Insight with Chris Van Vliet - JTG on Shad Gaspard's legacy, Cryme Tyme, his post about AEW, the meaning behind 'JTG'

Episode Date: November 19, 2020

JTG sits down with Chris Van Vliet for an in-person interview in Los Angeles, CA. He talks about the meaning behind his name 'JTG', the amazing path he took to become a pro wrestler, how he got discovered by WWE, the first time he met his tag team partner Shad Gaspard, how Cryme Tyme was formed, the recent post he made about challenging for the AEW TNT Championship, his reaction when he found out Shad was missing, why he feels that Shad should receive WWE's Warrior Award and much more!   Support the show by supporting our sponsors:BOSLEY- Get a free info kit and a $250 off gift card by texting CVV to 203-203https://www.bosley.com/lp/chrisvanvliet/INDEED- Get a $75 credit to boost your job post by going to http://indeed.com/BlueWire BETONLINE- Get a new sign-up bonus by using the promo code BLUEWIRE at http://betonline.ag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's CVV to 203-203. I accepted it right there. And I couldn't cry or break down right there because his wife and son was there so I had to be strong for them. It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you, man.

With the powerful questions. Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleecho. Chris Van Vlead show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van! Well, here we go.

And welcome back to another one on the Chris Van Fleet Show. This episode is brought to you by Bosley, Indeed, and Bet Online. And guys, guess what? We got ourselves another in-person interview. Oh, man. I mean, eight months ago before COVID, this was just a regular thing. But now this is something to get excited about. And how could you not be excited when you're talking to JTG?

We actually met on the set of Talking Chopinia 2. If you saw that pay-per-view, it was incredibly bad. I mean, that's the whole point. It's so bad that it makes it so, so good. But those guys, Rocky Romero and Doc Gallows and Carl Anderson, have tapped into something so, so special there. So I met JTG on the set, and I said, well, when you're free, let's sit down and let's have.

a conversation. And here we are. So take a screenshot, share this with someone who would love to hear about JTG and Shad. Tag us. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. JTG is at JTG 1284. And if it's your first time here, don't forget to hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts or rate the show on Apple Podcasts. You can also follow on Spotify or whatever platform it is that you're listening. And we're going to keep reading one review out on every single episode until we hit that goal of 2,000. reviews before my birthday, May 19th. May 19, 2021, just to be clear. I'm also throwing out my birthday on a lot of these episodes because I'm hoping that on May 19th, a pile of presents just shows up, a cornycopia of gifts, if you will. Although in saying this, I understand that you guys don't

have my address, which is probably a good thing. But maybe we should look into a PO box in the new year. a PO box and we could make a ridiculous video and podcast about the ridiculous things that get sent. Speaking of ridiculous, I asked for ridiculous reviews on the podcast and you guys listened. Or at least one guy listened. Chris underscore 13032. These are the kind of reviews we're looking for. The more ridiculous, the better. He titles this, would rate higher if I could.

I would do battle with a pack of wild mountain lions inside of a handicapped stall at a local McDonald's with my hands zip tied behind my back and a shakeweight super glued to my forehead as my only weapon just to be able to have the chance to one day be interviewed and interview the man Chris Van Fleet himself. Wow, a pack of wild mountain lions zip tied behind your back, shake weight on your head. That is amazing, Chris. Thank you for the creativity. Also, great name, by the way, Chris. The more ridiculous the review here, the more likely it is to be read on the show. So if you haven't left a review yet, or maybe you have left a review, but like you have a friend or family member who also owns an iPhone and they haven't left a review, grab their phone, leave a ridiculous review, and we will read it out on the show. Now, if you've ever wondered what JTG stood for, wonder and no more.

It actually has several meetings. And JTG breaks them all down for us here in the different stages of his career. He made his debut on Raw with Shad Gaspard as part of Crime Time. Money, money, yeah, yeah. He talks about how they came up with that gimmick. And also he talks about where he was when he found out that Shad was missing. Talks about how close their friendship was and why he thinks Shad should win WWE's Warrior Award. obviously he should win it. He's a real-life hero. So here we go. Please welcome. JT.G.

Look at the size of your arms here. This is unbelievable. Thank you. And I'm not flexing. Oh, these little things? Oh, my gosh. Is that what they are? Now, I haven't imagined them in a while. No, I have not. It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a while. They're large arms. Thank you. Yeah. For those who are inquiring about getting large arms, I'm glad you You could go to, well, it's not out yet, but in November of 2009, 2020, I'm dropping my fitness e-book, The Newbies Guide to Big Biceps.

Yeah, I didn't, we didn't even plan that. I was just saying, like, look at like a normal human's arms and then, yeah, there's yours. The newbies guide to big biceps, so easy a child could follow. Oh, check, check that out. So children are going to have large biceps now? If they want to, I made it so easy so they could do it too. But no, it's for guys who are not familiar with the gym. I came up with the book because I get a lot of questions about my arm,

my arm workouts, and how do I get my arms so big? And how do I maintain them? So I was like, you know, let me just do this e-book. Oh, my gosh. And I'm like a walking billboard with these things. Good Lord. Put those things away. My gosh.

So people will come up to you and be like, dude, your arms are huge? Yeah, your arms are huge. What size are they? How much can you curl? How do I get arms that big? like, I train, you know, when a guy thinks about, like, before he gets into the gym, you know, he's thinking about all the chicks that's going to, you know, gawk you and be like, ooh.

It's always the exact opposite. And it's the opposite. This guy's coming up to you and like, hey, man, shoot, what's your Instagram? Like, you're like, whoa, wait, what? And I mean, this is a great compliment. Your arms are disproportionately large. Thank you. That's how.

I get it, though. So somebody else that might be offensive, but I get it. I like that. Like, were you the guy in high school with giant arms? Absolutely not. I had, I put a picture up on my Instagram. I had puny arms. That's what gave me the phobia.

I was traumatized because I had small arms. Okay. And I didn't know anything about working out. And then when I get older, I'm going to get big arms. You watch and see. And then here I am. This is like Arnold was really cautious of his. Legs?

Yeah, his calves. Oh, his calves. Yeah, he was really self-conscious about them. And he would wear, He would cut the leg off his pants so that his calves were always on display. Oh, really? So he's like, if they're always going to be out there, I've got to work that much harder. Oh, yeah, same thing with me, yeah.

I actually did arms today. I trained arms twice a week. You're like, before I got here, this shirt had sleeves. And I busted right out. We met in person on the set of the talking shopomania two set. Yeah, so we hit it off and everything was cool. And we wanted to actually do this sooner, but, you know, I postponed it a little bit because I wanted to get closer to the date of the book.

Yeah, you've got a bunch of stuff going on. Yeah, I got a few things going on, yeah. But it was cool to meet you in person after hearing so much about you. Oh, thanks, man. I hope it was good stuff. Well, no. No, it was all great stuff.

Who has anything bad to say about you? Okay, great. And now the fact that we live so close to each other, this is perfect. I know, right? Let's catch your arm workout sometime. Okay. You take me up on that?

Done. All right. You heard of you. You heard of you said it right here. You can do it. You can hang. I could have those? Give me a few months to work with you. You'll see.

Who was it that you were... There was a lot of people we were working with on talking Chopinia, too. Oh, yeah. It was Chavo was there. It was very seeing Chavo. Rocky Romero. Rocky Romero. Rocky. Ty of Alchre. I'm trying to remember the homie from Vegas, the Simbodi.

Oh, yep. Simbo. Yeah. We don't want to give too much away here. But it's good. Yeah, it's good. I'm looking forward to seeing that. Yeah. Man, those guys make a... it's very silly. Yes. It's silly, but it's a good thing.

I can't wait for you guys see it and watch the thread of what these fans got to say after you see that. So you're taking, are you taking a lot of bookings right now? Yes, I'm taking a lot of booking. So it's starting to happen again? Yes. More on the East Coast and the West Coast, because the West Coast is very

strict with the guidelines and the mass and the social distancing, the whole COVID thing. The East Coast, they're still strict with the social distancing, but they're a little bit more lenient than they are on the West Coast. So you're, I mean, you're obviously, like, wrestling at every show?

I'm wrestling. I'm, like, my November bookings are, like, booked. I'm even getting bookings for February and, you know, February is starting to fill up. Like, I'm staying busy. They're levering the new and improved, Jay the God, JTG.

And where did Jay the God come from? I think a lot of people don't know what JTG stands for. I went through a lot of phases in my career. You know, when I first started, in OVW, my OVW career. It was when I was in promo class, you know, when you're training to be a professional wrestler, every, once a week, there's promo class.

And I will always use my promo with, I'm just too good, you know, and then that became my name, JTG. Yeah. And then when I went to WWE, I had to humble myself because I know everybody was going to ask, which is JHG stand for? And if I said, just too good, they're like, oh, you're too good, huh?

And, you know, heat, you know, just for being too confident. So I changed it to just too gangster because it fitted my character. So anybody asks me, oh, it stands for just two gangsters or gang gangster. Now that I'm in a, I'm in a more experience, more confident, best shape in my life. And I have a different mindset. I have like, I control my own destiny. I don't want to take EC3's control your narrative.

Sure. But I have, I control my destiny. I control, I'm in the driver's seat right now. And I have that God-like mentality. So, day the God. From just too good to a gangster to now you're a God. There you go. What could you possibly ascend to after this?

Well, I'd be a king when you could be a God. That's it. Yeah. That's what you've been saying. If we take this back, I think I was surprised to see that you're working the indie so much right now. I was surprised to see that wasn't part of like how you came up. You went right into OVW and then from OVW into WWA. I was very, I don't want to say lucky because I was, I was definitely prepared, but not prepared.

That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. I wasn't mentally prepared, but I was, I had the ability. You know, we kind of think that we need a few more years. You know, we want perfection. I know I did. And, but I was definitely ready.

I had the skills and the charisma. I was entertaining. And, yeah, I went straight to, at 21,000. years old. I'm the youngest African-American to be signed to WW on the main roster at 21 21 years old. So how did they find you? OVW was like the main developmental spot

at the time. And being Chad was the tag team with it. We were the tag team champions. In OVW. In OVW. Yeah. And Al Snow at the time was the head writer of him and Paul Heyman, where the headwriters of TVs every Wednesday.

And we were having matches, we were getting ourselves over, and then we didn't have any opponents one week and Al Snow said, you know, guys don't always have to wrestle to get over. You know, you guys have personality. You guys, you know, have a good look. You guys have chemistry together. Instead of doing a match this week, I want you guys to go do vignettes or promos, you know, get your characters over, let the fans know who you are. Yeah. And we were like, all right, we got a cameraman and we went out and we had fun. And that was, that is the, after those segments we showed, that one week segment, I didn't think anything of it. I was just,

okay, that's what got me hired. Wow. The writers laughed and enjoyed the vignettes, and they went back to Vince and said, you got to see this. These guys are hilarious. He recognized Shack, because he knew Shad, because Shad been up a few times. And he's like, who's the little guy? And that's his everybody's little guy. Exactly. Who's the little guy? And he's like, oh, that's JTG. Okay, okay, I want to bring them up. I want them on my raw. I want them on Raw. And he's like, oh, he's not signed. We'll sign them. And then I get a call. I was working at daycare at the time in Goals Gym.

I never forget that day. I opened up. You were looking after kids? Yes. Okay. I don't know why they did that. But I'm kidding. I was great with kids.

I love kids. Yeah. I opened up. I sat down. I was waiting for my first kid to come in. And I get a phone call from a Connecticut phone number. And I'm thinking it's a rib because OVW, everybody's a prankster there. And I've been a rib before.

And I hear the voice, hey, this is this, it's a JTG. Yeah. Hey, how you doing? You've seen all the work you've been doing down in OVW down there in Louisville. You want to give you a job? What do you say? And I pause for a second

because I was like, somebody's fucking messing with me. And I'm like, I'm just going to go along with it. That sounds great. And then he's like, all right, you know, you're doing good. You and Shatter doing good things. And Vince liked you.

And I'm going to put you on hold. I'm going to put you on live with my assistant. You have a passport. He started asking me all these questions. And when he put me on hold, and I heard like WWE theme songs. I'm like,

oh, this is the legit thing. That's a very elaborate prank to have like the, but be put on hold and you hear like, the rock theme song. You're like,

oh, there's real deal. Oh, snap. And I was blown away. I wanted to walk out on them kids that same day, but, you know,

I had to put my two weeks. I wanted to do things professional. I had to get my two weeks notice and everybody was happy for me. But if we take it back even before then, even getting to OVW for a lot of people, that's a huge step. Yes.

It was a huge step. So did you train at OVW? Yes. Before I moved to OVW, I was going once a week. I took the bus from New York. Yes. To Louisville? Yes.

Yeah, I was. That's dedication. Yes. It was like a 16 or 18 hour drive. I can't remember. Greyhound. Like after work, I worked at the movie theater at AMC Times Square. After there, I will leave, get on the bus after work.

And then I'll get there like around Saturday. like Friday, Friday early in the morning. And I'll have to sleep in the bus station for like five or six hours before practice start, take a taxi. They didn't have over was back then. I took a taxi to the training facility and then trained there for like two hours. And then I think me and Elijah Burke was cool, the Pope now. I was kicking at his house for a little bit.

We'll chill, watch wrestling. And then he would drop me back at the Greyhound bus station and I head back to New York. Were they not wrestling schools in New York? Yeah, but I couldn't find them at the time. I was in the internet looking for wrestling schools, and I was looking at the, I was just checking. It was like, mm. This is wild to me.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad I didn't go to any schools. I was exactly where I needed to be. The universe put me where exactly where I needed to be, put me with the best tag team partner. And I had a great career. So I wouldn't change anything. So if it wasn't for Al Snow and OVW's SEO, search engine optimization,

you never would have gone there. I would have never been to OVW. Well, actually, you know what made me look at OVW? It was, I got three signs. I was at a, I went to an indie show because I started training in North Carolina. I started training there first. I learned how to bump, but I was there for like six months, but out of those six months, I only got like three or four months out of training, wrestling training.

Okay. And it was just learning how to bump and hit the ropes. And he kind of like took my money and kind of like ran off with him. I'm like, okay. So I had to go back home and rethink my whole situation. What was I going with this again? Oh, yeah. So when at an indie show in North Carolina, I was helping, like, trying to pay my dues,

like help put the ring up and take it down. I met a tough enough athlete. He was on Tough Enough and he got kicked out. Not kicked out, but he got eliminated. Yeah, sure. And he was like, yeah, they told me to go to OVW. That's like the best school to go to. And I'm like, OVW.

I never heard of it. Yeah, check it out. It's online, man. That's where they, Brock Lesnar went there, Shelton Benjamin. He started naming all these wrestlers. I'm like, okay, I need to check it out. And I saw it was in Louisville, Kentucky. And I'm like, I don't know anybody in Louisville, Kentucky.

And that's like a big culture shock. I'm from New York. And then I went to Survivor Series. It was an MSG. And they had never at WWW New York. Oh, yeah, in Times Square. Yeah, that was a spot to go after like a pay-per-view. Yeah.

So me and my friends, we walked all the way down from MSG to Times Square. and then I ran into, what's his name? He was a manager for, what's his name, what's his name? Rico. Oh, yeah, Rico Constantine. I talked to him. He was very friendly. I said, so what wrestling school did you go to, man?

He was like, oh, I went to OVW, he was down in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm like, that's two. All right. And then I think another sign was I went online again. I think best wrestling school. OVW wrestling, stars. of today's stars tomorrow, like today's superstars tomorrow, they had this slogan

I'm like, I'm going to move with Kentucky. That was my own. Wow. Yeah. And now Al Snow owns OVW. Yes, he does. And if Al Snow is watching, anytime he needs me to come down there, oh yeah, just fly me in, man. No free charge. There it is. What were some of

the early things that really stick with you that Al Snow taught you? Al Snow polished me up. I was trained first by Nick Densmore. Nick Densmore. Which is Eugene. Eugene, exactly. He taught me how to

the bump like the very basics. And then I moved on up to Rip Rogers. Okay. He taught me psychology. He taught me how to tell a story in the ring. Old school. He's like, I have to give it to Rip Rogers.

If anybody who wants to be professional wrestlers, you've got to look up Rip Rogers. If he's doing a a clinic or if he's coming to train. Like, you know, sometimes trainers will bring him in because he's just rich in knowledge with wrestling. He's been doing this for 50, 60 years. Wow.

And he taught me and I was one of his favorite students and he took me under his wing. Even before I got signed, he was like, they're going to sign you. Just don't forget me. He's like, don't forget me. And he trained me really good. He always, and he, I would say he picked on me, but since I was like his star student,

he was a little bit harder on me. But I appreciate it. Yeah, it made you that much better. Exactly. It made me just too good. You came in as a singles wrestler. That was obviously part of the plan. At what point did you get paired up with Shad?

Well, I got paired up with, I don't know if you remember, my first tag team partner, we will call the Gang Stars. It was with, I don't know if you remember, Abraham Washington. He was with W. Yeah. Me and him were a tag team. It was actually his idea. He was like, yo man, we should come out with these bulletproof vests where jeans, Timberlin Bruce, you're from New York.

You should rock grills. Nellie at the time had that song Grills. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, it sounds very stereotypical. First of all, I was like, I don't know. He's like, come on, man, you want to make money. You have to be a character. You have to like, right now you're just wearing tights. You're just a wrestler. We don't really, we don't stand out. We just wear trunks and tights. And I'm like, all right, let's give it a shot.

And we did the, we didn't have really, like, characters. We just did the look, but we were very charismatic. And we blew the roof off. And that was me and Abraham Washington. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to stick with this. And then after a few months, Abraham Washington had some personal issues going on in his life that prevented him from coming to OVW. And then, I'm sorry.

Danny Davis and Al put their heads together. They were like, look, this young man, he's been here every day, consistently. He's talented. He's got charisma. He's good on the mic. He's young. What can we do with him? You know, he's showing, you know, he's showing, you have to do something with him. And they're like, let's put him with Shad. They act Shad do you, how you, JTG get along? Yeah. You want to make you guys the tag team. And Sha was like, yeah, it's cool. That's like my little brother. Blah. And then that was the be the birth of crime time. Wow. So if it wasn't for Abraham Washington leaving OBW, crime time never would have been a thing. Exactly.

Wow, that's amazing how that all came together. Yeah, at the time, I was like, at the time I was hurt, I'm like, because before I got signed, like, I say about two or three weeks before that, I was sitting on the sideline. I was actually thinking about, like, leaving. It was like, because I was just depressed. I wasn't on TV. I'm showing up every week and nothing's going, nothing's happening for me. And I'm like, man, how much longer I'm going to do this? Because I'm working at the daycare.

I'm like, I'm getting paid a little below minimum wage. You had moved to Louisville at this point? Yeah, I had moved to Louisville this point, yeah. So, well, that's a big move in itself. Yeah, exactly. Wow. So then you and Chad hit it off instantly? Yeah, we were actually friends before we were a tag team.

Yeah, he looked out. As soon as I, me and Chad met, I was introduced to him through Elijah Burke at an amateur show. He was at my first amateur show. He came to watch and see what was, you know, what's going on. There's not too much to do in Louisville. So if they have an amateur show, why not show up? Yeah, yeah. And we hit it off right then and there.

Wow. And we were cool from there, but we never thought about being a tag team together, you know, because such of the height difference and experience level, like he was already on TV, a local TV, and I'm just, you know, learning how to put a match together. So we didn't even, it didn't even cross our minds. It might be tough to narrow it down to just one, but what's your go-to Shad story? Oh, man, we have so many. You're going to make me pick one?

Oh, man. We have so many and so many I can't tell. Hell. One of my favorite pastimes with Shad, you know, we, he loved to take edibles. Like, he didn't smoke, but he will love edibles. And I remember one time after show, we had some edibles after show. And it didn't kick in yet. He was like, let's take it so long.

I'm like, I'll take another one. I took another one. I'm like, we was in the hotel room and it's like, I'm not feeling this, man. He was like, don't worry. He'll kick in. because I'm not used to edibles. And then I'm like, I'm like, I'm starting to get hungry. You want to go red lobster?

Like, that's the perfect place to go. And then I think when we called the Uber and was waiting for it, I was like, ooh, I feel it. And we went to Red Lobster and we were high. And we were just enjoying life and just talking about how good life is and enjoying those cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster. And then that became like, if there was a Red Lobster around, we will do something.

some edibles and go to relapse. So that became the routine. Yeah, I became one of our, yeah. That's so great. And munchies. Oh, man. Yeah, the edibles would get you to munchies and we would just be in our hotel rooms and our boxes.

He'll be on his laptop working on his movies and I'll be watching TV and just zoned out. I'm sure not a day goes by where you don't think about it. Every day. Yeah, I got a lot of photos up in my room of Shad. I have so many photos of Shad in my friend. phone, I'm scrolling. It's like, yeah, I can't get away from it. But it's a good thing, though.

Yeah. So when, like, in your everyday life, what are the memories that come to mind? Shat, like, I don't know if a lot of people don't know. Like, me and Shad were, like, best friends. We're like brothers. You know, we were pretty much, like, family. Like, I spent a few Thanksgiving with him and his family. If I had an issue, financial problem or if I had just, like, personal problems, you know,

he was there, you know, he was always there for me. There was a, there was a, I remember when I was going through my, separation with my ex-wife. And, you know, he could tell. You know, we've been around each other for so long. We just know when something's wrong. And I was trying to hold it in, but he got it out of me. And when one time, we went to the gym, we was about to go to the gym and I was just out of it.

I couldn't work out. He was like, come on, let's go. We're not working out right now. He's like, your head is not in the game right now. I'm like, yeah, you're right. I didn't know what he was taking. He's like, we're going to the beach. He went to the beach and he was like, let it out.

I'm like, let what out? He's like, let it out. Talk to me. We talked. and then we had like a rocky moment. You started jogging. And then he started getting, he ran in front of me.

And he just started, he was like, come on, run. I want you to run. I started running. He said, faster, faster. And like,

and then he started talking to me about, what are you going to do? You're going to make her? Like, you're going to move forward. You're not going to let that stop you. He started getting in my head. And then I, like, he, I can't remember what he triggered,

but I broke down and started crying. And then I stopped. And I was like, he acknowledged that I was crazy. Like, it's going to be all right. Good. you're going to move forward, we're going blah, blah, blah.

And they're like, all right, just because you're crying, this is me, you can stop running. He was like, we kept running. And I let it all out on the beach, and we just sat there, and we sat into the ocean. We just talked. And that's the time, we had a lot of those moments. Yeah.

We had Mark Kopani, Muhammad Hassan on the show recently, who was working with Shad on the graphic novel. Oh, yeah, Assassin's Son. Right, Assassin and Son. And he was saying the thing he loved about Shad was that if Shad said he was going to do something. He did it. He did it.

No matter how crazy. Yes. Shad, yeah. No matter how big the dream was, you knew he was going to accomplish it. Mm-hmm. That was Shad, exactly.

Wow. So where, how did you find out the news that he was missing? His wife called me the night. It was Sunday. I was getting ready to go to bed. And his, he, Shad's phone called me.

It said, Shad. And then I'm like, what do you want? Like, I'm expecting it to be Shad. And it's his wife. like, hey, Jason, this is Siliana.

We can't find Chad. And I'm like, I'm automatically thinking it's a rib as a joke. Like, what do you mean you can't find Chad? Like, he's big. Like, how do you like, like he's, oh, we lost them while we were on the beach. And I'm like, you have his phone. So I'm thinking there's a rib. I'm going to go along with it.

I was like, she's like, can you help me find him? Like, yeah, let me go sharp. I'll be over there. I'll come help you find him. And I'm like, I'm just prepare me. just prepare myself because I know he's, because we and Shad have a playful, like, right now I'm like, cool, but when I'm with Shad, we both let out like a childhood, like a child, like, you just become children. I don't know, we just become very immature and we just have fun and then we're back

to being. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, you could turn it on, turn it off. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I'm like, let me just prepare myself. He's going to pop out of somewhere, bear hug me and throw me in the sand or throw me in the ocean and record it and put it on. I'm like, I'm just preparing myself. And then when I get to Shad's house, I meet his wife in car. I meet his wife and his son in the car. And she had like flashlights. I'm like, yeah, I was like, you need like flashlights for to look for Shad. I'm like, now I'm getting like scared.

Like, what do you mean? We're going on the beach to look for? I'm like, where are we looking for him? And his son was in the car, so he's like, can't tell you right now. So we got to the beach and then she told me the whole breakdown. And I'm like, And then that's, I think after like an hour or two of walking on the beach in Santa Monica, I kind of came to, what do you call it?

Like, yeah, I think he's gone. That's like I came to like, okay, this is. Like you accepted. Yeah, accepted it right there. And I couldn't cry or break down right there because his wife and son was there. So I had to be strong for them. And I was like, from what she told me, the story that she told me, I was like, he got washed up. But I couldn't tell her that.

I had to be there. She wanted to look. Yeah, we were there until midnight. And I'm on the beach with a flashlight looking. I don't know what I'm looking for. Am I looking in the ocean? Am I looking on the broadwalk? Like, I didn't want to ask because it's like,

I was just there for more, like, for support. And we were there until midnight. And it started getting cold. I'm like, we could try again. Let's do it again tomorrow. But I kind of accepted it right there. How quickly did the police join in the search? That was the next day.

But the day that, it happened in the afternoon. They had helicopters. They had, from what I heard, they had the works looking out for Shad. But they had to call it off at sunset because. Can't see. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard some people say that, you know, Shad should receive the Warriors Award this year.

He definitely should if, I don't know what's a big heroic act and putting your life on the line, you know, for his son. But honestly, he would have did it for, if it was another child, If it was probably me, he probably would have did the same exact thing. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt he would have. Yeah.

But like, do you think his, was his relationship with WWE good enough that he would be considered for something like this? I believe so. Because we went backstage a couple of times. Yeah. We talked to the head of talent relations and, you know, they were like to just, we have an open door. We love to, you guys look great. We would love to have you guys back. And, you know, there was some talks about, you know, crime time coming back.

You know, they told us the door is always open. You know, we just got to, you know. make sure it's the right fit. And we were like, okay, cool, you know. Yeah. And, you know, nothing materialized, but there were talks. We don't, we don't know what would happen if Shad was still here today. We don't know.

But, yeah, there was definitely talks of bringing crime time back. Why was, why did crime time even leave? First of you guys, we split up. We wanted, you know, venture off and do our singles thing. Yeah. And Shad got released, I believe, in 2011, I believe. believe, 11 or 12, and I stayed with the company until 2014. Yeah. So I did the single thing for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Was it just a budget thing? Was that what it was? With getting released?

Oh, I never know what they've released people for anything. Oh, creative couldn't come up with anything for you. So we're going to, it's like, that's their excuse. Right. Yeah. So you never know with them or what's going on behind the scenes, the politics. I know I was on the contract for a while. I was off a TV for like a year or so. So I was like, in the back of my head, I'm kind of like expecting it. Like, okay, I haven't been on TV in a while.

They haven't mentioned me. I'm probably going to get released. But my contract was up. I didn't, my contract was up, I think, in another three months. So they didn't have to release me. They just could have my contract run up. But I didn't think, I didn't, I didn't have my heart set on signing back, though. Oh, that's interesting.

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That's bluewire, all one word at betonline.ag. Bet online, your online sportsbook experts. How much would you say crime time evolved? from when you guys debuted to when you guys split up? No, when we split up as part, we pretty much the same thing. We were just more experienced, more confident in the ring.

And I watched your first entrance as crime time, and it was so, like, charismatic. Yeah, you see my chain pop off? I was so high. Your hat popped off. Yeah, everything flew. My chain broke off, my hat flew off. I was on two Red Bulls in the Staples Center.

I was, like, some people, like, when they debuted, they're, like, nervous. I was anxious. Like, let me get them. Let me get out there. I need to show. I'm going to show them what I got. Yeah, I was hype.

So you'd say that you guys just got more confident with what you did. Yeah, more experience. We had more double-team moves on our arsenal. We just perfected our craft. What about the, what about character-wise? Character-wise, it was pretty much the same. I think we might have toned it down just a little bit more. Don't it down.

Because when we first started, we were off, they wanted like over the top. And we were like, all right, we'll give you over the top. And it was some of it was very offensive, but that's what they wanted. So we had to give them what they want. I don't know if that gimmick would work in the current landscape. Absolutely not. Not in 2020. Not with Twitter right now.

No. Twitter will cancel you. Yeah. But I also feel like they could get behind something else that you guys were doing. Well, me and chatting together is just a great pairing. Our chemistry. They could have just called the Shad Gasport and JTG. And our personalities alone and our chemistry on camera, even off camera, it's amazing.

So where did you get some of the influence for the segments you guys were doing? Oh, we got a lot of our influence from stuff that we grew up, our childhood, childhood memories, childhood shows. Me and Shad grew up on In Living Color, the Wayne's Brothers and the Homeboy Shopping Network. We just straight up stole that and made it our own. What else did we grow up? It was another show that we... Maybe a little bit of Dave Chappelle in there? Dave Chappelle, absolutely.

That's exactly what Vince McMahon wanted because at that time, Dave Chappelle was really big in pop culture and he wanted like Dave Chappelle type skits. So that was one of his requests and we delivered. And there was another show. Even the Wayne's Brothers. The Wains Brothers, they used to come on

on, well, the different channels, but on the Warner Brothers, the WB, you took a lot of stuff from there too. Yep. Well, for you growing up was like the go-to sketch that you watched, you know, a dozen times, a hundred times. Oh, the Homeboy Shopping Network was hilarious.

It was hilarious, yeah. Who were some of your favorite actors growing up? Oh, we also took, Shad, we also took Bernie Mac was one of my favorite comedians. Yeah, okay. And he also, our catchphrase that got us over and sold thousands of T-shirts and merchandise was money, money. Yeah, yeah. Shad got that, and he did it off the whim, too. He got that from Bernie Mac from the Players Club.

Like, but he found out that Who was it? Who came to the club? I think it was Luke. He was like, hey, we have Luke in the club. Luke? Oh, and he pushed the red button for all the strippers to come out because there's a celebrity coming out.

He's like, money, money. Yeah, yeah. And Shad remembered that. And I remember we were on set. We was doing one of our vignettes for WWE. And then we pushed, it was the ATM scene. And we took the money from the guy we just robbed. And Shad just started singing money.

and I went along with it, and we kept doing it and became our catchphrase. Wow. I love hearing these stories when something happens completely by accident. Yeah, I never knew that would have been our catchphrase. But there were also so many times where you guys would, like, join in, like finish each other's sentences. Because we hang around each other so much. Yeah, we would just finish each other sentence.

I know what he was thinking. Like, me and Shad had so many inside jokes. Like, there will be points where we were in a serious setting, but if I knew if I looked at him, we'd have bust out laughing. So I had a... You ever had that relationship with your best friend? And you're kind of like trying to hold this together. You want to look at him.

But you know if you look at him, you're going to lose it. And it's like, we can't do this right now. We're in a serious meeting. And then we'll go, like once we take off and we make eye contact, we just, oh, you heard what you said he said? Who was the person or maybe group of people that when you saw it on the script, you're like, crime time's going to do a segment with them? No way.

What do you mean? Like you guys did stuff with DX. Yes, that's probably a big one, right? That was a big one. I was kind of blown away. Like, wow, they, okay, cool. And I thought they were going to be, like, strict and stick to the script and, like, be so, like, professional. Like, we got to stick to the script and we got to hit our cue.

We just had fun on camera. So that was one take? No, actually, it wasn't one take because I don't want to put it, say who messed up. But somebody wasn't Shad and I. They broke character and saw the laughing during the vignette. and we had to do it over again, yeah. That means you're doing a good job. Exactly, yes.

Wow. When you look back at your WWE career, what are some of the matches that you're most proud of? I'm definitely proud of our tag team match, the tag team match we had at the Staples Center at SummerSlam. It was Chris Jericho and Big Show,

Jericho versus Crime Time. We didn't win, but the fact that they allowed Shad and I to wrestle Jericho for the titles on a big pay-per-view like SummerSlam

they put some trust into us like, okay, can these boys legitimately make it look like a contest? Yeah, yeah. And we held our own and we, you know, we stepped up to the play

and we had an amazing match. I watched that back sometimes because I'm so proud of it. Yeah. And it was also a match that we had, it was in, I believe it was in Rhode Island. And it was the first time

I ever heard the phrase in the wrestling business It's called the Road Warrior Pop. I don't know if you, if you ever heard of it. I never, never heard of it. It was Crime Time versus Jericho. And we were like the semi-main event. We're in the main event, but we're the semi-main event for the titles.

And the crowd, like, after that match ended, the crowd was, we want crime time, crime, time, crying. And they were stomping their feet, crime time. I'm like, wow, like, the building is like going, they wanted crime time. I never got, we never got that response. I mean, people cheered for us and pop, but the arena going crazy. Yeah. It was like, I got goose. I'm getting goose for me.

I'm thinking about it. And Chris Jericho came up with like, wow, look at you guys are over, huh? You got getting that road warrior pop. And it's like, they didn't even announce that we were about to wrestle. It was like, they just figured that crime time haven't wrestled yet. Yeah. And the main event is John Cena so-and-so, so they must be coming out. And then they anticipated it.

And they started chanting and banging, stomping their feet for crime time. And that was like an amazing feeling. Wow. So after you left WWE, you wrote a few books. Yeah, I wrote two books. They weren't supposed to be two books. It was supposed to be one book. But the first book was so popular? It was so good. It became an instant cult classic. I had to write a second one. But it's basically about how to avoid heat. How to avoid heat. Staying out of trouble.

Because me and Shad got into a lot of trouble. You know, being 21, Shad was 23 on the road. Yeah. Your financial situation changes. You're on TV now. MySpace was popping at the time. It's a lot, you know, for a 21-year-old. And going on the road and just, you know, adapting to this new life. Yeah, you've got to get into a lot of trouble. Who did you have the most heat with?

Yeah, I read the book, man. Yeah, I read the book. Trying to let people get a little teaser for them. You know, I got into a trouble with a veteran, you know, a Hall of Famer. he accused me of stealing his what do you call it taunt you know you know when you watch my first

match on me and Shad's debut match and when I came out I was just hype my hands were all over the place as you can see my chain fell off and I was just like in my zone I'm not even thinking

and then I have my match and then after the match we had a segment with Book of T and went great and then my day I'm on cloud nine And I'm like, life is great right now. I just performed, I did a live, had a live match.

It went great. At Staples Center, L.A. I wasn't living in L.A. at the time. I was living in, still living in Kentucky. So L.A. to me was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah. And then I just did a back-chae segment with Booker T. and Charmel, King Booker.

And that went great. Everybody loved it. I'm on Cloud 9, like, life is great. And then a certain Hall of Famer comes up to me and said, I told you already. about your hand gestures and keeping in mind. And he just belittles me in front of like, I'm like, I was like, it just got, it just, I'm on, I'm on like, cloud.

I'm just up there. And that is brought right back down. I just like, don't, I got humbled real quick. Like, I didn't. Right. What? And then I let some time. I like, you know, Akun da.

I can't, what I'm going to do. I'm the new guy that you think I'm going to yell at this, say something back to this Hall of Fame. All I could do is like, in my head, I'm like, he's wrong. like, but I'm going to, you know, be the professional, apologize and it won't happen again. So I was very, I couldn't come out. I waited some, waited for some time to pass by

before, you know, I could, you know, let loose again. But I had to be on my P's and Q's. Now, did you get heat for writing the book about heat? Absolutely. Of course I did. That's so ironic. Like, I'm kind of like immune to heat right now. I was like, I don't care. It's like, I'm not going to do stuff to intentionally get heat,

but I'm going to be, I'm going to be J to God. I'm going to be JTG. You know, I have a lot of personality. I have a lot of charisma and I'm very creative. So you give me a Twitter Instagram account. You know, my goal is not to be malicious. I'm just going to have fun. You know, like if you go on my Instagram right now, JTG 12, 1084,

you know, I have a lot of posts up there, you know, just being petty and having fun, though, you know, I'm doing it to, you know, create awareness. Well, you just had a post where you were wearing the TNT title. Yes, you know what I'm saying? You know, I was on the toilet and I was like, I saw the picture of the title and it looks so, the TNT, I got to give it to him. It looks beautiful.

And, you know, I fixed it up. You know, I docked it up a little bit. I put it around my waist. I thought the picture looked great on me. And I'm like, you know what? I love the Back to the Future movie. That's one of my top, I said my top five. My favorite movie of all time.

And I, you know, speaking my language. And then I made it to the back to the future a quote. And it fit right in, you know, roads. Where we're going, we don't need roads. Now this Rhodes is spelled like Cody Rhodes. Yeah, you know, that's what you. You know, you put it to two to the guys. I was reading.

You know, that's how it was read. No, but I, I work Cody a lot, you know, crime time and legacy. So we have a great relationship. We haven't spoken in years. But I'm pretty sure if, you know, when I see Cody, if I ever see Cody, we'll pick the right where we left off. You know, we're always cool. We never had any, like, serious disagreements or any,

any bad fallout. So we're always cool. So is AEW something that you'd like to? We'll see. You know, right now, you know, money's, I'm in a business, I'm in a business mode right now. It's got to fit my vision, especially financially. But at the same time, you probably only have so many years of wrestling left.

Yeah, I'm young and I'm young. I got it to the business at, I started training when I, on my 18th birthday, I'll never forget. I got signed when I was 21. And I just have, at my age, I'm like very well experienced. Yeah, of course. And I'm 35. So I want to say 40 or 45.

I don't know. Right now my body is great. I take care of it. Very health conscious. I'm in the best shape of my life. And I'm just, you know. Giant arms. Giant arm, you know.

But I feel like you made this post kind of like putting that out as a few. Yeah, yeah, put it out there. You know, sometimes you got to put it out to the universe and see what comes back, you know? Did you get any heat for that? I don't know. Yeah. What was the reaction from fans? Oh, fans loved it.

Oh, fans are just egging it on. They want to see the match, you know? They want to see the new JT, the new improved JTG on television. You know, they see my videos on, on social media for my indie matches and they're blown away. Like, this guy, why is he not on TV? You know, I'm just saying what they're saying. He looks great. He looks like a million bucks.

He has a great look. He's marketable. He could work. Not just wrestled. You know how to work. You know, he's good on the mic. Why is this guy on television? I don't know.

I'm not, that's not like my main. I have a whole bunch of stuff going on. If it happens, I get the call and the numbers are right. And I'm a great long-term investment. So for people who maybe haven't seen you since you left WWA, how different is Jay the God versus? versus just two gangster? Just two gangsters?

Well, I had to switch the gear up. You know, I had to switch the style up on them. So right now, I'm wearing the, I had the, although I love my timbling boots, I had to hang them up. I got the wrestling boots now.

I have the trunks. JTG, you know, he had corn rolls, he had grills, the jury. Now, I'm still, I'm still,

I'm still incorporated into my entrance and my swagger, but I'm more serious right now. And I'm probably, 30 pounds heavy. And you got a great beard. Thank you, thank you. For those, I'm glad you asked.

For those inquiring about a sexy beard, you can go to sexy and hell beardcare.com. S-A-H-Beardcare.com. I have my own beard care line. Congratulations. Thank you over about 30 cents you could choose from. There's beard and body care. So, you know, before I go out,

I make sure I have the matching beard scent and body scent. Oh. Great combination. Beard and body. Where did you come up with this idea? I came with the idea because I had my own little concoction for my beard. And everybody, again, every time someone, I keep getting the same, I think that's the universe where you're talking to me.

Like, I keep getting questions. You know, man, your beard grew quite a quick. They just see me in the gym. Yeah. Your beard grew quick. I just saw you like a month ago and your beard was at a certain. Now it's grown. It's like, thick is full.

It's shiny. What do you do? And I'm like, I told them that I'm like, you know what? I need to start. I need to bottle this up and sell it. And then I added the sense to it. Like, you just can't sell it like without my thing. what I was doing with my beard.

Yeah. Just sell it. So I started looking into different scents, all natural, everything's organic. And it's been a hit. And I'm selling beard and body butter and oil. Did you have any idea that you wanted to start your own business? I always had an entrepreneur mindset. But I didn't know it just kind of happened.

Yeah. Yeah. Just kind of happened. And I just, I went with the flow. Now you've got a bunch of stuff going on. I have a bunch of stuff going on. I have a bunch of the other. It's coming on. It's going to be hopefully by next month.

Who needs wrestling anymore? You got all this other stuff. Exactly. Like, wrestling for me is fun. It's not my bread and butter. I love wrestling. That's my, I grew up.

I remember since I was the age of two, me and my family enjoying wrestling. So it's always been a part of my life, like heavy. Like, when you ask a family member or my best friends growing up, like, first thing that comes to mind when you think of Jason,

wrestling. He's like always into wrestling. Oh, who did you love growing up? I went through different phases of my life. So, of course, I went through the, as a kid, like a toddler, as a kid, I went through my Hulk Hogan phase. Sure. Me too. And the Hogan, the Hogan yellow hand with the red riding.

And then after Hogan, it went, I went to my Burrhardt phase, big Burrardt fan. And then I went from Bradhart to the Rock. If you go on my Instagram, you can see me impersonating the Rock as a teenager. And rock bottoming, rock bottoming my cousin through ironing board. You can check that out. And then after that, after the Rock, I was a big Jeff Hardy fan, RVD fan. Then you got signed. And then, yeah, then I got signed.

And then I got signed. And you're a big JTG fan. Now I'm a JTG fan, crime type fat, yeah. Yeah. I mean, so when you were growing up, were there African-American wrestlers that you felt you could look up to? Watching WWE, there weren't too many. Like, I loved Ahmed Johnson.

Then he disappeared. You know what I mean? Yeah. There wasn't, there weren't a ton. Yeah. Like that made it, yeah. But to make it to that top level to be seen as like a WWE champion. Yeah.

I was like, oh, mid Johnson is that guy. He's, because he became a champion. I'm like his entrance rocks, he had charisma. Yeah. And then he just, I don't know what, he just faded away. But then you and Shad, I feel like we're able to be that example for young African-Americans. Yeah. Oh, Book of T.

When Book of T came on the scene, yeah, definitely. But I wasn't growing up, I didn't watch, especially being on the East Coast. Yeah, Harlem Heat. Yeah, we didn't watch, well, I didn't. I didn't watch a lot of WCW, any other wrestling promotion. It was just like strictly, WWE in my house. I didn't, I said it started watching WCW until the, you know, the wars, the Monday Night Wars. And then I had an OVW, we studied a lot of tapes from the Crockett, like, from all over.

So then, like, I'm sure you guys got a ton of messages from kids that were like, we never saw a tag team like you guys. Yeah, oh yeah. We got, my space is probably my, when I'll come home from the road and relax, I'll check my my space messages. And they were like, yo, what you're doing? You know, representing hip hop and, you know, representing our culture. You know, there was also some negative things like that. Oh, you're embarrassment and blah, blah, but that doesn't stick in my head. I remember the positive messages that I got a lot. Yeah, I guess there would be people that would be like you guys are like playing into a stereotype. Yeah, exactly. I understand. I get it. But, you know, the rest, you know, but I always. also understand the wrestling business. You have to have a gimmick.

Yeah. Yeah. Is that still part of your gimmick now? Not, no, absolutely not. Like, with Shad and I, we were the, since we were, we were bad guys. No, we were good guys doing bad guy stuff. Like Robin Hood. You know, we'll take from the rich and give to the boy.

Like, we'll take some superstars and we sell it to the fans, you know. Did those fans actually get to keep those things? Yeah, we got real money. Oh, yeah. And you got to keep the money? I always wondered that. Yeah, we kept the money. We worked hard for that money.

Really? Yeah, we had a lot of fun. I remember we auctioned off Lillian Garcia's ringside seat because that was the first time in Madison's Regarden. I performed at Madison's Regarden. My mom actually got to see me perform at MSG, which was like another thing that sticks out of my career, like being in MSG where I grew up going to.

Yeah. And we did an auction and we took Lillian seat right from underneath her, signed it, and somebody in the front row paid like $300 for it. Me and Shad went out to dinner that night. Had a big day. We took care of, he paid for the whole bill. Our family was there, yeah. Was that the most that a fan gave you for any of those crime time gimmicks?

Probably not. We made a lot of money with those auctions, but that night stood out because he was like, you paid three, well, I guess, why not? Wow. Yeah. I can't believe you guys actually kept the money. One time we didn't keep the money. Okay, one time.

It was Acon. We sold something to Acon. And he started, I think he wanted to show off. He started putting it out a bunch of hundreds. And we were like, oh, we took it. We were like, I want to keep this. And then he came back to. This was all part of the show, right?

Yeah, you had that back over there. You don't want to write this off, you sure? He definitely could have. So what's the rest of this year have in store for you? A lot more indie shows. My projects, my biceps book, my Biceps Fitness book. Let me get the name of it real quick. Hold on.

The newbie's guide to big biceps. There it is. So easy, a child could do it. I'm making it very easy for new gym goers. That, we got Talking Shopping Mania too. Talking Shop, Mania, too. I'm also, in a few weeks, I can't say get into too much detail, but I'm also filming a trailer for a movie.

This is great. And yeah, I got a bunch of stuff going on. Some of stuff I can't really get too much in detail in. But yeah. Why is L.A. home for you now? I love L.A. I remember when I... Because I have a lot of history here.

I debuted here. Had my best match here. And I just remember visiting. And I'm like, this place feels like home. I like, I didn't... And then when I first moved here, I still get it. Like, when I'm away from L.

for like for a few days, I get homesick. And I like, I want to go. I'm ready to go home. I'm like, like. L.A. has this weird love-hate relationship. People either love it like you're talking about or they hate it. I love it here. This is home.

And I mean, I love New York too. That's home too. But see, I'm the opposite on New York. New York's good for like a weekend. Yeah, that's exactly how I am. New York is home. But it's like right now, New York is good for like three, four days most. And I'm ready to come home.

In the spring, summer, or fall. I can't do those winters anymore. Oh, my gosh. We've become spoiled. Man, yes, I'm very spoiled. Like, I'm in a tank top now, and we're in October. I like to end every interview by asking you, what are three things that you're grateful for right now?

Oh, I'm grateful. I think I've got to say I'm grateful for my health, my career, and the direction that I'm going. And, you know, that I have. Chad in my life. That's definitely what I'm grateful for. Because I wouldn't have be where I am today if it wasn't for Shad. I wouldn't have this mindset. I wouldn't, you know, he taught me how to work out.

I wouldn't have these arms if it wasn't for him. Right back to the arms. Right, right to the arms. But yeah, definitely. So Shad, having Shad in my life, my health, and the direction my life is going, going. Shad's touched so many people's lives. Absolutely. It's amazing.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you had a five-minute interaction with him or, you know, you've been his friend, you know, your whole life. Yeah. That's amazing. Well, I'm excited to see what the rest of the year has in store for you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. 2020 has been rough, but we're making it. It's only getting better.

It's only getting better. Yeah. Thank you, man. Thank you for having me, man. Well, there we go, my friends. Hope you enjoyed this insightful look into J the God, JTG. Take a screenshot, share this with someone who you know would love to hear these stories. I'm at Chris Van Fleet.

JTG is at JTG 1284. And, you know, we saw the friendship and connection that he shared with Shad on screen. But, I mean, it's so obvious here that it was so, so much deeper than that off-camera. And I think this quote from Jack Thorne says it best. Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch. That's powerful. Be great. Be grateful, my friends, and we will see you on the next one.

Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack.

Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.