.

I played at Sweetwater, Texas, ended up making All -State, and then went to

Abilene Christian, a college right near my home, and I ended up making All

-American there, consensus All -American, and the All -Century team for

Christian. I come out of college drafted by Cleveland, right, in the sixth

round. I did everything I could to try to make that football team, but it

work out.

I got a call from the USFL when that was starting up, Tampa Bay Vans.

I came back there, played with a couple of teammates, man, Lex Luger being one

of them. Now we go all the way back to my love of professional wrestling.

I watched this with my grandmother years back, and someday had, hey, you know

what? I think I'd like to do that, and I probably could do it. Luger, of course,

the Southern heavyweight wrestling champion.

I had seen Luger make that transition, and he was looking phenomenal, man.

I gave him a shout -out, man, and said, look, you know, I'm still in pretty good

shape. I think I'd like to give this thing a shot.

He said, Ron, this is a great opportunity right now because at that

time, there wasn't many black men pursuing a career in professional

made that transition, and my career gradually took off. I'm paying my dues,

working my way on up, and I mean, you know, paying them.

Okay, working with some of the guys that I've admired on TV over the years when

I was playing football, still tuning in, watching the program, you know, Rick

Flint. Simmons had his jersey retired at Florida State University.

Bring in the Dragon Steamboat.

Ron Simmons certainly has all the physical tools. Now finding myself in

with these guys, man, hey, now I'm living another dream.

The World Tag Team Champions.

1992, the arena was Baltimore.

I come waltzing in just as I normally do. I'm told by Bill Walsh, I'm going to

be up for the world championship tonight.

What?

Tonight? Me?

How? Why?

And his exact words to me at that point was, hey, why not you?

Tonight, we're going to make history here, okay?

the reason those words resonate with me is because he had the guts to do what no

one else did and that was put a black man in there for the world championship

and not only put him in there but hey i'm gonna be champion never let anyone

tell you that they've been in this business that hey having that belt

your waist don't mean anything it means

I can't put it in words, man. This is just emotion. I am telling you, this is

dream come true. And I am very proud to be standing here representing the people

as the heavyweight champion.

So I hung around professional football for a few years. And then I was playing

in the World League. I had a great time, but then I got cut.

I thought, I still have a chance while I'm young enough to do what I always

wanted to do, and that was be a professional wrestler.

Got started wrestling. Wrestled in Texas, Japan, moved to Europe for a

years, and finally made it to WWE in December of 1995.

I went to meet with Vince for the first time up at Titan Towers.

He said, we got this idea of Justin Bradshaw. So I said, well, how about we

Justin Hawk?

Because I've been wrestling under the name John Hawk. That way I could keep

name and go back to Japan when eventually I would get fired at WWE, I

after two or three years. So it was built preservation.

And eventually I said, okay, we're going to name you Justin Hawk Bradshaw. And

that's how you got the name. And I have no idea where that name came from. I

don't mind it. People call me Bradshaw to this day. Justin Hawk Bradshaw.

Making his debut here in the World Wrestling Federation.

Bob Holly in a chronic compromise. Oh, goodness position.

Look at that.

Justin Hawk Bradshaw.

Talk about an attitude. This man has a real bad one, doesn't he?

I was lost. I was in this incredible machine.

I remember it was WrestleMania XII where Bret and Shawn had that incredible Iron

Man match in the pond.

And I remember sitting there watching that and thinking, I'm not sure I belong

here. It was such an incredible spectacle.

I just thought I needed to go back to Japan and finish out my career there. I

was really despondent about the whole thing.

know if I was going to make it or not.

Had some contractual difficulties besides just get out of it at that

stop. Let me ask you something. What's going on here in the World Wrestling

Federation? Michael Hayes has started working with Vince and guess what?

Told Vince that, hey, man, let's give this guy a chance, you know? Give him an

opportunity, you know? I had several things in my mind, you know? I've been a

brawler, you know, I'm a football player, you know? So all of that kind of

out the door when Vince introduced this character to me of what he had in mind.

He says, I see you as Farouk. Who the hell is Farouk?

What is a Farouk?

I'm speechless at this point.

And then to top everything off, there's this leather blue helmet.

If it was made out of metal like a real Roman soldier or something, I'd be okay

with that. You know, shiny armor or something. But it's leather, man.

Okay? And I'm like, oh, my God. How do I get out of this?

I can't. Right?

When you're thrown with challenges like this, this is what makes you better. So

I took that character and I said to myself, I'm going to make the most out

it. I'm going to make this work.

He morphed on over into other avenues.

All right.

He went into the nation.

The nation of domination that he's put together has really lit a fire under

Baruch. I'm extremely proud of myself for being a man.

taking the character on, not bitching and griping about it. We are taking

matters into our own hands. When I get to swinging these fists and kicking

feet, you understand that, don't you? Right. Hey, bro, you know, I'm the

original thing, all right?

I've never quit nothing in my life.

Ron was just a guy in the dressing room just like I was. Now, he was not just a

guy. He was the former first black heavyweight champion, and he was a

already.

We had a lot in common. We both played football, both wrestled the same type of

style, and we just immediately became friends. We were traveling together long

before we were ever tag team partners.

We not only shared things in common, brother, we had personalities that were

similar to each other. We both enjoyed having a beer or two or three.

Four or five.

We enjoyed, you know, out -of -the -ring life, okay?

Back then, we didn't have cell phones. We didn't have Internet. So guys had to

talk to each other.

So I was working in Macon the other day, right?

Like working in a igloo?

A cold igloo?

We suffered from a lack of responsibility. We didn't have social

didn't have a way to really call home except for a pay phone.

It couldn't have been a better match if you had absolutely, brother, if we'd

been signing these twins.

That's how close things worked out with that.

I think you just had Ron Simmons in a dressing room, and believe it or not,

didn't have anything for him.

At least that's my opinion, which I thought was a shame.

For me, I can understand why you didn't have anything for me. I was just kind of

floundering.

And I think they just kind of put us together.

Jackal getting on headset. Jackal, obvious question, why are you here?

Jim Ross, it's my pleasure to introduce to you the Acolyte.

Hey, look at this. This is Farooq and Bradshaw now.

Acolyte. Well, what are Acolyte? They're my Acolyte.

I don't know what the acolytes were. They were from the book The

believe. It was like two old almost devil worship guys, I think, and they

the symbols on their chest.

I used to draw the symbols on. I remember I'd draw a Teletubby on Ron

just for the heck of it. He didn't care. He just laughed. He thought it was

funny.

We went with Undertaker in the Ministry of Darkness. It kind of made sense then

that we had this dark side to us. And I don't know if that was the fault making

us the acolytes. They were to put us with the Undertaker.

That's the Undertaker. Look, there's the acolytes.

It's the entire Ministry of Darkness.

What are they up to?

Have you seen the boss, man?

No, I haven't.

Well, if you see him, give him this message.

Hey!

Ron really helped me a lot. And tagging with him, it's just you have this

steady, steady force that Ron always was on. He was so good in the ring.

He

just

had a presence that you can't, I don't think you can even learn.

It was incredible being out there with Ron Simmons.

People like to use the word stiff.

Well, yeah.

It wasn't no secret about it. We were going to work stiff. That's the way we

work. You were going to know that you've just been in a professional wrestling

match. Oh, Bradshaw is hammering away with a chair.

Well, Ron is a legit tough guy. He's unf***ing withable.

We wrestled hard. We wrestled tough. And we expected it back the exact same way.

Public Enemy came in, but they came in that day about 5 .30. Now, you're

supposed to be there about 1 o 'clock.

And when they did, I mean, that's just a sign of disrespect.

They come to me as their music is playing and said, that spot with the

we don't want to do that.

Well, okay. So if you don't want to do this, you don't want to take the table,

guess what?

Ron goes, all right, we'll take the table to them.

This is not going to be pretty.

Let's show you how things could be.

Boy, bodies flying all over the place right now.

Sometimes it has to get to that.

You know, and it's unfortunate, but it happens.

They're not stopping, Terry. They don't care about the belts.

I don't know what to say. Oh!

He barely missed the mat. The Dominator. How much more can any team take?

I had no idea what their mindset was for saying they wouldn't do a finish, but

they didn't offer an alternative.

It was crazy.

Wasn't stiff then.

It was real.

The Acolytes, two great athletes.

Uh -oh. Baruch caught walking in with a right hand.

Baruch and Bradshaw, two big powerhouses.

We never bitched about nothing, man. We wanted to go out there and have some

fun. And afterwards, we wanted to go have beers with whoever we just beat up

they beat us up. It was just part of the game back then.

Not only having sex with a guy that's a tag partner that you care a great deal

about, but now you've become world tag team champions with him.

And when that moment happened for us to become champions together, man, it

brought us even closer.

Come here, darling.

Those long things right over here are just what you need right here. We would

often have people to ask us, you know. They were willing to pay us.

to come on the road with us just so they could take part in our exploits

outside of the ring, man.

I think we had an afternoon shot in Philadelphia. We're coming down to

Baltimore. They're just feeding me every substance known to man. It's my

birthday. I'm messed up by the time I get down to Baltimore. We go to the

and in come Vince and Shane.

But we were already there, all right?

I mean, just a tiny bit of coherency was left.

All right, just a little.

And I go back to the red roof. Ron left early.

Go back to the red roof. And Ron and I were splitting a room with the red roof.

That's how cheap we were.

It's probably $29, maybe $15 each. Ron wakes up and he goes, how'd you get

And I said, limo. He said, limo?

I said, yeah, Vince and Shane. He goes, oh, we're fired.

And I started laughing. I said, yeah, we may be.

He said, you still got a connection in Japan?

I said, I hope so.

So I come to TV the next day in Baltimore, and they said, Vince wants to

you. And I thought, man, I was drunk at the TV hotel.

I'm probably in trouble. So I walk in there, and Vince laughs about how

I am.

And he's in a jovial mood. He goes, I'm going to put that on television.

And I said, what are you going to put on television?

And he said, I'm going to put on television about you and Ron sitting

drinking and BSing.

He goes, that's good stuff.

He said, that's entertaining.

And I was shocked.

I was expecting to be reprimanded, to be in trouble. I come back out, and Ron

goes, yeah, when we go in Japan.

I said, we're not.

And he said, what do you mean we're not? And I said, Vince wants us to drink

beer on television.

And Ron said, it's the greatest idea I've ever heard.

You got to help us. 15 guys just beat us up.

What's wrong with you? Get out of here.

Please, we'll pay you. Come on, guys.

Whatever you need, man. We got lots of money.

You scared, too? Get the money out there. All right,

all right. I'll tell you what. You pay us, I'll tell you what. We're going to

protect you, but you sit down and you shut up.

One peep out of any of y 'all.

That gives me an idea.

The APA. Big P to the late.

Acolyte Protection Agency. It's a business. Now, we're going to make some

Wait, what do you think? Look at it. Look at it.

Big P to the late. I think it looks great. And as soon as it gets gin.

Oh, shut up.

The Acolyte Protection Agency was born on this night.

The Acolyte providing protection for a fee, and the Dudleys have bought some

protection.

Hey, look at this. Here comes the protection agency.

Are the Dudleys going to get their money's worth?

The first scenes we had being the APA, we got to work with guys that really

enjoyed being around. I paid you. I paid you. I paid you.

Hey, guys, what's up? You having a good time? Hey, listen, there's a couple guys

at the back. We're going to talk to them. Where are they? Come on.

Let's dance,

boys.

It's time for Roots against four men here.

Let's party.

Let's go find a fight. It's on.

We didn't wrestle for a long time. We just did stuff backstage in bar fights.

Everybody quiet.

Y 'all, y 'all quiet. That ain't even in here.

Who the hell's in here?

People love and remember that set with the door.

I don't know who came up with the idea for the door, but they were talking

building walls, and Ron said, no, no, no.

Just like that. We'll make them walk through the door. Hey!

Go out the door and get us raised in a barn?

You know, they come up to us and they just walk right through the wall.

You hear something? I didn't hear a thing. You know, you could have knocked

our door. You walked right through our wall.

Have respect for us. At least not.

Watch the rock.

We got to work with all the stars in the air, from The Rock to The Undertaker.

We got to work with LL Cool J.

Everybody wants to sit down and play cards with us. Three threes and two

I win, don't I?

Because it was fun.

What do you got? And then we were going to cheat on them, and they were going to

lose.

What were you going to do? Get the watch. Get the watch.

We loved sitting around at bars and laughing and joking.

Okay,

that's good. That's the course of life, huh?

Those characters were 100 % us.

Ratched up quite a bit.

He shoots!

He scores!

Let me score that money from you that I won that last game.

I won that game.

No, I won that last game. I ain't too bitter.

What? I ain't too bitter? Oh, come on, man.

They at one point came to us and said, we want to make this about racial

equality. And Ron absolutely refused.

And I completely agreed with him.

He said, this is not about race. And he said, if you make it about race, then it

becomes about race. This is about two good friends.

Coming through the airport one day, we have one of the TSA workers spot us. And

he screams out, hey, look, it's those twins.

Can you get any closer than that?

That's when you know it's working, man.

It's working.

Cool guy.

Been laying around for three days.

This is a cold mother.

We're out of this.

Well, thanks guys. We're not cold or nothing. Y 'all just keep on up.

When something would go wrong.

sprained an ankle, man, chip a tooth or something, you know, first thing I do,

damn, we'll get the beer out, man.

Well, oh, I'll be damned.

So the writers, well, they got wind of this.

Damn,

some people would do something that just drives you absolutely nuts, where

you just have to turn around to them and say.

We had a great time working with guys like the Dudley Bowl.

There's two guys that never bitch, never gripe.

They could give it back just as well as they could receive.

The Dudleys knew what happened with Public Enemy, and Bubba and Devon came

and they beat the living hell out of us. Next week was our turn.

Oh, my God!

When you're working with people like this, That's even better for us.

The W boys are not intimidated by the APA.

Now, we're really in our element.

They got up, shook our hands, hugged us, and we've been best friends ever since.

Six aces. Six aces. Cheers, my friends, cheers.

Well,

here we go. The WWF Tag Team title's on the line here.

Dudley boys against the APA.

Two of the toughest tag teams of the WWF.

Bradshaw and Baruch are the new tag team champions.

And the new World Wrestling Federation tag team champions, B .A .B .A.

There was a moment that both of us will never forget.

Not just to win it, but to have gone through the process with someone that

actually love and care about.

That says it all.

And no plan on going anywhere.

That's the way it is.

The only place they're going is to the bar with us tonight. Damn right.

And then to reach the pinnacle of the tag team division.

All right.

You know, I would have been happy being an APA member until I retired.

Let's keep it real here, man. It's not going to last forever.

And nobody likes to see things like that come to an end, but guess what, man?

They all do.

You know, we can't stay young forever.

The waistline in there.

What? My bad, didn't I?

Ron was getting ready to retire, but I didn't realize that Ron was being

off television, and that did bother me. You're going to fire us? I want to hear

it out of your mouth right now.

Say that we're fired.

Say that, punk.

I didn't say I was firing the APA.

I said I was firing you, Farouk. What?

Oh.

You need to think about your own future, Mr. Bradshaw.

I think you should know. I think very highly of you. We've had great years,

Five, six, seven years. You know, that's a long time to be together and have

that success. And John, he's got good years ahead of him as a professional

singles. Now, he's ready for this. Oh.

Tell me something, Mr. Bradshaw.

How much longer were you willing to carry around this piece of excess

Excuse me.

Hey, look here, man.

We don't need this.

Let's get out of here, bro.

Hey,

hold on, man. Don't tell me.

After all these years,

I'll be damned.

All these years.

And the wrestling fan, they can tell if you really care about each other, man.

It's a feeling people get from you that emanates through the screen. They can

tell how you feel about each other. To turn this guy that people liked against

somebody that people really liked even more in Ron Simmons.

Come on, Ron!

That was a perfect way to end the APA in a real ditch move by me.

I still can't believe Bradshaw turned his back on his longtime friend.

You people, get off your high horse.

You people would have done the exact same thing that I did, giving the

opportunity.

I have succeeded in everything but one thing, and that is wrestling. Because I

thought it was more important to have a good time.

But that ain't got me jacked.

So get ready for the impact that's coming.

Buckle your seats, boys and girls.

Business is about to pick up.

It's hard to quantify what Ron...

you know, means to me or my career. He came along for me at a time when I was

kind of wavering in WWE.

And he always was telling me, one day you're going to be world champion. One

you're going to carry the torch.

And he was kind of preparing me for that.

And I don't know how much that debt is. I can't repay it.

But the best part about it, to have had that opportunity, to have been with

someone that you cared about and wanted to see them go on and have the success

that he did.

JBL has defeated the best in the business. He deserves to be the champ.

I'm happy with you.

For 242 days,

John Bradshaw Layfield has been champion.

You can learn how to be a champion from a lot of people. You don't learn how to

be a man from a lot of people. And I'm not sure I've lived up to it.

what Ron has taught me, but he certainly taught me how to become a better person

and be a man.

There's no doubting anything about Ron.

He was all about fairness. He was all about equality.

Ron is one of the best guys I've ever met.

I can tell you in my whole life, there has never been a person who's been a

bigger influence on me than Ron Simmons.

The honor of inducting Ron Simmons in the Hall of Fame was, I knew I was doing

something historic.

He did great things in his life, and he was much bigger than the APA, but I can

tell you I wasn't.

The greatest thing that ever happened to me in this life and this career was one

thing, and that was Ron Simmons.

And I wanted to be able to live up to that moment of history, and so I was

nervous about it. I wanted to make sure I did a good job and show Ron the

respect that he deserved.

I've never done anything greater than this, and I doubt I ever will, but I

you to welcome the newest member of the WWE Hall of Fame, the first African

-American heavyweight champion, my best friend, Ron Simmons.

I said that there were very few things, man, that could match me becoming world

champion. Well, let me just say this.

Being tagged up with Bradshaw at the APA is right there.

Just like that.

Growing up, I'd often wondered what it would have been like to have grown up in

the same household with my brother.

Well, that chapter was filled when I partnered with Bradshaw.

He made up for me, man. You know, something that I'd always wondered what

was like to have a brother with you to come up to have fun with, man, to talk

about the good times as well as the bad.

to share things with, you know, fill that void for me.

I'll never be able to repay him for that, and I don't think he knows how

that meant to me and still means.

That's how close we are.

Ain't many guys, man, that have been in this business, that have been in a tag

team with a guy, can say what I'm about to say, okay?

I absolutely love the partner I was with.

Right? He's in my family.

He's my brother.

Thank you. It's been real, bro.

Thank you. It's been real.