Exclusive: Tim Storm Recalls Ahmed Johnson Calling A Painful Audible In The Ring

Tim Storm is best known as a 53-year old former NWA World Champion for his feud with Nick Aldis that took place throughout 2017. 15 years before that, he had a brush with a former WWF Intercontinental Champion who was at the end of his own road as a professional wrestler. 

In 2003, Tim Storm was working the PCW territory, where he crossed paths with WWF and WCW veteran Ahmed Johnson. In what would be some of Johnson's last work in pro wrestling, Storm remembered setting the stage for his brightest memory of the man, real name Tony Norris.

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"I love Tony, I mean, great guy," said Storm. "We did a series of matches at PCW, and it started out where Ahmed came in, we had a faction called the Dark Circle. And our leader was a guy named Shadow who became Dallas, who then became a missing one in there, but then became Lance Archer, and now his real name is Lance Hoyt, who's very well-known with New Japan, and he and Harry [Davey Boy] Smith are tag team partners ... anyway, that was our faction. Ahmed came in and basically just let us destroy him for about six weeks. Week in, week out, we were killing him. And on the big payoff night, he ran a three against one, it was everybody but Lance, he came in, walked in with his WrestleMania jacket on, and he goes, 'Alright boys, here's what's gonna happen. I been putting you over for six weeks, tonight I get mine back.' "

What Storm remembers next was Johnson, much bigger than his World Wrestling Federation days, climbing to the top rope. Often accused of being reckless in the ring, Ahmed was never one to let the limits of reason stop him from trying out a new move. Storm found that out the hard way.

"So he took all three of us, stacked us on a table, climbed to the top rope and he said he was going to hit an elbow. I remember laying there with two guys on top of me, looking up, and my tag team partner was right on top of me, and I whispered in his ear, 'that's not an elbow.' And he hit the most nasty 340 pound splash I've ever taken. But we went on and did some different angles, and he and I ended up running a tag match against I think it was a couple of guys called the Cowboys of Hell, which was Scott Putski and Cedric Crane, who were great workers, great body guys, real physical. But yeah, we got along great. I know some guys out there may have negative Ahmed stories, but I have none of them," said Storm. 

The full interview with Storm can be seen above, which was a part of the discussion that contributed to Fightful's long-form feature "From Old To Gold," which chronicled Storm, the National Wrestling Alliance, the NWA Title, and their Ten Pounds of Gold series. 

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