Former WWE star Jimmy Wang Yang recently shared a strange backstage story involving former WWE boss Vince McMahon that surprisingly helped him return to WWE. According to Yang, McMahon once walked up to him backstage and seemed to completely forget that McMahon had fired him months earlier.
Yang first joined WWE in 2003. Back then, he wrestled under the name Akio and teamed with Yoshihiro Tajiri and Ryan Sakoda before moving into the Cruiserweight division. He had some fun matches on WWE Velocity, including a rivalry with Paul London, before WWE released him in 2005.
Jimmy Wang Yang recalls a bizarre meeting with Vince McMahon before returning to WWE
Yang talked about his moment with Vince McMahon during an appearance on the Insight Podcast. He revealed how a random visit to a WWE show eventually led to his second run with the company.
Yang said he went to a WWE event mainly to impress a girl and have a good time. Thanks to a connection, he got backstage access and started saying hello to old friends and coworkers. That’s when McMahon suddenly walked up to him.
“Steve Rubin used to hook us up with tickets and I take this girl out wanting a diner, all this kind of stuff. So I go down there, I get to the building, I go down, I’m standing around greeting everybody and all of a sudden Vince is walking down toward me,” Yang said.
McMahon then asked him where he had been all this time. Confused, Yang reminded him that he had already been fired.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, Vince,’ he’s like, ‘Jimmy, where the hell you’ve been?’ I was like, ‘You fired me.’ ‘What? I did? Oh, we got to talk about it. I don’t want to talk to you in a minute. Just stay here. I got to go do this. I’ll be back.’ He didn’t know he fired me,” Yang added.
That awkward meeting unexpectedly changed Yang’s WWE career. While hanging around backstage, WWE officials later asked him to appear in a segment involving DX and the Spirit Squad. That appearance led to more opportunities on RAW and SmackDown soon after.
Not long later, former WWE executive John Laurinaitis reportedly told Yang backstage that WWE wanted to bring him back full-time. That accidental backstage meeting started Yang’s second WWE run, which lasted from 2006 to 2010.
During that time, Yang became known for his “Asian Redneck” cowboy character. He competed against stars like Gregory Helms and Chavo Guerrero for the Cruiserweight Championship. He also teamed with Shannon Moore in a tag team called “The Redneck and the Reject.” The duo even challenged John Morrison and The Miz for the WWE Tag Team Championships.
Yang’s second WWE run ended in 2010 when the company released him again. After that, he wrestled on the independent scene and later appeared in TNA. He briefly returned to WWE in 2021 as a backstage producer for RAW.
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