Brian Gerard James

Brian Girard "B.G." James (May 20, 1969) is an American professional wrestler and former United States Marine.
James is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as The Roadie from 1994 to 1995 and as "The Road Dogg" Jesse James or simply (The) Road Dogg from 1996 to 2001. He is also known for his appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as B.G. James from 2002 to 2009, and has also made appearances for several other promotions such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, the United States Wrestling Association, the Catch Wrestling Association, and World Wrestling All-Stars.
James has held numerous championships over the course of his career. In the WWF/E, he found his greatest success as a tag team wrestler and is a six time Tag Team Champion, having won the WWF Tag Team Championship five times and the WWE Tag Team Championship once with Billy Gunn as The New Age Outlaws (who became part of D-Generation X). Additionally, James found success in singles competition by becoming a one time Intercontinental Champion and a one time Hardcore Champion. Following his departure from the WWF, James became the inaugural World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) World Heavyweight Champion before once again finding success as a tag team wrestler in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he was a two time National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Champion with Konnan and Ron Killings under the Freebird Rule as the 3Live Kru. Ultimately, WWE has described James as "one of the most popular Superstars of WWE's Attitude Era".
James is a second generation wrestler; his father Bob wrestled, as did his brothers Scott, Brad, and Steve.
==Career==
===Early career===
James served in the United States Marine Corps from 1987 to 1993 and fought in the Operation Desert Storm in 1991 where he was a platoon Sergeant in command of thirty-three Marines. During his recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Parris Island, South Carolina, James was named Honor Man. Six months after receiving his discharge in 1993, James began wrestling. He feuded with Robbie Eagle in the Carolinas. He was also a member of the United States Silent Drill Platoon as a guidon bearer.
===World Wrestling Federation (1994–2000)===
====The Roadie====
After wrestling for a whole year in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and making occasional appearance for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Brian Armstrong, James began his career with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) towards the end of 1994. He was billed as The Roadie, an assistant to "Double J" Jeff Jarrett, a would-be country singer. He wrestled on several pay-per-views and television shows, but most of his first WWF tenure was spent accompanying Jarrett and interfering in his matches. In early 1995, Jeff Jarrett released the song "With My Baby Tonight," that Jarrett claimed he had sung himself. The planned angle was to reveal that it was The Roadie, not Jarrett, who had really performed the vocals on this song, sparking a feud between the two wrestlers. Before this revelation could take place, Jarrett and James suddenly left the WWF following the second In Your House pay-per-view on July 23 1995. James then joined the United States Wrestling Association as Jesse James Armstrong, winning the heavyweight and tag titles before being forced to leave as a result of a loss at the hands of Jeff Jarrett.
====New Age Outlaws====
James returned to the WWF in 1996 as Jesse James, "The Real Double J", and revealed himself to be the true singer of "With My Baby Tonight". He languished as a midcard singles wrestler until he formed a tag team with Billy Gunn, The New Age Outlaws. A change in creative direction in the WWF in late 1997 led Billy Gunn, who had formerly been stuck in the unpopular gimmick of "Rockabilly," to bleach his hair blonde and assume the name "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn (also known as Mr. Ass), while James became "The Road Dogg" Jesse James. The appearance and mannerisms of the team became more and more controversial and anti-social. The team, known as the New Age Outlaws, feuded with the Road Warriors and the short-lived tag team of Cactus Jack and Terry Funk before joining D-Generation X the night after WrestleMania XIV.
The Outlaws amassed five WWF Tag Team Championship reigns before Gunn was legitimately injured in early 2000 and thrown out of DX to explain his absence. James then teamed with fellow DX member X-Pac throughout the summer of 2000 but failed to regain his former popularity or title success. The team eventually split, and DX fell apart. James then formed a tag team with newcomer K-Kwik. He was suspended in December 2000, and the WWF announced his release on January 26 2001.
===Independent circuit (2000-2002)===
His most prominent appearance in the independent circuit was with the short lived World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) promotion.
===Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002–2009)===
James debuted for the upstart Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion on September 18, 2002 wrestling as B.G. James (the popular Road Dogg Gimmick was owned by WWE). He was initially a Heel and one of the founding members of Vince Russo's S.E.X faction.
====3Live Kru (2003-2005)====
In July 2003, James formed the stable known as the 3Live Kru with Konnan and Ron Killings. The group was popular from the outset and was notable because they sang their own entrance music as they approached the ring. The 3Live Kru turned out to be successful as Killings held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for a second time and all three members enjoyed Tag Title reigns.
Tension arose when James' former partner Billy Gunn joined TNA as "The New Age Outlaw" (later shortened to "The Outlaw") in February 2005. The Outlaw repeatedly courted James, seeking to split the Kru and recreate the New Age Outlaws. When The Outlaw began feuding with the Kru, James repeatedly found his loyalties divided, unwilling to fight either his former or current tag team partners. For a time, James stopped appearing with the Kru but did not align himself with The Outlaw, who had by then changed his name to "Kip James" as a "tribute" to James' father. However, at Sacrifice, he reasserted his allegiance with 3LK as special guest referee in a match between the other members of 3LK and the team of Kip James and Monty Brown. Kip James tried to warm up to 3LK again in the lead-up to Bound for Glory by saving B.G. several times from Team Canada. At Bound for Glory, he offered his protective services to them against Team Canada (to neutralize Scott D'Amore, as he said). When they lost, Kip James came down to the ring, appearing ready to hit Konnan with a steel chair since he originally vetoed Kip's offer. Kip instead saved Konnan from Team Canada, thus proving his original intentions.
On the November 26 episode of Impact!, B.G. brought Kip and the 3LK to the ring and asked The Truth and Konnan to give Kip James a yes/no vote to be accepted into the group. After B.G. got heated with Konnan, both gave Kip yes votes and the 4Live Kru was born. The 4Live Kru was short lived as Konnan, still apparently upset at Kip James's induction into the Kru, bashed both B.G. and Kip over the head with a steel chair at Turning Point. Konnan, still wanting Ron Killings to be his "family," tried talking with The Truth. Killings told Konnan that he was done with the Kru and wanted to leave it all behind him.
====The James Gang (2006)====
After the incident, B.G. and Kip regrouped, reformed their old tag team as The James Gang and feuded with Konnan's new stable, The Latin American Exchange, which he formed with Homicide and Apolo. Apolo was sent home from the Against All Odds after complaining about being used as a jobber and was quickly replaced by a relative unknown named Machete.
On a subsequent edition of Impact!, B.G.'s real life father "Bullet" Bob Armstrong informed The James Gang that he was sick of the shenanigans of LAX and how they always used strength in numbers to their advantage. He informed them that he was going to see Larry Zbyszko to have himself added to the Destination X match as their partner, effectively making it a three-man tag team. A despondent B.G. turned to Kip James and comically uttered "Mom is gonna KILL me!". "Bullet" was in fact added to the team and, they won the match at Destination X. The next month an arm wrestling match was booked between Bullet Bob Armstrong and Konnan, where the losing team would get hit ten times with a leather whip. Bob Armstrong prevailed with the victory, so The LAX got whipped several times upon scrambling out of the cage for survival.
Following The LAX rivalry, B.G and Kip went after Team 3D, aka the Dudley Boyz. The two teams cut promos arguing over their long term histories with past promotions such as WWE and ECW. The rivalry came to a head at TNA Sacrifice when The James Gang beat Team 3D using a lead pipe. The James Gang and Team 3D feuded throughout the summer. They were scheduled for a #1 contendership match at Hard Justice but, due to a fire, the match was canceled. The match was rescheduled for iMPACT, but The Gang lost.
On the November 2, 2006 edition of Impact!, Kip and B.G. James announced that they were going to quit TNA. Kip James grabbed the mic and tried to say something to the TNA administration and Spike TV, but each time his mic was cut off. Kip then tried to use the announcer's headset, but it was cut off as well. Frustrated, he started yelling loudly to the crowd, but he was cut off as the show went to a commercial break. When the show returned, the announcers speculated that they may have been frustrated due to the influx of new talent entering TNA. It was since reported that the segment was a worked shoot that Vince Russo had written in order to renew interest upon their eventual return.
====Voodoo Kin Mafia (2006-2008)====
On the November 16 airing of Impact!, The James Gang announced that they would now be known as Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM). They spent their airtime bashing Vince McMahon and both members of D-Generation X, using their real names: Paul Levesque and Michael Hickenbottom. After calling Triple H "Triple Hollywood" and Shawn Michaels "Shawn Kiss-My-Bottom," VKM claimed they were declaring war on DX and Vincent Kennedy McMahon (VKM). On the November 23 airing of Impact!, they drove around searching for their targets, but they ended up arriving at a Target store. At the end of the episode, VKM argued, and Kip pointed straight ahead to the WWE World Headquarters. To which, B.G. responded, "We're back!". In December 2006, as acknowledged by TNA's Website, VKM accepted The Hardys' open challenge to a match at December to Dismember. However, WWE never acknowledged their challenge. Over the following weeks, VKM aired several more videos bashing DX and Vince McMahon. They also made a $1,000,000 challenge to DX as announced on the TNA website. They declared 'victory' at Final Resolution. In early 2007, however, James said in a shoot interview along with his tag team partner Kip James that he would jump back to WWE if he could get out of his TNA contract and got a WWE offer.
On August 4, James returned to the Boston-based Millennium Wrestling Federation's Soul Survivor IV wrestling event and fan fest James worked for the promotion when it opened in 2001, but no-showed a benefit for "Superstar" Billy Graham in October 2002 due to his "personal demons." MWF has brought the real life situation into the storyline. James and Beau Douglas went on to win the MWF Tag Team Championship from the Canadian Superstars (J-Busta & Dave Cole). During a pre-event question and answer session, James went into his hatred of Jim Ross and his feelings that WWE ruins families and lives. James and Douglas lost the titles back to the Canadians on October 27, 2007 at a Special Olympics fundraiser in Salem, Massachusetts. After five years of bad blood, James made peace with promoter Dan Mirade for sabotaging the Graham benefit and has agreed to return in the future.
At Turning Point, B.G won one of the cases in the Feast or Fired match which granted him a TNA World Tag Team Championship match. Instead of Kip, he chose his real life father "Bullet" Bob Armstrong to be his tag team partner. B.G. and Bullet Bob lost their title match against A.J. Styles and Tomko in the opening match of Against All Odds. He and Kip had turned face but on the February 21, 2008 edition of Impact!, Kip turned on his longtime tag team partner B.G James and B.G's dad "Bullet" Bob Armstrong by hitting them both with a crutch turning heel in the process. At Lockdown, he finally defeated Kip in a six-sides of steel match.
====Sporadic appearances and departure (2008–2009)====
At Final Resolution, James returned to TNA television for the first time in months and participated in the Feast or Fired Match, which was won by Curry Man, Homicide, Hernandez, and Jay Lethal. James was also seen on Impact! two weeks later as he was trying to hold back Jeff Jarrett from fighting Kurt Angle. The week afterwards, he was punched by Angle while he and Jarrett were fighting.< On the January 8, 2009 edition of Impact!, James faced off against Angle, but lost via submission due to Angle's ankle lock.
On September 15, 2009, James was released from his TNA contract.
===Independent circuit (2009–2011)===
Upon leaving TNA, James returned to the independent circuit and resumed using his Jesse James ring name. On January 30, 2010, he teamed with Dysfunction to defeat Mason Quinn and J-Ca$h, who substituted for Quinn's tag team partner Dave Demone, to the All-Star Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship for the first time. On May 1, James lost his half of the title when Dysfunction picked Quinn as his new partner when Dysfunction and Quinn scored a double pin against each other during a title defense. On April 19, James resumed using his Road Dogg name and reformed the New Age Outlaws with Billy Gunn to compete in the Canadian Wrestling's Elite promotion.
On May 28 James appeared at One Pro Wrestling's event The Last Stand, where he teamed with Kevin Nash in an unsuccessful attempt at winning the Tag Team Championship.
===Return to WWE (2011–2015)===
On April 2, 2011, James returned to WWE for the first time in over a decade to induct his father "Bullet" Bob Armstrong into the company's Hall of Fame class of 2011. Several months later, James announced on October 11 via his Facebook account that he re-signed with WWE as an agent, and would return to the company in his new role on October 23 at the Vengeance pay-per-view. After a ten-year-long absence, James returned to WWE television on the December 12 episode of Raw under his Road Dogg ring name to present CM Punk with the Slammy Award for "Pipe Bomb" of the Year.
On January 29, 2012, Road Dogg entered the Royal Rumble match as the twenty-third entrant and lasted nearly five minutes before being eliminated by Wade Barrett. Following this, he began hosting the WWE.com and YouTube web series Are You Serious? alongside Josh Mathews. On July 23, Road Dogg reunited with Billy Gunn, Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels and Triple H to reform D-Generation X for one night only on the 1000th episode of Raw. On the December 17 episode of Raw, he and Billy Gunn appeared together as the New Age Outlaws and presented the Slammy Award for Comeback of the Year to Jerry Lawler.
On the March 4, 2013 episode of Raw, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn made their in-ring return as the New Age Outlaws with a victory over Primo and Epico. A week later, the New Age Outlaws competed against Team Rhodes Scholars, but the match was rendered a no contest after Brock Lesnar interrupted and performed an F-5 to both Outlaws as part of his ongoing feud with Triple H. On the December 9 episode of Raw, the New Age Outlaws appeared to present the Slammy Award for LOL Moment of the Year.
On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, the New Age Outlaws saved CM Punk from an assault by The Shield and later stood in Punk's corner during his match against Roman Reigns. Later that week on SmackDown, they teamed alongside Punk to face The Shield in a six-man tag team match, although they were defeated after Gunn was pinned by Reigns. On the January 13 episode of Raw, the New Age Outlaws and Punk faced The Shield in a rematch before abandoning Punk as he was about to tag them, turning both Outlaws heel in the process for the first time in over a decade. Later that week on SmackDown, the New Age Outlaws defeated the Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a non-title match. On January 26 at the Royal Rumble kickoff show, the New Age Outlaws defeated Rhodes and Goldust to win their first WWE Tag Team Championship and sixth tag team title in WWE overall. They held the title until the March 3 episode of Raw, where they were defeated by The Usos. After losing the title, the Outlaws allied with Kane as part of The Authority to face The Shield at WrestleMania XXX, but they were defeated in quick fashion. Since then, James has resumed his role as a producer while Gunn resumed his role as a trainer in NXT. 
On the January 19, 2015, episode of RAW, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn reunited to confront The Ascension. The Ascension had been disrespecting tag teams from the past when the New Age Outlaws' music hit and they entered the ring wearing Dallas Cowboys shirts. The Outlaws, along with Bradshaw and Farooq of APA, cleared the ring of The Ascension. The New Age Outlaws challenged The Ascension at the 2015 Royal Rumble and lost.
==Personal life==
Like his father James served in the United States Marine Corps from 1987 to 1993 and fought in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, where he was a platoon sergeant in command of thirty-three Marines. James is married and the couple have three children.
James admits to having had problems with drugs and alcohol throughout his life. In high school, he began smoking marijuana and later painkillers during his time in D-Generation X. After being suspended and then released from the WWF, he successfully underwent rehabilitation to straighten out his life.
==Wrestling facts==
*Finishing and signature moves
:*Pumphandle Drop Slam
:*Shake, Rattle, and Roll (Three left handed jabs, followed by a right hand punch with theatrics)
:*Running Knee Drop, with Theatrics
:*Rope Hung Hip Attack
:*Rebound reverse elbow
:*Big Boot
*Nicknames
:*"Road Dog"
:*"B-Jizzle"
*Tag teams and stables
:*Voodoo Kin Mafia - with Kip James
:*3 Live Kru
:*4 Live Kru
:*Armstrongs
:*D-Generation X
:*McMahon-Helmsley Faction
:*Sports Entertainment Xtreme
*Managers
:*Roxxi Laveaux (TNA) (2007-2008)
:*Tori (WWF) (2000)
*Wrestlers managed
:*Jeff Jarrett (WWF) (1995)
*Entrance music
:*"Oh You Didn't Know?" by Jim Johnston (IWA MS, WWF)
:*"Break It Down" by Jim Johnston (WWF; Used while a part of D-Generation X)
==Championships and accomplishments==
*Catch Wrestling Association
:*CWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Cannonball Grizzly
*Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
:*NWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Konnan and Ron Killings
*United States Wrestling Association
:*USWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
:*USWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tracy Smothers
:*USWA Television Championship (2 times)
*World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment
**WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
**WWF World Tag Team Championship (5 times) - with Billy Gunn
**WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)
**WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Billy Gunn
**WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2019) - as a member of D-Generation X
==See also==
*Legends with JBL: Brian James
==External links==
* Profile
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