Road Dogg
Brian Girard James is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he serves as the Senior Vice President of Live Events.
James was best known for his initial tenure with World Wrestling Federation as The Roadie from 1994 to 1995 and as "Road Dogg" Jesse James from 1996 to 2001. He is also known for his appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as B.G. James from 2002 to 2009, and has also made appearances for several other promotions.
James has held numerous championships in a career spanning more than three decades. In the WWF/E, he achieved mainstream notoriety as half of The New Age Outlaws : he and partner Billy Gunn won the WWF World Tag Team Championship five times, and later held the WWE Tag Team Championship once. Additionally, James found success in singles competition, becoming a one-time Intercontinental Champion and a one-time WWF Hardcore Champion. Following his 2001 departure from the WWF, James found success as a tag team wrestler in TNA, where he was a two-time National Wrestling Alliance NWA World Tag Team Champion with Konnan and Ron Killings as the 3 Live Kru. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of D-Generation X.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1986)
James, under the ring name Brian Armstrong, made his professional wrestling debut on December 1, 1986, where he defeated Kevin Sullivan in a match for NWA Southeast Championship Wrestling. Following this, James put his wrestling career on hold in order to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in 1987.World Championship and Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1991–1995)
Brian was mentioned on WCW programming during the WrestleWar 91 PPV on February 24, 1991, when the commentary team mentioned that Brad's brother Brian was serving in Operation Desert Storm during a match between Brad and Bobby Eaton. Following his tour of duty, Brian wrestled his first match in five years and lost to Terrance Taylor on July 7, 1991, during the final night of World Championship Wrestling's The Great American Bash house show tour. After completing another tour of duty, James made his debut for Smoky Mountain Wrestling on November 20, 1992, under a mask as The Dark Secret, where he lost to Tracy Smothers. As The Dark Secret, James was relegated to jobbing, as he would lose continuously in both singles and tag team matches throughout the rest of 1992 and into 1993.Following another tour of duty, James returned to SMW on July 2, 1993, where he lost to Bobby Blaze. On July 19, James, now using the Brian Armstrong ring name, defeated Killer Kyle in a dark match. Following this, James would alternate between the Brian Armstrong and The Dark Secret ring names, where he would find success in singles and tag team matches under the former and continue to job under the latter. In addition to SMW, James returned to WCW under his Brian Armstrong ring name on the November 30 episode of Saturday Night in a losing effort to Steve Austin.
Beginning in 1994, James wrestled more frequently for WCW, including a championship match against the World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal which he lost. On the March 5, 1994 edition of the WCW Power Hour, Armstrong lost to Terra Ryzing – who would go on to become James' DX stablemate Triple H – in the latter's debut match for the promotion. Brian wrestled primarily on television tapings, and began to team frequently with his brother Brad, albeit in losing efforts.
Meanwhile, his time in Smoky Mountain Wrestling was drawing to a close. Following a tag team match where he and Killer Kyle lost to The Rock 'n' Roll Express on April 4, James left SMW and began competing solely for WCW as Brian Armstrong. However, he would find little success, as his only victories were in tag team dark matches where he teamed with his brother Brad while he, along with his brothers, were relegated to being jobbers on television, with the most notable example being a rematch with Lord Steven Regal for the World Television Championship on the August 10 episode of Saturday Night. Around that time, he would adopt his signature undercut braids.
On the November 14, 1994 edition of WCW Pro, Armstrong again lost to the future Triple H, who by that time had been repackaged as Jean-Paul Lévesque. Both men left the promotion before long. James wrestled his final match for WCW on the February 17, 1995 episode of WorldWide, as he and his brothers Brad and Scott lost a six-man tag team match to The Three Faces of Fear.
World Wrestling Federation (1994–1995; 1996–2001)
Alliance with Jeff Jarrett (1994–1995)
After defeating Barry Hardy in a dark match on the August 16, 1994 episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge, James signed with the World Wrestling Federation 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. He fought against Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid. He participated in the King of the Ring 1995 tournament defeating Doink the Clown, and Bob Holly until losing to Savio Vega in the semi-finals. Roadie defeated The 1-2-3 Kid at In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks. In early 1995, Jarrett released the song "With My Baby Tonight", which 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, James and Jarrett suddenly left the WWF following the second In Your House 2 pay-per-view on July 23, 1995.After leaving the WWF, James joined the United States Wrestling Association under the ring name Jesse James Armstrong alongside Jarrett, where he won its Memphis Wrestling Southern Heavyweight Championship, USWA Television Championship, and USWA World Tag Team Championship before losing a Loser Leaves Town match to Jarrett.
The New Age Outlaws and D-Generation X (1996–2001)
James, without Jarrett, returned to the WWF in October 1996 under the ring name Jesse James, where he revealed himself as "The Real Double J" and the true singer of "With My Baby Tonight". He languished as an undercard singles wrestler until beginning a feud with The Honky Tonk Man. After denying Honky Tonk Man's offer at becoming his manager by destroying his guitar, James also began feuding with Honky Tonk Man's protégé Rockabilly. After trading wins against each other on television and pay-per-view, James, now referring to himself as "The Road Dogg" Jesse James, originally spelled "Jammes" as a play on the way Jarrett spelled his name. suggested to Rockabilly that they form a tag team in order to end their unsuccessful runs as singles competitors. A change in creative direction in the WWF in late 1997 led Rockabilly to accept James' offer after subsequently attacking Honky Tonk Man with his own guitar to cement their alliance. Soon after, Rockabilly reverted to his Billy Gunn ring name and adopted the nickname "Badd Ass", while Road Dogg began to grow out and braid his hair, resurrecting his old look from his days in WCW. In addition to these esthetic changes, their mannerisms became consistently more controversial and antisocial, with the team ultimately becoming known as the New Age Outlaws following their victory over The Legion of Doom for their first WWF Tag Team Championship. The Outlaws would continue to feud with the Legion of Doom and later the short-lived tag team of Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie before joining D-Generation X the night after WrestleMania XIV.The Outlaws amassed five WWF Tag Team Championship reigns and managed to become singles champions while still together, with Road Dogg and Gunn each winning the Hardcore Championship once in 1998 and 1999, respectively, while Road Dogg would also go on to win the Intercontinental Championship in 1999. The team came to an end when Gunn was legitimately injured in early 2000 and, to explain the absence needed for his recovery, Gunn was expelled from DX due to losing his temper. James then teamed with fellow DX member X-Pac throughout the summer of 2000, but failed to regain any championship success. The team eventually split, with Road Dogg and X-Pac subsequently feuding with each other before the entirety of DX fell apart. Road Dogg then formed a tag team with newcomer K-Kwik, and competed in his last televised match on December 23. He was then indefinitely suspended, and later released from his contract in January 2001, due to personal problems. On March 26, 2001, James arrived at the final WCW Monday Nitro taping in Panama City, Florida, in order to negotiate a return to World Championship Wrestling, only to find out that the promotion had been purchased by the WWF, thus ruling out both companies as employment options.
Independent circuit (2001–2002)
James would go on work the independent circuit after being fired from WWF, often no-showing scheduled appearances as a result of substance-abuse issues he was battling with at the time. On May 26, 2001, James appeared on an indy show at a high school in Conway, South Carolina where he was supposed to wrestle against The Barbarian for the main event. During that event, James was signing autographs and taking Polaroids during intermission, and became belligerent after being asked to leave the gymnasium when the intermission ended and matches were going on. James became irritated, started swearing and refused to leave. Police came and arrested him. He was charged for disorderly conduct.He also worked for IWA Mid-South. Then James worked for the short-lived World Wrestling All-Stars promotion in Australia with former WWF and WCW wrestlers. On October 23, 2001, he defeated former WWF colleague and tag team partner Jeff Jarrett for the vacant WWA World Heavyweight Champion where he was the inaugural champion. Three days later, the title was vacated to be made available for a tournament to be held at the inaugural WWA Pay-Per-View event, The Inception. There, Road Dogg defeated Konnan in a Dog Collar Match in the quarter-finals, and then beat Lenny & Lodi in a Three Way Dance in the semi-finals, advancing to the finals of the tournament where he lost to Jeff Jarrett in a Steel Cage Match. He continued feuding with Jarrett and Scott Steiner. Road Dogg was heavily advertised for the WWA's second Pay-Per-View, The Revolution, but did not appear on the show and never returned to the WWA.