Former WWE Superstar and Crime Time member JTG recently spoke with our friends at WrestlingInc.com about the hot-button issue of racism in pro wrestling, among other topics.
JTG, who is promoting his new book, “Damn, Why Did I Write This Book?,” spoke about how he initially got the Crime Time gimmick.
“Well, there’s two aspects to the Cryme Tyme gimmick,” JTG said. “There’s the look of the characters. At first, I didn’t want to do it. My original partner was Abraham Washington. He called me up when we were in amateur class in OVW. He said we had an amateur show coming up, and he said if we were trying to get signed we needed to come out with bulletproof vests, fitted hats, a whole bunch of chains. We should wrestle in jeans and Timberlands. I said absolutely not, it’s too stereotypical, and I already bought tights and wrestling boots. He talked me in to it, and we did the amateur show. We blew the roof off at the amateur show.
“The characters, me and Shad came up with that. We did some vignettes down in OVW after we won the titles. Our trainer Al Snow said ‘you don’t have to wrestle every week to get over, do something to get your characters over, show some personality.’ Shad and I went out on your own and put those vignettes together that you saw on WWE. It was two different vignettes, but with WWE there was better production.”
JTG also stated that he feels African-Americans are portrayed in a way that is behind-the-times.
“I think the reason is that on the creative team there aren’t enough people of different backgrounds and age groups,” JTG said. “If they bring in someone who can bring in someone who can bridge that generation gap, I think the African-American wrestlers will have more up-to-date stuff.”
You can order JTG’s new book at PayHip.com.
