We haven’t seen former WWE Superstars JTG and Shad Gaspard team together as Cryme Tyme on WWE television since 2010. After a fairly successful two-plus year run, Gaspard was released on November 19, 2010. And while JTG held on with WWE for a few more years, Cryme Tyme is what both former Superstars will likely be remembered for when their wrestling careers are over.
For several years after his WWE release, Shad abandoned his wrestling career to pursue work as an actor, and as we learned in an Instagram post this week, he’s been more successful than you might have thought.
If you haven’t seen Marvel Studios’ latest hit, Black Panther, first of all, what are you doing? And second, consider this your official spoiler warning. None of what you’re about to see is particularly spoiler-y, but if you’re very sensitive about spoilers, you might want to tread lightly here. You’ve been warned.
There are several scenes in Black Panther that kind of resemble a wrestling match. I won’t go in to the stakes, or who is fighting who, but that kind of one-on-one combat is an essential part of Wakandan culture.
In what was a surprising and fun development, it turns out Shad Gaspard actually performed these scenes for Winston Duke as M’Baku. That’s right. Shad from Cryme Tyme is M’Baku. (Or one of the stuntpeople who helped bring M’Baku to life, anyway. Shad posted the footage on his Instagram Friday, featuring real combat scenes from the Black Panther pre-CGI.
Shad’s role as M’Baku’s stuntman went uncredited (although he has an IMDb credit for stunt work on the movie, which lasts forever), but it’s a cool behind-the-scenes look at what he’s been up to, and also counts as his official entrance in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Who would’ve thunk it?
