Shad Gaspard

Shad Javier Gaspard (January 13, 1981 – May 17, 2020) was an American professional wrestler, actor and stunt performer. He was best known for his time with WWE, where he performed under his real name, or mononymously as Shad.

Gaspard signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2003, where he was assigned to their developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and was a two-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion with JTG, as part of Cryme Tyme. In 2006, Cryme Tyme was promoted to WWE's main roster, before both Gaspard and JTG were released from the company the following year. Cryme Tyme returned to WWE in 2008, but Gaspard was released again in 2010.

After departing WWE, Gaspard pursued an acting career that included several films and television roles, such as Think Like a Man Too, Get Hard, The Game, and From Dusk till Dawn: The Series. He was also the co-creator of the 2011 graphic novel Assassin & Son and provided motion capture for video games, most notably for the protagonist Kratos in the 2018 game God of War.

Gaspard drowned while trying to save his son from a rip current on May 17, 2020. He was posthumously awarded the Warrior Award at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in 2022, The Warrior Award was discontinued in 2023, Making Shad the final recipient.

Early life

Shad Gaspard was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on January 13, 1981. He was of Curaçaoan and Haitian descent. His father was a former enforcer for street gangs and later a personal security guard in the early 1970s; he worked for gangster Frank Lucas and currently owns McFay Contracting Inc. At age five, Shad was trained by his father in boxing, and at age eight he began training in a mixture of different martial arts such as judo, kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do, and Muay Thai.