Tag: Brian James

Road Dogg Has Been Rehired By WWE

Member of the legendary Armstrong family, Road Dogg (aka Brian James) has been rehired by WWE in an executive position, according to PWInsider. James had been released by WWE in January, after being one of the chief voices involved in the “Black & Gold” era of NXT. As revealed in a follow-up report by PWInsider, James will be assuming the position of Vice President of Live Events, a similar gig to that previously occupied by fellow wrestling dynasty member Jeff Jarrett.

Jarrett — whose title was Senior Vice President of Live Events — quietly left WWE sometime last week. Jarrett was responsible for introducing what would become James’ Road Dogg character on WWE programming back in 1995, as James was the onscreen roadie — and actual singer— for wannabe country music “star” Jarrett. Since his release, Road Dogg had been the host of his own podcast, “Oh You Didn’t Know?” on Conrad Thompson’s Ad Free Shows platform. A longtime friend of current Head of Talent Relations and Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque, James had been openly asking for a backstage role with AEW, publicly calling out Tony Khan and the company to pick up the phone, while also peppering them with numerous critiques.

James had been a producer on “WWE SmackDown” until WrestleMania 35, when he stepped down due to Vince McMahon’s brutal schedule. PWInsider notes that James is the first member of Levesque’s inner circle to return to the company since Triple H assumed duties in the wake of Vince McMahon’s resignation. Levesque’s friend Shawn Michaels has also received a promotion since the company shakeup, as a recent press release referred to Michaels as “WWE Vice President of Talent Development Creative.” James was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 alongside D-Generation X comrades Michaels, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, Chyna, and Triple H.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

“Road Dogg” BG James Steps Down As WWE SmackDown Co-Lead Writer, Another Writer Fired At WWE Hall Of Fame

2019 WWE Hall of Famer “Road Dogg” BG James has stepped down as the co-lead writer for WWE SmackDown, according to PWInsider. James informed WWE officials that he was stepping down on Wednesday as WrestleMania 35 Week came to an end.

James had been leading SmackDown with Stephen Guerrieri, who has been with the creative team since 2012 and in a head writer position since 2014, with James going on the road with the blue brand while Guerrieri would work out of WWE HQ in Stamford, CT. Word is that James had become increasingly frustrated with changes made to SmackDown scripts by Vince McMahon, and he finally hit a “breaking point” at Tuesday’s post-WrestleMania 35 edition of SmackDown from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

There’s no word yet on who may be replacing James in the co-lead writer role on the blue brand, but sources stated to PWInsider that with the way WWE creative is set up these days the lead writer is more of a formality as opposed to a specific voice that drives the show. Everything pitched for SmackDown comes through the team to Vince, and is then approved with Vince tweaking the script up until it’s time to go on the air. There’s also no word yet on if James will be transitioning into another role with WWE.

James had been working on the SmackDown creative team since 2016. He was quickly promoted to become co-lead writer with Ryan Ward.

While it’s not known if this is directly related, but James posted a tweet about change on Wednesday, writing, “Today I pray that I face the change, that is inevitably coming, head on and with faith and courage. The only constant is change! #HOPE #FAITH #OUDK”

James also defended SmackDown creative on Twitter, as he often does. Responding to criticism over the two six-man matches on this week’s episode, James wrote, “What about either 6 man last night was BS? A lot of the time it gets more talent on tv. I really don’t see what there is to get so angry about!”

In other WWE creative team news coming out of WrestleMania 35 Week, WWE writer Robert Evans was fired this past week. Word is that Evans was fired at the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony after he helped produce the Bret Hart speech for The Hart Foundation’s induction, and it featured a mention of Vince. Vince has strongly stressed for years that he does not want to be mentioned or praised during Hall of Fame speeches, according to PWInsider, to the point that it has become a running joke. When Vince was mentioned in Bret’s speech, Evans reportedly took the blame as the writer and producer of that segment. Evans was reportedly fired backstage in the Gorilla Position as the ceremony was going on.

For those who missed it, Bret’s speech included a story of the first time Vince reacted to The Hart Foundation and praised their in-ring work. DX later joked about Vince’s name being mentioned during their speech that wrapped the ceremony, and these jokes may have been inspired by Vince firing Evans for the earlier mention in Hart’s speech.

Evans was reportedly liked by those who worked with him backstage. The 35 year old previously wrestled on the indies as RD Evans and Archibald Peck before joining the WWE creative team in the fall of 2016.

You can see Road Dogg’s tweet on “change” below along with the exchange defending SmackDown:

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Road Dogg Reflects On Jeff Jarrett’s Influence On His Career, Talks Current WWE Stars Jarrett Brought Up In TNA

Image result for Road Dogg reflects on Jeff Jarrett's influence on his career

WWE posted this new video of “Road Dogg” Brian James discussing Jeff Jarrett, who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 34 weekend.

Road Dogg says he couldn’t be happier for Jeff as they somewhat came up together as second generation southern Superstars.

“I really had a good time with Jeff growing up,” James said. “He taught me a lot, not just about sports entertainment but being a business man and I think we forget that’s what sports entertainers are. So he taught me a lot about that. Really happy for Jeff Jarrett.”

The WWE reporter did not name TNA but asked James about working with Jarrett outside of WWE and behind-the-scenes.

“Well again and it goes back to what he taught me about being a business man. He was the first guy that I was around in this industry that treated it like a business, and treated himself like the commodity, and how to make money in that business of yourself,” James said. “He’s always been a consummate businessman, a great worker as well as far as in-ring action goes. Again, couldn’t be happy for Jeff Jarrett.”

James was also asked about Jarrett’s influence on today’s WWE Superstars and he said all you have to do is look at SmackDown to see Jeff’s influence. He pointed to how half of the guys Jarrett “brought up & brought in” have titles on SmackDown – WWE Champion AJ Styles and WWE United States Champion Bobby Roode. James also named Samoa Joe and said Jarrett has had a huge influence no the entertainers of today but will also probably influence some going forward.

James then talked about the “Be My Baby Tonight” single that was used as Jarrett’s theme song back in 1996, and how his 14 year old daughter knew all the words when she recently played the song in the car. Road Dogg noted how Jarrett’s induction has brought a tidal wave of comments on the song.

“A lot of people make fun of me for that song or whatever. I really enjoyed recording that song. I consider myself to be a little bit of a singer in the shower so it was cool to actually be in a studio and get to record that song,” James said. “The whole storyline with me and Jeff was interesting and cool at the time. It got cut short due to personal reasons but man, it’s been so cool to feel it all come back. Hopefully it’ll be a great weekend for the Hall of Fame.”

Source: WrestlingINC