JBL has reflected on the time he was told the APA would be splitting up.
Back in 2004, SmackDown GM Paul Heyman told the APA that Ron Simmons would be fired if they failed to capture the Tag Team Titles. APA lost the match and Heyman ended up telling JBL that he has a lot to think about with his future. When Ron urged JBL to exit the building with him, Bradshaw said he couldn’t leave just because Ron said something “stupid.”
JBL Recalls Reaction To APA Splitting Up
During a Q&A session on his YouTube channel, JBL said that he and Ron wish they had more time but didn’t fight the decision.
“Yeah, of course. It wasn’t up to us. The office wanted JBL, at that time, just Bradshaw to go on his own, and so Ron and I were just footsoldiers. We did what we were asked. We didn’t really protest stuff and didn’t really say ‘we won’t do this’ or ‘didn’t want to do that.’ Ron and I worked together a lot of times before the APA, so we’d wrestle each other a ton. It wasn’t a matter of whether we wanted to wrestle each other, but we really didn’t want to do the angle where Ron came back for revenge and all that.”
JBL ended up getting the biggest push of his career. He captured the WWE Championship and held it for 280 days. As for Ron Simmons, he was legitimately released by WWE but has made sporadic appearances throughout the years to deliver his renowned “Damn!” line.
The 2004 split wasn’t the first time the APA was separated. In 2002, Simmons was drafted to SmackDown while JBL was sent to Raw. The two remained faces as singles stars.
