| JTG | |
|---|---|
JTG meets fans at the "WrestleMania 23 Fan Axxess Tour" |
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| Ring name(s) | (The) Neighborhoodie[1] JTG[1] Jay-TG[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[2] |
| Billed weight | 232 lb (105 kg) |
| Born | December 10, 1984 [1] Harlem, New York City, New York |
| Resides | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Billed from | Brooklyn, New York[2] |
| Trained by | OVW staff |
| Debut | 2002[1] |
Jayson Anthony Paul[3] (born December 10, 1984)[1] is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name JTG (Jayson The Gangsta).[4] He is currently signed to WWE wrestling on its Raw brand.[2]
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Paul began his career in 2006, working in the WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) under the ring name "The Neighborhoodie".[5] While there he was placed into a tag team with Shad Gaspard, and, calling themselves "The Gang Stars", they held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on two occasions.[6]
In 2006 the team was promoted from OVW to the Raw brand under the name "Cryme Tyme", with Paul changing his name to JTG (Jayson That Gangster). On September 4, 2006, a series of vignettes start airing on Raw, hyping the debut of Cryme Tyme.[7] On the October 16, 2006 edition of Raw, Cryme Tyme debuted and defeated two members of the then World Tag Team Champions, the Spirit Squad (Mikey and Johnny), in a non-title match.[8] In November 2006, at Cyber Sunday, Cryme Tyme defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Charlie Haas and Viscera and The Highlanders in a Texas Tornado match (as voted by the fans).[9] As part of their gimmick, Cryme Tyme regularly stole items belonging to other wrestlers and on-air personalities, and sold them to fans.[9][10] and sold false entry numbers at the Royal Rumble.[10] 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.[11] They then competed mainly on Heat for the next few months,[10] although they made a backstage appearance at WrestleMania 23.[10] They also took part in the tag team battle royal on April 2.[10][12] After Mr. McMahon's "death", Cryme Tyme plugged some merchandise and auctions on WWE's official website in memory of him.[10] 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.[13] 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".[13] On July 21, 2007, Cryme Tyme defeated the James Boys to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship for the second time.[6][14] 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.[15] On the August 20, 2007 edition of Raw, Cryme Tyme stole Murdoch's hat and sold to a fan,[16] and the following week, stole Cade's and gave it away to a fan.[17] In the middle of this feud, on September 2, 2007, both Paul and Gaspard were released from World Wrestling Entertainment.[3]
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".[18] Paul appeared in Derby City Wrestling (DCW) at their end of year show.[19] He was then involved in a feud with "The Mobile Homers" in DCW.[20]
Paul and Gaspard returned to WWE on the March 31, 2008 edition of Raw, as "Cryme Tyme" where they defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch in their first televised WWE match in nearly six months.[21]
Cryme Tyme began working with John Cena on the June 30 edition of Raw when they helped him interfere during JBL's match.[22] The following week, they again appeared together in a backstage segment when they vandalised JBL's limo.[23] After a house show match, Cena confirmed that they had created a faction and announced that it would be known as CTC, "Cryme Tyme Cenation".[24] Separately, Cryme Tyme started a feud with the World Tag Team Champions Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, stealing their championship belts for a time,[25] then losing a title match to them at Unforgiven.[26] 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.[27] 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 by John Morrison and R- Truth. This prompted Shad to attack JTG, breaking up the team. Their feud culminated with a Strap Match at Extreme Rules that JTG won. Shad would later win a rematch on the May 6 edition of WWE Superstars. He participated on the October 18 edition of Raw in a battle royal; although he was the third eliminated, his team won. He, along with William Regal participated to announce the Slammy Knucklehead Award on the December 18 edition of Raw. After a series of losses, he got a win by defeating Curt Hawkins on the December 16 edition of Superstars. On the December 17 edition of SmackDown, JTG started a segment called Str8 Outta Brooklyn, discussing topics on celebrities and Superstars.
JTG appeared on the December 21, 2010 edition of WWE NXT, where he filled in as a mentor for Johnny Curtis as R-Truth was out sick. He was later 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.[28] 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 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, in which he lost. He completely turned heel on the June 9, 2011 edition of Superstars, where he took on Chris Masters in a losing effort. On the July 19 and August 2 editions of NXT, Vladimir Kozlov beat JTG two times in a row with Kozlov also dressed like JTG in the second match. Kozlov was released on August 5th 2011, ending the feud. 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 would then be managed by Tamina starting on the November 9, 2011 episode of NXT, and the next week. JTG lost against Jimmy Uso in the first week being managed by Tamina.