James Yun, aka former WWE star Jimmy Wang Yang, shared the wild and improbable story of how his “Asian redneck” character was created, revealing it all started because he was trying to go on a date.
Speaking on “Wrestling Life with Ben Veal,” Yun said he had been fired by WWE for the second time and “wasn’t expecting to go back at all”. “I started talking to this really hot blonde… WWE was coming to Lexington, Kentucky… and I wanted to impress this girl,” he explained. “I’m like, ‘oh, you know, like, I need to impress this girl. Hey, you want to go to the… WWE pay per view?'”.
‘You Fired Me’
Yun went backstage at the event to get tickets. “Me and Vince crossed paths, and we see each other, and Vince looks at me like, ‘Jeremiah, where the hell you been?'” Yun recalled.
“I was like, ‘You fired me,'” Yun replied.
Vince McMahon was said to be stunned. “What I did? Are you serious? I was like, ‘Yeah’… ‘We gotta talk about this. Just stay here… I want to talk to you,'” Yun said Vince told him. “I was like, ‘did he not know he fired me? That’s crazy,'” Yun thought. “Guy runs a billion dollar company… Course, some things are gonna slip through the… cracks”.
Earning His Job Back
While Yun was in catering, he was called to ringside for the “Vince versus God” pay-per-view rehearsal. “They wanted the Spirit Squad [to throw] Shawn Michaels up… me and Shawn are about the same size. So they say, ‘Jimmy, you mind doing this bump to make Shawn feel comfortable taking the bump?'”.
Michael P.S. Hayes pointed out to Vince that Yun wasn’t under contract. Vince’s reply, according to Yun, was: “He should be under contract. Let him do it”. “And they toss my ass up and 20 feet in the air, go through the tables,” Yun said.
After the bump, he was invited to Raw the next day, and then to the SmackDown tapings in his hometown of Cincinnati, all while the girl he was trying to impress was with him. When he arrived at SmackDown, “they grab me and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna hire you back'”.
The Birth of the ‘Asian Redneck’
Yun went to Vince McMahon’s office to thank him. “Hey, Vince.’ ‘Oh, Jimmy, come on… I didn’t even know he was fired,'” Vince told him again.
Vince then laid out the new creative plan: “Last time, I didn’t let you talk, because you’re this Korean dude that grew up in Georgia. But this time we’re gonna make a negative out of the positive. I’m gonna make you the agent redneck. That’s funny, and your name’s gonna be Wang Yang, Jimmy Wang Yang, because it runs”.
Yun remembered “standing, like, ‘wow. This is really weird,'” but he agreed to do it. “I realized that me trying to get laid turned me into Asian redneck,” he joked.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Wrestling Life with Ben Deal with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. James Yun’s book, Young’s Time, is available as an ebook on Amazon, paperback on JazzyYang.com, and audiobook on Spotify, Apple, and Google Play.
