JTG Discusses ‘Culture Shock’ When He First Joined Ohio Valley Wrestling In WWE

In a recent interview with GOW Media 216, former WWE superstar JTG discussed the “culture shock” when he first arrived in WWE’s Ohio Valley Wrestling, which wrestlers looked out for him, and much more. Here are some of the highlights (via Wrestling Inc.):

JTG on the “culture shock” when he first arrived in WWE’s Ohio Valley Wrestling and which wrestlers looked out for him: “It was fairly difficult, it was definitely walking on eggshells. I don’t think it is like that right now. When I got to OVW, especially being a brother moving to Louisville, Kentucky, it was a big culture shock…..when I first got there, I had two individuals look out for me like I was their little brother. That was Elijah Burke, The Pope, the wrestling world knows him as The Pope. Then I had Shad (Gaspard), my tag team partner. We didn’t know we were going to be tag team partners. We just kicked it off because we grew up from similar backgrounds, we are both from Brooklyn, New York. We grew up around the same neighborhood, it was just like a coincidence, and then we just became close. He taught me how to work out, he showed me around Louisville, he gave me his I.D. so I could go into the club at 19. We just hit it off. We became great friends, and later down the line, we became tag team partners.”

On the locker room in OVW and his mom supporting him: “The locker room was a lot different, like you said. It was shark-infested. In OVW, they had different tiers, and when I first started, I was in an amateur class. Then they had an intermediate class then there was a contract class. A lot of people didn’t make it through the amateur class, and a lot of people didn’t make it through the intermediate class. To get to the contract class to train with contract talent, you really had to prove yourself, and then there was also a large tuition fee. When I felt that I was confident enough to join the contract class, I made a call to my mom, and she was a big wrestling fan and she supported me all the way up until then. I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve got this much money and I need this much more money to get to the next class,’ and she was like, ‘I’m going to take some money out of my savings. I believe in you, you can do this.’ I’m like, ‘I need to go to the next level, I need to be seen by WWE,’ because in the contract class, you’re training with contract talent and you’re going to be seen by WWE because they’re always keeping an eye on their contract talent. So, it was a great investment.”