JTG On Cody Rhodes Leaving WWE, Talent Getting Frustrated, Which WWE Release Surprised Him The Most
Former WWE talent JTG was recently interviewed by the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast. You can check out highlights, courtesy of Chad & John, and the full interview at this link.
The recent WWE releases and struggles felt by under-utilized talent:
"Talent are finally getting frustrated and definitely getting frustrated with the way things are getting handled backstage and it's sad because it doesn't matter how hard you work, you have to be chosen. You have to be handpicked and (Ryback) when he put out that statement a couple of weeks ago it made a lot of sense because it is the only business no matter how hard you work it can achieve to nothing."
Reaction to Cody Rhodes' departure:
"When I was there (Cody) definitely "played the game". The last couple of years I am not sure what was going on backstage but I could definitely tell by the way he was expressing himself in that release letter and the tweet that he put out that he was definitely going through some of the characteristics that some of the other talents go through when they get frustrated and they are contacting the writers and I spoke about that in my last book "How To Play The Game" and it's when it's time to start playing the game there are 10 ways to know because when you start talking to writers and they start ignoring you and dodging and avoiding you backstage and that was happening to Cody and I don't know how that was happening to Cody because he holds some weight backstage with his father being Dusty Rhodes and his brother is an agent and also a future Hall of Famer, Goldust so I don't know how the writers were avoiding him. I guess they got told by the "higher-ups" but I don't know."
Which release surprised him the most:
"Definitely Damien Sandow. He got himself over and the response that he got from the WrestleMania Andre The Giant Battle Royal was WOW! I haven't seen this guy in a while and he was getting a great reaction from the crowd and they had to do something with him and I did not see that coming with him in the releases and that goes to show that if you are not handpicked it doesn't matter if you get a reaction or not if you are not selected by the "powers-that-be" or don't play the game you are not going to be used."
What can the next crop of stars that have been brought up strictly through the WWE system expect when they move on:
"The next crop definitely needs to read my book (laughing) because it definitely is talked about with my experiences that I had to deal with and I had to go through in my career just by that no one told me. Like those WWE NXT guys I didn't really have that much experience outside of it and outside of developmental territory because when I first started I went straight to OVW and I didn't do any Indy shows until I was released. So I didn't get a good grasp about how the Indies worked and what they do on the road doing Independent shows. But what they need to expect is put their ego aside and just be YES men pretty much. Just go along to get along, eat sh*t and like it.":
Deciding to write his two books and not holding back on his experiences:
"At first I was kind of apprehensive about doing it and I was a little scared because the thought of putting the book out, I had no experience and no idea how to put a book out so I started doing searches and reaching out and when I started telling stories about the wrestling business to my friends and family who had no idea about the wrestling business and didn't even watch wrestling they were really taken back by the stories I shared with them and they thought it was really ridiculous. Even the concept of "heat" they would say you guys are grown ass men and are coming across as larger than life characters and you are acting like elementary school kids."
"It's hard for me to find a negative response to my book. There has been a lot of positive and a lot of great feedback and even from the talent in the locker room. A lot of the boys when I see them in the airports they tell me they love my book and sometimes they apply it at work. But everyone is enjoying the books, it's funny from beginning to end, you can't put it down and a majority of the readers and people that follow me on social media tweet me back how they read it in one day because they couldn't put it down."
JTG also discusses the formation of Cryme Tyme, their multiple runs in WWE, Shad's heat with John Cena, lasting as long as he did in WWE, loving his time in OVW and much more.