Ahmed Johnson says Shawn Michaels held him back in WWE

May 25, 2022 - by Steve Gerweck

“In the beginning, I really thought that he was behind me and going to give me this great push, but as I went on, I found out it wasn’t Vince that didn’t want to give me the world title, it was other wrestlers like Shawn Michaels. They didn’t want to see me pushed that high. I don’t know why, personal reasons? I was green, I’ll say that. I was still green and learning, but I think I was ready for the world title shot. Because Shawn had the belt and everything, he basically got to pick who he was going against, he was running the show back then and he was basically picking who was going against him.

From my understanding, what I heard, he didn’t think it was time for a black man to be World’s Champion. I didn’t hear him say that when I was Intercontinental Champion and popping the house everywhere we went. They didn’t mess with me for some reason. They probably did behind the scenes, like I told you. I didn’t become world champion because Shawn Michaels didn’t think I was ready for whatever reason, but they never messed with me. They never tried to ‘ha ha’ me, or bully me, or any of the things they did to other guys. They knew their place, and knew who to mess with and who not to mess with.”

source: Ahmed Johnson on Iron-On Wrestling

6 Responses

  1. Papa Stone says:

    I mean, Ahmed was absolutely trash so…duh?

  2. Imma Hullo says:

    Say it with us everybody: “Ahmed screwed Ahmed”

  3. Mark says:

    It was his awful promos (listen to at his promos on WWE videogame WWF Warzone) where shouts and talks nonsense while sounding like he has marbles in his mouth, Ahmed being injury prone and that Ahmed would injury other superstars that held him back.

  4. TrollBuster says:

    Yeah, Ahmed was trash. But to be fair, Shawn was a d*ck back then.
    Could be true, could not be true. The only ones who know the truth are propably Ahmed, Shawn and Vince.

    TBH I don’t even wanna imagine Ahmed as world champ. 😡

  5. Rob Dam Van! Shirt Typo! says:

    I wouldn’t be shocked if there is SOME truth to that, given what we’ve heard (often times by their own admission) in terms of HBK, Nash, ect gatekeeping a tad…..BUT…..we’ve also heard many guys in shoots talk about what an absolute pain in the ass Johnson was to work with. So i’d assume the truth is a little in the middle.

  6. Disgruntled Jobber says:

    No, that infamous Royal Rumble match with Jeff Jarrett was the reason he never became world champion or had much of a push after it. The crowd popped for Jarrett hitting Ahmed with the guitar not because they were behind Jeff, because it meant the match was finally over.

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