JTG Talks John Cena Yelling After Match, Why WWE Brought Them Back, Shad Getting Heat For Hair, More
On episode 204 of Talk Is Jericho, 'Y2J' Chris Jericho welcomed JTG to the podcast. Among other things, JTG talked about Cryme Tyme's release from WWE in 2007 and his partner Shad Gaspard getting heat for having his hair braided backstage at a WWE live event.
According to JTG, he and Gaspard were released from WWE in 2007 for Gaspard's impromtu ref bump during a match against Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch.
"I was on the [ring] apron and I was kind of like still selling from what happened in the match, so when I turned around, [it] was like, Shad [saying], 'hit our finish! Hit our finish!'. I'm like, 'okay, I guess they have some type of agreement and [I do] not [want to] mess up the finish,' so I hit the ropes, [and] hit the finish. Big pop." JTG continued, "Shad took a little extra liberties and took the belt off the ref [Marty Elias] and his shirt and auctioned it off to the crowd. He wanted to make sure the crowd was left happy, I guess. I didn't think [Elias] cared, but when we got backstage there [were] concerns, 'oh, you bumped the ref?' Like, 'okay. You do it all the time!' 'Well, you bumped the ref. How do you know he's trained like that?'."
After the match, Gaspard was yelled at by Barry Windham, who was an agent at the time, and then JTG and Gaspard were apparently reamed out by John Cena.
"And I didn't hear the details of [Windham] yelling at [Gaspard], but yeah, he was yelling pretty loud at Shad and I was like, 'damn, this is bad.' And then when Shad came back out, we were all sitting out by the ring monitor and the face of the company [John Cena] is just yelling at the top of his lungs at Shad and telling him how stupid he is and I'm like, 'damn, this is bad.' And then for some reason he started yelling at both of us and insulting both of us and I'm like, 'oh, man.' It was a bad day."
JTG claimed that he was told that Cryme Tyme was in line to win the WWE Tag Team Championship at the time, but the duo was released in the midst of their feud with Cade and Murdoch. Cryme Tyme was brought back to WWE six months later.
"It was like a vacation. We were gone for six months. And, of course, you get your 90 days, so for half of the six months, I was getting paid. And then you get a big video game check. I went on vacation. I went places that I never went to [before]. I went to Dominican Republic. I went to [visit] my family in Trinidad and Tobago, [and] took some cruises. I'm glad it happened when I look back at it! And then when I was in Trinidad, that's when we get the call back, when I was hanging out with family, 'oh, they're thinking about bringing us back'."
Apparently, Cryme Tyme still had heat backstage when they returned to the company.
"They were surprised to see us back. I remember seeing Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch's faces when we first showed up. It was like, 'I thought we got rid of you.'"
When asked why Cryme Tyme was brought back to WWE, JTG suggested that it was because the team was over with the fans and Vince McMahon was a fan of the gimmick.
"We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of creative liberty. Vince [McMahon] gave us a lot of creative liberty doing the vignettes and even, for example, I knew Vince really loved us. Like, there was one example when I asked Vince, you know, we were told to not look at the camera. I was told that by the agents and some of the writers [that] Vince hates when you look at the camera. 'Don't look at the camera!'" JTG added, "so I walked up to Vince and I said, 'Vince, rap stars, they like to look at the camera and show off. I [have] got a lot of jewelry and I want to show my grill off.' He goes, 'yeah! Go ahead and do it! Have fun!' And he slapped me on the back real hard."
As for Gaspard's braiding incident, JTG stated that Gaspard got heat for having a hair braider brought backstage to braid his hair at a live event.
"We're in the UK and we had just [done] a tour for a week and our hair was a mess and we wanted to get our hair braided. I just would have [worn] a do-rag. I was like, 'I'm not going to worry about getting my hair braided. That's too much of a headache.'" JTG continued, "so [Gaspard] gets a runner to bring the hair braider back [to the arena]. He got some information. He said, 'okay, we found a hair braider.' [Gaspard] goes, 'I can't go to them. Can you have her come here?' Yeah, he would pay them extra, I guess. And the hair braider came back to a live event. I think he got braided at a live event. He brought her back to the live event after our match."
JTG admitted that Gaspard should have been more discrete about having his hair braided at the live event.
"I don't see that he did anything wrong. You want to get your hair braided because you want to look good for TV, but go do it somewhere quiet. Go somewhere quiet [where] no one can see you. No, Shad, he gets his hair braided in front of a high traffic hallway and we were green at the time, we're new, [so] we were supposed to be watching the monitor, watching the matches, and learning from them."
Apparently, the two had to wrestle The Great Khali as punishment for the hair braiding incident.
"Well, Shad is somewhere not watching the matches and he gets heat for getting his hair braided and not being by the monitor, so the next day, our punishment was [that] we had to wrestle Great Khali in a handicap match and the match didn't last longer than five minutes. We got in there, I got chopped on my head and it hurts."
In addition to these topics, JTG talked about the origins of his name, what Cryme Tyme's name was supposed to be, and much more. To check out the entire podcast, click here. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho