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• Ron Simmons' WCW Championship Win Was A Historic Moment

• WCW Didn't Know What To Do With Ron Simmons After Making Him Their Champion

• Ron Simmons Was Treated Like A Transitional Champion

The historic win of the WCW Championship by Ron Simmons remains one of the most important moments in the company’s history. Simmons becoming the first black wrestler to win a world title in WCW or WWE was rightfully treated as a big deal. The moment itself was bigger than the wrestler, but the title reign should have been as important.

WCW ended up booking Simmons to have one of the weaker title reigns of the early 1990s. Simmons getting over to the point where the audience treated him like a hero for his big win showed that the potential was there for more. Most fans don’t remember much from the title run aside from the win. WCW dropped the ball by not giving Simmons a chance to succeed.

Ron Simmons' WCW Championship Win Was A Historic Moment

WCW deserves credit for creating such a special moment of Ron Simmons winning the WCW Championship before thinking about the issues that followed it. Simmons ending his tag team run in Doom and getting a massive singles push worked well. Fans were completely invested in Simmons becoming WCW Champion due to both the history and for the desire to see him have a crowning moment.

RELATED: Every Version Of Ron Simmons, Ranked From Worst To Best

The future of WCW was in doubt after losing Ric Flair and Lex Luger in the early 1990s. Two of the company’s three top stars leaving required new names to step up. Vader became the top heel in WCW before putting over Simmons for the WCW Championship. Sting was likely always going to be the face of the company with or without a title, but Simmons deserved to be treated like their equal.

Fans expected Simmons to become a true top star as WCW Champion with noteworthy defenses and feuds. Sting, Vader and Luger all received that opportunity when moving up the card, but Simmons ran into issues of his title reign losing steam and not feeling that important at the end.

WCW Didn't Know What To Do With Ron Simmons After Making Him Their Champion

The first big problem for Ron Simmons’ WCW Championship reign was not having strong stories of rivals. Simmons continued to pile up victories over lower card talent on television, but a champion is usually judged by the big PPV matches. WCW wasted most of the PPVs during Ron’s time as WCW Champion.

Simmons didn’t even get to main event Halloween Havoc 1992 when defeating a rather weak challenger of The Barbarian before Sting and Jake Roberts closed the show. Starrcade 1992 should have presented a great title defense on the biggest show of the year, but it was another non-main event for the champion. Simmons won with a weak DQ over Steve Williams before the BattleBowl battle royal main evented.

The year ended with Simmons losing the belt back to Vader on a house show. WCW didn’t even benefit from the Simmons win over Vader by creating a compelling PPV rematch that fans would pay to see. Vader was removed from the title picture for Simmons to have weaker opponents and didn’t even get a stronger payoff down the line. Every PPV of the Simmons title reign was wasted with zero reasons to care about him.

Ron Simmons Was Treated Like A Transitional Champion

The role of a transitional champion has been debated in wrestling for decades. Legendary figures like Mick Foley, Edge, and Bob Backlund have been made a world champ with the intent of having them drop it to someone else already in mind. Ron Simmons winning the WCW Championship first felt like the beginning of something special, but it turned out to be the peak, with WCW focusing on other stories.

Sting was still treated as the biggest star, especially when moving into a feud with Vader to end the year. WCW made Simmons’ matches and segments secondary to other things on the program. A transitional champion can work, but fans viewing the champ as such becomes a problem. It became obvious that WCW was always planning to have Vader win the belt back from Simmons down the line.

Simmons never got the chance to grow from the crowning moment since WCW felt that was enough. The booking focused too much on other top stars in a way that showed less confidence in Simmons. WCW didn’t present Simmons on the Sting/Vader level, and it was confirmed with him moving down the card when he dropped the belt. Simmons could have been an upper card fixture for years, but he had a disappointing title reign that peaked when it started.