Brian Girard James (born May 20, 1969) is an American professional wrestler currently signed with the WWE, where he serves as the Senior Vice President of Live Events.
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.
1987
Following this, James put his wrestling career on hold in order to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in 1987.
1991
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.
1992
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.
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.
1994
James was best known for his initial tenure with World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) as The Roadie from 1994 to 1995 and as "Road Dogg" Jesse James from 1996 to 2001.
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 (as The Dark Secret) and Killer Kyle lost to The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) 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 December 17 episode of WorldWide, as he and his brothers Brad and Scott Lost a six-man tag team match to The Three Faces of Fear (Kevin Sullivan, The Butcher, and Avalanche).
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.
1995
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 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 Heavyweight, Television, and World Tag Team Championships before losing a Loser Leaves Town match to Jarrett.
1996
James, without Jarrett, returned to the WWF in 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.
2001
Following his 2001 departure from the WWF, James became the inaugural WWA World Heavyweight Champion before once again finding 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 under the Freebird Rule as the 3 Live Kru.
He twice competed for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on pay-per-view.
WWE commentator John Layfield charted James's transition from "a cornerstone of the Attitude Era; one of its greatest stars and one of its architects", to "one of the prime creative forces behind WWE".
James is a second generation wrestler; his father Bob wrestled, as did his brothers Scott, Brad, and Steve.
2002
He is also known for his appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as B.G. James from 2002 to 2009, and has also made appearances for several other promotions such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, the United States Wrestling Association, the Catch Wrestling Association, and World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA).
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 (who became part of D-Generation X): 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 Hardcore Champion.
2019
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2019) as part of D-Generation X.
