JTG Not Originally Planned To Be In Ring For Shad Gaspard's Warrior Award Ceremony

One of the most heartwarming scenes from WrestleMania weekend was JTG doing the Cryme Tyme handshake with Aryeh Gaspard the son of the late Shad Gaspard.

The pair did the handshake during a segment honouring Gaspard - the recipient of the 2020 Warrior Award - and on The Black Announce Table podcast, JTG revealed he wasn’t originally meant to be taking part in the ceremony:

“That was a great moment that almost never happened. 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.”

H/T: POST Wrestling