Posted on 5/13/126 by Colin Vassallo
Former WWE star Jimmy Wang Yang sat down with Chris Van
Vliet in Indianapolis, Indiana to discuss how meeting DDP on
Halloween led to the start of his pro wrestling journey,
Vince McMahon forgetting he had fired him, how he was
pitched the Jimmy Wang Yang character, wrestling as a flying
Elvis in TNA, running a party bus company, his daughter
Jazzy Yang now wrestling, and more!
Could you kind of see that the end was near for WCW? Could
you tell that things were going downhill there?
“Not at all. That’s the thing, I grew up on WCW. No more
WCW? That was never in my mind. But it was crazy, but I’m 18
years old. I don’t know what’s normal. I went from that bar
wrestling and seeing New Jack stab somebody in the parking
lot. Seriously, that’s the first time I met him. But then,
yeah, going to WCW, and seeing some of the guys and seeing
the environment, like I said, Oh, this is just pro
wrestling, this is crazy life, the wild wild west. But I
just knew I was very young, and didn’t know any better. I
had about five different bosses during those two years. I’m
like, this doesn’t sound right, but I didn’t think WCW would
ever end. That’s a stake with my life.”
Why didn’t your time in WWE at that time last very long
after you got picked up?
“So what I think, because they bought WCW, they had bought
our contracts, they just bought ECW, and then they had the
WWE roster. At the time, they didn’t have the separate
brands; they had just one show doing Raw and SmackDown. So I
just think the roster was overloaded at that first time in
WWE. I don’t know how many people were on the roster, but
you can only have so many matches on Monday, you can only
have so many matches on Friday, and then whatever else. But
that first run, I think it was just so many people and they
couldn’t find me a spot.”
Did you have any idea for what this gimmick would be for
you?
“No. So all I was told was you’re being an Asian redneck
coming to SmackDown. I was like, cool. When they pitched the
character to me at that time, I was like, sweet, I’m gonna
be the new Doink the Clown, comedy character kind of thing.
That will be cool to have. As a Korean kid in Georgia, I got
my material a lot from the people I knew, and I just made it
as ridiculous as possible. So then the debut, and then
having a match, all of a sudden it was this switch of being
kind of like a celebrity, I didn’t know how that would take
off so well. Because I just remember after debuting, and
then I’m going to the airport and wear my goofy ass cowboy
hat, I get mobbed by everybody. I’m like, holy crap, this
really took off. I was kind of surprised how well that took
off.”
So what did you think when you heard your theme song for the
first time?
“I know people love that theme song, but I hated it. I hated
it as a wrestling theme because I couldn’t get fired up to
some bluegrass. I was like how am I supposed to get fired up
to this song? I need to get fired up for this match that
we’re about to have. But it is a good song when you’re
sitting on the porch and all that kind of stuff.
But as wrestling music, it was kind of too slow for me.”
You got vignettes, and not everybody gets a vignette. That
sets the character up so that by the time you do debut,
people know exactly what to expect. When you were reading
these vignettes, were you like, ‘You want me to say what?’
“Yeah, that’s really because they didn’t know how the
audience was gonna react to me. But it was different times.
When I see it, I kind of am ashamed of some of the stuff
that they wanted me to say, because it is like, ‘Oh it’s
funny when you say it because you’re half Korean. I couldn’t
say it, but you can say it because you’re Korean.’ No, it’s
gonna be funny to you guys. I understand what’s going on. I
say this is funny to you guys. But for my culture and my
people, it is offensive.”
What was the most offensive thing?
“The most offensive thing is me wearing the Confederate flag
on my back. They said, ‘Hey, we want you to be an Asian
redneck.’ Okay, what do you think of? I think of rodeos. I
think of NASCAR. I think of Dukes of Hazard and General Lee.
I’m like, Oh yeah, I’m an Asian redneck, so I gotta wear the
Confederate flag on the back of my vest and go out there.
But if anybody knows what that symbolizes, it’s God-awful,
and it’s horrible. I wish I hadn’t done that. Undertaker is
the one that told me. He saw me wearing it, ‘Jimmy, take
that f*cking sh*t off!’ I said I’m playing a character, an
Asian redneck. ‘That sh*t means some horrible sh*t. Take it
off.’ All right. Then I take off, and they said, ‘Hey,
where’s your jacket at?’ [I replied] ‘Undertaker told me to
take it off.’ ‘Okay.'”