5 things we learned from Ahmed Johnson's Sportskeeda interview

#2 Ahmed Johnson's WWE push didn't end because he was injuring superstars

Ahmed Johnson is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently made headlines when discussing the career of Ahmed Johnson in WWE. Russo claimed that the push of The Pearl River Powerhouse was cut short by Vince McMahon due to Ahmed Johnson regularly "hurting" opponents in the ring.

What were your thoughts on Ahmed Johnson? pic.twitter.com/6qaxVKoitq

— FITE (@FiteTV) February 13, 2021

Ahmed Johnson was quick to dispel these rumors and stated that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon never brought up the issue of hurting opponents with him. Furthermore, the only people that know the true reason for Ahmed Johnson's WWE departure are himself and the WWE Chairman:

"No, that's not why. Everybody thinks they know why and what went on behind closed doors. When I left, it was a behind the doors closed meeting just me and Vince, we're the only two that know why I left. And Vince never once got on me about hurting anybody. Never."

However, Ahmed Johnson did admit that he may have purposely hurt an opponent on occasion. But, in his opinion, his reasons were justified because they had hurt him first, therefore the stiff in-ring response was merely retaliation:

"And one time I hurt somebody, I'll be honest. If you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back. So, I cant say i didnt hurt some people, but they hurt me so I hurt them back. Because if you didn't back then, people would shoot on you all the time. They would shoot on you. They would try to hurt you if they knew you weren't going to fight back. Like a bully in school. If a bully keeps picking on you and you let them keep picking on you, then hey you're going to have one bad school career."