For several years, The Road Dogg (Brian “BG” James) worked as a producer and writer in WWE before making it as the head writer of WWE SmackDown. He then went on to WWE NXT 2.0 to become a coach and producer.
During his time in WWE, Road Dogg worked closely with Vince McMahon. While speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Road Dogg discussed his relationship with McMahon.
“To be totally honest, there is not one, there is a million,” Road Dogg said when asked about lessons he learned from Vince. “That’s why people say, ‘Oh, you’re not bitter.’ I got ten years of life experience flying on that jet, getting in limos with him, riding, listening, and learning. One thing he said to me, one time, and I’ll never forget it. I came to him and said, ‘So and so wants to say this in a promo, but that’s not what we wrote. Are you cool if they say that?’ He said, ‘Does it get the same point across?’ ‘Yes sir.’ ‘Yeah, Brian, do that. It empowers the talent and then they’ll have more trust in you.’ He told me that on a one-on-one basis. Sometimes, he writes your promo and that’s what you say if he can’t fully trust that you’re going to go out there live on the television show and act accordingly and do your promo, he doesn’t know if he can trust you yet, so you say it verbatim.”
“You sit under that learning tree, sometimes you sit under it until three in the morning, but you learn stuff, little stuff about the business and not just about the business, but how to be a professional and be an executive. He had somebody coming to the office once a week from Carnegie and teaching me how to be an executive. He wanted to make me an executive. It was on me, I couldn’t handle it. To work with that man is difficult. It’s not difficult because of how he is, it’s not difficult because of how he is, it’s difficult because of who he is. He’s a workhorse. He will work all night and be the first one up in the morning to work again.”
The Road Dogg stated that he was tired after traveling one time and wanted to discuss SmackDown the following day. He recalled Vince McMahon telling him that he would regret wanting to put the conversation off until the next day.
“He’s a workhorse, and I couldn’t keep up with it. That’s the truth. I went to him and said, ‘I feel I’m losing my serenity, my sobriety. I’m white-knuckling my sobriety because I’m on call all the time.’ My whole life was SmackDown, and that’s how you have to be in the WWE. You’re married to it. It got hard and I couldn’t hang. I went to NXT where I thought I could stay for a while, and I did, but then they made business decisions to trim some fat and, it’s no secret, I’ve gotten fat. They cut me and 14 other people, it was a business strategy. I called him and said, ‘Hey, thank you.’ Not only did he pay me for ten years and give me ten years of life experience, he sent me to rehab, for free. He saved my life and he did the same for my brother. You’re bitter at that guy? Something is wrong with you. He’s a great leader, he’s a leader of me, that’s for sure,” said Dogg.
The Road Dogg was released by WWE in January 2022 alongside several other NXT personnel and talent.
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(h/t – Fightful)
