James Yun (@jimmywyang) is a professional wrestler best known for his time in WWE as Jimmy Wang Yang. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Indianapolis, TN 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!
I think that there’s certain people who only know Jimmy Wang Yang, and they think that that’s who you are.
“You know, I was actually born in Hollywood, California, so I’m half Korean and half redneck, I guess. My mom’s white. I was born in Hollywood, but I grew up in Atlanta.”
Where are you living now?
“Hiram, Georgia, like, 20 minutes west of Atlanta. I have built a wrestling school in my backyard. I know you like backyard wrestling. I’m a backyard wrestler in my past. As a kid, I would have loved to have a ring in the backyard. I built a school, Yang’s Dojo, and it truly is backyard wrestling.”
What you’re doing in the backyard is not really wrestling. It’s like pretending to be the people you see on TV. What does that transition look like for you?
“So that was pretty crazy. I was obsessed with wrestling in high school, the Monday Night Wars. The new generation would have hated me because I stalked. I did my research. I went everywhere. If I knew where they were going to be, I was there. In high school, I was so crazy about wrestling, and then everybody knew it. Some of the classmates were like, ‘Hey, Jimmy, we have a wrestler that lives in our neighborhood.’ I was like, ‘You do? Who?’ ‘We don’t really know, but he has a blonde mullet, and he goes “Bang!”‘ I said, ‘DDP lives in your neighborhood!?’ Oh, my God, this is crazy! I was like I gotta find him. I was on the internet and stuff. It’s like, DDP’s real name is Page Falkinburg? Okay. I know he lives in this neighborhood. So me and my friends, we came up with the greatest plan ever. Halloween was coming up. It was like, Okay, we know he lives there. So this is our plan. We’re all dressing up as wrestlers, and we’re going to go to every single house until we find him. So I dress up Sting, paint face, all that kind of stuff, and friends, DDP and Ric Flair. Was awesome. So it’s like we went to every single house, we knocked on the door, and Kimberly Page opens the door. She was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“She’s like, ‘Oh, you guys are so cute, I gotta go get Page for this.’ I was like, what? He’s here? No way! Page was so awesome that night, he came to the door. He’s like, ‘Bang!’ We’re going crazy. So then he said, Come on in, kids, let’s take some pictures. Put my friend in the diamond cutter. My friend tried to get out, got a diamond cutter on the floor. I was like, that is so awesome. Then we left, and then Eric Bischoff drove down the street and he saw us, ‘DDP sucks nWo rules!’ And it was like, Oh my God, there’s Eric Bischoff. Then I forgot my book bag at Page’s house. So I went back down, and I knocked on the door. Said, Hey, Page, I forgot my book bag. Oh, come on, get it. I grabbed it, I turned around and said hey, DDP, I know how to wrestle. I wrestle in high school, and I do backyard wrestling. And he’s like, ‘Kid, that’s awesome. When you get old enough, come back and I’ll take you down to the Power Plant.’ That sentence changed my life, because I didn’t think I was gonna be able to become a professional wrestler or anything. And DDP said, Hey, kid, you can get old enough come back, I’ll take you. I was like, Oh, my God, that’s crazy.”
So you were the youngest person ever signed a WCW contract at 19 years old. How did that come about?
“I was 18 years old. So, it was a crazy day. So what happened, we were wrestling at that bar in Atlanta, and all sudden, a Sunday comes, and the promoter calls, saying, ’Hey, Jimmy, I need you and Ryan down here right away. Chris Canyon is coming to look at you guys. You’re gonna have a trial match in front of Chris Cayon.’ I was like, what? The thing is, I was such a fan, I was like, oh my god, Chris Canyon is gonna be there. It’s like, I’m there, you know.”
How were you received in the locker room? Being a lifelong fan. Because in that era, especially in WCW, there were a lot of people that just got signed because they were big, or they just got signed because they played football. You’re someone who went in with the knowledge of being a fan. Were you received differently?
“So I must have been kind of good at hiding it. That’s another big moment for me is when I got my first WCW Saturday Night Main Event match. Growing up in Atlanta, I only had two channels growing up, PBS and TBS. But WCW Saturday Night was my show. It was WCW wrestling, Atlanta Braves baseball. Then when I got the call saying, ‘Hey, we need you in Amherst, Massachusetts for Saturday Night main event.’ I’m like, Oh my God, this is actually happening. So I got there, going to the arena, and I’m such a mark. I’m telling you, I walk in, I was like, oh my god, there’s El Dandy. Oh my god, Bob and Steve Armstrong, the Armstrong brothers, Juventud Guerrero, all these guys. I’m like, oh my god, this is so awesome. I think I was taught properly about respect in wrestling. DDP knew who I was, but they didn’t know the crazy wrestling fan. But it was pretty awesome.”
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 see New Jack stab somebody in the parking lot. Seriously, 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.”
So when WCW got bought out by WWF, at the time your contract went over to WWF, where you’re like, Great, now I work for WWE?
“So that last Nitro, I can’t believe it’s 25 years.”
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.”
What do you think your career looks like if Jimmy Wang Yang isn’t a character that’s given to you?
“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.”
What was the situation that turned you into that?
“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.”
Did you have any idea 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, 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.”
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, Man, 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’re paired with Torrie Wilson for a length of time here. What was your reaction when they paired you with Torrie?
“So Torrie was with me in WCW, and actually, I helped train her at the Power Plant at the time. But even back then, she was so hot, so smoking hot. I was a young man seeing this beautiful woman, and I was like, Oh my God. Then finally, whatever amount of years later. Jimmy, Torrie’s gonna be your girl, your valet, and she’s gonna be your girlfriend. Nobody’s gonna believe that. Are you kidding me? That was awesome. I know it’s short because she had an injury, but Torrie is awesome. Beautiful, sweet girl, and she actually put her time at the end at the Power Plant, and really learned how to learn about this business.”
What made you want to start a party bus company?
“I was just looking at all the different types of businesses that I could do. Then I saw the ad and this guy is selling a limo business. I’m not the smartest dude, but I could drive. So, okay, this is a business I can do. So I went to go look at his limos, and then when I saw the limos, I’m like, I don’t know. He said wait, I got a party bus, but it’s a redneck party bus. I’m like, bring it on out, baby! They bring it out, it’s like, Oh, my God, I’m in love, this is the greatest thing I’ve seen. Then I think in marketing, advertisement, the character and all this kind of stuff. I’m like, how much you want for all of it? This much? Okay, here, boom, here. I’ll take it like this. And then it just kind of exploded from there.”
You must have seen some wild stuff on a party bus.
“That’s the thing. People definitely do wild stuff, and a lot of people and customers are like sorry, we were so crazy, so wild. I said I was a professional wrestler for 20 years, WCW, the crazy times, I was in all Japan with those guys, and WWE is, like, you think you guys were crazy. You’re not as crazy as the locker room and the wrestling life. So it’s definitely crazy, but I’ve seen more in locker rooms and hotel rooms and bars and stuff with wrestlers.”
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.”
What is Jimmy Wang Yang grateful for?
“My daughter, professional wrestling and the fans.”
Please support our sponsors:
HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide!
COZY EARTH: Go to https://cozyearth.com/CVV for up to 20% off!
BETTER WILD: Get up to 40% off your order at https://betterwild.com/cvv
FAST GROWING TREES: Use the code INSIGHT for 20% off your first purchase at https://fastgrowingtrees.com
AMERICAN FINANCING: NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-721-3300 for details about credit costs and terms or visit https://americanfinancing.net/Chris
BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream Powder
PRIZE PICKS: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in daily fantasy lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!
DELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT
LEAN: Get 20% off with the code CVV at https://takelean.com
FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF
PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/cvv
SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount
NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!
CALDERA LAB: Go to https://calderaLab.com/CHRISand use code CHRIS for 20% off your first order.
PRIZEPICKS: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in daily fantasy lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!