Former WWE Superstar JTG talks about his new book and wrestling's brass ring

LOS ANGELES -- Jayson Paul, better known to wrestling fans as JTG, released an e-book last week titled Damn! Why Did I Write This Book? The book's title plays off an infamous tweet he sent out after his release from WWE in the summer of 2014. When he got released, he had been with the company for seven years, the last year of which was spent off television and off the road. By the time of his release, JTG was a cult figure among wrestling fans for keeping his job without being used in any way.

The e-book talks a lot about heat, which JTG defines as "A black cloud that follows an individual after a personal conflict or misunderstanding between two or more individuals backstage." In other words, when a pro wrestler finds himself in hot water. Thanks in large part to his tag team partner in Cryme Tyme, Shad Gaspard, JTG found himself getting heat an awful lot throughout his career. We sat down to talk to him about the new book and his career in general.

SB NATION: Before we get started, there's some confusion about the origin of the name "JTG." The Internet seems to believe it stands for "Just That Gangsta," but that's never been confirmed on WWE television or anywhere else.

JTG: Let me give you the short version of the story. I told people [it stood for Just That Gangsta] just to blow them off sometimes. Just to give them a short answer. Actually, it stood for "Just Too Good." In OVW, I was in the top of my class. And you know, we have promo class. We'd all sit down on the bleachers and Rip Rogers would give us a minute to cut a promo. And I thought it would be cool to end every promo with, "Because I'm just too good." And then i just jacked that as my name. I changed it, when I got to WWE, when people asked, "What does JTG stand for?" I didn't want to say it was Just Too Good, because I was a rookie and I didn't want to get heat immediately. I changed the acronym to Just That Gangsta, because I didn't want to get heat for saying I'm just too good. Now you know. [laughs]

Any wrestling fan who reads your book is instantly going to know the people you talk about, but you're very good at not naming names.

I don't mind getting heat, [but] I don't want legal heat.

A lot of times you describe instances where you can't stand up for yourself at the risk of getting heat, but other times speaking up could earn you respect. Is there a fine line between getting respect for standing up for yourself and getting heat for standing up for yourself?

It is a fine line. I've seen guys get their manhood crushed and get disrespected, where if that was done on the streets, there would definitely be a fight. Definitely get your hands up. [laughs] But because you want to keep your job ... It's so hard, you know? It's very difficult. Sometimes you just gotta throw your hands up in the air and say, "F it." The boys just understand, you're not a punk. Like if it was a top guy that [disrespected you], you know you could whip his ass, but you gotta choose your battles.

Is it a situation where you have to be in the company for so long before you really earn the right to stand up for yourself?

Definitely. You can't just come in there and start pulling stuff off, especially the stuff I did [later on]. You have to wait. You have to be there a couple years and be considered a vet, I guess.

Shad Gaspard is a major character in your book, not always for the best reasons. Do you have a good relationship with Shad nowadays?

Yeah, we have a good relationship. I don't think he read the book. [laughs] I don't think he read the book yet. I have no idea [what his reaction will be]. I told him. He knows. I told him, weeks before, I told him about the book, I told him a few stories and I told him, "The majority of the book is about you." And he was like, "Oooh. All the juicy details?" I'm like, yeah, all the juicy details. [laughs]

Via Jayson Paul

The majority of your time in WWE was actually as a singles wrestler. Were you surprised when WWE split Cryme Tyme up?

No. We were actually looking forward to that. We asked to be split up. That's the only thing, if I could go back in time, I wish I could change that. Because it was done so predictable. He turned on me, and we did what every tag team do: they have a match against each other. If I could go back in time, if I had a DeLorean ... [laughs] I would do things a little different. Like if we had to go our separate ways, we didn't have to be enemies. One could have been a heel, one be face, but at the end of the day, we'd still have each other's back. Let's say if I was having a match and I was getting jumped, even though Shad's the heel, he'd still come out to help me, because, you know, we're boys. Even though we went our separate ways. That's something different. It still could be done. You know, not with Cryme Tyme, but ... [laughs]

In the book, you say one of your only regrets is never wrestling in Japan and getting your Ribera jacket. It's not too late for you to wrestle in Japan!

We'll see, man. I haven't been trying. I've been pursuing other projects right now, outside of wrestling. Branding JTG, branding Cryme Tyme outside of wrestling. Shad and I, we both have great personalities, we're very charismatic. I love comedy, you can see that in the writing style [of the book]. We was at the Sheik roast, Shad and I did improv in Hollywood at the Second City. We did that. We're just branding ourselves outside of wrestling.

Do you have an acting agent?

Not yet. Soon. I have a movie coming out in July. After that, hopefully they'll be banging on my door. It's called Bad Night by these two brothers, the Riedell Brothers. The main stars are these two YouTube sensations. They've got over a million subscribers on YouTube and the studios gave them their first movie. I'm the bad guy chasing them around town, trying to bring them back to the main villain in the movie. I had a lot of fun doing that. My co-star was Eric Edelstein and we had great chemistry.

You bring up a few times in your book that you think pro wrestlers need to unionize. Do you think there will ever be a union, the way things currently are?

We'll see, man. There were some rumbles and then things fell through.

Your book also talks about an idea for your character that never came to fruition. Those character plans involved a Muppet. What were you going to use the Muppet for?

The Muppet was going to be my alter ego. It was going to be my conscience, that only the WWE Universe could [see]. For example, if we're doing a backstage segment and the camera was on it, [the Muppet] could be right here insulting you, but you wouldn't acknowledge him, you wouldn't see him. Only myself and the WWE Universe would get a big chuckle out of it. So you'd have to be a great actor, because if he's funny, you cannot laugh. [laughs] I was thinking about getting a comedian to do the voice. Somebody with comedic timing. Or even probably, we could put Hornswoggle in a Muppet suit. [laughs]

Would you have brought the Muppet down to the ring with you?

There was talks about that, too. I talked about that with some of the creative team, about, is he gonna come down to the ring? Are they gonna show him on the TitanTron? Is it just gonna be backstage segments? There was a lot of talk. We could have made it work.

You were supposed to get called into the infamous "Wrestler's Court" once, but you tell the story of what got YOU called before the Court. What are some other things that could result in an issue being brought all the way to Wrestler's Court?

It would have to be somebody who's been there long enough -- a vet or top guy -- to bring you to Wrestler's Court. Something that you did disrespectful ... sometimes if it's boring backstage, they'd just do it just to have some fun. While I was there, it was my situation and another individual brought to Wrestler's Court. I think, because [this other person] went out that night with another guy, and the guy got drunk and [the veteran] left him at the bar. He was left with other guys, but they came together, so they were supposed to leave together. It was a weird rule. Like, I never heard this before. Are we just making this shit up as we go along?" [laughs]

He definitely got the book thrown at him for leaving the person he went with and going back to the hotel. I believe his punishment was, he couldn't dress in the male locker room for a month. So it wasn't that bad, but that could be an inconvenience. It could have been worse.

Take me through the day you got released.

It's a funny story behind that. When me and Shad got re-hired to go back to the WWE [in 2008], I was in Trinidad visiting some family. That was, what, seven years ago? I was visiting some family, I was in Trinidad and Shad called me and said, "Hey, they're thinking about bringing us back. We have to go down to Booker T's school and we have to train and brush up on our tag team mechanics." I said, "Cool. I'll be home in a couple days. I'll fly back to Louisville and then fly to Houston where you're at. I'll go to Booker T's, I'll stay there for a week or two and we'll bust our ass and get our contracts back." That was when I was in Trinidad.

I went back to Trinidad that past summer [of 2014]. And then when I was coming home, that's when I got the call. And I hadn't been back to Trinidad since [2008]. It was like a full circle. I got the call when I was in the airport. When [WWE] first called me, I didn't pick up. I had no idea [people were being released and it was in the news]. I got a text [from a friend]. It threw me off. It was like, "Hey man, don't pick up your phone. A bunch of guys got released." I'm like, "What?" I didn't know what was going on. And nobody called me. I was like, "Okay. [laughs] I'm good!" And then when I got to my layover in Florida, that's when I was getting a whole bunch of emails and calls. Then I was like, "This is it. Fuck it. I'll just pick up a phone call and get it over with. How much longer am I gonna run?"

Damn ! Why I pick up my phone !

— JTG (@Jtg1284) June 12, 2014

But it was a sigh of relief, though, because there were some projects I was working on and I knew under contract, it would be some difficulty, so it was kind of like the next chapter in my life. I'm not bitter. I'm completely fine with it.

That whole day on social media, there was a running joke among fans, "JTG's still on the roster?!"

Yeah, because they couldn't get a hold of me! [laughs] I was in the air. I was highly entertained by [the tweets and memes]. There was a lot of good, creative ones. There was also some GIFs that I enjoyed. I favorited them and saved. One of my favorite GIFs, before I got released, was one with Mr. Burns. He was like, "Fire him, him him," he was pointing at the monitor and then he came to my picture. I don't know how they did it. I don't know how these fans put my picture in the TV, and he was like, "Nah nah nah, keep him." [laughs]

But I was very entertained, and I laughed along with some of those tweets. "JTG, how do you still have a job? Where are the bodies?" I was like, "I'll never tell." [laughs]

Via Jayson Paul

Why do you think you survived so many rounds of releases and stayed on the roster for so long, while not being used?

When I first got there, Vince told me a lot of stuff that made me know that he saw potential in me. He told me that I had a lot of charisma, a lot of personality, and that I was going to have a bright future in the WWE. So I knew he saw something in me, so that gave me inspiration. I set some high goals. I was like, man, shit. He thinks this of me. I'm gonna headline WrestleMania! [laughs] But if you read the book, I did some things that might have changed his mind, that changed the course of my career. That's not a fact, that's just my opinion.

I'm not gonna say they forgot about me. A lot of people say, "Did they forget about you when you were under contract?" No. They know exactly who they have under contract. I was there, they knew I was there. I was on the road a majority of the time, until almost the last year of my contract. They didn't bring me on the road for almost a year [before they released me]. And that's when I knew the writing was on the wall. In the back of my mind, I was still being optimistic. Like, maybe they're just taking me off the road and off of TV so they can bring me back with a brand-new character, but ... no. [laughs]

What was the year like where you weren't on the road or on TV? Obviously you still had to check in, tell the office when you were heading to Trinidad or something like that, right?

No. [laughs] After a while, I was home for so long, I didn't tell them nothing.

Other than hitting the gym, did you work out in the ring at all, to keep yourself ready while you were off TV?

Um ... no. [laughs] Not at all. I just stayed in the gym. I watched the product every now and then to see what was going on, to keep up with the storylines. But other than that, [no]. Once you're in our profession, it's like riding a bike. You never forget.

So you don't believe in ring rust?

A little bit. I wouldn't say take a few months off and then go have a friggin' 20-minute match. [laughs] But if you want to have a five-minute match or a six-minute match ... My first independent [booking after getting released], first time getting back in the ring, I went to [Brian] Kendrick's school [in Southern California] just to run the ropes a little bit and take a few bumps, but I didn't have a full-blown match [before getting back into it].

WWE Superstars seem to have a very specific skill of interacting with fans and making sure they all have a great experience. How much are you coached on fan interaction and how early does that start when you get to the WWE?

I'd say [it starts] immediately when you get on the road. They have a lot of classes. There's PR training, when I got there, there were promo classes. And those were hands-on with Vince himself. We had someone like Freddie Prinze Jr. He was there helping us. How to engage with fans, there were definitely classes for that.

There's a big difference [between indie wrestlers and WWE wrestlers interacting with fans]. Because you're not only just representing yourself, or representing your character, you're representing a multimillion dollar company.

[They want to make sure each fan] has a positive experience, a unique experience. Especially kids. Any little thing that you do that's gonna stand out to them. For example, if you overhear their name being said by their mother or something. If you hear their mom say, "Okay Stevie, go up to JTG." Then you act like, "Hey! How you doin', Stevie?" You use their name and they're like, "Oh, he knows me! How did he know my name?" Little things like that can make a kid's world. That's our job. Put smiles on people's faces.

Does it ever get tedious?

No. I never had any bad experience with fans. Sometimes they do say something negative and it rolls off my back, because you're saying that about a character. You don't know me. You can say what you want about JTG. You insult Jayson Paul, then we have an issue. [laughs]

Is there anyone you never got a chance to work with that you wanted to work with?

I would have loved to work [D-Generation X]. That would have been a fun match for the fans. Cryme Tyme vs. D-X. Backstage, we were referred to as "the urban D-X." A lot. They actually told us we were going to work them at some point, but it never happened.

I've worked everybody. I've worked with everybody.

Who's the easiest to work with?

I mentioned in the book, [Chris] Jericho. Santino [Marella] is easy to work with. I had the privilege and honor to work with Daniel Bryan in a dark match. He was great to work with. We both came out looking good after that match. I worked with Bray Wyatt while he was working on that character. I rode with him that weekend and after that, I had a new friend, man. I got to know him a little bit more and we bonded. His brother [Bo Dallas] is a great guy, too. I wish them both the best.

Via Wikimedia Commons

Other than JTG, which WWE performers during your time there had the biggest potential that didn't work out?

Elijah Burke had a lot of potential. Alex Riley. That guy can cut a promo. He's entertaining as hell. A lot of charisma, had a great look. And I hope they do something with him. Also with Zack Ryder. Ryback. When he was getting that push, when he initially came out, I was like, yes, he deserves it. I was a Ryback fan. I was doing the "feed me more" [arm gesture]. And that just got -- the rug pulled out from underneath him. He would have to tell his story, I'm not gonna tell it for him, but that four-letter word comes up [heat].

And also Kofi Kingston. I believe he's a human highlight reel and I think he deserves to be a top guy.

Since you mention Kofi, and this has come up a lot in recent months with the New Day, what was your experience with racism within the WWE?

I didn't experience any racism -- there was little sprinkles of stuff that I thought was ignorant or racist, but it wasn't because of the company. It was certain individuals. But I definitely believe that there is a system that a black Superstar can only get so far. There's a ceiling to them. I definitely do believe that. Since I've been there, I've never seen a black champion. I keep hearing about The Rock, he was African-American, he's black -- which he is, he is definitely black, he's African-American, his father's black -- but he's not identified [by media or society] as black. So that's a big difference. Once you play Hercules, with the long, flowing hair ... [laughs] you don't identify as black [to the outside world]. He's exotic, he's ambiguous. [laughs] He's just The Rock.

What's your relationship with The Rock?

He's a great guy. He's very approachable. I'll tell you a story about The Rock. The first time I actually met him was in Gold's Gym. I was working out, I saw him there. I was still on the roster. While he was working out -- I didn't want to interrupt him. You don't want to interrupt a guy like that while he's working out, but I just tapped him on the shoulder. I'm like, "When you're done working out, you mind if I talk with you for a little bit?" He's like, "You're ... [thinking] You're Cryme Tyme, right?" I was like, "Yeah." He was like, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." And he worked out and at the end of his workout, he found me. He came looking for me and we talked for a little bit. He actually looked for me and found me and we talked for a little bit and he remembered me after that. It was a cool experience.

Every time I see The Rock, it's usually at the gym. He's always a cool guy.

Are his workouts crazy, or what?

It's intense. It's very intense. Geez. Rock trains on a different level. [laughs] His spotters need spotters. [laughs]

When Cryme Tyme was first introduced, there was a lot written about the gimmick being racist. What's your take on how the gimmick was intended and how it was received?

See, the thing with that is, a lot of fans and people who watch wrestling think that the WWE gave us that gimmick. We were doing that gimmick on our own. We did those [introductory] vignettes in OVW all on our own. We got our own camera, we asked favors from friends and people we worked with to help us out with these vignettes. They were so good, WWE saw them, Vince McMahon saw them and we got signed off of those vignettes. He never even saw us wrestle. He just thought we were entertaining and he signed us. So what the WWE did was, they just put money behind those vignettes. Those videos. And we were called up to the main roster.

And that's what the whole -- not just WWE, the whole wrestling business: they take stereotypes and they make money off of it. Off of the stereotypes that society has made. WWE didn't make [these stereotypes], they just capitalize off of it and make money off of it.

Do you feel like things are moving away from that, or do you think that's always going to be a part of wrestling?

I think they're getting away from it a little bit. There always will be racial stereotypes, but I don't know if they're going to exaggerate it as much as they used to.

You say pro wrestling takes racial stereotypes and makes money off of them. Do you think that can potentially be dangerous?

I think they do it very tastefully. They don't overdo it. The only thing I can think about that could have been distasteful is [when the "Mexicools" rode lawn mowers to the ring]. That was a little too much. [laughs] Sometimes it's the talent that comes up with those` ideas, to be outside the box. And the WWE says, "Okay." But then the company gets the blame for it.

There's a lot of talk, especially recently, that Vince McMahon and the WWE want young Superstars to step up and "grab that brass ring." Is that --

That's all bullshit. It's bullshit. It sounds good to say, but I remember one time we was having a meeting. After WrestleMania, they usually give talent this inspirational talk, like "It's WrestleMania, that's our new year. We need talent to step up, grab that brass ring." They give you that bullshit inspirational talk. We all know it's bullshit, because [they] pick who [they] want to be stars.

So they usually ask, "Who's gonna step up this year and get the brass ring?" And I stood up. I got up off my seat and I stood up. And they didn't even acknowledge me. It was like "oh shit," [laughs] and I sat back down. I knew I was gonna get heat for that, like "this guy thinks he's gonna be a top guy," but whatever.

Since you've worked with pretty much everyone, I'd like to bounce some names off you and get your take on each of them in a short sentence or two.

Okay, gotcha.

Vince.

Evil genius. [laughs]

Stephanie McMahon.

Great to work with. She gave talent creative liberty.

Hulk Hogan.

The first time I met Hogan, that was the second time I got like super drunk. It was at New Year's. Oh, man. I was so embarrassed. But every time I met him, he's been very cool.

Shad.

That's my brother, man. Loyalty and respect. [laughs]

The Rock.

Just a genuine, genuine dude. Keeps it real.

Steve Austin.

Another dude who's very cool and genuine. He keeps it real. I made a promise to him and I broke it. I promised him, early in my career -- after Vince told me I had a bright future and had all this charisma and personality -- I was having a conversation with Austin, and I made a promise to him that I was gonna one day main event at WrestleMania. He was like, "I'm gonna hold you to that, kid. You made me that promise." I was like, yeah! I'm gonna do it. Sorry, Austin.

Undertaker.

Real cool dude. He's very approachable. Several times, I asked him for advice. He was cool enough to give it to me, keep it real. He's a straight shooter.

CM Punk.

Oh, man. I have mixed emotions about Punk. Inside the ring, he's incredible. On the mic, he's incredible. Me and him were never best friends. He's a hilarious guy, he's funny. If you're his friend, you're his friend. I'll overhear him talking [and] he has a lot of punchlines. He's quirky. He's very intelligent, very articulate. He's smart. But if you're not his friend, you're not ... [laughs] he doesn't really care too much for you. We were associates.

I wish him the best of luck. I love the podcast that he did. He kept it real. There's nothing in there that I was like, "Come on, Punk." Everything pretty much seemed like ... "Yeah, sounds about right." I wish him the best of luck. I hope he doesn't fight the Green Ranger. I want him to kick his ass, but I don't think he should fight him, because I think it would be too gimmicky. Maybe a street fight. A legalized street fight. [laughs]

You can purchase JTG's book on Payhip.