JD Griffey recently joined Knockouts and 3 Counts for an in-depth conversation about all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on his performance at last year’s Final Battle alongside Shane Taylor, a man he partnered up with as a member of Shane Taylor promotions. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On his decision to join Shane Taylor promotions:
I just needed to wait on the ink to dry because the thing that’s been different here in Shane Taylor Promotions that I will say is Shane and I have been friends forever, but the thing with Shane is like, when I signed on with Shane Taylor Promotions, I had already been dropping bodies left and right. I was like, ‘Why is this not manifesting the way that I want it to? I’ve racked up stats, I’ve padded my stats in the indies. What the hell, man?’ Some of it is just like, are you dropping bodies where they need to be dropped while the right people are watching? That’s what Shane Taylor Promotions offered me, and not only is Shane at the facility, preparing me, helping me prepare. Not only is he making sure the management and promotion team making sure that my bouts and the bouts that he and I have together are promoted to the highest of their ability. Not only are we chopping it up on the phone. But even at the point when it’s time to go into battle, guess what Shane’s doing? He’s lacing his boots to go into battle with you.
On his performance at Final Battle:
We went into that with Keith as the adversary. Keith was the [opponent] going into the match. It was really weird for Keith and I because he and I train, and we’re at the same camp. He’s a part of my MMA team now, so needless to say, that made training awkward, and holidays were a little awkward [laughs], just a smidgen. But the thing with Shane and Keith, between the three of us, we’ve been close. Going into it, it was very adversarial, but in the middle of the bout, Swerve just kind of leaving him hanging, and you prepare for it, right. I don’t want to say we were treating the dub as a foregone conclusion or anything. But we were kind of like, ‘Look, these guys can’t coexist. These guys can’t coexist.’ There’s no version of Keith that’s gonna take the low road. So once Swerve tries to take the low road, we got them. I didn’t think Swerve would just up and leave. So when Swerve up and left, the dynamic of the match changed. You saw the fight. There was parts where there was a bit of restraint in Keith and everything Keith did. He wasn’t slamming us as hard. You know, he can take something off a punch and you gonna get CTE [laughs].
On the competitive relationship he has with Shane Taylor:
I think the bout got really muddy, and I think I took my eye off the ball. I know there was a lot of conflict with Shane because for every battle, I always feel like the youngest brother, and your two older brothers are always at odds. Shane and Keith, they’ve always had that [rivalry]. It’s weird. I think, for Keith, it’s never intentional. It’s just Keith being Keith. But I think for Shane, he has this desire to be the best, and we all do, at least between the three of us. It’s just one of those things where it’s like, Keith is my brother, Shane is my brother. I try not to let it get adversarial. It’s like, I’m not the op. I think when you have a group of friends who are efficient and competitive, our paths are gonna cross in an adversarial way at some point. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. I think with how we handled it and how Swerve handled it afterwards, with what he ended up doing on Dynamite with Rick Ross and stuff, even Rick Ross coming at me on Twitter. I’m like, y’all got it coming, bro. Mogul Affiliates, they got it coming.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
