JTG says Cryme Tyme had to script their own promos due to lack of black writers in WWE. Cryme Tyme was a popular tag team back in the mid 2000’s.
JTG and the late Shad Gaspard worked together as the Cryme Tyme in the WWE. Although they never won the Tag Team Championships, they were quite popular with the crowd for their antics. At one point, they even formed a faction with John Cena, and called themselves CTC or “Cryme Tyme Cenation”.
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JTG told Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman that the duo had a major role in their creative direction, espescially when it came to scripting their promos due to the non-black writers in WWE struggling to fully understand or grasp their slang.
JTG says Cryme Tyme had to script their own promos due to lack of black writers in WWE
“It was hard for the writers to write Cryme Tyme because of our slang, and how we like to have fun with words, so we pretty much did our own thing out there.
“[The writers] would go to the Urban Dictionary or like, Slang.com or something like that. Like, ‘Is it cool to say this?’ ‘No, we can’t say molly wop. The kids are not saying that today.’”
Cryme Tyme was criticised for perpatuating racist stereotypes. JTG admitted that the gimmick would not work in today’s climate. However, he revealed that the intention was to do something positive.
“It definitely wouldn’t have flied in 2021, but during that time, the way Vince explained the gimmick to me, it made a lot of sense. I thought we were going to do something positive, because what he wanted to do when he first explained to me in our first meeting, he was like, ‘I want to take this thug image, the image that you guys got, and I want to flip it.
When people see the stereotype, you know, they grab their purses or they check for their wallet. They feel intimidated. What I want you guys to do is when you guys come out be always smiling, be always having a good time.
We’re going to flip that thug image so that when they do see you guys, you’re still going to do heel-ish things but you guys are babyface. When your music hits, little kids and people are dancing and having a good time in the audience.’
And that’s what we did. We over exaggerated the stereotype. We had fun, and when we did steal, we’d offer it back to the crowd. It was so engaging with the crowd. We had the look, we had the charisma, but Vince pretty much structured it properly so it made sense for the platform.”
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