All language subtitles for Dark Side Of The Ring S02e03 The Life And Crimes Of New Jack

Jack is in the balcony 20 feet up. Jack
can turn a ring into a riot scene quick.

No! Holy shit!

But that was his job.

He f***ed some people's lives up.

He had to do during a match.

Yikes. He always had some type of razor,
taser, staple gun.

In a world where the lines of fiction
and reality are blurred, no one pushed

boundaries further than Jerome Young.

A .K .A.

New Jack.

I'm not selling out to y 'all. If you
don't like me, the hell with all of you.

The line in wrestling between
cooperation and physical assault is

You can only go so far without your
opponent knowing that it's coming.

But how far is too far?

You, man, you know what you did.

Period. And what happens when a wrestler
lost in his character?

is set loose in a world that rewards
extreme violence.

You want to talk that big boy shit to
me?

I would dare you to come to my face and
say that shit. I would dare you. I eat

your ass alive. I dare you.

Far beyond the world of elbow drops and
headlocks lies the underground realm of

extreme hardcore wrestling, where fans'
appetite for real -life brutality is

endless. When audiences thought they'd
seen it all, New Jack took it to a whole

new level.

Many of his performances bordered on
criminal, and some crossed that line.

In this episode, we'll pull back the
curtain of wrestling's most provocative

controversial characters.

to reveal the man behind the monster and
the legacy he has left in his wake.

Okay, so for someone who's totally not
familiar, who is New Jack?

I could not sit here and swear in open
court that anything that New Jack ever

told me about his background was true or
false. I've heard he was a bounty

hunter. I've heard he had a number of
justifiable homicides to his credit.

The way he talks, the way he walks, the
way he carries himself. This brother is

real. Just imagine a badass, big African
-American dude slinging drugs on one of

the hardest streets in, like, Harlem.
You know what I'm saying? If you with

he will kill you. Maybe not kill you,
kill you, but he will pick you up. He's

that tough, dude.

I went to a movie called New Jack City,
just getting into wrestling there.

And when I heard the name New Jack, I
started playing with it in my head.

Like hearing fans chant, New Jack, New
Jack, New Jack, New Jack.

How did you come into wrestling? Like,
who taught you the ropes?

Ray Candy.

Well, I got in the ring with him, and he
was like, trust me, let me train you.

And then he told me something one day
that f***ed my head up so bad.

You got to create something that you've
never seen before.

I said, what kind of mind f*** is that?

You want to create a character?

Create something you've never seen
before.

When I saw Jack come out, he just
instantly picked up the energy in the

and people reacted to it.

I'm Jim Cornette, and in the mid-'90s, I
ran a wrestling promotion in East

Tennessee called Smoky Mountain
Wrestling.

Smoky Mountain Wrestling was looking to
break into the Atlanta market, and we

needed a heel. When I saw New Jack, he
could project that aura of menace.

So it was like just straight up.

And he had an intensity on his face. And
then he gets the microphone and he

starts talking to the people. And this
guy is talking a mile a minute and he's

getting people riled up.

If Eddie Murphy was a bad guy wrestler
instead of a comedian,

it would be New Jack. He could talk
nonstop and he could say these things in

entertaining way, but he would make you
hate him.

Beyond his natural charisma, New Jack
infuses his character with a piercing

level of real -world tension.

L .A. was hot at the time because of the
Rodney King thing going on.

O .J. had just killed everybody in L .A.

South Central L .A. was on the map. And
the whole gimmick, the Raider gear, the

gold chain, I took all of that and put
it into my character.

The Smoky Mountain Wrestling audience
was predominantly white, predominantly

redneck and hillbilly.

All you had to say was, New Jack.

Go out, piss some white people off, and
the rest was up to him. And it was gold.

It was genius.

I'd like to send a shout out to my
homeboy, O .J. Simpson.

Keep up the good work, baby.

Two less, we got to worry about.

You understand?

Keep up the good work.

I was like, I want these to believe what
I'm doing.

I want them to believe what I'm saying
is real.

To enhance New Jack's cutting edge
character.

He is paired with the perfect enforcer,
another Smoky Mountain recruit named

Mustafa Saeed. He didn't say much, but
he looked like he would kill somebody.

And I said, a guy that can talk like
this new Jack. I'm here, and I'm going

be here until I feel like I want to
leave.

And a guy that looks like Mustafa would
be a great tag team. So he said, what's

your tag team name?

I said, well, actually, we don't have a
name.

See, and he said, what about the
gangsters?

What about the gangsters with that ass
on their hands?

Just picture a hard -ass freaking movie
in the hood somewhere, dude, and they're

the baddest ass dudes in the hood.

I'm the damn man. I've been a
professional wrestler since 1989.

I'm the dude. I'm going to play you in a
game of pool, and then when I lose, I'm

going to hit you over the head with a
stank and drink your beer anyway.

That's me in a nutshell.

Yo, the gangsters had a lot of heat down
there in white neighborhoods.

The gangsters were...

A group of young, angry black men
telling every white person everything

every other black person wanted to say
but couldn't.

You little Caucasian white devil, I told
you that I would get you. The next time

that I get to put my hands around that
little pink neck of yours, I'm going to

choke the life out of you. My name is D
'Lo Brown.

I'm a 26 -year pro.

God, I sound so old.

My role in the gangsters was I was
their...

head of security.

In reality, I was the bump guy. You
know, gangsters would lose no heat, but

could beat me and we can keep rolling.

Down goes D 'Lo Brown.

Hey, wait a minute. New Jack would just
stir people up so much.

None of his stuff was written. And there
are some times I stood there and I

listened. I was like, you wish I was
like some more, some more.

Chicken bones sucking black folks.

Check those promos out. When Mustafa's
standing there next to him going, dude,

that's what he was doing all day.

And you know what I'm saying?

Nothing but rednecks up here. That
wasn't Mustafa being there for the

That was Mustafa.

Mustafa's crazy, bro.

The dude was rolling pencil shavings in
one of those blunt things, and he wanted

me to smoke it with him. I'm like, no,
dude, I'm good.

Was Mustafa smoking pencil shavings?

I plead the fifth.

You're a dick.

This is the new shit.

He had pencil shaving.

He had shit he had found growing on the
side of the building doing bags.

I said, if you spoke this shit, it's
going to come back and haunt you one

He's like, no, man, this is some good
shit, man. I'm done right now. You're a

trap. So we sit in the hotel.

I hear the knock at the door. So I said,
Jack, Mustafa downstairs fighting the

cops. So we dropped everything.

They had him handcuffed, face down.

He blowing snot on the floor.

And this is what Mustafa was saying.

The gangsters had embraced the idea that
I'm going to go out there and I'm going

to be a minister to society.

One night we did a show.

I had been to the dentist and my mouth
was sore to a point where I couldn't

hardly talk.

So I said, Mustafa, let's go to Walmart.

And I bought a white baby dog.

And I had a rope tied like a noose.

And I walked out to the ring. I got in
the middle of the ring and held the baby

doll up.

And it was like, get the fuck out of
here with that shit.

New Jack had everyone so mad at the
gangsters, Hitler could have walked out

through the curtain and he'd have been a
baby face.

I pissed people off.

And we got so much heat to the point
where these, like, we gonna kill them

niggas. They didn't say niggers.

We gonna kill them niggers.

Unleashing their unfiltered vision of
the times, the gangsters are quickly

becoming the hottest villains in the
territory.

I wanted to get the gangsters right into
the tag team title picture, so they

have to attack the champions, the Rock
and Roll Express.

This is Ricky and Robert, the Rock and
Roll Express. I mean, these been around

forever, and they done been there and
done it.

Taking controversy to a new level, they
decide to recreate the 1992 police

beating of Rodney King.

But in their version, the roles are
reversed.

Ricky Morton is knocked to the floor.
All of a sudden, the gangsters and their

posse, there's like three or four of
them. Jack brought everybody he knew for

this one. And they circled Ricky Morton
in the middle of the ring, and he's

bleeding, and he's looking at the fans
in the front row, help me.

And they beat the bejesus out of him
with these nightsticks.

So when we got done, all the white
people went out in the back, and they

waiting on us to come out the door.

And they had bricks in their hands and
sticks, so we got behind the cops. They

turned the lights on and escorted us out
of town.

When I saw that, I knew we were doing
our job.

The NAACP in Knoxville had called, and
we don't think this was a good

representation. So Jack took that, and
he said...

Some Negroes down in Knoxville call
themselves the NAACP or something or

another. They don't like me. I say it
once and I say it again. The hell with

them homegrown monkeys.

Right. So from that point on, we started
putting up a disclaimer.

The views of the gangsters are not
necessarily those of Smoky Mountain

or this station.

You thought we maybe we was.

Cotton pickers? Wrong!

Maybe you thought you had some homegrown
negros? Wrong!

Would you say that that period with
Smoky Mountain was that fun?

No. To have somebody calling you a
nigger,

I ain't goddamn used to that shit.

I said, I can't get used to it, and I
ain't gonna try to get used to it. The

gangsters were literally a microcosm of
what was going on in society at that

time. And you drop us in the middle
of... The South, the N -word was really

thrown around like you would say hello.

It was uncomfortable.

But if they didn't say that, then we
weren't touching that nerve.

It's a pretty strange concept, yes.

I want someone to hurl racial slurs at
me.

I had this little boy come up to me one
day.

He said, can I shake your hand? I stuck
my hand out, and he rubbed my arm and

looked at his hand.

I said, why'd you rub my arm and then
look at your hand?

He said, I'm sorry. My dad told me you
rub a black person's arm, it'll rub up

you and you'll turn black.

I was like, you little shit.

As their provocative routine runs its
course, the gangsters jump at a sudden

offer from a larger wrestling outfit,
ECW.

ECW was extreme championship wrestling.
It was the brainchild of Paul Heyman

that it would be the 1990s wrestling
answer to the grunge music movement.

It would be gritty and violent, and
they'd blur a lot of lines.

They were edgier, whether it be sexual
content or violence or blood or what

you. The stuff that you would see in one
arena show was like, it was a whole

hardcore night.

I had been talking to Paul Heyman and
ECW. I had never heard of ECW.

They invited me to come up there, and I
told Cornette. I said, well, Paulie

offered me a deal that he offered me a
lot of goddamn money. And he was pissed

about it. I hated that they left on bad
terms with me and me with them, but they

couldn't have gone any farther in Smoky
Mountain Wrestling. Everything about ECW

was not only more violent, but also it
was more real to the point where the

started the trend of really hitting each
other with stuff and hurting each

other. ECW was filled with wrestlers
that would go too far already and New

had to be the guy that went farther than
anybody.

I'm like, welcome home.

You know what I'm saying?

In June 1995, the gangsters leave the
hostile crowds of Smoky Mountain and

the eclectic crew of Philadelphia's
wildly popular ECW.

When we got the ECW, we fit right in.

New Jack is on a mission here tonight in
Atlanta.

And it was just like, we love this shit.

You got to understand, dude, we're
clicking hard, and we know that we're

the hottest thing on the planet by like
96, 97.

I was sent to meet New Jack at the hotel
when he first came up from Smoky

Mountain. So I was the first ECW guy he
met. He got out of the car, and I'm

like, all right, I liked him. He had
swagger. He was like, don't.

with me, which was cool by me, you know
what I mean? I'm like, oh, this guy's

going to fit right in. Our locker room
was one big family. It's Tommy Dreamers,

RVD, Tad, that booze, you know, Blue
Jack.

Heading up this locker room of misfits
is promoter Paul Heyman.

Paul Heyman was the mad scientist.

Dude, he was everything.

He was the writer. He was Steven
Spielberg of all of it, you know what I

That dude is like super brilliant.

All our careers were jumping, you know
what I'm saying?

I think New Jack got in that
environment, and he always had to be the

extreme guy in any situation, but there
were no limits up there.

I come out with the weapons, diving on
shit, fighting out in the

audience, going through chairs and
tables and knocking down chairs and

was like blood and guts every goddamn
night.

I truly feel that the reason why Jack
was so violent, so extreme, because the

way he grew up, his childhood, his
upbringing, I think that plays a part in

he is. I mean, it has to.

My childhood was... I had a daddy that
was an alcoholic. He hated my mom.

One night, she came home from work. When
she walked in the door, he pulled out a

knife and he stabbed her five times.
Yeah, bro.

In front of the whole family, he didn't
give up.

He stabbed her.

A few months later, she was like, I'm
leaving.

She picked me up, tried to put me in the
car.

He shot her in the back of the leg.

This is what I grew up around.

And I'm like, you wonder why sometimes I
flip the fuck out?

New Jack's outlet for violence has taken
him to new heights in ECW.

But on November 23, 1996, a chance
encounter with a novice wrestler is

send shockwaves through the entire
wrestling world.

Can you tell me a story of the mass
transit incident?

I didn't know it was coming.

He was 17. He thought he was 21.

And he had a little person with him.

Listen, New Jack, I'm not going to lie,
he was intimidating.

That's because he was always...

Presenting the image that he was
sinister.

Hi, my name is Tiny the Terrible.

I was just basically one of those midget
wrestlers that wanted to be considered

not really as a midget wrestler, just as
a wrestler that was just sure.

Tell us who we're watching here. Jerry
Springer,

Twin Terrors.

Over 52 million people viewed this
episode.

Jerry's the one that gave me the first
opportunity to really speak.

On a nation level like that.

Did people recognize you out there? Oh,
yeah.

What was that like? Oh, great, man. You
know, that's how I got most of the pussy

I got.

I'm used to having good -looking women.

That's true. I'm not going to sit here.

Look, ego, too.

Because I've been on TV, you know.

New Jack was like, if you went out of a
script, he would make you pay for it.

If you're going to cut somebody all the
fuck up on their first match, I don't

think the fuck And that's basically what
happened with an Eric Kulas

type situation.

Teenage wrestler Eric Kulas calls
himself Math Transit.

Dressed in a bus driver gimmick, his
matches with Tiny and his brother

the attention of ECW.

He's seen the tape of Eric Kulas and my
brother wrestling.

Paul Heyman couldn't believe that a big
guy could work with midges, because

that's, like, unheard of.

The three are asked to appear in an
upcoming match in Revere, Massachusetts.

The best wrestling is not be able to
discern the line between fiction and

reality. That was one of the big appeals
of ACW.

I'm Stu Kaplan. I'm John Donovan. And we
were doing security for the show. I was

upstairs. I had a walkie -talkie, and
someone came on talkie and said, There

some guys here for the show.

I saw Eric Kulas come in. I didn't know
who he was. I had no idea who he was.

And I knew everybody.

And they went into the back of the
locker room. And that was literally the

time I saw Eric until he came out for
the match.

No one knows that Eric has lied about
his age.

Claiming to be 21, in reality, he's a 17
-year -old minor.

Axel Rotten didn't show up for the show.
He had a family emergency.

So he was like...

He gets a tryout.

They decided to cut us out. Eric, like,
just cut us off and just went for self.

This untrained teenager who claimed to
be a professional wrestler and had

probably wrestled a few local shows
shows up. They needed somebody for New

to beat up. So they said, okay.

That was their first mistake.

So Paulie was like, Jack, y 'all go for,
like, seven minutes. Whatever you want

to do, just fat kid, just do it.

I said, Paulie.

What I'm going to do to him, people are
going to be talking about this 10 years

from now.

Boy, it's been 20 years and we still
talking about it.

By the end of 1996, New Jack has taken
his controversial career to dangerous

heights in the violent world of ECW.

Now, a last -minute change has landed
him in the ring.

with novice wrestler Eric Kuloth.

You know, we're on the grounds now of
the Wonderland Dog Track where the ECW

famous gangster Eric Kuloth incident
happened.

And we got here early. We got here
probably two or three hours before the

But there were still people here. And,
you know, ECW, ECW.

And, I mean, I can feel it. I'm getting
goosebumps now because that's what you

got. So the untrained teenager that's
maybe had three local matches in his

is now going to wrestle New Jack.

I saw Eric coming out, and I'm like,
wow, that was the guy that, with his

father, he must have gotten on the show.

Eric Kuloth is paired up with D -Von
Dudley, replacing Axl Rotten in their

team match with the gangsters.

Mass Transit, this big teenager, went up
to New Jack and told him he wanted to

get some offense in. He came up to me,
and he was like, can I do this?

Back, drop you out of the ring, push you
to a table.

And I said, no.

That's... One of the most disrespectful
things that you could do as a wrestler

to come to a vet and tell him what you
want to do.

So that's what pissed Jack off.

All right, now it all makes sense why
Jack was like, I'm going to cut this.

He wanted me to cut him.

He had already pissed me off at the
time, so I was like, I'm good with it.

cut the shit out of you. I ain't trying
to kill him, but I want him to go close

to death.

Not only did the kid want to get some
offense in, but he wanted to have a

match, so he wanted to bleed.

There are a number of ways to do it.

There's the hard way, which is basically
when you agree with your opponent that

he's going to punch you in the eyebrow
or the cheek or in some place to bust

open. There's also the easy way. You
take a common razor blade, something you

find around the house, and you trim it
in a fashion that you can wrap it in

tape, and then you can keep it.

On your wrist, in your mouth, in the
waistband of your tights. In wrestling,

was a common gimmick. The blade was
never intended to be an exacto knife.

I had been getting high all day.

I mean, so I was high.

So we told Devon, we said, we're going
to put you out of the ring and don't get

back in.

You know, D -Von didn't get touched,
didn't get hit.

Everything was mostly focused around
Eric.

And it was mostly Nujak giving it to
Eric.

I started beating on him.

I was beating him with everything.

So when it came time for us to get
color, I had a surgical scaffold.

What about the lawn?

And I had it taped to a stick.

So I stuck him in the forehead a couple
of times and did nothing happen.

See, I just sliced him.

And blood was keeping out.

I'm sure you saw it.

And I beat the shot of the kid.

His father was there in the audience.

Mustafa picked him up and slammed him.

He was bleeding everywhere.

The referee didn't even come to the
goddamn ring.

I'm standing there.

And I can see over my shoulder.

They need paramedics. But New Jack was
firing up the crowd.

At that point,

I'm like, OK, let's just get him out. I
knew we were part of history.

A defiant middle finger from Eric seems
to suggest he's OK.

But everyone at ringside can see that's
not the case, especially his family.

His father trying to get in the back,
but I'm not going to let him get into

locker room or near New Jack. Did Eric's
father say stuff to you? He was just

calling me a nigger. He was like,
nigger, you stabbed my son, you goddamn

nigger. You know, we was off camera
then, and all bets was off.

I'd have killed an old man.

I went backstage with him, but I was
like, was it worth it?

He said, damn, man, they fucked me up.

I was the next match.

So I bled like a stuck pig that night
because I was trying to take a little

of the heat off of New Jack.

We got in an argument in the car.

Eric's father was like, where are you
guys going? I said, oh, you're giving us

ride back. Oh, no, I ain't. I'm not
giving you the ride back.

I said, see, guess the fuck you are, or
we're going to be fighting again up in

this. And, you know, he got in the van,
went to the hospital.

I remember him taking this bandage off
in the car, pulling his hair up.

And just looking at it in the mirror.

Eric received 50 stitches for his
injuries and says he never wants to get

ring again.

I have no feeling from here to here.

I have like an indention in my head from
where all the nerves died. It changed

him. He was depressed and all that other
shit.

The underground world of hardcore
wrestling is exposed to unprecedented

attention as New Jack is charged with
assault and battery.

So he took me to trial, told my
attorney. I said, are they offering me a

He said, right now they want you to do
five years.

I was like, no.

He said, Jack, I think I can beat this
case.

The brutalization of teenage wrestler
Eric Kuloth has created a media frenzy

exposed the shocking world of hardcore
wrestling.

Now, a court will decide if New Jack
must answer for the assault with prison

time. Did you do any of this? You don't
want to give your side?

Hold on a little, Corbett.

Now, understand something.

It was a six -jury panel.

One 80 -year -old black guy and five
white women.

He was knowing now.

I was like, that's my savior. I'm going
to stay awake.

You're my savior.

You know?

What was your sort of role in the trial?

explaining how Eric knew what he was
doing.

If he can wrestle with us, he can
wrestle with a big guy.

It's our view that he knew exactly what
was going to happen. He was prepared to

go into the ring. He knew about the
props.

Because, I mean, at that time, Kulas
wasn't on my side. We weren't friends.

The only person that really wanted me in
this was New Jack.

And I said, Jack, it's up to you.

This is what I want. I want to work in
WWE.

New Jack promised me, if I get off time,
I swear I will take care of you. They

had Paulie on the stand.

The DA asked him, what did Mr. Kulas
call Jerome Young?

Paulie was like, he called him the N
-word.

The DA said, for the record, say it.

Paulie looked at me, he said, Jack, I'm
sorry.

He said, he called him a nigger.

The old juror, the black dude.

He stood up, he was like, and the white
woman was like, I was laughing so hard.

I sit down, I was like, oh, dude.

He was working.

I mean, he was working the shit out of
the guy there. The judge, the DA, the

jurors. He did what he don't do best, he
worked. That's what he did, he was

working. When the jury learns Eric lied
about his age and experience, the

balance shifts in New Jack's favor.

They deliberated for that day.

Came ready the next day.

They found me not guilty.

And I ended up working for WWE. I ended
up doing promos and shit with Shane, Big

Show, and Triple H. Yeah, Stephanie
McMahon's introducing me and my partner

the Twin Towers to go against The Rock.

What was it like for you to walk out to
the crowd like that? Oh, great, dude.

There's me. There's my partner that can
do the eyebrow.

And this was fresh after Eric Kuloth.

So it was like, New Jack, I don't know
what the hell he did, but there was my

spot right there.

Do you remember how Eric Kulas passed
away? I didn't even know really until,

like, years later. I forgot how it went.

But people say, yo, you know, Eric died
after failing in criminal court.

Eric's family tries to sue New Jack in a
civil suit for damages caused by the

incident. But in 2002, he dies from
complications resulting from gastric

surgery. And then what was your reaction
to learning that he passed away?

Hey, well, my fault.

I heard about it. I'm like, oh, well.

I have to indict New Jack for this
because he went too far.

But also the image of ECW allowed guys
to go way too far and think that.

nothing would happen.

The mass transit incident has set a
dangerous precedent, and it's New Jack

has opened the door to a lawless new
era.

New Jack started trying to go farther
and farther, not only with the blood and

the edginess of the content, but also
the spectacular bumps and falls.

I was the only one that probably started
coke in the locker room.

I mean, it was like a boost.

You know what I mean? It was like, if I
get high, I can go get high.

and I was snowing every night.

Once you've jumped off a 10 -foot
balcony, what's next? Jump off a 15

balcony, and then a 20 -foot balcony.

And at some point, there's no way that
this can end well, even if you do it

right. Yeah, you have any favorite
dives?

Well, the one that people always talk
about, me and Big Grimes.

Imagine Humpty Dumpty with arms and legs
as a professional wrestler. That's kind

of how he was shaped. You know what I'm
saying?

You couldn't hurt the guy. Vic Grimes
wanted to be run over with cars. He

to be hit with things. He thought that
was what wrestling was.

In the year 2000, Vic Grimes is booked
to wrestle New Jack in a match featuring

a dangerous climax.

We climbed up on top of the scaffold.

It was shaking.

Vic was like, I can't do it. It's too
high.

And we're on pay -per -view.

There's no time for error.

I said, Vic, let's go on three.

He said, Jack, I can't do it. I said,
Hugh, we're going on three.

I said, one, two, three, and I pulled
him.

He did this flip, and his back landed up
against the side of my head, and I

cracked my skull.

I never recovered from that.

I broke my leg.

I lost my sight in my right eye to this
day.

I get headaches every day.

I have insomnia because I cracked my
skull.

Vic, this is all your fault, you dumb.

That's one of Jack's rules. Don't say
you're going to do something and get up

there and chicken out. Jack's the kind
of guy that if you break those rules,

well, then he'll probably break you.

A year after the horrific fall

that cracked open his skull, New Jack
agreed to a rematch with Vic Grimes with

even higher stake.

What Grimes doesn't know is that New
Jack is out for revenge.

Before the match, I went to a pawn shop
and bought a stun gun.

Yeah, I was there with New Jack.

He told me he was going to do it before
it happened.

What did he want to have happen? He told
me he was going to chase him.

In the locker room, he came up to me. I
was ready to kill him.

He said, I'm sorry.

I said, you didn't even call me.

I stayed at home for almost a year. You
didn't even call me to see how the f***

I was doing.

This is the highest elevation of any
match in the history of our sport.

Well, I mean, I was high.

You know what I mean? I was high.

So I just tased it.

I tased the shit out of it.

Tag, tag. I can't feel my legs.

You ain't going to need them.

Bums away.

Killed him. I wanted him to hit the
floor. I just didn't throw him hard

I was trying to throw his ass to the
floor.

So we don't piss Jack off, because a
fight's never over until Jack says it's

over. I can't believe he didn't, like,
die. It's the luck of fools that this

was not at least paralyzed.

And I don't think Jack was particularly
broken up about it.

I climbed down off of the... When he was
laying in the ring, I told him, I said,

never even...

Could you have got him for attempted
murder?

I don't know.

I mean, I think throwing some off a
scaffolding kind of is right on that

Incredibly, Grimes' worst injury is a
dislocated ankle.

Once again, New Jack has pushed hardcore
beyond its limits.

But the demand for this kind of extreme
action is only getting more intense.

And now he's having to compete against
the new generation of hardcore

willing to give and receive disturbing
levels of punishment.

So it became a one -upsmanship, and can
you top this, and got into a position

where you had to go further and further
to keep that position, and then it

became his calling card.

Do you think there was ever a match
where you think you went too far?

Well, I could name a few, but I would
say probably Gypsy Joe.

Oh, Lord.

Hold on.

I looked at how old he was, but then I
forgot when we got in the ring.

In 2003, New Jack faces off against 72
-year -old journeyman Gypsy Joe, who

promotes himself as a man impervious to
pain.

The problem is no one's bothered to tell
New Jack.

The promoter was thinking, oh, this is
going to be the today's hardcore icon

the old pro from yesteryear that
everybody knows is tougher than a $2

So the night of the show, Joe comes up.

He said, just listen to me, kid. I can
teach you a lot. I said, you talking to

me?

We didn't talk no more.

I went to the ring.

Joe comes to the ring.

And Gypsy Joe, as per his gimmick,
wasn't selling New Jack stuff because

really have to hit Joe to make him go
down and register because he's so tough.

So then I got to listen to these fans.

Go home, nigger.

There and then I was pissed I started
beating Joe like it owe me money. I'll

beat the shit out of Outside the ring. I
got a bat They had bought I wrapped

around Hit him in the head or three
times

Jack just said this old man.

I threw a war chairs on him and they got
louder go on there Nigga, and dude, the

more they said it, the more pissed off I
got.

And I beat the shit out of a 100 -year
-old man, which the match never should

have happened in the first place.

With New Jack's escalating violence
comes a higher level of risk, and not

for those willing to take him on.

Was New Jack, you think, a liability for
promoters? I think some people look at

him as a liability, but yeah, some
promoters would, yeah, absolutely.

New Jack never made it to the WWE
because they were never going to touch

because he was too controversial.

They were afraid of lawsuits.

They were afraid of bad publicity. They
were afraid he was going to hurt

somebody. With the mainstream appeal of
hardcore now in decline, New Jack has

resigned to working for much smaller
outfits in the independent circuit, some

whom can barely muster a crowd.

Despite this, New Jack isn't slowing
down, and he crosses the line again.

In 2004.

I've had many trials in my life.

Yet I keep trying to do what's right.

We bonded really, really well. I'm an
MWW independent recording artist now. I

was a wrestler slash promoter.

When he hit Florida and he had to come
through Jacksonville.

He was staying at my house.

Jack is comical. If you really ever get
to know him, he's just a comedian and a

great cook.

Any examples of, like, one of the things
he would cook? Spaghetti.

But he enjoys making sure that
everybody's happy. Out of the fire.

Wow. That's one of mine. The federation
that I used to own and promote was

Thunder Wrestling Federation.

Thunder had started gaining some
momentum.

And Jack had been there a couple of
times.

New Jack's opponent is William Jason
Lane, wrestling under the name Hunter

That night, Red had asked me if he could
wrestle Jack.

When you wrestle an icon, it kind of
moves you a little bit. It's on your

resume. And I said, well, Red, that's a
whole different ballgame.

Hunter Red comes up, and he's like, what
you want to do?

I said, dude, we'll go in the back and
talk about this. He said, well, we can

talk about it now.

I said, no, we're going to back and talk
about it.

So I laid it out.

I said, well, this is what we're going
to do.

And in the middle of me talking, he got
up, he said, all right, whatever,

whatever.

I'm looking around like, what the?

Who put him up to this?

I said, I will see you in the ring.

Whatever we do, whatever.

Something was troubling with the actual
reality of wrestling, New Jack.

I think it kind of set in.

Once again, I was just going cold.

Once again, I was high as a moon,
drinking vodka, like I'm doing now.

And I had a claw, a Wolverine claw.

It had these three blades on it.

One of the blades that broke off, I had
it in my pocket.

When the match began,

Red picked New Jack up and sat him in a
corner.

And he punched me.

My nose is big enough. I don't need
nobody to help me get bigger.

Then he punched me again.

In the nose.

It looks like this guy is really hitting
Jack hard. And Jack, yeah, the way Jack

moves across his ring, now he's hooking
him and he's talking to him.

I said, you trying to handle me?

I said, you really trying to handle me?

Uh -oh.

Jack's reaching in his pocket for
something.

He's cutting him.

What the? Oh, my.

He's stabbing his mother.

Run.

Oh, shit.

Ew.

It's never good when you open a
wrestling video with a shot of a stage

empty bandstand.

Oh, good Lord.

What is there, 30 people there?

So the guy comes in the ring, they lock
up. Okay, already he's pissing New Jack

off. And he pulled a knife out of his
pants and is now apparently stabbing

guy who's trying to get away? What the
f*** is going on here?

But is he actually stabbing this guy?

Look at that woman with her hand over
her mouth and a kid, a 10 -year -old kid

is sitting there going, this is a first
in 125 years of wrestling history.

Yeah, this is not something that does
the public image of professional

a world of good.

The line in wrestling between
cooperation and felonious assault is

those lines that's blurred. But I always
looked at it this way.

If two guys agree to something
beforehand, and everything that happens

in those parameters, they are working
together. If something happens that is

egregiously outside those parameters,
such as just take a knife and just

a guy's face, that's crossed the line
from cooperation to felonious assault.

I stuck him like nine times.

On the news, they said 16.

I said, no, it was nine.

I counted, it was nine.

For the second time in his career, New
Jack's violence in the ring lands him in

trouble with the law, and the evidence
against him is impossible to ignore.

The guy that called the cops, he said
there'd been a stabbing at the Ramada

There's a black guy with camouflage on,
stabbing a white guy.

So that's how they treated it.

The cops came in, gun draw.

Get on the floor!

I remember the police officer asking
Jack, why do you hate white people?

And I just looked at him.

But I thought that was really
inappropriate.

They put Red on a stretcher and Jack
left in a police car.

New Jack is charged with aggravated
battery and faces up to 15 years in a

Florida prison.

They took me to jail.

Hunter Red comes to jail.

I'm like, why are you here?

He said, I got an idea.

I'll drop the charges.

You take me on the road and we can make
an angle out of this.

Hunter Red is looking for New Jack.

He's out for revenge.

He said, we can do the whole Florida
circuit.

I said, well, you got to drop the
charges first.

I sat in jail for three weeks.

He went and dropped the charges.

I went home, put my shit in storage, and
I left Florida.

That was the last time I talked to him.

I mean, it was on the news, and my mom
saw it. She was like, oh, my God, I

believe you up there, and you stabbed
somebody in the ring. You should be

ashamed of yourself. I'm like, bitch, it
was a...

So what the f***? Leave me alone.

You know what I mean? Because me and my
mom, we never got along.

She didn't back me when I was wrestling.

Only, b***h, I got action figures and
Toys R Us.

How many of your friends' sons got
action figures and Toys R Us?

My dad died when I was five.

He died when I was five.

But I remember the f*** of s*** he did
before he died.

And I'm like, you wonder why sometimes I
flip the f*** out?

Because of me.

I was raised in a family that was
retarded.

So I'm like, if I show up for a show and
I go out there and do my thing, be

grateful that I ain't attacking your
ass. You know what I mean?

The thing with Jack is he was too much
into his gimmick. He carried that

wherever the fuck he was at. There
wasn't no Jerome Young.

It was just New Jack. New Jack can't
benefit from any of this reputation he's

got anymore because he's...

pretty much his active career is over
with. So I think now it's more of an

albatross around his neck.

I was New Jack when I came in the door
and I'm still New Jack.

And so then who is Jerome Young?

That's a difficult question because the
line is blurred between Jerome Young and

New Jack.

If there's a difference, I don't know
because I don't know if I ever met

Young. I don't think I wanted to know
for sure because here was a guy that I

could even halfway believe in.

The best part about it is the legend,
believe it or not, is probably going to

bigger than the person.

You know what I'm saying? How stories
get, the details get taller and taller

bigger and better as the time goes.

He perfected his craft and brought it to
the highest level that he could bring

it to.

Because he knew it would leave a lasting
impression.

New Jack leaves behind a complicated
legacy.

Pioneering, unrepentant, but above all,
without compromise.

I don't need nobody out here cheering
for me, and most of all, partner, I

need you.

I believe people like that shouldn't get
away with it.

You know, New Jack ain't gonna probably
like what the f*** I'm saying about you,

man. You know what you did.

You f***ed up innocent people.

Eric Kuloff's family declined to
participate in this documentary, stating

too traumatic to revisit the
circumstances and aftermath of the

Revere, Massachusetts.

Let's say one day they decide to, like,
make a movie about your life. What would

be the end of the new Jack movie?

I'm sitting in a wheelchair, snorting
coke.

I'm just sitting there snorting coke.
You get in the eyes of them, and they be

like, thank you, bitches.