Jayson Anthony Paul (December 10, 1984) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name JTG. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as one half of the tag team Cryme Tyme with Shad Gaspard.
Professional wrestling career[]
World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2007)[]
Paul began his career in 2006, working in the WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) under the ring name "The Neighborhoodie". While there, he was placed into a tag team with Shad Gaspard, calling themselves "The Gang-Stars". They held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on two occasions.
In 2006 the team was promoted from OVW to the Raw brand under the name "Cryme Tyme", with Paul changing his name to JTG . On September 4, 2006, a series of vignettes star airing on Raw, hyping the debut of Cryme Tyme. On the October 16, 2006 edition of Raw, Cryme Tyme debuted and defeated two members of the then named World Tag Team Champions, the Spirit Squad (Mikey and Johnny), in a non-title match. In November 2006, at Cyber Sunday, Cryme Tyme defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Charlie Haas, Viscera, and The Highlanders in a Texas Tornado match (as voted by the fans). As part of their gimmick, Cryme Tyme regularly stole items belonging to other wrestlers and on-air personalities, and sold them to fans. They were also selling false entry numbers at the Royal Rumble. A few months later at the New Year's Revolution pay-per-view, Cryme Tyme won a Tag Team Turmoil Match against The Highlanders, The World's Greatest Tag Team, Cade and Murdoch, and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Super Crazy, earning them a shot at the World Tag Team Championships. They then competed mainly on Heat for the next few months, although they made a backstage appearance at WrestleMania 23. They also took part in the tag team battle royal on April 2.
After Mr. McMahon's "death", Cryme Tyme plugged some merchandise and auctions on WWE's official website in memory of him. On June 29, 2007, on an episode of SmackDown, Deuce 'n Domino (with Cherry) defeated Cryme Tyme in an inter-brand match tag team match. While Deuce, Domino and Cherry celebrated their victory, Cryme Tyme appeared on the titantron and, in storyline, stole their car, taking it to Brisco Brothers Auto to sell it for parts chanting their signature catch phrase, "Money money, yeah, yeah". On July 21, 2007, Cryme Tyme defeated the James Boys to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship for the second time. On August 13, 2007 Cryme Tyme returned to their hometown of New York City on an episode of Raw from Madison Square Garden, losing to then-World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch in a non-title match by disqualification when Shad used a chair on Murdoch. On the August 20, 2007 edition of Raw, Cryme Tyme stole Murdoch's hat and sold to a fan, and the following week, stole Cade's and gave it away to a fan. In the middle of this feud, on September 2, 2007, both Paul and Gaspard were released from World Wrestling Entertainment.
Independent circuit (2007–2008)[]
Paul, along with Gaspard wrestled at the Jersey All Pro Wrestling 10th Anniversary Show on October 27, 2007. Wrestling as "Crime Time", they defeated the Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz. Paul appeared in Derby City Wrestling (DCW) at their end of year show. He was then involved in a feud with "The Mobile Homers" in DCW.
Return to World Wrestling Entertainment (2008–2014)[]
Teaming and feuding with Shad (2008–2010)[]
Cryme Tyme returned to WWE on the March 31, 2008 edition of Raw, where they defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch in their first televised match in nearly six months. Cryme Tyme began working with John Cena on the June 30 edition of Raw when they helped him interfere during JBL's match. The following week, they again appeared together in a backstage segment when they vandalized JBL's limo which resulted in Cena being arrested. After a house show match, Cena announced they had created a faction called CTC, "Cryme Tyme Cenation". Separately, Cryme Tyme started a feud with the World Tag Team Champions Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, stealing their championship belts for a time, then losing a title match to them at Unforgiven. JTG entered early into the Royal Rumble match at the 2009 Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January, after cheating to get a spot instead of Shad. JTG lasted nearly 12 minutes before he was eliminated by The Undertaker. On the January 26 episode of Raw, JTG and Shad attempted to win the World Tag Team Championship from John Morrison and The Miz, but were unsuccessful.
On April 15, 2009, Cryme Tyme were drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. They earned a Unified Tag Team Championship match against Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for SummerSlam after defeating The Hart Dynasty on the July 31 edition of SmackDown. On the August 6 edition of SmackDown, JTG pinned Chris Jericho in a major upset. But at SummerSlam they lost the match after an illegal partner, The Big Show, hit JTG in the face and Chris Jericho pinned him. At WrestleMania XXVI, Cryme Tyme competed in the dark match Battle Royal but neither won the match.
On the April 2, 2010 edition of SmackDown, Cryme Tyme was quickly defeated and lost a match to John Morrison and R-Truth. The loss of the match prompted Shad to attack JTG, breaking up the team. Their feud culminated with a Strap Match at Extreme Rules that JTG won. After JTG won against Caylen Croft, Shad immediately attacked him unsuccessfully. Shad won a rematch on the May 6 edition of WWE Superstars, and Cryme Tyme came to an end. Shad's final WWE appearance was on the May 14, 2010 edition of SmackDown and was sent to Florida Championship Wrestling, where he participated in a few matches. Shad was released from his WWE contract in November 2010.
Lower-card status (2010–2014)[]
JTG was announced to be one of the Pros for NXT Redemption, mentoring Jacob Novak. On the May 3, 2011 episode of NXT, he started his feud with William Regal when Regal called him a "Muppet" while Novak was calling out Regal out to a match, turning him heel. Two weeks later, Novak was eliminated, being the first to no longer be part of the show. In the 2011 WWE Draft, JTG was drafted to the Raw brand in the Supplemental Draft via WWE.com on April 26, 2011.
On the May 24 edition of NXT, JTG had a feud with Vladimir Kozlov's rookie Conor O'Brian after he was pinned by O'Brian in a singles match. Afterwards JTG attacked O'Brian until Kozlov made a save and attacked JTG. He wrestled on the May 26 edition of Superstars as a face where he took on Curt Hawkins in a losing effort. He officially cemented his status as a heel on the June 7 edition of NXT Redemption when he attacked Yoshi Tatsu on JTG's in ring segment "Straight Outta Brooklyn". As he was going backstage, Matt Striker came out and announced JTG will face Yoshi Tastu. He went on to lose the match. On the July 19 and August 2 editions of NXT Redemption, Kozlov started a feud with JTG beating him two times in a row with Kozlov also dressed like JTG in the second match. The feud ended when Kozlov was released on August 5, 2011. JTG scored his first win in months on the August 5 edition of SmackDown teaming with David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty to defeat The Usos and Trent Barreta.
JTG gained a girlfriend and manager in Tamina in November 2011, leading to a feud with the Usos, whom Tamina had formerly managed; JTG continually found himself losing to the Usos.
Alicia Fox then approached JTG in May 2012 and offered to give JTG a makeover, which JTG accepted. On the May 9 episode of NXT Redemption, JTG debuted a new look and defeated Yoshi Tatsu, which was his first and only win in 2012, as JTG soon reverted to losing matches against Percy Watson, Ted DiBiase, Brodus Clay, Ryback, and The Great Khali. On the dark match of TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs he obtained his first win in months, defeating David Otunga. JTG debuted his new attire and became a face for the night when he competed against Wade Barrett in a gauntlet match on Main Event, which he lost. He continued to losing matches to Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, and The Great Khali in 2013. He won a match against Michael McGillicutty at WrestleMania Axxess in April 2013.
He was released from WWE on June 12, 2014.
Independent Wrestling (2014–present)[]
It was announced on June 19, 2014 that JTG and Shad were looking for booking interests labeled now as the slightly altered "Crime Time".
Personal life[]
Paul graduated from John Dewey High School. In October 2012, Paul announced on Twitter that he has a daughter named Madison.
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Da Shout Out (Spinning sitout sleeper slam)
- Signature moves
- Belly to back suplex lifted and dropped into a neckbreaker
- Box Cutter (Modified arm trap backbreaker)
- Diving leg lariat
- Double swinging neckbreaker
- Dropkick, sometimes from the top rope
- Inverted double leg slam
- Mug Shot (Diving facebuster)
- Neck snap
- Running leapfrog transitioned into a leg drop bulldog
- Running somersault shoulder block
- Sliding punch to a bent-over opponent's midsection
- Managers
- Entrance themes
- "Bringin' Da Hood 2 U" by Jim Johnston (WWE; Used while a part of Cryme Tyme and in singles competition)
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Ohio Valley Wrestling
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him #84 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010
