Former WWE Star Reveals Vince McMahon Pitched ‘Hilarious’ Character In ‘The Weirdest Conversation’ They Ever Had

A former WWE star has detailed the “weirdest conversation” they had with Vince McMahon, which led to the creation of their character.

Former WWE star Jimmy Yang made his return to WWE in 2006 as part of the Cruiserweight Division on the SmackDown brand, doing so with the gimmick of an Asian Redneck.

Yang’s return came after his prior run as Akio in WWE, before he competed in numerous independent promotions and in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Now, speaking to Wentworth Bros Entertainment, Yang opened up more on the backstory behind his return, and Vince McMahon coming up with the Jimmy Wang Yang character in the ‘weirdest conversation’ he had ever had.

He said:

“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? You know? 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.

“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, the after WCW, after Akio, now Jimmy Wang Yang.

“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 was 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 came about, because your boy was trying to get laid one night.”

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