Ex-WWE Star Accidentally Returned To Company While Trying To “Get Laid”
A former WWE superstar shared an interesting story about how Vince McMahon gave him his job back in an unusual way.
WWE fans may not remember Jimmy Wang Yang as a legendary pro wrestler, but he does have one of the most unique stories ever in terms of how he got re-hired by the company.
Yang was originally signed by WWE after they bought WCW in 2001, but then he was let go. From September 2003 to July 2005, Yang spent most of his run wrestling as Akio.
In August 2006, Yang was re-hired by WWE and given a new gimmick name of Jimmy Wang Young as an Asian cowboy character. While Yang never held a title in WWE, he was a title contender in the cruiserweight division. After about four years, he was let go in April 2010.
During an interview with Wentworth Brothers Entertainment, Yang shared his unique story, in which Vince McMahon re-hired him without knowing that Yang had been let go by the company a year earlier. As Yang tells the story, he was at a WWE show to meet a woman, and it ultimately led to him getting a job.
“Me trying to get laid turned me into an Asian redneck. I was in Ring of Honor at the time, doing a really cool angle with the actor Taimak, the Last Dragon, Bruce Leeroy guy, I was having a great time there, I wasn’t really expecting to go back to WWE.
But I started talking with this really hot blonde. She was on the Diva Search and liked wrestling, and WWE was coming to Lexington, and I lived in Cincinnati, so I was like ‘oh yeah, I’m gonna hook this up tonight’.
So we go to Lexington, and I have to go backstage, I just worked with this company for the past two years, so I go in the back and I’m trying to find Steve Rubin, the ticket guy.
I’m standing there and Vince is walking down the hall and we cross paths and he’s like ‘Jimmy! Where the hell have you been?’ ‘Erm, you fired me?’ ‘What?! I did?! We gotta talk about this! I got to do this rehearsal, but we’re going to talk about this. Stay here. I’m gonna be back.’ He doesn’t realize he fired me? But then I was like he runs a billion dollar company, every day he has so much on his plate, I wasn’t that important, I was a Velocity king at the time. So yeah okay makes sense.
“Then I go to catering and I’m like eating a steak and then a few people come up like ‘Jimmy what are you doing?’ I’m like ‘eating a steak.’ ‘Can we use you at ringside real quick?’ I was like uh yeah sure you know.”
Vince McMahon Re-Hiring Jimmy Yang Took Place On The Night When Vince Faced “God” At WWE Backlash
The story continued with Jimmy Wang Yang revealing that this interaction with Vince McMahon occurred at WWE Backlash 2006 in Lexington, Kentucky, where Vince and Shane McMahon teamed up against Shawn Michaels and “God,” resulting in a handicap match.
“So, I go to ringside and it’s the pay-per-view Vince versus God, I don’t remember the name of it, but something involving the Spirit Squad and Shawn Michaels, and the Spirit Squad was going to toss Shawn Michaels up in their finishing move and go through a table. So, they wanted to make Shawn feel comfortable and say ‘hey, Jimmy, can you take this bump?’ I’m like ‘if I can get those tickets, you know whatever.’ I slide in the ring and Michael PS Hayes said to Vince ‘hey, should we let Jimmy do it? He’s not under contract.’ He should be under contract, let him do it!’ Then they tossed my ass in the air, 20 feet in the air and went through the table. It was a bump, didn’t kill me, so Shawn, I think you’ll be okay to do it.
“I went back to catering and finish my steak, got the tickets, everything’s good, and, then they come to me right before I’m about to go meet that girl and they say, ‘Hey, can you come to Raw tomorrow?’ I was like, “Ah man, you know what I have planned tonight?’ But it’s in Columbus, it’s close by, like I should be a responsible adult and get this job back.
“So I show up to Raw, they put me in a match with Charlie Haas on Sunday Night Heat. We kill it. Afterwards, I’m like, this girl came to Columbus, I got her tickets, now she saw me perform. So that night it’s going to get down right?
“Then I get done, and he’s like, ‘Hey, can you come to Smackdown tomorrow in Cincinnati?’ That’s my hometown. I’m like ‘…yes I’ll be there.’
“SmackDown comes to Cincinnati, when I walk in the door, they grab me right away and they’re like ‘Hey, we’re going to hire you back.’ You know, this is my actually my third time with the company. So, after WCW, after Akio, now Jimmy Wang Yang.”
That led to a conversation with Jimmy and Vince, during which the former WWE Chairman admitted he hadn’t realized Jimmy had been fired.
“So I’m like, man, I want to go thank Vince for this, because it’s kind of odd that you hire someone back that many times. So I knock on the door and he goes ‘Jimmy, come in!” I say ‘Hey Vince, I just want to thank you.’ ‘Oh, I didn’t even realize you were fired, but anyways, last time I didn’t let you talk because you’re this Korean dude that grew up in Georgia. Now we’re going to make a negative a positive. I’m going to make you the Asian redneck! Hahaha! That’s funny, and your name’s going to be Wang Yang because it rhymes! Jimmy Wang Yang! That’s hilarious!’
“I told him, ‘As long as that check comes every Monday, I’ll do whatever you want.’ He’s like ‘Oh, good, now get out of my office.’
“I close the door and was like, that was the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had with anybody in my life. And definitely it being that guy, you know, and his reactions and that laugh and stuff, it was crazy.
“So that’s how Jimmy Wang Yang came about, because your boy was trying to get laid one night.”
If you weren’t watching at the time, WWE did go all the way with Jimmy’s cowboy gimmick, including a memorable theme song.