JTG on Feeling a Responsibility to Represent Cryme Tyme Well, His NWA Run

JTG recently discussed his current run in the NWA, feeling a responsibility to uphold Cryme Tyme’s legacy and more in a new interview. The former WWE star and tag team partner of the late Shad Gaspard spoke with Metro, and you can see highlights below:

On what drives him in his career: “Besides my passion, it would definitely be representing both Shad and myself. I’m not just representing myself anymore. When people see JTG, Jay Tha Gawd, they automatically think of Shad. I wanna make sure I represent the team and myself and him in the best light possible and keep Cryme Tyme alive with whatever I do forwards.”

On distancing him from the initial reaction from fans to Shad’s passing: ‘I had to distance myself for a few days. I feel like it took me a month or two to get back to my normal self. It took a while and a lot of alone time and meditation. To see it on social media, everybody sharing – it helped me a lot during my grieving, seeing all these things that people were writing about him, the videos, charity, all that good stuff. It definitely helped me through the grieving process.”

On if he thinks Cryme Tyme would have done well in the current tag scene: “I think we’d have adjusted pretty good. Shad is always big on telling stories too, so we would definitely have took some adjusting. When Cryme Tyme’s together, we’re a bunch of entertainers, and you’d have had to definitely incorporate a lot of our entertaining tag team spots and the mischievous deeds we did into our story.”

On appreciating the NWA’s storytelling elements: “I would say that a good 95% of the roster has that mindset. Everyone seems to be on the same page. We’re here to tell a story and bring old-school wrestling back!”