On August 2, 1992, in Baltimore, Ron Simmons beat Vader for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and became the first Black world heavyweight champion in the history of professional wrestling. It is one of the genuinely landmark moments in the business, and it happened in front of a crowd that came unglued.

He arrived in wrestling as a legitimate athlete. At Florida State he was a two-time consensus All-American nose guard, finished ninth in the 1979 Heisman voting, had his number 50 retired by the school, and went on to the Cleveland Browns and the USFL. In WWE he reinvented himself as Faarooq, formed the Nation of Domination, and then found his greatest run as one half of the Acolytes Protection Agency with Bradshaw, winning three world tag team championships and turning beer, cards, and hired muscle into one of the most entertaining acts of the Attitude Era.

Then came the catchphrase. His one-word reaction to whatever absurdity was happening in front of him became a WWE institution and is still played on television today. Simmons was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012 and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.