The viral Costco dad used to be a wrestler in New Jersey with a Bruce Springsteen persona. He’s about to return to the ring.

Andrew Befumo Jr. and his son, Eric, better known as A.J. and Big Justice, have taken over the internet, going from the aisles of Costco to The Tonight Show in under a year thanks to their clever TikTok gimmicks. The Befumos exploded after posting a video at Costco, eating a chicken bake and a double chunk chocolate cookie while roaming the store.

The video was such a hit, they’ve created their own cinematic universe, featuring a rotating cast of characters like Befumo’s wife and daughter, and a third grader named the Rizzler. But A.J. Befumo has been ready for this moment his whole life, thanks to his past as an independent wrestler in New Jersey.

After graduating high school, Befumo attended Seton Hall and wrestled in local promotions along the Jersey Shore, like Phoenix Championship Wrestling, in the early 2000s. He befriended a number of prominent professional wrestlers, like Hollywood Nova and the Blue Meanie. Befumo even teamed up with legendary Philly wrestling stable Blue World Order for Hollywood Nova’s retirement match.

“Wrestling has unbelievable storytelling and an unbelievable way of captivating the audience and having that one-on-one connection with the audience,” Befumo told The Inquirer. “There’s nothing like stepping through the curtain in a professional wrestling match. You just really feel that connection with the audience, and the same thing goes with social media.

“When we make a video and we see in the comments, ‘A.J., Big Justice, we can’t wait for your videos to come out each and every day, because they make us so happy!’ You just really feel that connection, and you know that it’s up to you to bring happiness each and every day.”

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Befumo always brought pieces of his wrestling persona with him. He has catchphrases, like “Bring the Boom” with their own physical motion, and uses the same cadence in all of his videos.

“What you see now on TikTok and social media and all that is his wrestling character and his persona probably magnified, I’d say, about two or three times,” Befumo’s friend and longtime promoter Donald Bucci said. “But his wrestling persona was him magnified, maybe double or triple his real life personality. He’s family first. He’s probably the most generous and kindhearted, truly kindhearted person I’ve ever met.”

Befumo made a few brief appearances back in the ring in recent years for one-off retirement shows for friends, but he never had a true send-off of his own. Now, he’s getting one. On Nov. 23 in Newark, N.J. Befumo will appear as “Big BOOM! A.J.” on All-Elite Wrestling (AEW), by far the biggest stage of his wrestling career.

“He always regretted that he couldn’t have one really big send off,” Bucci said. “Nobody is entitled to anything in this world, but it is nice to finish a chapter in your own book on your own terms … This is a chance for him to show his son, more than anything else, what dad used to do and how much it meant to him.”

Befumo grew up during Hulk Hogan’s heyday in WWE, and was captivated by the showmanship and the competitiveness of professional wrestling. So when Iron Mike Sharpe opened a pro wrestling school near his hometown of Colts Neck, N.J., Befumo immediately knew he wanted to go and become a pro wrestler.

At the school, Befumo met Donald Bucci, who later became his promoter, and his brother, Mike Bucci, better known as Hollywood Nova in the Philly wrestling stable the Blue World Order.

“When I was growing up, if my hero lost, I couldn’t sleep. So I said to myself, I’m not going to do that to kids.

“[Befumo] was very much a paint-by-numbers good guy when he first started,” Donald Bucci told The Inquirer. “His first name was actually Tundra, the Powerchild of the Arctic. He did a whole frozen, ice thing, where he was from the Arctic, and it was a little hokey and weird.”

He went back to the drawing board to develop his new persona, the American Powerchild Eric Justice, inspired by Bruce Springsteen. If that name sounds familiar, it might be because Befumo’s son, known as “Big Justice,” on TikTok, was named Eric Justice after that persona. Befumo’s wife was uninterested in naming him Andrew Befumo Jr., so Befumo jokingly suggested Eric Justice, and that’s what they went with.

As the American Powerchild Eric Justice, Befumo was still the ultimate baby face.

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“It’s impossible for Andrew to be a bad guy,” Bucci said. “It’s just not possible. He has just this magnetic personality and charisma. As soon as he comes walking out of a curtain, everyone wants to cheer for him.”

He focused his act around being a hardworking, all-American, lunch-pail New Jersey guy. In the early 2000s, hardcore wrestling like Philly’s Extreme Championship Wrestling, where the Blue World Order belonged, was exploding in popularity, but Befumo kept his act family-friendly.

“When I was growing up, if my hero lost, I couldn’t sleep,” Befumo said. “So I said to myself, I’m not going to do that to kids. I am going to be the guy that sends the kids home happy. I always wanted to be something very heroic.”

Befumo wrestled in a number of New Jersey independent promotions. After every match, he welcomed the kids in the audience into the ring.

“I remember at the end of the show, just so many people walking around with his 8-by-10,” Bucci said. “At wrestling shows, a lot of talent will sell their pictures. He was so nice, most of the time, if the kids couldn’t afford it, he would just give them the picture.”

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He remained close with his friends from Iron Mike Sharpe’s wrestling school, including the Buccis and the Haas brothers.

One of the most special shows of Befumo’s career was the Russell Haas Memorial Tag Team Tournament, honoring Russ Haas, who died of a heart attack at age 27 in 2001. Russ and his brother Charlie were a popular tag team in New Jersey and competed with Phoenix Championship Wrestling, the Bucci brothers’ wrestling promotion, and they attended Seton Hall with Befumo.

Befumo also teamed up with the Blue World Order for Mike Bucci’s retirement show, collaborating with Bucci and South Philly’s Brian Heffron, also known as the Blue Meanie, to put on a six-man match. As Bucci’s longtime friend, Befumo was the perfect replacement for Michael Manna, better known as BWO’s Stevie Richards, who was unable to attend.

“His positivity is infectious,” Heffron said. “He listened. He was thoughtful. He performed everything that we had thought of perfectly, and he added so much to the match. When we stood there at the end of the night, raising our hands, it was a really cool moment, because the crowd was happy, we were happy, and most importantly, my friend Nova, who was retiring with his last match, had a great last match. Andrew contributed to that through his positivity and willingness to do whatever he needed to do.”

That was one of the first matches that Befumo’s son, Eric, was able to attend, and one of Befumo’s fondest memories was doing the Meanie Dance with the Blue Meanie and Eric in the ring.

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In Befumo’s last match as an independent wrestler, he passed the torch off to a young wrestler competing in his first professional match, going by the American Bulldog. That wrestler, Michael Cuellari, is better known now as QT Marshall, the current Vice President of Show and Creative Coordination at AEW, which will be in Philly on Saturday for AEW Collision at the Liacouras Center.

After that show, Cuellari and Befumo kept in touch. In his role with AEW, Cuellari is always looking for innovative ways to get people talking about wrestling. He didn’t want to collaborate with any random influencer, but as Befumo’s TikTok career started to take off, Cuellari started to brainstorm how to get him back into the ring.

But Befumo wasn’t sure if he was ready to get back in the game.

“He went to [AEW] All Out, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t belong in that ring,’” Cuellari told The Inquirer. “I know a lot of the fans, most of the fans don’t even realize he was a wrestler, right? But he is a wrestler, and he has the ultimate respect for pro wrestling. I figured it was a no-brainer. OK, he’s a wrestler, he’s going to use this little fame that he has from TikTok to become a wrestler again, but no. He wanted to stay away from it, and I just couldn’t believe it. Luckily, I’m a good salesman.”

Befumo ultimately agreed to sign on, in part because Cuellari agreed to return to the AEW ring for the first time in over a year to be in a tag team with him. But Cuellari, a notorious AEW villain as part of the Nightmare Family, knew he couldn’t team up with Befumo, the “ultimate baby face.” So instead, he turned the tables on Befumo — and will be facing him in the ring.

Now, Befumo is adopting a new in-ring character, Big BOOM! A.J., inspired by his TikTok persona, where he and his son Eric rank things on the BOOM-o-meter and review food with a “BOOM!” or “DOOM!” His signature move, a variation on the powerbomb that he called the Justice Bomb as the American Powerchild Eric Justice, is now the Power BOOM.

But beyond that, not much has changed.

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“I still think that Big BOOM! A.J. is someone that people can approach, is someone that people can believe in, is someone that can fight for those that can’t fight for themselves,” Befumo said. “It’s a bit more of a happy and raucous kind of character than it is the more structured and heroic Powerchild Eric Justice.

“But Big BOOM! A.J. and the American Powerchild Eric Justice do fight for the same thing, which is happiness and peace in the world.”

In a couple weeks, Big BOOM! A.J. will get to keep that fight going at least one more time.