After his coming out party against Jarrett, Ahmed entered into a feud with Jim Cornette’s minions, particularly obnoxious heels “Slammy Award Winner” Owen Hart and “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith. Owen and Davey were at the very top of the midcard at this time, as Camp Cornette was a more-important-than-people-remember heel faction, and Owen had just blown off his feud with top star Shawn Michaels at In Your House 6: Rage in the Cage. Owen and Davey Boy seemed perfect foils for Johnson, with Bulldog matching Ahmed’s ungodly look and Owen matching his swagger, while both men could take an incredible bump at the correct moment to make Ahmed look like great.
Sure, there are a lot of house show tricks pulled out of the bag in this short match, but Ahmed looks every bit capable of taking on the wily Hart, (albeit in large part because of Owen.) Johnson was never the best worker, but he knew what intimidating face to make and hand-picked, big-bumping opponents could make him look very good.
In spite of other men’s willingness to run into him and fall down, there were roadblocks that stood in Ahmed’s path.
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For instance, Johnson spoke with conviction and energy, but was at times unintelligible. The result was something that fans felt more than understood. This end-of-Raw(!) promo about Stone Cold Steve Austin (!!) for reveals what a confusing mess Ahmed could make of even the most natural feud:
Johnson’s promo is built around telling Stone Cold Steve Austin that he’s entered Ahmed’s “endzone,”. In spite of his promo’s nonsensical content and tough-to-follow diction, Ahmed’s delivery hits all the right inflections, and somehow manages to emote hitting all the right notes while in fact being completely incomprehensible. Try this: turn off the part of your brain that deciphers language and watch that promo again — pretty good, right?
While high-stakes promos weren’t Ahmed’s forte, he had a presence that could say a great deal with very few words. Johnson’s promo advertising house show payback for Jeff Jarrett is delivered in a focused, intense, and concise way that made him look like a man on a mission.
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