WWE Pays Tribute to Shad Gaspard During SmackDown

WWE paid tribute to a fallen former employee this week during WWE SmackDown. Shad Gaspard, who was a member of WWE from 2002-2007 and against from 2008-2010, was tragically killed this week under tragic circumstances. Gaspard and his son were swimming in the ocean off of Venice Beach, California on May 17th when they were caught in a rip current. Heroically, Gaspard urged lifeguards to assist his son before saving him. During that time, he disappeared under the water and a search commenced over the next couple of days. Following the U.S. Coast Guard suspending the search, Gaspard's body came ashore in Venice Beach on May 20th.

As mentioned, Gaspard was with WWE for a number of years. His most successful run came alongside JTG as the tag team Cryme Tyme. They were part of the main roster's television for about three years. Gaspard spent most of the rest of his time with the company in developmental.

Since leaving wrestling, Gaspard has had success in the film and entertainment industry, while also providing motion capturing work for video games.

Whenever a former roster member passes away, WWE almost always airs some kind of tribute to their fallen former employee. The same thing happened on Friday night as the company aired a grahpic tribute to Gaspard during SmackDown. You can check it out below.

#RIPShadGaspard 🙏 pic.twitter.com/P16bE5IKOf

— WWE (@WWE) May 23, 2020

Earlier on Friday, Triple H reflected on seeing Gaspard about six months ago at FOX.

"This was all happening in real-time. Wednesday night, we put something at the beginning of the show. I'm sure we'll be doing something on SmackDown," Triple H told TMZ. "He was such a great guy. Steph and I saw him maybe six months ago. We were at FOX for a meeting. He was coming out of the lobby, we were coming into the lobby. We probably stood there for 20 minutes talking. Just the greatest guy. Finding success in all these other things. He was doing Hollywood and everything else. With the circumstances around all of this, his son, thank God he's okay. Knowing that he said 'save my son' and that was the last thing he did, that's all you need to know about the guy."