- New Jack
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For the musical style, see New jack swing.
New Jack 
Ring name(s) New Jack Billed height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Billed weight 240 lb (110 kg) Born January 3, 1963
Atlanta, GeorgiaTrained by Ray Candy Debut 1992 Jerome Young (born January 3, 1963) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name New Jack in ECW.
He is known for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and "shooting" on opponents, though he is only known to shoot on opponents who are deemed disrespectful in the ring. He is also known for having his theme song ("Natural Born Killaz" by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) play throughout his matches in ECW. The inspiration for his ring name came from the movie New Jack City.
Contents
Career
Young claims to have been a bounty hunter before becoming a professional wrestler, and to have committed four justifiable homicides, although these claims have not been verified by independent sources.
Young trained under Ray Candy and debuted in 1992 in the Memphis, Tennessee-based United States Wrestling Association (USWA), where he adopted the name New Jack. He went on to form a tag 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 pinfall as opposed to the conventional three count. They engaged in a long feud with the Rock 'N Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson). During their stint, the NAACP would picket outside the performance venues because of the "Gangsta" gimmick, claiming that no racial violence had occurred in the Tennessee area for years, and they didn't want the reputation of gangsters to be put into the Tennessee area.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
New Jack at an ECW event in 1998.
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 was fired from 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 began dragging in a garbage can full of weapons and throwing it into the ring as a sort of ultra-violent grab bag.
During Jack's time in ECW when he had started to dive from anything and everything, he has stated in an interview he was contacted by the (at the time) WWF to work for them. Jack also stated he wouldn't leave ECW for either the WWF or WCW because they would "water him down" and "make him look weak", in competition to the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker and others that were working for the company at that time.
August 1998-1999
New Jack throughout the late-1990s was in a bitter feud with Da Baldies and their leader The Spanish Angel over the unofficial title of "King of the Streets". The two battled back and forth over the matter in bloody street fights. One of ECW television's most gruesome moments is when in the course of a match, Angel used New Jack's staple gun (which he often wore around his neck with a chain) against him, stapling him in the eye. Referees called off the match, and New Jack disappeared from the air for several months. New Jack returned by the end of 1999 with his eye seemingly recovered, now sporting a scythe around his neck, claiming that he had "upgraded" the staple gun. The first match he had against Angel since his return was a successful one, as he continued his feud against Da Baldies.
The Danbury Fall
On March 12, 2000 at the Living Dangerously pay-per-view, New Jack legitimately suffered brain damage and was permanently blinded in his right eye when he and his opponent, Vic Grimes, fell around fifteen feet off a 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.[1] In a rematch between the two in Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW), New Jack threw Grimes from a scaffold (which, this time, was directly above the ring), with Grimes plummeting around thirty feet into the ring. The stunt did not work out as planned, as Grimes only landed on one of the twelve tables that were intended to break his fall and ended up dislocating his ankle on the ring 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 ring post and for Grimes to be injured or killed, but under further evaluation Grimes can be seen noticeably pushing off the scaffold with his foot which is one of the main factors leading to the botch. Also in the interview, he said that the Living Dangerously accident was his own fault for prematurely pulling Grimes down from the scaffold. Jack has said that Grimes had been going around telling the locker room that he hurt New Jack, until Jack replied by saying "I hurt me."
XPW and the independent circuit
After ECW declared bankruptcy in April 2001, New Jack began wrestling on the independent circuit. In 2001 and 2002, he wrestled for XPW, and in 2003, he made multiple appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and also Combat Zone Wrestling, competing in Cage of Death V. New Jack appeared at the ECW reunion show, Hardcore Homecoming, on June 10, 2005, as well as competing on the "Extreme Reunion" tour from September 15–16.
In April 2003, New Jack was in a memorable hardcore match with longtime wrestler Gilberto Melendez (better known as Gypsy Joe). Joe was continuously no-selling New Jack. New Jack also states on a shoot interview that Joe headbutted him in the nose. This caused New Jack to legitimately attack the sexagenarian with a chain, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, and several other weapons. Before the match Jack met Gypsy Joe and went to the booker of the show and asked exactly what he was supposed to do with Joe. Jack was told "Gypsy Joe is as tough as leather", and Jack replied that he wasn't going to lose dollar value from this match and won't have either a comedy, or a gimmick match, and told the booker he will kill Gypsy Joe in this hardcore match.[2]
TNA
During 2003 and 2004 New Jack wrestled occasional events for TNA
On August 8, 2010, New Jack appeared at TNA's ECW reunion show, Hardcore Justice, where he and Mustafa assaulted Team 3D and Joel Gertner after a match.[3]
Other
In 2005, New Jack was supposed to wrestle Sandman in a ECW style match, but Danny Demento came out and cut a promo. Sandman came out, cut a promo, then New Jack came out, and the match turned into a Triple Threat ECW style match which New Jack won.
In 2006, New Jack reached an agreement with MTV to participate in their Wrestling Society X television series. He appeared in the Battle Royal to determine contenders for the WSX Championship, directing his focus on fellow ex-ECW alumnus Chris Hamrick. According to New Jack, he and WSX parted ways due to a disagreement backstage.
On Friday, February 22, 2008, New Jack was inducted into the XWF Hall of Fame at XWF St. Valentine's Day Massacre 2008. The Hall of Fame and the company is now called Legends Pro Wrestling, where New Jack is still honored as a 2008 Hall of Fame Inductee.
New Jack ran his own wrestling promotion 2XFW based in Cincinnati, Ohio. There were advertisements for 5 shows, 3 of which were canceled. 2XFW has since ceased operation. There was another attempt at restarting the promotion in November 2009 but things fell through.
New Jack has also competed in KCW (Keystone Championship Wrestling) based in Central Pennsylvania.
On December 19, 2010 New Jack appeared at the "Dawg House Bar & Grill" in Hallandale Beach, Florida. New Jack signed autographs and met fans before and during WWE's "Tables, Ladders & Chairs" Pay-Per-View. On January 27 2010 New Jack attended an ASW show in Tampa Florida to sign autographs and promote his DVDs and other merchandise. A local wrestler by the name of Eddie Brock came out and had the announcer call him the O.G. Eddie Brock. New Jack heard this and angrily jumped in the ring on Eddie and his brother Jay which are known as the American Gangstas and cut a violent promo on the two stating he will come down the following week to personally beat them for free quoting "I don't need to go and get Mustafa. I got nigga's all over this planet." The next week New Jack teamed with a wrestler known as Damballah to face The American Gangstas. The American Gangstas showed up late to the event as well as allegedly disrespecting New Jack. This match was renowned for its legitimate violence, seeing both New Jack and Damballah seriously hurt the American Gangstas. From the video it is easy to see this was very intentional.
Personal life
Young recently broke up with former WWE Diva Terri Runnels. [4]
Other media
In the video game ECW Anarchy Rulz, New Jack's theme song was especially made by Bootsy Collins with unique lyrics, unlike every other character's theme, which consisted of sound-alikes of their real themes. The real theme ("Natural Born Killaz"), like everyone else's, could not be featured; copyright issues from their record labels wouldn't allow it. New Jack was featured in the 1999 wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat. In addition, he appeared in the television series Early Edition on May 6, 2000 as a biker in the episode "Mel Schwartz, Bounty Hunter". He was also featured in the video game Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood.
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 took part in a shoot interview with The Iron Sheik and The Honky Tonk Man where the subject was Chris Benoit's murder-suicide. New Jack commented that nothing could excuse what Benoit had done and all people on WWE and elsewhere who were making excuses for him were hypocrites. He also thought it was ironic how Extreme Championship Wrestling was seen as violent and dangerous wrestling when he was working there and still only one person died under New Jack's time with the company, whereas WWE was "averaging three a year." (It should be noted that so far 5 performers, including Benoit, have died while under WWE contract. All 5 deaths happened within a 10 year period). He also has a DVD documentary called New Jack Hardcore: The History.
New Jack did a DVD interview with The Sandman (Jim Fullington) and Raven (Scott Levy) for Pro Wrestling Insider.
New Jack recently made his hip hop recording debut. He contributed several verses to indie rapper Duckman's new album Duckman for Presidente. An animated commercial for the album featuring a cartoon version of New Jack was recently released. New Jack's voice is featured in the commercial and he tells listeners to "buy the cd or I'll stab your ass". In the popular video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the player can earn a call sign titled New Jack, referring to when he stabbed his opponent.[5][6][7]
New Jack has done several shoot interviews for RF Video
New Jack made a 2 disc shoot interview with Pro Wrestling Insider where he covered his entire career and starred a couple of his matches
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- 187 (Diving elbow drop while holding a steel chair underneath his arm)
- Death Valley driver
- Diving splash, usually from a highly elevated position onto an opponent on a table
- Signature moves
- Airplane spin
- Diving headbutt
- Guitar shot
- Various weapon shots (most notably using his signature staple gun)
- Nicknames
- "The Original Gangsta"
Championships and accomplishments
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- ECW World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Mustafa Saed (2) and John Kronus (1)
- North Georgia Wrestling Association
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- NGWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NGWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Festus and Mustafa Saed[8]
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- SMW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Mustafa Saed
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- PWI ranked him #386 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
- Legends Pro Wrestling
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- XWF/LPW Hall of Fame Inductee- Class 2008 (2/22/08)
References
- ^ The Danbury Fall.
- ^ New Jack attacks Gypsy Joe, Wrestling Gone Wrong, http://www.wrestlinggonewrong.com/video/newjack_gypsyjoe.html, retrieved 2008-06-15
- ^ Caldwell, James (2010-08-08). "Caldwell's TNA Hardcore Justice PPV results 8/8: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of ECW-themed PPV headlined by RVD vs. Sabu". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/tnappvs/article_42979.shtml. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
- ^ "Former WWE Diva Terri Runnels Steamed Over Vicious Allegations". Hackd. 2011-07-13. http://wwe-news.hackd.org/39407-a-Former-WWE-Diva-Terri-Runnels-Steamed-Over-Vicious-Allegations.html. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
- ^ http://www.inyourheadonline.com/viewnews.php?autoid=1814
- ^ http://www.wrestlezone.com/indyzone.php?articleid=231179990
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td7ysJpkq1M&eurl=http://inyourheadboard.proboards27.com/index.cgi?board=voices&action=display&thread=15099&feature=player_embedded
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2000). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
External links
Categories:- 1963 births
- African American professional wrestlers
- American professional wrestlers
- American television actors
- People from Atlanta, Georgia
- Living people
- Finishing moves
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