"Jungle Boy" Jack Perry discusses the evolution of his name.
When he arrived in AEW in 2019, Perry exclusively went by Jungle Boy, though Jim Ross often used his real name on commentary. As he continued to rise up the ranks in AEW, Jungle Boy kept his name. But in recent months, throughout his feud with Christian Cage and Luchasaurus, he has been referred to as "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry.
During the AEW Full Gear post-show media scrum, Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc. asked Perry about his apparent name change. He stated that he doesn't think he'll go back to just using Jungle Boy, as he doesn't feel the need to avoid using his real name anymore. He also expressed his happiness with the shift.
"I don’t think I’m going back to just Jungle Boy. That originally, when I was on the Indies, came about as a way to not use my real name and sort of stay away from my personal life. Then Christian went and blew that out of the water. At this point, there’s no hiding it really. I’m happy at the moment. It may not be Jungle Boy forever. We’ll see. I think people dig it. The kids," Perry said.
Perry was also asked by Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone about Ross using his real name on commentary years when he was still fully referred to as Jungle Boy. He noted that he wasn't ready for it at first, but he's pleased with the way his character and his name have progressed. In hindsight, he stated that he thinks Ross had his best interest in mind.
"In the beginning, I really wasn’t ready for that. I think Jim Ross was the first one to put that out there and, there was nothing I can say about it, I’m not going to tell this guy not to. I was really thankful, to Tony I guess, that I was allowed to go out on TV and be called Jungle Boy and that was it. It was good that I could do that. It makes sense as the character progresses a bit. I used to eat bugs out of people’s hair, I don’t do that anymore. I’m happy with the progression of it. It’s more like a nickname now. It’s not as literal, Jungle Boy. I’m happy with the way it’s going. Who knows what it will look like in the future. The first time I heard it, I was watching the show back and I didn’t know he was doing that. ‘Oh, I guess that’s it now.’ I think he had the best interest in mind. I never really had a problem with it, it’s not something I say myself, but it was cool for me. Here is Jim Ross yelling my name over and over again. That’s pretty neat. Looking back at it, hats off to him," Perry said.
Perry previously stated that he wants to win every title in AEW. Check out his comments here.
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