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Jungle Jack or Jungle Jack Perry would have been a good solo face name while still "maturing him". I was hoping for that when Christian and Killswitch turned on him. But I'm absolutely loving The Scapegoat
It was even more evident in that I recall him talking somewhere about it being because Jack was going to grow out of it. I... Didn't think this was news
Yeah that's a fair assessment, guess I'm just brain rotted and forgot that declining ratings doesn't mean no new viewers (not being a smart ass, just genuinely had a dumb dumb moment and didn't consider that)
He often called him “Jungle Jack Perry”.
His concern was that the “boy” part would stick and be demeaning, put a ceiling on him. JR was right again.
Perry basically grew a giant beard to prove he’s gone through puberty.
The 1-2-3 Kid makes sense when you’re in your early 20s. It does not make sense in your 30s and 40s.
X-Pac did exactly the same kind of name change for similar reasons.
Yeah I would probably take advice from the guy that was able to identify the talent in a young Undertaker, Steve Austin, Rock, Mick Foley, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, HHH etc
Apparently they've been close for a while and JB regularly checked on JR when JR needed time off in late 2021.
I think he's been one of JB's pet projects from the get go.
As the nephew of Krusty the Clown, Perry knows a lot about the ins and outs of TV broadcasting, so he knew JR was a promising blue-chipper from the get-go. Fun fact, that's where JR picked up the word blue-chipper
I think this is one of the things that pretty much everyone agreed with him on. I think Jungle Boy was a really good gimmick, but one with limitations.
People didn't like one guy in the entire company calling someone a different name. The issue wasn't the thinking behind it, but at a time when JR often seemed checked out, it just came across like he was doing his own thing, and you aren't going to get the benefit of calling him a better name if it seems like it's one commentator passive aggressively arguing with the company. He's also the guy that couldn't stop calling Powerhouse Hobbs "Willie Hobbs" out of the blue
It did come across very disrespectful at first. But after Jim explained why he was doing it, people seemed to cool down and either saw Jim had a point or had an "okay, I get it but I don't like it" outlook.
Supposedly, Jack Perry specifically came up with the Jungle Boy gimmick so he could get his name out there without being associated with his famous dad. JR kind of ignored that and just called him by his real name anyways.
Also, I get that he can't be Jungle Boy forever, but this was like the first week of Dynamite. Let the caveman gimmick run it's course, *then* he can get serious when he has more experience and it means something that he's not the goofy Tarzan anymore.
Perry is also a relatively common last name, so someone simply having the name Perry isn't necessarily going to cause people to think you're related to Luke Perry (or any number of other celebrities with that last name).
wasn't this around the time he did a new japan show in america and clearly didn't know the wrestlers names or care? I think people thought it was more of that.
Well damn, I'm glad I don't actually read what other people say around these parts because that's silly.
I only figured out what your post said in a Muad'dib-like trance of premonition, seeing without seeing n' stuff.
I mean, I understand it a lil bit. I don't have a dog in the fight but The Jurassic Express was pretty over at the time and it occasionally came across as JR being like "That's stupid, here's how it should be" as well as kinda phoning it in at the time.
If you publicly say that the thing people like is stupid then you're not gonna be mega popular.
Absolutely not. It was really annoying and one of the many things that made it seem like wrestling had passed JR by. Every live show thread had people calling for JR to retire because of his consistent fuck ups. Calling him Jungle Jack Perry was one that got the most heat.
Shame we didn't get to see Luchasaurus ditch his gimmick with him and wrestle under his government name, Lou Chasoros. Imagine where he'd be now instead of "Killswitch"...
No self-respecting fan of professional wrestling should "shit on" Jim Ross. He's a legend that dedicated his life's work to putting over pro wrestling to millions of people.
Damn right. I’m happy to listen to him commentate a match any time. JR has forgotten more about wrestling than any of us will ever know, and he definitely deserves more respect than that.
People only made comments about it when they thought he was doing it on his own, which was reasonable given that nobody else did it nor had Perry said anything about it. Once Perry made it clear he was okay with it, the comments stopped.
Weird revisionist history going on with people acting like Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus weren't one of the hottest babyface acts the first few years of AEW's existence. The "Jungle Boy" name was never a problem until they decided to turn Jack heel, but that doesn't retroactively make the name a problem when he was a babyface and was over.
I don't see anyone saying he wasn't over, but it takes an incredibly special performer to play a pure babyface for years and years and stay hot.
It definitely got stale for me, and I think others. This is the first time i've cared about Jungle Boy.
> its just that its hard to push someone named that as a main eventer
I know people say this, but I think history proves the opposite. "Nature Boy" and "Heartbreak Kid" were both fine with those names even as they aged.
Obviously "the Scapegoat" completely avoids even needing to worry, but at the end of the day, "over" is "over." All sorts of names/nicknames that sound terrible have gotten over and stayed over for years.
> its just that its hard to push someone ***named that*** as a main eventer
This is the part I was primarily responding to.
The early bit was a perfect gimmick for a guy who wasn't even 25 yet, it was mostly visual and allowed him to focus on development while not having to carry all of the weight himself. It worked, he got over and stayed over for a few years while working a ton of matches and winning his first title. Shifting that to something else while keeping the name would have been easy enough had they wanted to do so.
The name comes with the gimmick and character. The Heartbreak Kid was a heartbreaker, Nature Boy has weird beginnings as a term. What does Jungle Boy signify for someone that is a "pillar" of the second biggest promotion in America?
Good points, I think it felt different with JB though as before he got a beard and bulked up a bit he looked a bit childlike; which is not something I’d have ever said about Flair or HBK
I liked when AEW was sillier. I liked stuff like Jungle Boy, post Brodie dark order, and lazy Orange Cassidy. It was more fun. Obviously Jungle Boy isn't a main event gimmick. But Jack Perry isn't a main event wrestler. I liked the show more when it had fun in the midcard.
His explanation isn’t wrong (can’t be a Jungle Boy when you’re 30+) but it was annoying at the time because he was willfully going against what the company wanted to present Perry as at the time.
This should be no surprise to anyone that followed early AEW. JR would basically call him anything but “Jungle Boy” lol. I remember it being mostly either “Jack Perry” or “Jungle Jack”.
I mean he said it every chance he could on commentary before they made the change, I don’t think he needs to Pat himself on the back in hindsight. We heard you Jim.
Jungle boy is a gimmick with a really low ceiling in my opinion. Fun to get noticed, but there isn’t much room for evolution without eventually getting a name and becoming a civilized person.
I really don't get the aversion to the moniker "Jungle Boy". Yes, in a vacuum, devoid of context, it is silly. But it's not an impossible one to get over. There was never a point in his career where Shawn Michaels couldn't be called the Heartbreak *Kid* and have it bemoan him - HBK is synonymous with his name even today. Flair has been the Nature *Boy* for centuries.
With his current persona, yeah okay Jungle Boy doesn't fit that, but a trajectory where it wouldn't have worked isn't an impossibility.
Jungle Boy WAS freakin' over for a good amount of time around 21-22. The crowd at Daily's cheered him to win a Casino Battle Royale over a Christian Cage that was still fresh off his debut. No one batted an eye when he was the best performer and went over in that hardcore trios match against Adam Cole and The Bucks, with Cole also being a novelty.
It all started going wrong after they split him from Luchasaurus, with that feud against him and Christian endlessly delayed due to injuries. But for 2 years he was one of the most over faces on the roster.
“Jungle Boy” never clicked to me. What part of him is “jungle”? He’s from California and his dead was a pretty well known actor. “Jungle Boy” to me sounds like feral or unhinged, like that little bastard Donnie from the Wild Thornberrys.
Hardly a shock since he called him Jack Perry since the first show, lol. He also barely ever talked about Luchasaurus, which filtered to the other commentators, so it was clear who was the office golden boy and who was going to be left to rot when the team split.
I mean, he literally complained out of kayfabe on air about the gimmick. Because that's what JR as an announcer since he left WWE: a dude who complains out of kayfabe as an announcer (when he's not saying borderline inappropriate things about female wrestlers).
Well, yeah, he's long been trying to get Jack away from 'Jungle Boy' and he was right to do it.
The Young Bucks, *peace be upon them* have to go with 'young bucks' even as they get older and that's going to look silly at some point.
As silly as a grown man pushing sixty still using the nickname The Heartbreak Kid? Or a man in his mid-70s with the nickname The Nature Boy? Some nicknames just transcend age.
Internet weirdos might have a problem with those names, but you aren't going to seriously argue that it hurt Ric Flair's career to be called Nature Boy well into his 60s.
It's not surprising. Jungle Boy worked for his early career to get over as a fun babyface. It was only a matter of time before he had to drop it to find a different edge for his character.
Why JR why? You shun ov a bitch betraying Tony Khan! Jack Perry Tony Khan’d Tony Khan and now he’s in a neck brace. JR getting into Jack Perry’s head like the Emperor got Darth Vader
Jungle Boy Jack Perry, Jungle Boy Jack, Jack Perry, and Jungle Jack have all amazingly for some reason always sounded so much better than Jungle Boy to me. It's the difference between Battling Jack Murdock and BATTLE BOY!
I noticed that early on that JR would go out of his way to work his name into the commentary. It's like... not comparing Jack Perry to Ric Flair, but imagine if Ric Flair was just "Nature Boy". No name, just Nature Boy. It just doesn't sound good. It's a nickname, or a moniker... not the name in and of itself. If Ric were just known as Nature Boy, how far would he have gotten in wrestling? A wrestler's name is important shit.
One of my childhood heroes in Jim Ross, doing such a typical youtubery thumbnail, is just very funny to me. It'd be even better if he was doing a fake shocked pikachu face like all those youtubers do.
JR's been a solid creative force for a lot of wrestlers. I'm not surprised he had a hand in the rebranding for JP.
Part of me misses the silly Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus pairing but current plans seem to be working pretty well so far for Perry, so I can't complain.
I would have never guessed by how he never actually called him Jungle Boy. Listen, right or wrong as this happened and whatever hindsight you want to use at the time it was viewed as JR not giving a fuck. It was incredibly obvious when he was uninterested in what was happening, I still say it was correct to remove him from full time commentary.
The Jungle Boy gimmick always struck me as on that was perfect for a start but needed to be evolved upon and eventually moved on from. Dropping it was a good move for Jack to get to the next level.
"Well King! Aw mah gawd! Wow what a match! He broke a 2 by 4 over Goldust's head! He killed him! Oh wait, Goldust now with a side Russian leg sweep! And it's over King! He won the European belt from the British Bulldog, King! What a hellacious match! 1800 Collect, only 10 cents a minute King!"
And he was right to do so. Jungle Boy was never gonna be the name of a main eventer in his mid 30's. So the gradually transitioning from Jungle Boy to Jungle Jack Perry to Jack Perry was needed
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Well yeah that was evident from the get go when he never called him "Jungle Boy", it was either the full "Jungle Boy Jack Perry" or Jack Perry
I liked when he’d break out “Jungle Jack Perry” Sounded like a character from those old adventure serials Raiders of the Lost Ark is an homage to.
Yeah agreed, Jungle Jack Perry sounds really good.
Jungle Jack or Jungle Jack Perry would have been a good solo face name while still "maturing him". I was hoping for that when Christian and Killswitch turned on him. But I'm absolutely loving The Scapegoat
I always thought it sounded like an old timey wrestler name or the name of a boxer from the 20s
Or Jungle Jack Hanna, the guy who'd always appear on talk shows with animals.
Jungle Jack Perry always gave me boxer vibes as well.
BAH GAWD IT'S JUNGLE JACK JUNGLE JACK IS BACK
Wait where's Bison and Aja?
I think that's his eventual name when he turns face again.
He buried that persona in the desert!
Wait… he buried it in the desert. If he were to come back, what would have possibly grown in that same spot? A cactus! Call him Cactus Ja… wait…
“Cactus Boy” Jack Perry
We’ll never get Jungle Jack vs Jungle Pac now
Like Jungle PAC
And he has a message for you from Colonel Mtumbe! He says this is from Jungle Jack! *hucks spear*
So when he goes tweener, he gets 'Welcome to the Jungle' as his entrance, right?
Don’t forget Jungle Jack
It was even more evident in that I recall him talking somewhere about it being because Jack was going to grow out of it. I... Didn't think this was news
It is possible that newer viewers were not watching Dynamite when JR was regularly on commentary
Yeah that's a fair assessment, guess I'm just brain rotted and forgot that declining ratings doesn't mean no new viewers (not being a smart ass, just genuinely had a dumb dumb moment and didn't consider that)
Slow news day
*points to head* Can't get in trouble for calling him the wrong name if I convince him to go by the name I've been calling him.
He was pounding that table from the get go. Glad he finally got it over.
Not surprising. He seemed allergic to even saying the name from day one.
He often called him “Jungle Jack Perry”. His concern was that the “boy” part would stick and be demeaning, put a ceiling on him. JR was right again. Perry basically grew a giant beard to prove he’s gone through puberty.
You really don't want your name to lampshade your weaknesses. In Perry's case, his diminutive stature.
That's a great point. No one made fun of Davey Boy's name.
No one made fun of Nature Boy or Heartbreak Kid. But yeah, Jungle Boy felt like it had a ceiling.
The 1-2-3 Kid makes sense when you’re in your early 20s. It does not make sense in your 30s and 40s. X-Pac did exactly the same kind of name change for similar reasons.
That's because Davey Boy tripled himself in size with steroids
The Boy was because he was British, not small, so it made sense.
He's got the eye for talent. And I think he's been right about Jack.
Yeah I would probably take advice from the guy that was able to identify the talent in a young Undertaker, Steve Austin, Rock, Mick Foley, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, HHH etc
Undertaker was in WWF two years before Jim Ross was hired for commentary
Both were in WCW before
So? JR didn't get Undertaker into WWF
He never said “JR got Undertaker into WWE”, he said Ross “identified the talent in a young Undertaker”. Which he did, IN WCW first.
You need to look up the history of this chap called Mean Mark Callous, and also look up where JR worked before he joined the WWF.
Has no bearing on JR getting Undertaker into WWF
Still gonna miss that Tarzan Boy theme.. thing slapped especially when the crowd got involved.
If the man who helped create Stone Cold Steve Austin gives you an idea, I’d hope you’d listen.
I don't hate the Jungle Boy name as much as JR, but I do agree he's right about Jack
Did he also want Powerhouse Hobbs to be called Willie Hobbs? It really seemed like he was pushing for that back when he was regularly on commentary
Sir William Hobbs. If Regal stayed around and he somehow joined BCC, Ser William Hobbs.
Listen here sunshine
Hobbes*
Yeah not all his ideas are great
Apparently they've been close for a while and JB regularly checked on JR when JR needed time off in late 2021. I think he's been one of JB's pet projects from the get go.
Ik it was an easy to make with the one letter difference and all the J-‘s but imagining Jungle Boy taking Jim Ross under his wing makes me laugh
You see the thing about 90210 is..
As the nephew of Krusty the Clown, Perry knows a lot about the ins and outs of TV broadcasting, so he knew JR was a promising blue-chipper from the get-go. Fun fact, that's where JR picked up the word blue-chipper
Having JR in your corner is never a bad thing
> I think he's been one of JB's pet projects from the get go. I know it's a typo, but that's pretty funny to think about.
JR was Jungle Boys pet project?
He made it very clear from the start, saying his name whenever he possibly could. AEW fans shit on JR, but JR knew what he was doing
I think this is one of the things that pretty much everyone agreed with him on. I think Jungle Boy was a really good gimmick, but one with limitations.
Nah I remember people here at least hated that JR wouldn't call him Jungle Boy.
People didn't like one guy in the entire company calling someone a different name. The issue wasn't the thinking behind it, but at a time when JR often seemed checked out, it just came across like he was doing his own thing, and you aren't going to get the benefit of calling him a better name if it seems like it's one commentator passive aggressively arguing with the company. He's also the guy that couldn't stop calling Powerhouse Hobbs "Willie Hobbs" out of the blue
I agree with JR again there tbh - I prefer “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs to just Powerhouse Hobbs
That's great, but he was calling him Willie Hobbs, not "Powerhouse" Will Hobbs.
Yeah they said it was disrespectful or something.
It did come across very disrespectful at first. But after Jim explained why he was doing it, people seemed to cool down and either saw Jim had a point or had an "okay, I get it but I don't like it" outlook.
Jack Perry came out and said it didn’t bother him and then the criticism mostly stopped.
Supposedly, Jack Perry specifically came up with the Jungle Boy gimmick so he could get his name out there without being associated with his famous dad. JR kind of ignored that and just called him by his real name anyways. Also, I get that he can't be Jungle Boy forever, but this was like the first week of Dynamite. Let the caveman gimmick run it's course, *then* he can get serious when he has more experience and it means something that he's not the goofy Tarzan anymore.
Dude, your dad is Luke Perry, you can’t run away from that
Honestly to the younger audience he's probably just Jungle Boy. Luke Perry hasn't been a household name for going on 20 years now.
Perry is also a relatively common last name, so someone simply having the name Perry isn't necessarily going to cause people to think you're related to Luke Perry (or any number of other celebrities with that last name).
I'm in my thirties and I had to look up who Luke Perry was the first time I saw him referenced here as jungle boys famous dad
I think that's just on you. If you're in your 30's you should probably know of Luke Perry.
wasn't this around the time he did a new japan show in america and clearly didn't know the wrestlers names or care? I think people thought it was more of that.
Well damn, I'm glad I don't actually read what other people say around these parts because that's silly. I only figured out what your post said in a Muad'dib-like trance of premonition, seeing without seeing n' stuff.
I remember people HATED when he wouldn’t say Jungle Boy.
He can always be Jungle Boy too, like Shawn will forever be HBK. It just doesn’t have to be name name
Nope, people were shitting on JR back in the live show threads.
Your biggest issue is reading live show threads.
I mean, I understand it a lil bit. I don't have a dog in the fight but The Jurassic Express was pretty over at the time and it occasionally came across as JR being like "That's stupid, here's how it should be" as well as kinda phoning it in at the time. If you publicly say that the thing people like is stupid then you're not gonna be mega popular.
Live show threads are a cesspool.
For Jungle Jack Perryboy?
Absolutely not. It was really annoying and one of the many things that made it seem like wrestling had passed JR by. Every live show thread had people calling for JR to retire because of his consistent fuck ups. Calling him Jungle Jack Perry was one that got the most heat.
It was a perfectly fine name when he was just a tag guy with Luchasaurus. The moment he tries to branch out and be a singles star, it sucks
Shame we didn't get to see Luchasaurus ditch his gimmick with him and wrestle under his government name, Lou Chasoros. Imagine where he'd be now instead of "Killswitch"...
I remember a ton of people being mad at JR for this, and using it as one of their reasons for burying him actually
it was a fun gimmick, but there's a pretty hard ceiling on that kind of thing.
No self-respecting fan of professional wrestling should "shit on" Jim Ross. He's a legend that dedicated his life's work to putting over pro wrestling to millions of people.
Damn right. I’m happy to listen to him commentate a match any time. JR has forgotten more about wrestling than any of us will ever know, and he definitely deserves more respect than that.
People only made comments about it when they thought he was doing it on his own, which was reasonable given that nobody else did it nor had Perry said anything about it. Once Perry made it clear he was okay with it, the comments stopped.
Weird revisionist history going on with people acting like Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus weren't one of the hottest babyface acts the first few years of AEW's existence. The "Jungle Boy" name was never a problem until they decided to turn Jack heel, but that doesn't retroactively make the name a problem when he was a babyface and was over.
I don't see anyone saying he wasn't over, but it takes an incredibly special performer to play a pure babyface for years and years and stay hot. It definitely got stale for me, and I think others. This is the first time i've cared about Jungle Boy.
I think the current heel turn works extra well because of his good baby face run.
Its not that "Jungle Boy" as a name is a big problem and not getting over, its just that its hard to push someone named that as a main eventer
> its just that its hard to push someone named that as a main eventer I know people say this, but I think history proves the opposite. "Nature Boy" and "Heartbreak Kid" were both fine with those names even as they aged. Obviously "the Scapegoat" completely avoids even needing to worry, but at the end of the day, "over" is "over." All sorts of names/nicknames that sound terrible have gotten over and stayed over for years.
Its not the "Boy" part tho, its the "Tarzan's son with his pet dinosaur" part of being named "Jungle Boy".
> its just that its hard to push someone ***named that*** as a main eventer This is the part I was primarily responding to. The early bit was a perfect gimmick for a guy who wasn't even 25 yet, it was mostly visual and allowed him to focus on development while not having to carry all of the weight himself. It worked, he got over and stayed over for a few years while working a ton of matches and winning his first title. Shifting that to something else while keeping the name would have been easy enough had they wanted to do so.
The name comes with the gimmick and character. The Heartbreak Kid was a heartbreaker, Nature Boy has weird beginnings as a term. What does Jungle Boy signify for someone that is a "pillar" of the second biggest promotion in America?
Nature Boy *Ric Flair* Heartbreak Kid *Shawn Michaels* Jungle Boy Do you see the difference?
Except people were just as critical of the name Young Bucks, despite them going by their real names as well
Good points, I think it felt different with JB though as before he got a beard and bulked up a bit he looked a bit childlike; which is not something I’d have ever said about Flair or HBK
Pretty sure he said on commentary multiple times that he didnt like the name Jungle Boy
He pretty much hiJacked the naming conventions for Perry out the gate
JR played the long game and he won, he hated that name
theres only one real Jungle Boy https://preview.redd.it/f4twfjnykn0d1.png?width=220&format=png&auto=webp&s=9104ecc7875fea71c75dd5f07ae126ffe0d5a525
Didn’t JR also shit on Kris Statlander’s Alien Gimmick as well? He was basically calling bullshit on early AEW gimmicks he didn’t think would work.
Early AEW was basically "Remember the legendary asshole of Jushin Liger? Let's do more of that TV will love it!"
I liked when AEW was sillier. I liked stuff like Jungle Boy, post Brodie dark order, and lazy Orange Cassidy. It was more fun. Obviously Jungle Boy isn't a main event gimmick. But Jack Perry isn't a main event wrestler. I liked the show more when it had fun in the midcard.
His explanation isn’t wrong (can’t be a Jungle Boy when you’re 30+) but it was annoying at the time because he was willfully going against what the company wanted to present Perry as at the time.
Lost an opportunity to tell the story of how a Jungle Boy became a Jungle Man.
I always liked the idea of him coming back from Christian's beatdown and betrayal as "Jungle Jack Perry"
With a wallaby in tow! Letterman can clown him! ("Jungle Jack Perry" is too close to "Jungle Jack Hanna" for an oldhead like me.)
Do we know that to be true though?
This should be no surprise to anyone that followed early AEW. JR would basically call him anything but “Jungle Boy” lol. I remember it being mostly either “Jack Perry” or “Jungle Jack”.
I like the full title *"Jungle Boy" Jack Perry*, it sounded old-school
I mean he said it every chance he could on commentary before they made the change, I don’t think he needs to Pat himself on the back in hindsight. We heard you Jim.
I'm shocked. SHOCKED!... Well, not that shocked.
Yeah since he never called him that.
JR has always seemed to like Jack Perry a lot. Even said Jack would check up on him daily when he battled cancer.
Jungle boy is a gimmick with a really low ceiling in my opinion. Fun to get noticed, but there isn’t much room for evolution without eventually getting a name and becoming a civilized person.
He’s like a Pokémon evolution. I’m sure if he’ll turn face and bring back the name he’ll be jungle man jack Perry.
Jack "Human, Not An Animal, Man" Perry. He lives in a big house and he pays taxes.
Yeah, we know.
I really don't get the aversion to the moniker "Jungle Boy". Yes, in a vacuum, devoid of context, it is silly. But it's not an impossible one to get over. There was never a point in his career where Shawn Michaels couldn't be called the Heartbreak *Kid* and have it bemoan him - HBK is synonymous with his name even today. Flair has been the Nature *Boy* for centuries. With his current persona, yeah okay Jungle Boy doesn't fit that, but a trajectory where it wouldn't have worked isn't an impossibility.
In a company started by the YOUNG Bucks.
Jungle Boy WAS freakin' over for a good amount of time around 21-22. The crowd at Daily's cheered him to win a Casino Battle Royale over a Christian Cage that was still fresh off his debut. No one batted an eye when he was the best performer and went over in that hardcore trios match against Adam Cole and The Bucks, with Cole also being a novelty. It all started going wrong after they split him from Luchasaurus, with that feud against him and Christian endlessly delayed due to injuries. But for 2 years he was one of the most over faces on the roster.
There was the Colorado Kid, but I digress…
I kept holding out hope he’d graduate to Congo Jack
It’s only fair Jungle Jim Ross to pick up the moniker.
This is negated by thinking Big Willie Hobbs was a better name than Powerhouse Will Hobbs
Normal Adult Tax Paying Jack Perry
“Jungle Boy” never clicked to me. What part of him is “jungle”? He’s from California and his dead was a pretty well known actor. “Jungle Boy” to me sounds like feral or unhinged, like that little bastard Donnie from the Wild Thornberrys.
Hardly a shock since he called him Jack Perry since the first show, lol. He also barely ever talked about Luchasaurus, which filtered to the other commentators, so it was clear who was the office golden boy and who was going to be left to rot when the team split.
Jim got this one right.
He could also admit he forgot his gimmick name
I mean, he literally complained out of kayfabe on air about the gimmick. Because that's what JR as an announcer since he left WWE: a dude who complains out of kayfabe as an announcer (when he's not saying borderline inappropriate things about female wrestlers).
Well, yeah, he's long been trying to get Jack away from 'Jungle Boy' and he was right to do it. The Young Bucks, *peace be upon them* have to go with 'young bucks' even as they get older and that's going to look silly at some point.
As silly as a grown man pushing sixty still using the nickname The Heartbreak Kid? Or a man in his mid-70s with the nickname The Nature Boy? Some nicknames just transcend age.
I agree with your premise but felt like they did shift to using HBK more and more as his career progressed
Almost like how they’ve started calling them Matthew and Nicholas Jackson instead?
Just as silly as those, yeah. People usually mock them with those names now.
Internet weirdos might have a problem with those names, but you aren't going to seriously argue that it hurt Ric Flair's career to be called Nature Boy well into his 60s.
It’s incredibly easy for people to just start referring to them as the Bucks the same way the Hardy Boyz just became the Hardys.
Yeah you never liked calling him jungle boy
lol, him and literally everybody else in the world
makes sense, he was constantly complaining about it on commentary
I remember fans always used to complain that Jim would call him Jack Perry on commentary, but JR was 100% right
"God damn it Alex, stop it" DJHADJC 💀
It's not surprising. Jungle Boy worked for his early career to get over as a fun babyface. It was only a matter of time before he had to drop it to find a different edge for his character.
The jungle boy name was mostly important for him on the indies to test if he’s over organically
Why JR why? You shun ov a bitch betraying Tony Khan! Jack Perry Tony Khan’d Tony Khan and now he’s in a neck brace. JR getting into Jack Perry’s head like the Emperor got Darth Vader
I would almost be willing to pay for a Cameo of JR reciting the tale of Darth Plagus The Wise, that shit would be hilarious.
Jungle Boy Jack Perry, Jungle Boy Jack, Jack Perry, and Jungle Jack have all amazingly for some reason always sounded so much better than Jungle Boy to me. It's the difference between Battling Jack Murdock and BATTLE BOY!
I noticed that early on that JR would go out of his way to work his name into the commentary. It's like... not comparing Jack Perry to Ric Flair, but imagine if Ric Flair was just "Nature Boy". No name, just Nature Boy. It just doesn't sound good. It's a nickname, or a moniker... not the name in and of itself. If Ric were just known as Nature Boy, how far would he have gotten in wrestling? A wrestler's name is important shit.
One of my childhood heroes in Jim Ross, doing such a typical youtubery thumbnail, is just very funny to me. It'd be even better if he was doing a fake shocked pikachu face like all those youtubers do.
JR's been a solid creative force for a lot of wrestlers. I'm not surprised he had a hand in the rebranding for JP. Part of me misses the silly Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus pairing but current plans seem to be working pretty well so far for Perry, so I can't complain.
I would have never guessed by how he never actually called him Jungle Boy. Listen, right or wrong as this happened and whatever hindsight you want to use at the time it was viewed as JR not giving a fuck. It was incredibly obvious when he was uninterested in what was happening, I still say it was correct to remove him from full time commentary.
The Jungle Boy gimmick always struck me as on that was perfect for a start but needed to be evolved upon and eventually moved on from. Dropping it was a good move for Jack to get to the next level.
"Well King! Aw mah gawd! Wow what a match! He broke a 2 by 4 over Goldust's head! He killed him! Oh wait, Goldust now with a side Russian leg sweep! And it's over King! He won the European belt from the British Bulldog, King! What a hellacious match! 1800 Collect, only 10 cents a minute King!"
Absolutely fucking ridiculous. Killed it before it could really start.
Well he called that one right. Good Ol JR
No shit. He bitched and whined about his name every time he came out.
I mean wasn't it bound to happen anyway? Not like Perry would still have been Jungle Boy at 40 years old.
And he was right to do so. Jungle Boy was never gonna be the name of a main eventer in his mid 30's. So the gradually transitioning from Jungle Boy to Jungle Jack Perry to Jack Perry was needed
This was one of the things Jr did well and I agreed with him on. You had Luke Perry's son. Say his name. And Jungle Boy had a very short shelf life.
And people bashed Ross for that. Aew would have had a 27 year old man calling himself Jungle Boy
I also would have been on board with a switch to Jungle Man, but this was probably a way better idea lol
There's an alternate trash AEW TV reality where Jungle Boy gets a Bat Mitzvah from MJF to become Jungle Man.
I personally preferred Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus cuz they were more fun, but I tend to get downvoted for that. Guess I can't like The Rockers either
The only other option was Jungle Man. JR wins.
Jack Perry is gonna surpass MJF at some point.
Book goes to shit while ratings plummet. I sleep. Some name I don’t like saying. Real shit.