Jungle Boy On What WWE Once Told Him Regarding His Size, Luke Perry Being A Big Dusty Rhodes Fan
Recently on Wrestlers On The Road Ordering Room Service, The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, were joined on the show by Jurassic Express members Jungle Boy, Marko Stunt, and Luchasaurus. Among many other things, Jungle Boy discussed his father, the late actor Luke Perry, and his fandom of the late great WWE Hall Of Famer Dusty Rhodes.
Jungle Boy shared that his father, the beloved actor Luke Perry, would attend professional wrestling shows with him because he thought there were a lot of strange people around the genre. Apparently, Perry's fandom of Dusty Rhodes gave the 90210 star instant credibility with Cody.
"The shows used to freak me out, when I started to go to the shows and going backstage. There were all these big ass dudes and they're a bunch of weirdos. Yeah! My dad would come with me. He used to tell me, 'there are a lot of freaks in there.' Yeah [Perry was a professional wrestling fan], he grew up watching wrestling. Dusty was his favorite." Jungle Boy continued, "he met Joey [Ryan] at the Cow Palace. That was the first time I actually met Cody too, I think. Yeah, I remember my dad, he would bug the s–t out of me, but he would always come backstage without any permission or whatever. I'd be like, 'dad, you can't keep coming back here like that. Nobody else's dad comes back.' But then all these wrestlers are a bunch of marks and they're like, 'oh, can I get a picture?' and I'd be like, 'you guys!' So my dad knew that Cody was there and I guess my dad had grown to kind of have a relationship with Dusty, so he was like, 'I've got to talk to Cody.' I was like, 'dad, he has his own dressing room. You cannot?' and he said, 'it's alright.' So he walked all the way back there and Cody was sitting there with Joey and Cody is legit in his underwear. My dad was like, 'I'm sorry, but I just got to say 'hello” and that was my first time meeting Cody. It was super embarrassing."
Jungle Boy talked about being an extra in WWE, presumably, and not liking the 'Jungle Boy' name at first blush. Jungle Boy suggested that WWE offered him a job if he put on 30 lbs.
"I did some extra work somewhere else," Jungle Boy hinted. "And they basically told me, they were like, 'look,' they were like, 'if you put on 30 lbs. or whatever, we will give you a job, but the way it is, it's not going to happen.' And I was just so bummed. I was like, 'it bums me out that that's the one thing that it gets hung up on because I know what I can do and I can do a bunch of stuff, but I think there are a bunch of guys who are way bigger than me who are not nearly as good and it's silly to me to get so hung up on that.'"
According to Marko Stunt, AEW boss Tony Khan came up with the 'Jurassic Express' name and 'The Bad Boy' Joey Janela told him the name leaves much to be desired.
"We were at the afterparty for Fight For The Fallen and [Khan] goes, 'yeah, I'm thinking about calling you guys Jurassic Express and Joey's right there and he goes, 'well, that's f–king stupid.' And [Khan] goes, 'what do you mean? I came up with that!' And [Janela] goes, 'well, it's f–king stupid.'" Marko said, "I didn't like it at first, but I do like it now. It does [grow on you]."
Just as Jungle Boy initially thought his gimmick was "really dumb", the former APW Junior Heavyweight Champion used to dislike the 'Jungle Boy' ring name as well.
"When I first heard 'Jungle Boy', I was like, 'this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard,'" Jungle Boy admitted. "Some random announcer [came up with the name]. It was my first match back since being 10 [years old] or whatever." Jungle Boy explained, 'I used to get super, super wet. I'd just pour water all over myself. But I got up there in this little warehouse. There were like 15 people and I was just soaking wet and I didn't know what to do. So I was really into Conor McGregor at that point, before he went kind of nuts, and I would always see him kind of crouching like a monkey. And I didn't have anything to do, so I just went like that and crouched. This guy was like, 'I have a ring name for you.' I was like, 'okay' and he said it and I was like, 'you're an idiot. You're a moron.' Yeah, but then people liked it a lot, and I just kind of went with it, and it changed everything."
In response, Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks shared that he hated the tag team's name initially.
"It was the same thing [for The Young Bucks]," Matt explained. "This guy didn't know our names and they were like, 'Matt and Nick? what are their names? Those Young Bucks!' And they just called us that. We were like, 'that's the worst name ever. We're not The Young Bucks. We hate it.' We hated it and here we are. Yeah, someone just kind of gives you a name and you're stuck with it."
Check out this episode of Wrestlers On The Road Ordering Room Service in the video above. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit the Being The Elite YouTube channel's Wrestlers On The Road Ordering Room Service with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.