JTG


Jayson Anthony Paul is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring name JTG.

Early life

Jayson Anthony Paul was born on December 10, 1984 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn.

Professional wrestling career

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2007)

Paul began his career in 2006, working in the World Wrestling Entertainment developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling 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 tag 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 began airing on Raw, hyping the debut of Cryme Tyme. On the October 16, 2006 episode of Raw, Cryme Tyme debuted and defeated two members of the then named World Tag Team Champions, The Spirit Squad, in a non-title match. In November 2006, at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view, Cryme Tyme defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Charlie Haas, Viscera, and The Highlanders in a Texas tornado tag team match. 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 the June 29, 2007 episode of SmackDown, Cryme Tyme was defeated by Deuce 'n Domino 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 catchphrase, "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 episode of Raw, Cryme Tyme stole Murdoch's hat and sold it 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 WWE.

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 at their end of year show. He was then involved in a feud with The Mobile Homers in DCW.

Return to WWE

Cryme Tyme reunion (2008–2010)

Cryme Tyme returned to WWE on the March 31, 2008 episode 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 episode of Raw when they helped him interfere during John "Bradshaw" Layfield's match. The following week, they again appeared together in a backstage segment when they vandalised JBL's limo. After a house show match, Cena announced they had created a faction called CTC, "Cryme Tyme Cenation". Separately, Cryme Tyme started a feud with then 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 WWE Tag Team Championship match against Jeri-Show for SummerSlam after defeating The Hart Dynasty on the July 31 episode of SmackDown. On the August 6 episode of SmackDown, JTG pinned Jericho in a major upset, however at SummerSlam they lost the match after Show hit JTG in the face and Jericho pinned him. at the Royal Rumble, JTG entered his second royal rumble match but only lasted 25 seconds getting eliminated by CM Punk. At WrestleMania XXVI, Cryme Tyme competed in the dark match battle royal, but neither won the match.
On the April 2, 2010 episode of SmackDown, Cryme Tyme was quickly defeated by John Morrison and R-Truth. The loss of the match prompted Gaspard to attack JTG, breaking up the team. Their feud culminated with a strap match at Extreme Rules which JTG won. After JTG won against Caylen Croft, Gaspard immediately attacked him unsuccessfully. Shad won a rematch on the May 6 episode of Superstars, but their feud came to an end when Gaspard was sent to Florida Championship Wrestling.

Singles competition (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 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 episode 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 episode of Superstars as a face in a losing effort against Curt Hawkins. He officially cemented his status as a heel on the June 7 episode 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 would face Tatsu in a match, which JTG lost. On the July 19 and August 2 episodes 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 by WWE on August 5, 2011. JTG scored his first win in months on the August 5 episode 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 him 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 for the rest of 2012 and 2013, including his final match, which was a loss to Santino Marella on the September 20, 2013 episode of Superstars. After not appearing on WWE television in 2014, JTG was released on June 12.

Return to the independent circuit (2014–present)

In June 2014, JTG and former tag team partner Shad Gaspard began taking bookings as Crime Time, changing the spelling of the name in order to avoid a lawsuit from WWE. On August 23, 2014 for Warriors of Wrestling, Crime Time and The Blue Meanie were defeated by Chachi, Verna and J-George. This was his first match since leaving WWE. JTG has appeared at wrestling events by himself or with Gaspard as part of Crime Time in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In 2017, he wrestled for Joey Ryan's California Bar Wrestling promotion in matches by himself and with Gaspard. In 2019, he has wrestled a tag match with Shad at a Game Changer Wrestling/Suburban Fight Pro event and in a battle royal at Joey Janela's Spring Break 3. On February 15, 2020, Cryme Tyme appeared at former WWE wrestler Santino Marella's Battle Arts promotion in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, which was their final match as a tag team before Gaspard's death in May 2020.

Other media

JTG has appeared in the video games as a playable character in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011.

Filmography

Personal life

Paul has a daughter named Madison and resides in Los Angeles. He was a close friend of Shad Gaspard, before Gaspard's death in May 2020.

Championships and accomplishments