JTG Says Vince Is 'Out of Touch,' Claims Gimmick Was Stolen from Him

In 2006, a 21-year-old Jayson Paul began his childhood dream of becoming a professional wrestler. Although he admitted to not watching sports as a kid, he was an avid wrestling fan due to having a mother who was passionate about the sport.

His hard work and dedication to his dream led to an opportunity to become a WWE wrestler by way of the developmental territory at the time, Ohio Valley Wrestling. Soon after, he was called up to the main roster, along with his partner Shad Gaspard, and Cryme Tyme was born.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing JTG, as he was a guest host on episode 150 of the Pancakes and Powerslams show. JTG explained one of his first vivid memories as a childhood wrestling fan was emulating Randy "Macho Man" Savage elbow-dropping people and things. These occurrences solidified his decision to become a professional wrestler.

Regarding his opportunity with OVW, JTG referred to himself a "Paul Heyman Guy" due to working hard in the OVW training classes but still not getting a break in the developmental territory until Heyman gave him his first big chance with the "Neighborhoodie" character.

This character became so popular that the idea for it came across Vince McMahon's desk, and he was so interested that he called JTG and Gaspard up without even seeing the team wrestle. This spawned Cryme Tyme, who achieved good success for the better part of 2008.

Although the team had many close calls, it never managed to acquire the WWE Tag Team Championships. When asked if Cryme Tyme were ever promised a title run, JTG said he was not sure. Although there were some very strong rumblings at one time, the decision was to put the titles on Kofi Kingston and CM Punk instead.

However, he was thankful to work with Chris Jericho, stating that Y2J was very helpful and allowed him to be creative in their matches they had against each other.

When asked if his release last year was a surprise to him, he said that it was. He was expecting his contract to run out, but when he kept receiving phone calls, he knew that the end was near. He finally answered the phone and received the unfortunate news of his termination.

JTG stated that it was not necessarily a matter of Creative having nothing for him but more so a matter of the writers not going forward with his suggestions after being told that they were good ones. Interestingly enough, he mentioned how one of his ideas was talking to an imaginary character, which he pitched to Vince and received positive reviews.

However, shortly thereafter, JTG saw the idea used on another wrestler, and he was left in the cold.

Vince McMahon, Triple H and John Cena were among a few people given to him for name association. For Vince, JTG said he was "out of touch," believing that he should watch a bit more current TV to help with storylines.

For Triple H, JTG believes that he has not quite proved himself yet from a business standpoint.

Regarding John Cena, he stated that there were good things that he experienced with Cena, but there were certainly some bad experiences, which he said he would cover in his upcoming book.

It was an awesome interview, filled with some good stories and opinions. You can listen to the full interview here.

Chris Featherstone is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and WeAreWrestling.net. Follow @cravewrestling on Twitter and Facebook.