Jimmy Wang Yang Reveals the Backstory Behind His WWE Character

During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE Superstar and WCW star Jimmy Wang Yang discussed how his character as an Asian cowboy came about. Below are some highlights from Insight:

On What His Career Looks Like Without His Jimmy Wang Yang Character

“I don’t know. Because I was still wrestling in Ring of Honor and Japan and all that kind of stuff, and then just crazy timing and situations that turned me into an Asian redneck.”

On What Prompted His Change Into That Character

“So, yeah, me trying to get laid turned me into an Asian redneck. I was in Ring of Honor. Personally, I think I was doing the coolest celebrity wrestling angle of all time. My favorite movie Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. I brought Bruce Leroy into wrestling, and was starting this angle with Jimmy Rave and the Embassy. But during that time, I started to talk to this really hot blonde, she was on the Diva Search and everything like that. Then I saw that WWE was coming to Lexington, I would live in Cincinnati. I’m like, Oh yeah, making my plan, baby. You want to go to the WWE pay-per-view? I’ll hook it up, free tickets, all that kind of stuff. She’s like, Oh yeah, that’d be awesome. Ok, here’s the plan. Get down there early, go in there, and find my boy, Steve Rubin. Steve Rubin used to hook us up with tickets. Take the girl out, wine and dine, all this kind of stuff. So I go down there. I get to the building, I’m standing around greeting everybody, and all sudden, Vince is walking down toward me. I’m like, ‘Hey, Vince.’ ‘Jimmy, where the hell you been?’ You fired me! ‘What I did? Oh, we got to talk about that. I want to talk to you in a minute. Just stay here. I gotta go do this. I’ll be back.’ He didn’t know he fired me. Okay, whatever.

“So I go to catering, I’m eating a steak, and all of a sudden, everybody comes running me. ‘Jimmy, what are you doing?’ I’m eating a steak? ‘Can we use you at the ring?’ I was like, Sure. I go to the ring, they had the Spirit Squad and Shawn Michaels out there, and that’s the pay-per-view with Vince versus God. Then Spirit Squad does a run-in and they do their finishing move to Shawn. So me and Shawn are the same size. They want to make Shawn feel comfortable getting thrown 20 feet in the air through a table. ‘Hey, Jim, can you do the spot for Shawn?’ Okay, sure. Then I get in the ring, and Michael Hayes is like, ‘Hey, Vince, you think we should let Jimmy do it? He’s not under contract.’ [Vince said] ‘He should be under contract. Let him do it!’ So, hey, throw me 20 feet in the air, go to the table. How was it? My answer, it was okay, it’s a 20-foot bump through tables, but it won’t kill you. It didn’t kill me. It’ll hurt, but whatever. Okay, cool. Anything else? ‘Can I get some tickets for the show?’ Oh, yeah, we’ll take care of it, whatever. So I’m there, and then got the tickets. I’m about to go do my thing. I’m like, oh yes, it’s Yang time, baby.

“Then they say, ‘Hey, Jimmy, what are you doing tomorrow?’ I know what I’m going to do tonight. So I don’t know how tomorrow’s gonna go. ‘Can you come to Raw?’ Raw was in Columbus, so three hours away, but then I got this hot blonde. Okay, yeah, I’ll be there. I did go to Raw. I show up, ‘Hey, Jimmy, can you have a match? You got your gear?’ Wrestlers’ rule, we always have our gear. Yeah, I’ll do a match. Okay, now I’m really impressing this girl. Got her the tickets last night. Now she’s coming to the show. She gets to see me perform. So they put us on Sunday Night Heat versus Charlie Haas. I think we had a great match, then afterwards I’m like, Ah, yeah, your boy is in tonight. Then I come back, and they say, ‘Hey, Jimmy, what are you doing tomorrow?’ I said, I know what I’m gonna do tonight. I don’t know about tomorrow?’ So SmackDown is in Cincinnati, in my hometown. Hey, can you come to SmackDown? Sure. I walk into SmackDown, and Johnny Ace pulls me and says, ‘Hey, Jim. So we’re gonna hire you again.’ I was like, Oh, really? Cool. This is my third run with WWE.

“So I was in developmental, Akio and Jimmy Wang Yang. This is so crazy. Now I’m getting these opportunities. I want to go thank Vince. I go down to his office, knock on his door, ‘Hey, Vince, it’s Jimmy.’ ‘Oh, Jimmy! I didn’t even know you were fired.’ [Vince said] I got this idea. The last time I didn’t let you talk because you’re this Korean dude from Georgia, you got a southern accent. So this time, we’re going to make a positive out of a negative. I’m going to turn you into the Asian redneck [laughs].’ I’m like, man, this is f*cking weird. ‘And your name’s gonna be Jimmy Wang Yang. Because it rhymes! That’s hilarious.’ Cool, man, as long as that check comes every Monday, I’ll do whatever you want. Okay, good, all right, get out of my office. What just happened? That was so weird. Then your boy got really lucky that night.”

Jimmy Wang Yang on Not Realizing What This Gimmick Would Be for Him

“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, like, 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.”