AEW's Jungle Boy Says Joey Janela Suggested 'Tarzan Boy' Theme
The Bad Boy. Tarzan Boy. Jungle Boy. Oh boy.
One of the highlight’s of AEW Double or Nothing 2021 was the capacity crowd in Daily’s Place singing along to Jungle Boy’s amazing theme - the 80s kitsch classic ‘Tarzan Boy’ by Baltimora.
Jungle boy previously used the theme on the independent circuit, with AEW head Tony Khan purchasing the rights to the song in early 2021. When taking part in the post Double or Nothing media scrum, Jungle Boy revealed who suggested he use the theme in the first place:
“The song, originally, was Joey Janela’s idea, and I had never heard of it,” said Jungle Boy “And he said ‘you have to come out to this.’ And I didn’t know what it was, and I thought it was, like, a little bit goofy. But I saw immediately how much people enjoyed it, and that just made me fall in love with it. And then, you know, I felt like my time with it had kind of come to an end when I came here [AEW].
“And it was actually something Tony had mentioned a long time ago, and he was really excited about it. He’s like ‘I’m going to get it for you. I’m going to get it.’ I was like ‘alright. If you do that’s awesome, but I’m not expecting it.’ And I’m not sure exactly how that all works, but he did it somehow. Right at the beginning of the new year. And I felt like that kind of just changed the game for me. Just shot it to a whole new level. He really is the best. He is, in so many ways, so generous and so passionate and so excited about so many things. So I really appreciate that he would do that for me.”
Although ‘Tarzan Boy’ hypes up the AEW crowd, it has the opposite effect on Jungle Boy himself, calming him before a match:
“This might be too much, but I feel very terrible before I wrestle,” said Jungle Boy “Every single time. Sometimes I’ll be walking to the curtain and I’ll pull up a trash can and throw up right in it, and then walk out. I get super, super nervous. And then now, the second that music comes on, I can hear the whole thing back, and immediately it goes away. I feel I’m ready to go, I’m ready to do it. It always went away to a certain point. But to hear that big of a reaction, so immediately, and to see those people having such a good time, it’s great. I feel it’s going to help me a lot.”