Damn! Why Did I Write This Book? by JTG Book Review

My review of Damn! Why Did I Write This Book? by JTG.

(411mania.com)

Jayson Anthony Paul aka JTG hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since 2013. He’s best known as one half of Cryme Tyme, a stereotypical black gangster tag team that enjoyed some success in 2008 and 2009. 

A lot of wrestlers have written books and 98% of them have accomplished more than JTG so when Damn! Why Did I Write This Book? was released, it didn’t come with a lot of fanfare. But at a fair price of 99 cents and only 67 pages long, it’s not a book that is going to break your bank or kill your weekend. 

JTG makes it very clear right off the bat that this book is about his time in WWE and how much heat he got. There’s no chapters about his upbringing or anything like that. He briefly tells a story about mimicking Randy Savage and knowing that he always wanted to be a wrestler, but outside of that, it’s nothing but WWE stories and how his time there sucked.

Longtime wrestling fans known just how weird the rules of wrestling are. You have to shake hands with everyone, you don’t mess with another man’s rat, sometimes you have to go to wrestler’s court, etc…. So if you like backstage gossip, then you’ll probably love this book. JTG doesn’t always mention names, but he does drop hints and in some cases it’s fairly obvious who he is talking about. 

The book is essentially a “I got my dream job and it sucked” story, but JTG isn’t asking for sympathy. He makes light of a lot of the situations and understands that the wrestling business is weird and top guys get away with a lot more. 

I had two issues with the book. 

First, it would’ve been nice if he did mention some positives of his time in WWE. I vividly remember Cryme Tyme helping John Cena in his feud with JBL and wish he went into more details about that. Maybe he’ll write a second book about the positives in the wrestling business, but if not, then I can’t help but feel that, even though he jokes about almost every WWE negative, he might be a little bitter that things didn’t turn out better for himself.

Second, the grammar in the book is terrible. The book is supposedly edited by Ryan Nemeth, but I find that almost impossible to believe given the amount simple errors. Spell check would’ve caught half the mistakes that Nemeth didn’t. 

Neither should deter you for dropping 99 cents on the book, especially the first as he makes it pretty clear that this book is all bout HEAT, but the grammar can be very annoying. At only 67 pages though, you’re done with the book before you angrily start tearing pages out. 

Overall, given the price, it’s tough for me to tell anyone to stay away from the book. If you love backstage stories and want more proof that the wrestling business is stupid and petty (unless you’re over) then spare some change change, yeah yeah.