NWA Wildside founder Bill Behrens played a role in Slim J coming to life.
An extensive conversation with Slim J is included in Jaddition’s Talking Indys series. Along the way, they dove into how Slim J got his name and on-screen character.
The 23-year veteran credited NWA Wildside founder and pro wrestling manager/agent Bill Behrens as someone who played a role in Slim J becoming his on-screen persona.
Yes (my gimmick is based off of Eminem)… It was given to me. Bill Behrens. We were talking before the podcast, Bill Behrens is the creative guy of this business and like, I just didn’t have anything at the time. He came up to me on a Friday night and said, ‘Hey, you a worker?’ And I’m running the lights, and I’m like, ‘Yeah. I’m training to be a worker.’ He’s like, ‘Well tonight, you are. What’s your name?’ I’m like, ‘Jeremy Boyd.’ He was like, ‘I don’t like it,’ and everybody at that time — I’ll tell the story: When I was 15 and first got into wrestling, I wrecked a car under the influence of alcohol, where a girl stole her mom’s car to come see me. We survived. My buddy had 15 staples in his head. It was a whole ordeal. My dad took me out of wrestling for a month or two. I don’t remember. But when I came back, everybody’s like, ‘Watch out for Slim Shady. He’ll steal your car. Watch out Slim Shady,’ and I liked Hip-Hop music so, they just put ‘em together. ‘He’s Slim Shady.’ So that night, everybody’s like, ‘Call him Slim Shady! Call him Slim Shady!’ and Bill’s just like, ‘We’re gonna call you Slim J. Dye your hair blonde, you’re gonna come out to Eminem.’ ‘Okay.’ ‘You got blue jeans and a tank top?’ ‘I got blue jeans. I’ll get me a tank top. Hold on,’ and then that was created from there.
Another alias that Slim J wrestled under is Gladiator Jeremiah. He competed in Ring of Honor several times under the name and opened up about his experience working in the Sinclair-owned ROH. To read what he had to say, click here.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Talking Indys with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
