JTG reflects on being a part of Shad Gaspard’s Warrior Award honor.
The 2022 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony took place on the Friday night before WrestleMania 38 kicked off. The likes of The Undertaker, Sharmell Sullivan-Huffman, Vader and The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
On the receiving end of the Warrior Award honor was the late Shad Gaspard, who passed away in 2020. Shad’s son, Aryeh, wife Siliana and longtime tag partner JTG were on stage for his honor. JTG and Shad’s son did the signature Cryme Tyme handshake as they got in the ring.
JTG was interviewed by The Black Announce Table and he told the platform that originally, he was not scheduled to be in the ring for the ceremony and was only going to be on stage with the talents. He credited John Laurinaitis for making the switch happen.
That was a great moment that almost never happened [doing the Cryme Tyme handshake with Shad Gaspard’s son]. It was a great moment. Yeah, it was definitely a great moment. I didn’t — I knew it would get a good reaction but I didn’t know it would be that powerful. So I wasn’t planning to do anything. Shoutout to Johnny Ace. You know, I saw him, he was happy to see me and he said, ‘So are you doing anything tonight?’ I was just like, ‘Nah, I’m just on the stage with the talent’ and he was like, ‘Let me go talk. I’ll get right back with you’ and I kind of just left it alone, but then I spoke to Aryeh, that’s Shad’s son. I was like, ‘Look, by any chance we, you know, I have the opportunity to do this, I gotta teach you this.’ We got it down backstage, we were just chilling and then the show started and then I sat — I didn’t hear anything back from anybody, you know? Usually, they like to rehearse stuff, the WWE. They don’t like to do anything [unrehearsed]. It must be rehearsed and we didn’t rehearse it so I’m like, you’re not gonna do it because this is live TV. They don’t want any mistakes or accidents and I understand that. But while we were — right before Shad’s vignette came on, video came on, I got the tap on the shoulder and they gave me the [head nod] and I’m like, ‘All right, we’re gonna do this.’ So it was kind of a last minute decision, it was the right decision and I’m thankful that they had me, gave me the opportunity to do that.
The Hall of Fame was followed by nights one and two of WrestleMania and to hear POST Wrestling’s recap of the shows, click on either of the highlighted show nights.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit ‘The Black Announce Table’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
