New Jack

So interestingly, I had actually started this article months ago. However with the news on 5/14/2021 the Jerome Young had suddenly passed. I decided to finally finish this draft and make some revisions.

I cannot stress this enough, up until the day he passed. DO NOT GET ON NEW JACK'S BAD SIDE. For those of you who are unaware who Jerome Young was, he was a professional wrestler formally known as New Jack. New Jack was so violent and controversial that people genuinely couldn't tell what was scripted and what was not. He also intentionally would bring up race related issues during his promos and had no problem getting into the faces of fans who would routinely hurl racial slurs at New Jack. Also he was one of the highest divers in professional wrestling history. New Jack was an incredibly violent person who had the least regard to New Jack's health and wellbeing. If he cared that little about himself, imagine what he'd do to his opponents. Today we'll analyze the 4 biggest reasons why you should not have gotten New Jack angry.

• Mass transit
• Vic Grimes incent, part 1 and part 2
• Gypsy Joe
• Hunter Red

VIEW DISCRESION ADVISED, SERIOUSLY. THIS IS NEW JACK SO IT'S GOING TO GET GRAPHIC. Trigger warning for extreme violence ahead.

Let me start of by saying I was a huge fan of ECW, CZW, and even AEW. All known for some pretty insane professional wrestling. Growing up I wanted nothing than to be a part of the ECW originals. The greats of Rob Van Dam, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, and Sandman. Seriously, wrestling along side those guys in their prime would have been a dream come true. I know it would be painful, literally. But it would've been worth it. However, New Jack was just something else. An elevated level of violence that is just absurd. I've made jokes about how Sandman was the safest person on the planet, why? Because Sandman is on New Jack's safe side. Sign me up for that list. Here's why New Jack still scares me to my core even now. Jokingly, I'm afraid as I'm writing this article he might haunt me.

MASS TRANSIT

The year is 1996 in Revere, Massachusetts. New jack is scheduled to wrestle a tag team match along side his gangsta tag team partner Mustafa, vs Axl Rotten and Devon Dudley. However Axl could not make the match. Desperate for a replacement, Paul E agrees to let 17 year old Eric Kulas aka "Mass Transit" wrestle. The Mass Transit gimmick was Eric being dressed up as a bus driver and wrestling in that attire. Now to be fair to everyone there, Eric had lied to everyone about his age and claim he had been trained by the heavily respected Killer Kowalski. And worst of all Eric's own father vouched for him to Paul himself. So, the show must go on.

Now multiple reports from various wrestlers from New Jack himself to "The Blue Meanie" state that Eric was very disrespectful to everyone in the locker room before the matches. Then he broke a cardinal rule in the professional wrestling world, which is when you're a rookie, newbie, green however you want to phrase it. You stick to the script and you don't interject how you want the match to go especially against veterans. So he's already starting off on the wrong foot. Then New Jack who admits he was incredibly high before the match started, Eric approached New Jack asking if he could help him "get color". Which in the wrestling world means bleed, to which obviously New Jack obliged. I'm not going to go into any further detail because it's just too graphic and there's plenty of footage out there for you to see. Now before I forget, immediately after the match it's very important to mention that Eric's father stormed to the back and threatened New Jack's life as well as hurled countless racial slurs at New Jack. You'll see why this is important in a moment.

So New Jack is charged with assault and battery. During the trial all the facts that I just mentioned came out; Eric lying about his age and experience, Eric's father supporting those claims, Eric agreeing to be cut, and then lastly Mr. Kulas's comments directed towards New Jack. The jury finds New Jack not guilty, surprisingly. Wow, just wow.

Vic Grimes

To say New Jack and Vic Grimes has some "history" together is an understatement. Both wrestlers were wrestling for ECW at the time. In 2000 on pay per view, they were booked to fall through two tables. Prior to the match New Jack had asked Vic if he had gone up to the spot where they were supposed to take the dive and if he was comfortable. Vic lied and said he did. Then once they go to the spot Vic starts to back out. But because this was pay per view and New Jack hates when people lie to him. Jack said "we'll go on 3. 1,23" then proceeds to pull Vic down. Now due to Vic hesitating and fighting New Jack, Vic actually landed on New Jack's head causing his skull to crack. New Jack was immediately hospitalized and spent months in the hospital; with a broken leg, brain damage, lost vision in his eye, and a plethora of other injuries. Now in the mean time that Jack in the hospital struggling to recover supposedly Vic never came to visit and was actually bragging that he was the man who took New Jack out of commission.

Then over a year later in an XPW match, the odds were upped and the scaffolding was upwards of 40 feet. Prior to the match about a dozen tables were stacked on top of each other in a square pattern so when Vic was thrown onto the tables they would break his fall. As the match goes on both wrestlers climb up the scaffolding and start fighting up top. Now New Jack apparently had bought a taser before the match and only told James Fullington "Sandman" what he planned to do Vic. Then he starts tasing Vic multiple times on his chest and neck. Vic literally said "Jack, I can't feel my legs!". To which Jack and I quote responded with "you ain't gonna need them". And then, as revenge New Jack admitted on multiple occasions that he was aiming for the turnbuckle when he threw Vic instead of the tables that were designed to break his fall. He stated he wanted to kill Vic. However thankfully Vic was not thrown far enough, hitting part of one table and bouncing off the ropes back into the ring. How Vic's worse injury was only a dislocated ankle is beyond me.

Gypsy Joe

New Jack doesn't care if you're a 70 year old man, if you choose to make New Jack angry you'll pay the price. Now, Gypsy Red's gimmick was to be the man who can suffer and immense amount of pain and punishment. He would constantly "no sell" anyone's offense to the point where you'd have to truly start hitting Joe for real as hard as you possibly could to elicit even the slightest response. The problem is, no one bothered to tell New Jack. New Jack is up for just about anything, clearly. However one thing that New Jack doesn't like is lack of communication.

So once the match begins New Jack does try to work with Joe. He respects the fact Joe is a veteran and tries to put on a good show. But Joe starts hitting New Jack with legitimate stiff shots. And of course Joe starts his gimmick by not responding to any of New Jack's attacks. Then, the audience was screaming racist slurs, directed at New Jack. All of which infuriates Jack. The match ends when New Jack is hitting Gypsy as hard as he can with a metal baseball bat, covered in barbed wire, to the back of Joe's head. New Jack then proceeds to lose a "No DQ match" by getting disqualified, AND Gypsy Joe just completely acts like nothing happened despite getting beaten by a man half his age with real weapons. I'm just at such a lost for words for how absurd this match was.

Hunter Red

Who on earth though that a "wolverine blade" was meant for the world of professional wresting?? That's just taking it way too far. But, not too far for New Jack. Shocker, right?

The year is 2004, William Jason Lane aka Hunter Red asks to wrestle New Jack. Once again for some reason, despite having no wrestling experience people are personally asking to wrestle Jack. Why, just why? Then of course it's not bad enough he's not experienced. Hunter Red decides to make all the wrong decisions. While discussing the details of the match, Hunter literally walks out on Jack as he's talking and just starts swearing up a storm about how he doesn't give a F and whatever happens in the ring happens. Again horrible thought process with New Jack of all people. Then since they had zero coordination prior to the match because of Hunter walking out and Hunter having zero experience. He just decides to start striking Jack for real. He hits Jack in his nose and eye, then tries to dump Jack out of the ring.

Remember when I talked about the Wolverine claw? Yeah, apparently one of the "claws" broke off and Jack just happened to have that broken off claw in his pocked. So, I guess to teach a lesson Hunter is stabbed (so Jack says) nine times. However the police reports say anywhere from 12-18 times. Shocker, the police are called. Then with their guns drawn New Jack is arrested yet again.

How Hunter Red is still alive after that incident is crazy. And craziest of all, Hunter Red wanted to turn it into an angle and actually dropped the charges against New Jack! Once again I just, I have no words. I'm not making a word of this up but it's all highly documented and all of this happened.

Conclusion

I'll be honest there's still more that I could write about in theory, but I think 4 examples is enough. If you want to look up more footage of all the craziness that was New Jack, be my guest. Vice in their "Dark Side of the Ring", actually dedicated an to New Jack. Appropriately named "The Life and Crimes of New Jack".

However, before I end this article I will always give credit where credit is due. Jack can be interpreted as an immense bully, a thug, whatever you wanted to call him. However; I feel like three points need to be brought up. Jack would take just as much if not more than he would give. The proof is in the scars on his forehead from years of blading, all his broken bones, the fact he was blind in one eye, his body was destroyed thanks to professional wrestling and he's even said himself it's all his fault. He never pointed the blame at anyone for his injuries/pain.

Next, it's highly documented and self admitted that New Jack was an addict all throughout his wrestling career. Doing drugs every night before his matches and rumor has it he'd even be getting high DURING the match. He could have easily blamed those drugs for his actions but he never did.

Lastly he had a very rough childhood riddled with domestic violence, unfortunately violence he witnessed first hand at a very young age. Drugs and that upbringing could have been a very easy cop out however that wasn't Jack.

Once again I DO NOT CONDONE his actions, I just respect the fact New Jack never pointed the finger at anyone else but himself.

Also thank you Paul E Heyman for this great tribute. I'm surprised the WWE even greenlit this, in the great words of Paul E "New Jack was the most non PG performer ever". It's still crazy to think that you're gone because with all the craziness you did to yourself, you nearly seemed invincible.

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed what you have read today, feel free to subscribe. I have plenty of different articles on many different topics, if you so choose to check them out. Also if you would be so kind, I would greatly appreciate a heart. Lastly; if you really feel so inclined tips and of course pledges (currently only $2.99 a month) are always appreciated but by no means required.