Ron Simmons Reveals How His 'Damn' Catchphrase Became A WWE Hit

Ron Simmons has revealed how his famous “Damn” catchphrase became part of WWE television, explaining that it was never originally created by the company and instead started with fans hearing something he naturally said when things went wrong in the ring.

Simmons’ one-word “Damn” became closely associated with him during his WWE career. Long after his run with JBL as the APA, Simmons would regularly make brief appearances on WWE programming, deliver the word in his unmistakable voice and immediately get a reaction from the crowd.

Speaking on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, Simmons said he had been saying “Damn” naturally during matches whenever he pulled a muscle, something went wrong, or another wrestler did something he did not like.

“When we were working together, right, and I’d pull a muscle or do something, right, or somebody would do something stupid in the ring and I’d just stand there, ‘Damn,’ you know, because something had just happened that we didn’t agree on or I didn’t agree on, right?”

It wasn't initially intended for the audience. However, Simmons and the APA regularly returned to the same towns, allowing fans sitting close to the ring to hear him saying it. Eventually, those fans began repeating it back to him.

“So, the people—and we would go back to the towns each time, right? So the people within like the first 10 rows could hear me, right? They just start saying, ‘Damn, Ron. Damn.’ So I look at him and I said, ‘Hey, man. What the hell are they saying that?’”

Simmons recalled that Booker T and John Cena were involved in an exchange in Chicago when WWE's writers instructed him to simply walk onto the stage after they finished and say the word. “So the writers, they got wind of it, right? And said, ‘Look, the next time that, you know, Booker T and John Cena were having an exchange in Chicago,’ and he said, ‘Just walk out there. Just walk out there and just simply say damn after they finished with their exchange.’”

Simmons did exactly that, but even he wasn't prepared for the crowd's response. “And when I did that, the people sat—these people sat there for a moment, then they just went crazy, and that’s when ‘Damn’ was born.”

The reaction was strong enough that WWE quickly realized it had something it could continue using. Simmons also revealed that merchandise followed almost immediately after the catchphrase caught on. When asked how long it took before he received a “Damn” T-shirt, Simmons simply responded: “Hey, instantly.”

Looking back, Simmons joked that knowing how much reaction he could generate from one word made him wonder why he had spent so many years taking bumps inside the ring. “My only thing about that was that if I had known something like that like 30 years ago, I never would have taken a bump. I would have never taken a bump. I’d just walked out there and said, ‘Damn.’”

Simmons believes the success of the catchphrase wasn't simply about the word itself. His delivery and the situation surrounding it were what made audiences respond. “Sometimes it’s not about just the word itself, you know. It’s in the context and the delivery, you know, in which it’s done.”