| "Mammoth" Kang JumBo | |
| |
| Greene | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Dokdo-kun
Kang JumBo "Mammoth" Kang JumBo |
| Billed height | 6 ft. 2 in. (1.88m) |
| Billed weight | 345 lbs. (156 kg) |
| Born | Gwangju, South Korea |
| Billed from | Seoul, South Korea |
Jung Myung-Hoon (born May 14, 1980), is a South Korean traditional wrestler and international professional wrestler signed to All Asia Pro Wrestling (AAPW) but currently competing internationally for the Professional Grappling Association per the conditions of a talent exchange agreement with AAPW. Under his ring name of "Mammoth" Kang JumBo, Jung has held the U.S. Tag Team Championship (with Ajay Rupa), the PGA Broadcast Championship (twice), the AAPW Quad Pro Championship, and (inexplicably) the AAPW Junior Championship.
Career[]
Early Career[]
In early 2000, Jung Myung-Hoon dropped out of university to become a professional Ssireum athlete in the Baekdu weight class. He achieved moderate success, participating in an exhibition tour of China and Japan in late 2004. In January of 2005, Jung was suspended from competition for one year by the Korean Ssireum Organization.
All Asia Pro Wrestling (2005-)[]
In July of 2005, Jung made his professional wrestling debut for All Asia Pro Wrestling as a masked character called Dokdo-kun. Hailing from "across the East Sea", Jung worked the lower-midcard on a Korean nationalist gimmick. After losing a Mask Vs. Trunks match, Dokdo-kun disappeared from active competition. A few months later Jung re-debuted as Kang JumBo, with the gimmick of former Ssireum star. Kang gradually worked his way up the card, but could never get over enough with the Japanese fans to be considered a serious title contender.
Pro Graps Association (2009-)[]
In March of 2009, Jung signed on for a six week tour with PGA as "Mammoth" Kang JumBo, entering into a program with King Falcon. The feud ended when JumBo lost to Falcon at the Throwing Hands '09 pay-per-view event in Tokyo, Japan, but Jung reportedly was so impressed with the rest of the show that he personally requested an extension of his PGA contract that night. Having no current plans for him, the AAPW creative team agreed.
U.S. Tag Team Champion[]
Over the next few months the "Mammoth" character gradually transitioned into a babyface, in part due to the AAPW contingent's defense of Brutal Chambers from Brian Genius (and subsequently The Cool Kids), and in part unintentionally through audience reception of Jung's mic work. Kang JumBo's cooperation with PGA homegrown star Ajay Rupa during the Mall For It All main event at The Grandest Stage of The Mall was so well received by fans that PGA decided to put the two in a tag team. The Mountain and the Sky (a name taken from one of JumBo's promos) clicked on a technical level, as Rupa's athleticism allowed him to play off of Jung's balance and immovability. (Backstage sources report that their personal relationship was ambivalent at first, but mutual respect gradually warmed them to each other.)
On October 7, 2009 at Cargado Completamente in Mexico City, The Mountain and The Sky defeated Snake Eyes and Nightdiver to win the PGA U.S. Tag Team Championship. The decision to put the belts on such a relatively new team (not to mention that Jung was only on loan from AAPW) created controversy both backstage and in the wrestling fan community. This was exacerbated by a somewhat lackluster initial title run, with JumBo and Rupa participating in no televised title defenses for two months as other storylines took the forefront. After successfully defending their title at the PGA Final Four pay-per-view on December 2, The Mountain and The Sky would go on a streak of successful title defenses, including a match against former champions Snake Eyes and Nightdiver. As a result of the match stipulation, all members of the Bastards Club (including Natasha) had to leave the PGA when Kang and Rupa won the match.
For the next three months The Mountain and The Sky engaged in a simmering feud with face-turned-tweener team Jack Cavendish and Dawkins of The Cavendish Estate. On the January 7, 2010 edition of PGA Primetime Wednesday!, the Estate demanded a tag team title shot, but were told they would have to wait until after Crossfire, as B. Armstrong Ruby had given JumBo and Rupa spots in the Ladder War match as a reward for ridding the PGA of the Bastards Club. Jack Cavendish then verbally threatened the champions. Later in the show, the Guns For Hire apparently incapacitated Rupa and his valet Esmeralda (off camera), then attacked JumBo's knee with a metal baton on-air (this was the same knee that JumBo may have injured in a victory over Buster Abbott on December 30, 2009). Still later in the same show, the Guns met with the Cavendish Estate, implying a business transaction. The following week, Rupa convinced JumBo to withdraw from a scheduled tag match with the Guns For Hire, to rest his knee. After Rupa and impromptu partner GANJU won the match, B. Armstrong Ruby announced that JumBo would be replaced by Jack Cavendish in the Ladder War. Cavendish maintained that the Cavendish Estate "had absolutely nothing to do with what the Guns For Hire did to Mammoth Kang JumBo." At Crossfire, JumBo limped to ringside in a knee brace to offset Dawkins' interference in Ladder War. Jack took the opportunity to attack JumBo's knee.
JumBo did not work any matches the following two weeks, although he was present on the shows. On the Primetime Wednesday! Anniversary Special (February 18, 2010), Ajay Rupa refused the Cavendish Estate title shot challenge. The following week, the Estate worked over JumBo's knee during an eight-man tag match. While JumBo spent the next two weeks off television recuperating, Marisol (who was in a rumored relationship with Dawkins) became the new Assistant to the Commissioner and announced The Mountain and The Sky versus the Cavendish Estate for Crowning a Champion's Waist '10 in a Two out of Three Falls Match. JumBo returned on the next PTW (March 17), removing his knee brace and double-clotheslining the Cavendish Estate. The final blow-off to the feud occured at CACW'10 in a hot-tempered match. The Cavendish Estate won the first fall by pinning Ajay Rupa after a Gentleman's Degree. After a brief display of chain wrestling by JumBo and Dawkins, Jack Cavendish and Ajay Rupa refused help from their partners, essentially wrestling a single's match. Jack locked Rupa in the Lord of the Rings but Rupa refused to submit, so JumBo threw Dawkins' soccer scarf into the ring, essentially "throwing in the towel" and thus losing the second and final fall of the match, and walked to the back alone.
Broadcast Champion[]
With Ajay Rupa taking time off after CACW'10, JumBo began a push as a singles wrestler. In an online poll, JumBo was voted into the Broadcast Championship Scramble Match at Throwing Hands '10. He was attacked on the way to the match by Wes Judicata of the Bastards Club (which had returned to the PGA through numerous schemes), suffering a concussion but wrestling the 20 minute match anyway. During the match, JumBo pinned "Crimson Skies" Josh Brown and was pinned once by the eventual winner, Snake Eyes.
On the following Primetime! Wednesday JumBo was announced as an entrant in the upcoming Mall For It All royale match. The next several weeks focused on the buildup to both The Grandest Stage of The Mall 2 and the Trios tournament which would culminate at Remain Alive 2010. JumBo, as a member of Team AAPW, found himself at odds with Helm Konrad and, to a lesser extent, GANJU, both of whom had cause to dislike the AAPW. With a brawl of a match on June 23 and numerous backstage confrontations, JumBo's preoccupation with Konrad was enough for Snake Eyes to use Helm's music as distraction in a Broadcast Championship title defense on July 14. Entering at #10 in the Mall For It All, JumBo never got a chance to encounter Konrad, being eliminated instead by Snake Eyes (after a Stevens N. Stevens guillotine choke).
Post mall, a discussion with Konrad generated an apparent truce, causing a possible rift with Raijin Narukami which widened when JumBo questioned Raijin's consideration of replacing Segata Tsubaba with MAKOTO in Team AAPW. However, later that night on the August 11 edition of PTW, Raijin saved JumBo from a post-match attack after the Korean defeated Snake Eyes for the Broadcast Championship. The following week, Team AAPW lost to Helm Konrad and Lucharesu.com in round one of the Trios tournament. With Raijin and MAKOTO preparing for the tag gauntlet at Remain Alive and the recent revelation that Jack Cavendish had indeed paid the Guns For Hire to injure JumBo's knee, JumBo found himself alone with a new championship to defend.
His first Broadcast defense came on August 25 against Whoomp Del Rio, a hard fought contest won after a distraction by Wandering Star. This was followed by successful defenses against Pro Graps Academy students Tyrone Rope (Remain Alive 2010) and Jason Hughes (PTW 9/25), and Gun For Hire Tom Breakers (PTW 10/6). When Slyclops IX took umbrage at Raijin using JumBo to "test the abilities" of his students, a match was made between Kang JumBo and Zane "Zubaz" Vance. On the October 13 edition of Primetime Wednesday!, Vance managed a flash pin to capture the Broadcast title. JumBo congratulated him, but then immediately destroyed referee Dom Giordano in a temper tantrum more reminiscent of his first few weeks in the PGA.
Quad Pro Champion[]
On the November 10, 2010 edition of Primetime Wednesday!, Raijin Narukami declared that he had been given an open-ended contract for a World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship match, and that he would be giving that shot to Kang JumBo. Despite calling JumBo "deeply flawed", Raijin noted that JumBo was "a good friend and powerful ally", and the match would take place at Final Four: World of Sport. Ben Crane retained the WHWC against Slyclops IX at Cargado Completamente, setting up a rematch nineteen months in the making, as JumBo had previously faced Crane for the title on the June 3, 2009 special 3-hour Primetime Wednesday!, when Crane was a face and JumBo was still a heel (JumBo lost via disqualification when Snake Eyes interfered).
The story of this build was that JumBo had no momentum going in. With only a preshow match at Remain Alive and an end-of-show face run-in at Cargado, JumBo seemed to be an odd choice for number one contender, and Crane refused to take him seriously. JumBo's only US match leading up to Final Four was a victory over Rusty Cooledge (PTW 12/8). In Japan, however, JumBo was getting his first major AAPW push, capped off by becoming the new Quad Pro Champion after defeating longtime holder Progress Ohayashi. JumBo displayed all four belts during his match entrance at Final Four, then proceeded to defeat Ben Crane with a second rope splash to win the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Crane, however, still had a "wish" from winning the Trios Tournament at Remain Alive, and immediately used it to erase JumBo's win and restart the match. Crane locked JumBo in a crossface omoplata, and Raijin Narukami, who had been in JumBo's corner for the match, threw in the towel, declaring that JumBo was "NEVER meant to be champion."
Following this incident, Raijin used his position as AAPW liason and general influence to keep a tight rein on JumBo, forcing him to participate in a lopsided contest against The Jet Set on the next PTW (1/23/2011). Team AAPW lost that match after Wandering Star and Whoomp Del Rio came out to even the odds. Afterward Raijin pressured JumBo into punishing Segata for losing the match. The next week, after a confrontation with King Falcon, Raijin made JumBo challenge Falcon to a match at Crossfire '11. Though neither party wanted to fight the other as much as their associates (the AAPW and The Black Cross Crusade) wanted them to, both resigned themselves to their fate. JumBo, however, saved Falcon from a three-on-one beatdown on the February 23 edition of PTW, earning Raijin's enmity. At Crossfire, under the authority of AAPW Raijin stripped JumBo of the Quad Pro Championship and retired the title, with MAKOTO destroying the physical belts. King Falcon then chased Raijin and his cohorts out of the ring, and JumBo won their match with a crucifix pin.
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Signature moves
- Tusk Toss (modified Fallaway Slam)
- Hundred Hand Slap (sumo-style Palm Thrusts)
- Body attack
- Bear hug
- Butterfly lock
- Kimchee Planter (Sit-out DDT) - as Dokdo-kun
- Nicknames
- "Mammoth"
- "Korea's Largest Export"
- Music
- Ministry - The Fall - as "Mammoth" Kang JumBo (PGA)
- Overseas ft. Bombay Rockers and Ministry - Aaja Nache Ley (remix) - in The Mountain and the Sky (PGA)
- Soilwork - Soilworker's Song of the Damned - as Kang JumBo (AAPW)
- Sonim - Arirang - as Dokdo-kun
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Professional Grappling Association
- U.S. Tag Team Championship (1 time, with Ajay Rupa)
- Broadcast Championship (2 times)
- All Asia Pro Wrestling
- Quad Pro Championship (1 time, title retired then re-debuted)
- AAPW Junior Championship (1 time)