“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry says he doesn’t think he’ll go back to using his old name.
Previously, Perry was simply known as “Jungle Boy”, but over the course of the past few months, he has increasingly used his real name, while Jungle Boy has become his nickname.
During his portion of the AEW Full Gear post-show media scrum, Perry was asked about this progression. He stated that he doesn’t think he’ll go back to simply “Jungle Boy”. He also noted that he might not be Jungle Boy forever, but at least for now, people seem to enjoy it.
“I don’t think I’m going back to just Jungle Boy,” Perry said. “That originally, when I was on the indies, kinda came about as a way to not use my real name and sort of stay away my personal life. Then Christian went and blew that out of the water. So at this point, there’s no hiding it, really. So I think I’m happy at the moment. It may not be Jungle Boy forever. But we’ll see. I think people dig it, a little. The kids.”
When WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard asked Perry about Jim Ross using his real name on commentary, the former AEW World Tag Team Champion described how he didn’t feel prepared for it at first, but he was just thankful that Tony Khan let him perform as Jungle Boy on TV. He noted that the progression of his name makes sense, given the evolution of his persona.
“I think in the beginning, I really wasn’t ready for that. I think Jim Ross was kind of the first one who ever put that out there and I was like, there’s nothing I can say about it. I’m not gonna tell this guy not to. I was really thankful that, really to Tony I guess, that I was allowed to go out on TV and just be called Jungle Boy and that was it. I was like, that’s pretty cool, that I can do that. I don’t know. I think it kind of makes sense, as the character’s progressed a little bit.
“I used to pretend to eat bugs out of people’s hair. I don’t do that anymore. But I don’t know, I’m happy with the progression of it. I think it still kind fits. It’s a little more like a nickname now. It’s not as literal of a Jungle Boy. But yeah, I’m happy with that. I’m happy with the way it’s going. Who knows what it will look like in the future?”
Perry went on to describe how he now thinks Ross had his best interests in mind when he used his real name. He also noted that it was cool to have a legend like Ross yelling his name on commentary.
“The first time I heard it, I was just watching the show back, and I didn’t know he was doing that,” Perry said. “I was like, oh, I guess that’s it now. But I think he has the best interests in mind. I never really had a problem with it. It’s not something I said myself. But it was also cool for me at that point. I’d just been signed, here’s Jim Ross yelling my name over and over again. So that’s pretty neat. But yeah, now looking back at it, hat’s off to him.”
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