WWE Hall of Famer JBL has revealed that Ron Simmons immediately rejected an early creative idea that would have made race part of the Acolytes Protection Agency’s presentation.

JBL and Simmons recently appeared together on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, where they reflected on the formation and success of the APA, one of WWE’s most memorable tag teams of its era.

According to JBL, interracial tag teams were far less common when he and Simmons were first paired together. While there had been notable examples before them, including Thunderbolt Patterson and Gerald Brisco, Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware, and the Dudley Boyz in ECW, JBL recalled wrestling promotions often grouping performers together based on nationality or race.

“When we first started doing the APA, there weren’t a lot of black-and-white tag teams. You had Russians with Russians, Canadians with Canadians, Mexicans with Mexicans, Japanese with Japanese, English with English, whites with whites, blacks with blacks. (Some reason they were afraid of it, Ron Simmons added) That’s right, for whatever reason. Now you had Thunderbolt (Patterson) and (Gerald) Brisco back in the 70s. And you had Koko (B. Ware) and Owen Hart, and the Dudleys in ECW,” JBL said.

At one stage, WWE reportedly considered incorporating the racial difference between Simmons and JBL into their characters. Simmons wanted nothing to do with the idea and quickly made his feelings clear.

“So you had some of that, but they mentioned to Ron about making something about the race. And he was so smart. He goes, ‘Absolutely not.’ Absolutely killed it right on the spot. Because he said, and he was correct, ‘If you make it about race, it’s about race. It’s not about race, it’s about friends.’ And Ron never let them do that, which I thought was a really wise decision,” JBL said.

Instead, the APA became defined by the genuine chemistry and friendship between Simmons and JBL. Their no-nonsense characters, backstage poker games, beer drinking and infamous “APA: Always Pounding Ass” office became staples of WWE programming.

The pair originally joined forces as members of The Acolytes before eventually developing into the APA. Together, JBL and Simmons captured WWE tag team championship gold on multiple occasions and remained closely associated with one another long after their full-time partnership ended.

Simmons’ decision also ensured that the team’s friendship remained the central element of the act rather than their respective racial backgrounds.