Cryme Tyme
Encyclopedia
For animated series named Crime Time, visit Crime Time
Cryme Tyme was a professional wrestling
tag team
that was signed to WWE.
The team consisted of JTG (born Jayson Paul on December 10, 1984) and Shad (born Shad Chad Javier Romane Chittick Gaspard on January 13, 1981), an over-the-top parody of stereotypical street thugs.
an and Curaçao
n descent, Shad Gaspard was born in Brooklyn, New York. Shad is the son of Benjamin Gaspard, a former street enforcer for street gangs and personal security guard in the early 1970s, who now owns Mcfay Contracting Inc. Shad is the third of six siblings.
At five years of age Gaspard's father began training him in boxing
and at age eight he began training in a mixture of different martial arts, developing into a successful amateur fighter and earning the nickname "Beast" from his mother. By sixteen, Gaspard began prize fighting for promoter “Hardbody Harrison”, a former World Championship Wrestling
wrestler and FX Tough Man Champion, in bar fighting tournaments such as Boxing
, Kickboxing
, Mixed Martial Arts
(MMA), and tough man competitions. Even though Gaspard was only sixteen years old, he competed against adults who were older than he was by five to twenty years. Gaspard holds won-loss records as a No Holds Barred
fighter (35–7) and an amateur boxer (57–26).
Gaspard was extensively involved in athletics during his high school
years, specializing in wrestling
, track
, and basketball
. After high school, he continued to play basketball at Georgia Perimeter College
, and after leaving, he became a bodyguard
for several rappers
and actor
s, including Puff Daddy
, Cuba Gooding, Jr.
, and Mike Tyson
.
program Tough Enough 2 in 2002, but was disqualified and replaced after failing a physical. He was recruited by WWE talent scout Tom Prichard and trained with Sgt Dwayne Bruce
for six months before debuting in Ohio Valley Wrestling
(OVW) under the ring name Da Beast. He acted as part of the stable Bolin Services
, acting as an enforcer.
JTG, meanwhile had debuted as Just Too Good in OVW and after two matches was repackaged as The Neighborhoodie and placed into a tag team with Gaspard, under his own name, that later used the name The Gang Stars. In OVW, they held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
, defeating Roadkill
and Kasey James
on May 24, 2006 in their first match as a team. After they won the championships, they entered into a feud with CM Punk
who teamed up with Kane
to defeat them and Simon Dean in a handicap match. Punk and Kane won a title match but by disqualification, so the championships did not change hands. They retained the belts in a gauntlet match but later in the month lost the belts to Punk and Seth Skyfire
on July 28. The following day they lost a Number One Contendership to The Untouchables
(Dice Domino
and Deuce Shade). The following year the team returned to OVW, this time under the name Cryme Tyme, and regained the OVW Tag Team Championship on July 21 from The James Boys (KC James
and Kassidy James
). They lost the belts back to them the following day.
and dark matches. On the September 4 episode of Raw
, vignettes began airing to promote the debut of the team, now dubbed Cryme Tyme, showing them "training" for their pending debut on the show. Before the vignettes aired WWE placed a statement on their website, WWE.com, stating:
The vignettes, which aired weekly, featured Cryme Tyme robbing people while an (overly and stereotypically uncool
sounding) announcer dubbed their actions "training exercises" designed to work on things like "speed
", "agility
", "drive
", "endurance
", and "intensity
". Cryme Tyme wrestled as fan favorites
at live events and in dark matches, finally making their television debut, defeating Johnny
and Mikey of the Spirit Squad
on the October 16 episode of Raw.
After arriving on Raw they were depicted covertly stealing things—such as Jerry Lawler
's laptop, and a plasma screen TV—during interviews and while celebrating wins with the announce team.
On November 5, the team made their pay-per-view
debut at Cyber Sunday
, defeating Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, The Highlanders
(Rory and Robbie McAllister), and Charlie Haas
and Viscera
in a four team tornado tag team match. Later that same month they were featured in a Raw segment that parodied Michael Richards
's "Laugh Factory incident". In the skit, a wrestler (Nick Berk
)—acting as a stand in for Richards—recreated the scene of the incident by using racial slurs and insults until Cryme Tyme confronted him on stage. Nervous, he offered an apology, but Gaspard kicked him in the head and JTG made a Seinfeld
-esque joke, saying "What's the deal with the Bloods
and the Crips
? Can't they all just get along?". This event was the beginning of a series of vignettes and skits featuring Cryme Tyme interacting with different, unexpected audiences.
Around the same time they began a feud
with The World's Greatest Tag Team
(Shelton Benjamin
and Charlie Haas
), during which Benjamin began to express disgust with Cryme Tyme's antics, calling them offensive and harmful to the black community. During the storyline Haas started "acting black
", but after the World's Greatest Tag Team handed Cryme Tyme their first loss on the January 29, 2007 episode of Raw, the program was dropped, with Cryme Tyme appearing mainly on Raw' s sister show Heat
, only appearing on Raw in backstage segments.
On July 21, 2007, Cryme Tyme appeared at an Ohio Valley Wrestling
event and wrestled the OVW Southern Tag Team Champion
James Boys (K.C.
and Kassidy James
), taking the title. At the next weeks television tapings the James Boys were again announced as Champions, with no explanation of how they won the title back being offered.
The duo returned to Raw in July and started a gimmick where they would take items and auction them off to the crowd. This led to a feud with the World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, but both JTG and Shad were released from their WWE contracts for undisclosed reasons on September 2, 2007 before the feud was resolved.
, using the alternate spelling "Crime Time". They appeared at Jersey All Pro Wrestling
's 10th Anniversary Show, defeating the Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz. They left the promotion undefeated after defeating Style & Finesse (Mike Donovan and Rob Vegas) in January 2008's Reclaiming Hudson.
The duo also made several solo appearances on the solo circuit. Gaspard lost to Psicosis at a Pro Wrestling Alliance
event in September while his partner, appearing under the altered name Jay-TG made several appearances on the Derby City Wrestling television programme.
JTG and Shad returned to WWE under the "Cryme Tyme" name on the March 31 edition of Raw
in 2008, defeating Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Cryme Tyme began working with John Cena
on the June 30 edition of Raw when they helped him interfere during John "Bradshaw" Layfield
's match. The following week, they again appeared together in a segment when they vandalized JBL's limo. After a live event
match, Cena confirmed that they had created a faction and announced that it was called CTC or "Cryme Tyme Cenation". Separately, Cryme Tyme started a feud with the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase
, stealing their championship belts for a time, then losing a title match to them at Unforgiven
. The CTC quietly separated after Cena's injury.
On April 15, 2009, Cryme Tyme were drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. Eve Torres
later became their valet, accompanying them to the ring and appearing in backstage segments with them. Later, Eve and Cryme Tyme got into a feud with The Hart Dynasty. They competed in six person mixed tag teaam, singles and tag team action. On the July 31 episode of SmackDown, they became the number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship
by defeating The Hart Dynasty
, but tag team champions Jeri-Show
(Chris Jericho and Big Show) beat them at SummerSlam
.
Cryme Tyme was supposed to compete for Team SmackDown at WWE Bragging Rights. However, due to health concerns regarding Gaspard, Cryme Tyme (along with most of the SmackDown team) was replaced by Matt Hardy
, R-Truth
, The Hart Dynasty and Finlay
. On the March 5 episode of SmackDown!, they had a No.1 Contender's match to fight The Miz and The Big Show for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships against John Morrison and R-Truth and The Hart Dynasty, however they failed to win the match. The following week on SmackDown, Cryme Tyme were facing Hart Dynasty but were attacked by The Undertaker.
At WrestleMania XXVI
, both members of Cryme Tyme competed in the dark match battle royal, where JTG would be eliminated by Shad. Just days later on SmackDown!, after a quick loss to R-Truth
and John Morrison, Shad was enraged and attacked JTG for not coming to his rescue in the match turning Shad heel
for the first time in his WWE brand career and second time in his wrestling career. (The first being his debut in OVW). Backstage after the match during an interview, Shad told Josh Mathews, "No more Time... no more Cryme Tyme...this is my time." The next week, Shad came to the ring and announced that he was done with Cryme Tyme and announced again that it was his time. Afterwards, an enraged JTG came out ready to fight Shad, but got kicked in the face by Shad for his troubles. The week after that Shad attacked JTG again, after his match with Caylen Croft, though JTG would get the upper hand on Shad. Five days later, they faced each other at Extreme Rules
in a Strap match, which was won by JTG. The two had a standard rematch on the May 6 edition of WWE Superstars
, which Shad won by pinfall, thus ending their feud. Shad was then sent to FCW
developmental territory, while JTG stayed on Smackdown. Shad was later released from his WWE contract on November 19, 2010 along with five other wrestlers.
Crime Time
Crime Time is a series of animated shorts produced by Future Thought Productions, produced by Jay Zaveri and Steven Kasper, directed by Nassos Vakalis.- Premise :...
Cryme Tyme was a professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
tag team
Tag team
Tag team professional wrestling is a variation in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may comprise two wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name...
that was signed to WWE.
The team consisted of JTG (born Jayson Paul on December 10, 1984) and Shad (born Shad Chad Javier Romane Chittick Gaspard on January 13, 1981), an over-the-top parody of stereotypical street thugs.
Early lives
Of HaitiHaiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an and Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
n descent, Shad Gaspard was born in Brooklyn, New York. Shad is the son of Benjamin Gaspard, a former street enforcer for street gangs and personal security guard in the early 1970s, who now owns Mcfay Contracting Inc. Shad is the third of six siblings.
At five years of age Gaspard's father began training him in boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
and at age eight he began training in a mixture of different martial arts, developing into a successful amateur fighter and earning the nickname "Beast" from his mother. By sixteen, Gaspard began prize fighting for promoter “Hardbody Harrison”, a former World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...
wrestler and FX Tough Man Champion, in bar fighting tournaments such as Boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, Kickboxing
Kickboxing
Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....
, Mixed Martial Arts
Mixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...
(MMA), and tough man competitions. Even though Gaspard was only sixteen years old, he competed against adults who were older than he was by five to twenty years. Gaspard holds won-loss records as a No Holds Barred
Mixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...
fighter (35–7) and an amateur boxer (57–26).
Gaspard was extensively involved in athletics during his high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
years, specializing in wrestling
Amateur wrestling
Amateur wrestling is the most widespread form of sport wrestling. There are two international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games under the supervision of FILA : Greco-Roman and freestyle. Freestyle is possibly derived from the English Lancashire style...
, track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
. After high school, he continued to play basketball at Georgia Perimeter College
Georgia Perimeter College
Georgia Perimeter College is a two-year associate degree-granting unit of the University System of Georgia. In May 2011, the state Board of Regents approved two bachelor's programs: a Bachelor of Arts in Sign Language Interpreting and a Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics...
, and after leaving, he became a bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
for several rappers
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s, including Puff Daddy
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
, Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba M. Gooding, Jr. is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's 1996 film Jerry Maguire, and his critically acclaimed performance as Tré Styles in John Singleton's 1991 film Boyz n the Hood.-Early life:Gooding was born...
, and Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
.
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2006–2007)
Gaspard qualified for the finals of the reality televisionReality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
program Tough Enough 2 in 2002, but was disqualified and replaced after failing a physical. He was recruited by WWE talent scout Tom Prichard and trained with Sgt Dwayne Bruce
Dwayne Bruce
Dwayne Bruce is a professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker. Bruce was a trainer at the WCW Power Plant wrestling school.-Professional wrestling career:...
for six months before debuting in Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...
(OVW) under the ring name Da Beast. He acted as part of the stable Bolin Services
Kenny Bolin
Kenny Bolin is a professional wrestling manager, best known as the lead villainous manager in Ohio Valley Wrestling as the manager of Bolin Services. Hit podcast Radio show called "The Bolin Alley" he does with his son Chris...
, acting as an enforcer.
JTG, meanwhile had debuted as Just Too Good in OVW and after two matches was repackaged as The Neighborhoodie and placed into a tag team with Gaspard, under his own name, that later used the name The Gang Stars. In OVW, they held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...
, defeating Roadkill
Michael Depoli
Michael DePoli is a retired professional wrestler best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling. He worked for World Wrestling Entertainment in its Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory...
and Kasey James
Kasey James
Kurt Sellers , better known as K.C. James or James Curtis, is an American professional wrestler who was best known for working in World Wrestling Entertainment.-Early career:...
on May 24, 2006 in their first match as a team. After they won the championships, they entered into a feud with CM Punk
CM Punk
Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks , better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and working on its Raw brand currently serving his second title reign as WWE Champion....
who teamed up with Kane
Kane (wrestler)
Glenn Thomas Jacobs is a Spanish-born American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name, Kane. He is signed to WWE, appearing on its SmackDown brand, but is currently inactive due to injury....
to defeat them and Simon Dean in a handicap match. Punk and Kane won a title match but by disqualification, so the championships did not change hands. They retained the belts in a gauntlet match but later in the month lost the belts to Punk and Seth Skyfire
Seth Skyfire
Steve Adkins is a retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Seth Skyfire. He is best known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment's developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling .-Career:...
on July 28. The following day they lost a Number One Contendership to The Untouchables
Deuce 'n Domino
Deuce 'n Domino was the name of a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Deuce Shade and Dice Domino, who were managed for the majority of their run by Cherry Pie and briefly by Maryse. The pair teamed together in World Wrestling Entertainment and Ohio Valley Wrestling from 2006 through 2008...
(Dice Domino
Cliff Compton
Clifford "Cliff" Compton is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Domino. He is signed with Ohio Valley Wrestling , where he is a former two–time OVW Heavyweight Champion...
and Deuce Shade). The following year the team returned to OVW, this time under the name Cryme Tyme, and regained the OVW Tag Team Championship on July 21 from The James Boys (KC James
Kasey James
Kurt Sellers , better known as K.C. James or James Curtis, is an American professional wrestler who was best known for working in World Wrestling Entertainment.-Early career:...
and Kassidy James
Cassidy O'Reilly
Cassidy Riley is an American professional wrestler, also known as Cassidy Reilly and Cassidy O'Riley best known for work with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment....
). They lost the belts back to them the following day.
World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2007)
In late 2006, WWE promoted The Gang Stars to the main Raw brand roster, starting by having them work live eventsHouse show
A house show is a professional wrestling show run by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and...
and dark matches. On the September 4 episode of Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
, vignettes began airing to promote the debut of the team, now dubbed Cryme Tyme, showing them "training" for their pending debut on the show. Before the vignettes aired WWE placed a statement on their website, WWE.com, stating:
Square (slang)
Square used as slang may mean many things when referring to a person or in common language.In referring to a person, the word originally meant someone who was honest, traditional and loyal. An agreement that is equitable on all sides is a "square deal"...
sounding) announcer dubbed their actions "training exercises" designed to work on things like "speed
Speed
In kinematics, the speed of an object is the magnitude of its velocity ; it is thus a scalar quantity. The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance traveled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is the limit of the average speed as...
", "agility
Sport agility
Agility or nimbleness is the ability to change the body's position efficiently, and requires the integration of isolated movement skills using a combination of balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, strength, endurance and stamina....
", "drive
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
", "endurance
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
", and "intensity
Aggression
In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...
". Cryme Tyme wrestled as fan favorites
Face (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a babyface or face or in simple words, a fan favorite is a character who is portrayed as a heroic relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains...
at live events and in dark matches, finally making their television debut, defeating Johnny
Johnny Jeter
John "Johnny" Jeter is an American professional wrestler best known for his appearances in World Wrestling Entertainment as Spirit Squad member Johnny on the Raw brand in 2006....
and Mikey of the Spirit Squad
Spirit Squad
The Spirit Squad was a professional wrestling stable in World Wrestling Entertainment and Ohio Valley Wrestling that consisted of Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey. The team's ring personas were those of an all-male cheerleading squad....
on the October 16 episode of Raw.
After arriving on Raw they were depicted covertly stealing things—such as Jerry Lawler
Jerry Lawler
Jerry O'Neil Lawler is an American professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, musician, businessman, commercial artist and film actor, known throughout the wrestling world as Jerry "The King" Lawler. He is currently signed to WWE, working on its Raw brand as the color commentator and occasional...
's laptop, and a plasma screen TV—during interviews and while celebrating wins with the announce team.
On November 5, the team made their pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
debut at Cyber Sunday
Cyber Sunday (2006)
Cyber Sunday was the first annual Cyber Sunday professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on November 5, 2006 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, with 7,000 fans attending...
, defeating Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, The Highlanders
The Highlanders (professional wrestling)
The Highlanders are a Scottish professional wrestling tag team consisting of storyline cousins Robbie and Rory McAllister who were best known for wrestling for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Raw brand.-History:Couch and Murray were both born and raised in Oban, Scotland The Highlanders are...
(Rory and Robbie McAllister), and Charlie Haas
Charlie Haas
Charles "Charlie" Doyle Haas II is an American professional wrestler and former collegiate amateur wrestler. He competes on the independent circuit, and is signed to Ring of Honor , where he is one-half of the reigning ROH World Tag Team Champions with Shelton Benjamin...
and Viscera
Nelson Frazier, Jr.
Nelson Frazier, Jr. is an American professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring names Mabel, Viscera, Big Daddy V, and King V. He is best known for his work with World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment...
in a four team tornado tag team match. Later that same month they were featured in a Raw segment that parodied Michael Richards
Michael Richards
Michael Anthony Richards is an American actor, comedian, writer and television producer, best known for his portrayal of the eccentric Cosmo Kramer on the television sitcom Seinfeld....
's "Laugh Factory incident". In the skit, a wrestler (Nick Berk
Nick Berk
Nicholas K. "Nick" Berk , also known by his ring name Nicky Benz, is an American independent professional wrestler, best known for his work in Combat Zone Wrestling, where he is a former CZW World Heavyweight and Iron Man Champion....
)—acting as a stand in for Richards—recreated the scene of the incident by using racial slurs and insults until Cryme Tyme confronted him on stage. Nervous, he offered an apology, but Gaspard kicked him in the head and JTG made a Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
-esque joke, saying "What's the deal with the Bloods
Bloods
The Bloods are a street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. They are identified by the red color worn by their members and by particular gang symbols, including distinctive hand signs...
and the Crips
Crips
The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang. They were founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969 mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams...
? Can't they all just get along?". This event was the beginning of a series of vignettes and skits featuring Cryme Tyme interacting with different, unexpected audiences.
Around the same time they began a feud
Feud (professional wrestling)
A professional wrestling feud is a staged rivalry between multiple wrestlers or alliances of wrestlers. They are integrated into ongoing storylines, particularly in events which are televised...
with The World's Greatest Tag Team
The World's Greatest Tag Team
The World's Greatest Tag Team is the professional wrestling tag team of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, who currently perform as Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team. Originally formed in World Wrestling Entertainment , they started out captained by Kurt Angle, during which time they were known as...
(Shelton Benjamin
Shelton Benjamin
Shelton James Benjamin is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment. Benjamin has an amateur wrestling background, including wrestling in high school and at the University of Minnesota. In addition, Benjamin has acted...
and Charlie Haas
Charlie Haas
Charles "Charlie" Doyle Haas II is an American professional wrestler and former collegiate amateur wrestler. He competes on the independent circuit, and is signed to Ring of Honor , where he is one-half of the reigning ROH World Tag Team Champions with Shelton Benjamin...
), during which Benjamin began to express disgust with Cryme Tyme's antics, calling them offensive and harmful to the black community. During the storyline Haas started "acting black
Wigger
Wigger is a pejorative slang term for a white person who emulates mannerisms, language, and fashions associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop in the United States or the Grime/Garage scene in Britain. The term is a portmanteau of either wannabe or white and nigger...
", but after the World's Greatest Tag Team handed Cryme Tyme their first loss on the January 29, 2007 episode of Raw, the program was dropped, with Cryme Tyme appearing mainly on Raw
WWE HEAT
WWE Heat was a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...
, only appearing on Raw in backstage segments.
On July 21, 2007, Cryme Tyme appeared at an Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...
event and wrestled the OVW Southern Tag Team Champion
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...
James Boys (K.C.
Kasey James
Kurt Sellers , better known as K.C. James or James Curtis, is an American professional wrestler who was best known for working in World Wrestling Entertainment.-Early career:...
and Kassidy James
Cassidy O'Reilly
Cassidy Riley is an American professional wrestler, also known as Cassidy Reilly and Cassidy O'Riley best known for work with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment....
), taking the title. At the next weeks television tapings the James Boys were again announced as Champions, with no explanation of how they won the title back being offered.
The duo returned to Raw in July and started a gimmick where they would take items and auction them off to the crowd. This led to a feud with the World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, but both JTG and Shad were released from their WWE contracts for undisclosed reasons on September 2, 2007 before the feud was resolved.
Independent circuit (2007–2008)
After leaving WWE they continued teaming together on the professional wrestling independent circuitIndependent circuit
In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indy circuit refers to the many independent promotions which are much smaller than major televised promotions. They are roughly analagous to a minor league for pro wrestling, or community or regional theatre.Specific promotions on the...
, using the alternate spelling "Crime Time". They appeared at Jersey All Pro Wrestling
Jersey All Pro Wrestling
Jersey All Pro Wrestling is an independent wrestling promotion based in New Jersey.-1997:Jersey All Pro Wrestling is an independent wrestling promotion that was founded by "Fat" Frank Iadeavia on April 19, 1997. This promotion was born out of a dream of "Fat" Frank. He wanted to take the promotion...
's 10th Anniversary Show, defeating the Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz. They left the promotion undefeated after defeating Style & Finesse (Mike Donovan and Rob Vegas) in January 2008's Reclaiming Hudson.
The duo also made several solo appearances on the solo circuit. Gaspard lost to Psicosis at a Pro Wrestling Alliance
Pro Wrestling Alliance
Pro Wrestling Alliance is an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Houston, Texas. It was started in 2005 by Booker T.-History:The Pro Wrestling Alliance used to hold monthly events at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, Texas...
event in September while his partner, appearing under the altered name Jay-TG made several appearances on the Derby City Wrestling television programme.
World Wrestling Entertainment return (2008–2010)
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
in 2008, defeating Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Cryme Tyme began working with John Cena
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, rapper, and television personality. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its WWE Raw brand....
on the June 30 edition of Raw when they helped him interfere during John "Bradshaw" Layfield
John Layfield
John Charles Layfield is a former American professional wrestler, a former commentator/host for mixed martial arts promotion Vyper Fight League and financial analyst for Fox News...
's match. The following week, they again appeared together in a segment when they vandalized JBL's limo. After a live event
House show
A house show is a professional wrestling show run by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and...
match, Cena confirmed that they had created a faction and announced that it was called CTC or "Cryme Tyme Cenation". Separately, Cryme Tyme started a feud with the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase
Ted DiBiase, Jr.
Theodore Marvin "Ted" DiBiase Jr. is an American professional wrestler and actor signed with WWE, where he appears on its SmackDown brand...
, stealing their championship belts for a time, then losing a title match to them at Unforgiven
Unforgiven (2008)
Unforgiven was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on September 7, 2008 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio...
. The CTC quietly separated after Cena's injury.
On April 15, 2009, Cryme Tyme were drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. Eve Torres
Eve Torres
Eve Marie Torres is an American dancer, model, and professional wrestler. She is working for WWE on Raw brand. She is a two time WWE Divas Champion.Torres began her career as a model and dancer...
later became their valet, accompanying them to the ring and appearing in backstage segments with them. Later, Eve and Cryme Tyme got into a feud with The Hart Dynasty. They competed in six person mixed tag teaam, singles and tag team action. On the July 31 episode of SmackDown, they became the number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship
WWE Tag Team Championship
The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship in WWE. It was established as a second title for tag teams in WWE in 2002 to complement the original World Tag Team Championship...
by defeating The Hart Dynasty
The Hart Dynasty
The Hart Dynasty was a professional wrestling stable that appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment. The unit consisted of the tag team of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, and WWE Diva Natalya...
, but tag team champions Jeri-Show
Jeri-Show
Jeri-Show was a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of Chris Jericho and Big Show, which competed in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion...
(Chris Jericho and Big Show) beat them at SummerSlam
SummerSlam (2009)
SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on August 23, 2009 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was the 22nd annual SummerSlam event and featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands...
.
Cryme Tyme was supposed to compete for Team SmackDown at WWE Bragging Rights. However, due to health concerns regarding Gaspard, Cryme Tyme (along with most of the SmackDown team) was replaced by Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy
Matthew Moore "Matt" Hardy is a semi-retired American professional wrestler. He is best known for his stints in World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
, R-Truth
Ron Killings
Ronald Aaron "Ron" Killings is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. Since working for the company, he has been a one time United States Champion under the ring name R-Truth and a two time Hardcore Champion under the ring name K-Kwik...
, The Hart Dynasty and Finlay
Dave Finlay
David John "Fit" Finlay Jr. is a Northern Irish professional wrestler and road agent. He is perhaps best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling and WWE as an active wrestler and later as a road agent...
. On the March 5 episode of SmackDown!, they had a No.1 Contender's match to fight The Miz and The Big Show for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships against John Morrison and R-Truth and The Hart Dynasty, however they failed to win the match. The following week on SmackDown, Cryme Tyme were facing Hart Dynasty but were attacked by The Undertaker.
At WrestleMania XXVI
WrestleMania XXVI
WrestleMania XXVI was the twenty-sixth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on March 28, 2010 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. This was the fourth WrestleMania to...
, both members of Cryme Tyme competed in the dark match battle royal, where JTG would be eliminated by Shad. Just days later on SmackDown!, after a quick loss to R-Truth
Ron Killings
Ronald Aaron "Ron" Killings is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. Since working for the company, he has been a one time United States Champion under the ring name R-Truth and a two time Hardcore Champion under the ring name K-Kwik...
and John Morrison, Shad was enraged and attacked JTG for not coming to his rescue in the match turning Shad heel
Heel (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling; the term heel coming from the term take to you heels, which means to run away which heel champions tend to do to avoid losing their titles.storylines...
for the first time in his WWE brand career and second time in his wrestling career. (The first being his debut in OVW). Backstage after the match during an interview, Shad told Josh Mathews, "No more Time... no more Cryme Tyme...this is my time." The next week, Shad came to the ring and announced that he was done with Cryme Tyme and announced again that it was his time. Afterwards, an enraged JTG came out ready to fight Shad, but got kicked in the face by Shad for his troubles. The week after that Shad attacked JTG again, after his match with Caylen Croft, though JTG would get the upper hand on Shad. Five days later, they faced each other at Extreme Rules
Extreme Rules (2010)
Extreme Rules was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on April 25, 2010 at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the second event promoted under the Extreme Rules name...
in a Strap match, which was won by JTG. The two had a standard rematch on the May 6 edition of WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars is a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment that originally aired on WGN America in the United States. It debuted on April 16, 2009 and ended its domestic broadcasting on April 7, 2011...
, which Shad won by pinfall, thus ending their feud. Shad was then sent to FCW
Florida Championship Wrestling
Championship Wrestling from Florida was the corporate and brand name of the Tampa, Florida wrestling office existing from 1961, when Eddie Graham first bought into the promotion, until 1987, when it closed down. It is also referred to as Florida Championship Wrestling...
developmental territory, while JTG stayed on Smackdown. Shad was later released from his WWE contract on November 19, 2010 along with five other wrestlers.
In wrestling
- Double-team finishing moves
-
- G9 (Samoan drop (Gaspard) / Running corkscrew neckbreaker or a diving corkscrew neckbreaker (JTG) combination)
- Double-team signature moves
- Gaspard performs an inverted double leg slam on JTG, who is slammed onto the opponent in a splash-type fashion
- JTG's finishing moves
- Shout Out (Spinning neckbreaker slam)
- JTG's signature moves
- Box Cutter (Modified arm-trap backbreaker)
- Diving leg lariat
- DropkickDropkickA dropkick is an attacking maneuver in professional wrestling. It is defined as an attack where the wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the soles of both feet; this sees the wrestler twist as he or she jumps so that when the feet connect with the opponent one foot is raised higher than...
, sometimes from the top rope - Mug Shot (Fall forward diving facebuster)
- Running flipping neckbreaker to a seated opponent
- Running leapfrogLeapfrogLeapfrog is a children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs. The first participant rests hands on knees and bends over, which is called giving a back. Games of this sort have been called by this name since at least the late sixteenth century.The next player places hands on...
transitioned into a leg drop bulldog - Running somersault shoulder block
- Shad's finishing moves
- Thugnificent / Shad Taking Over (STO)
- Shad's signature moves
- Gorilla press slam
- Running big boot
- Running delayed elbow drop, with theatrics
- Scoop powerslam
- Shoulder block
- Sidewalk slam
- Snake eyes
- Entrance musicMusic in professional wrestlingMusic in professional wrestling serves a variety of purposes. The most common uses of music in professional wrestling is that of the entrance theme, a song or piece of instrumental music which plays as a performer approaches the ring...
- "Bringin' Da Hood T U" by Jim JohnstonJim Johnston (composer)James Alan "Jim" Johnston is an American music composer who has been working for WWE since 1985. His work is often accredited to the names Jim Johnston, James A...
(as Cryme Tyme) (WWE;October 16 2006–April 2 2010)
- "Bringin' Da Hood T U" by Jim Johnston
- Word Up
- Cryme Tyme hosted a weekly WWE.com segment called Word Up, during which they define a different word in a parody of The Electric Company. On June 26, 2009, they started hosting "Word Up" on SmackDown as a backstage segment with EveEve TorresEve Marie Torres is an American dancer, model, and professional wrestler. She is working for WWE on Raw brand. She is a two time WWE Divas Champion.Torres began her career as a model and dancer...
and Slam Master JRay GordyTerry Ray Gordy, Jr. is an American professional wrestler best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment appearing on its SmackDown brand under the ring names Jesse and Slam Master J...
, who would constantly annoy the three. Eve departed from the segment after being traded to Raw as part of a tri-branded diva trade. Slam Master J departed soon after and was eventually released. This segment was discontinued when Cryme Tyme split in early 2010.
- Cryme Tyme hosted a weekly WWE.com segment called Word Up, during which they define a different word in a parody of The Electric Company. On June 26, 2009, they started hosting "Word Up" on SmackDown as a backstage segment with Eve
- ManagerManager (professional wrestling)In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...
s- EveEve TorresEve Marie Torres is an American dancer, model, and professional wrestler. She is working for WWE on Raw brand. She is a two time WWE Divas Champion.Torres began her career as a model and dancer...
- Eve
Championships and accomplishments
- Ohio Valley WrestlingOhio Valley WrestlingOhio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...
- OVW Southern Tag Team ChampionshipOVW Southern Tag Team ChampionshipThe OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...
(2 times)
- OVW Southern Tag Team Championship