New Jack
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| Jerome Young | |
|---|---|
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| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | New Jack |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) |
| Billed weight | 240 lb (109 kg) |
| Born | January 3, 1963 Atlanta, Georgia |
| Trained by | Ray Candy |
| Debut | 1992 |
Jerome Young (born January 3, 1963) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name, New Jack. He is known for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff, hardcore wrestling style, usually incorporating weapons into his matches. He is also known for having his theme song in ECW (Natural Born Killaz by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) play throughout his matches.
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[edit] Career
Young claims he was a bounty hunter before he became a professional wrestler. He also claims to have committed four justifiable homicides in the line of duty. The only available evidence to these claims was stated by himself in interviews. It should also be noted that Atlanta police have no records of any of the homicides New Jack claims to have committed.
[edit] Early Career
Young trained under Ray Candy and debuted in 1993 in the Memphis, Tennessee-based United States Wrestling Association (USWA), where he adopted the name New Jack. He went on to form a team, The Gangstas, with Mustafa Saed in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW). The Gangstas took part in several controversial angles, on one occasion using affirmative action to enable them to win matches with a two count, not the conventional three count. They engaged in a long feud with the Rock 'N Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson).
[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling
In 1995, The Gangstas left SMW and joined the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion. They won the ECW Tag Team Championships twice before Saed left the company in 1997. New Jack then formed The Gangstanators, a new tag team with former Eliminator John Kronus, going on to win a third ECW Tag Team Championship.
New Jack was involved in the Mass Transit Incident on November 23, 1996 in Revere, Massachusetts. The Gangstas were scheduled to face D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten, but Rotten had missed the event. For whatever reason, Axl Rotten could not make it to the show (In the 2005 documentary Forever Hardcore, New Jack said he thinks something happened with Axl's grandmother, which forced Axl to not make it). Rotten was replaced with "Mass Transit" Erich Kulas; an, untrained seventeen-year-old who convinced booker Paul Heyman that he was nineteen and had been trained by the veteran Killer Kowalski. In the course of the match, New Jack attempted to blade Kulas (at his request), but cut through an artery, causing him to begin bleeding profusely. Kulas was hospitalized as a result, eventually receiving fifty stitches. New Jack was charged with aggravated assault stemming from the incident, but was acquitted. Kulas subsequently sued New Jack and ECW for damages in July 1998, but lost the case.
On March 13, 2000, New Jack (legitimately) suffered brain damage and was temporarily blinded in his right eye when he and his opponent, Vic Grimes, fell off a 15 foot scaffold, missed the tables that were supposed to absorb the force of their fall, and landed on the concrete floor (with Grimes landing on New Jack's head) at ECW Living Dangerously 2000. In an rematch between the two in Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW), New Jack threw Grimes off of a scaffold, with Grimes plummeting forty feet into the ring. The stunt did not work out as planned, as Grimes did not go through all twelve tables that were intended to break his fall and ended up dislocating his ankle on a rope. In the 2005 documentary Forever Hardcore, New Jack claimed that he had intentionally thrown Grimes too hard in the hopes that he would hit the ringpost and for Grimes to be injured or die. Also in the interview he blamed Grimes for his head trauma and blindness in his right eye for pulling away before the fall causing him to come down afterwards on his head instead of body to body.
[edit] Independent Circuit
After ECW declared bankruptcy in April 2001, New Jack began wrestling on the independent circuit. In 2002, he wrestled for XPW, and in 2003, he made multiple appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. On October 9, 2004 he was arrested following a match in Jacksonville, Florida in which he repeatedly stabbed his opponent (the charges were later dropped after the victim insisted that the stabbing was planned). New Jack appeared at the ECW reunion show, Hardcore Homecoming, on June 10, 2005, and was allegedly scheduled to appear at One Night Stand two days later, but was prevented from entering the state of New York due to an outstanding warrant.
New Jack also started a fight, backstage, at an XPW show in Philadelphia, where he got into a verbal confruntation with both Axel and Ian Rotten due to their lack of Kayfabe in their match. New Jack became hysterical, claiming that the two were the cause of his problems, and told everyone in the locker room that he had not paid 'his dues' in the business to have everything 'crapped all over'. He then got into Axls face and shoved him as things escalated and the entire situation had to be stopped by Sabu.
On September 13, 2006, New Jack was involved in an altercation at a Pro Wrestling Xplosion event at the New Alhambra Arena. According to various reports New Jack became physically involved with a security guard after he was given a 7-Up instead of a Sprite at the concession stands. When another staffer attempted to calm him down there was a "physical incident" which lead to over twenty police officers being called to the scene to restrain him. Later in the night, Ian Rotten called out New Jack, causing some tension between the two as New Jack has made public comments challenging Ian Rotten to a street fight, not in the ring.
New Jack was not arrested, as the person he became physically involved with declined to press charges. He was, however, removed from the venue by the responding police officers after gathering his belongings.
[edit] In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
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- Death Valley Driver
- 187 (Top rope elbow drop while holding a steel chair beneath his arm)
- Suicide Headbutt (Diving headbutt)
- Suicide Splash (Flying splash from an extremely elevated position)
- El Kabong (guitar shot)
- Various weapon shots
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
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- 3-time ECW Tag Team Champion (2-time with Mustafa Saed, 1-time with John Kronus)
- North Georgia Wrestling Association
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- 1-time NGWA Heavyweight Champion
- 1-time NGWA Tag Team Champion (with Mustafa Saed)
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- 1-time SMW Tag Team Champion (with Mustafa Saed)
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- 1-time USWA Tag Team Champion (with Home Boy)
[edit] Trivia
- New Jack is referenced in the Weezer song "El Scorcho". The line "watchin' Grunge legdrop New Jack through a press table" was derived from a caption for a photograph of New Jack fighting wrestler Johnny Grunge that was published in Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
- New Jack was featured in the 2000 wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat. On May 6, 2000, he appeared in the television series Early Edition as a biker in the episode "Mel Schwartz, Bounty Hunter". He was featured in the video game Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood.
[edit] References
- Weekly Planet's extensive story on New Jack's career
- ECW: The Mass Transit Incident
- New Jack at ObsessedWithWrestling.com
