All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring s02e03_English

New Jack is in the belt,
getting 20 feet up!

Jack could turn the ring
into a riot scene. Quick.

Whoa! Holy ----!
----!

But that was his job.

[Audience]
[screams]

He fucked some
people's lives up.

He stabbed a dude
during a match? Nice.

He always had some
type of fucking razor,

taser, staple gun.

[Narrator] In a world
where the lines of

fiction and reality are blurred,

no one pushed the
boundaries further than

Jerome Young, aka,
New Jack.

I'm not selling out to y'all!

If you don't like me,
the hell with all of ya!

The line in wrestling
between cooperation and

physical assault is blurred.

You can only go so far
without your opponent

knowing that it's coming.

But how far is too far?

Fuck 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?

[chants] New Jack!

You want to talk that
big boy shit to me?

[shouts] I will dare you to come
to my face and say that shit.

I will dare you!
I eat your ass alive.

I dare you.

♪

Far beyond the world of
elbow drops and head locks,

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
and controversial characters

to reveal the man
behind the monster,

and the legacy he
has left in his wake.

[off-screen] Okay, so,
for someone who is

totally not familiar,
who is New Jack?

Ha!

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 fuck with him,
he will kill you.

Maybe not kill you, kill you,
but he will fuck you up.

He's that tough
motherfucker, dude.

I went to a movie, called
New Jack City ,

just getting into
wrestling then.

And when I heard
the name New Jack,

I started playing
with it in my head,

like hearing fans chanting,

"New Jack! New Jack!
New Jack, New Jack!"

[off-screen] How did you
come into wrestling?

Like, who taught
you the ropes?

Ray Candy. I got
in the ring with him,

and we was like, "Trust me.
Let me train you."

And, he told me
something one day that

fucked my head up so bad...

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

I said, "What kind of
mind fuck 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 room,
and people reacted to him.

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.

It was like, just straight up
motherfuckers

from the god damn hood.

And he had an
intensity on his face.

And then he gets the,
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.

I don't care nothing about
these hillbillies not liking me!

Get in this ring and I ll
beat you like I own you.

If Eddie Murphy was
a bad-guy wrestler

instead of a comedian,
it would be New Jack.

He could talk nonstop, but
he could say these things in

an 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.

[New Jack] L.A. was hot at
the time because of the

Rodney King thing going on.

OJ 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 special shout
out to my homeboy, OJ 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
motherfuckers to

believe what I m doing.

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

To enhance New Jack's
cutting-edge character,

he is paired with
the perfect enforcer,

another Smoky Mountain
recruit named Mustafa Saed.

[Jim]
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
to be here until

I feel like I want to leave.

And, a guy that looks
like Mustafaa

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".

So then he said,
What about The Gangsters?"

I said, What about
The Gangstas,

with an 'as' on the end?"

Just picture a hard ass
fricking movie in the hood

somewhere, dude, and they're
the baddest dudes in the hood.

I m the Sandman.

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 want
to hit you over the head

with the stick and
drink your beer anyway.

That's me, in a nutshell.

The Gangstas had a lot
of heat down there

in them white neighbourhoods.

The Gangstas 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
gonna choke the life out of you.

My name is D'Lo Brown.
I m a 26-year pro.

God, that sounds so old.

My role in The Gangstas was,
I was their head of security.

In reality, I was
the bump guy.

The Gangstas
would lose no heat,

but you could beat me
and we can keep rolling.

There 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 were some times I
stood there and I listened,

and I was like, "Ooh."

You wish I was
like some old, some old...

Watermelon... chicken bone
suckin' black folk!

[Mustafa]
Ya-ha-ha-ha!

Check those promos out.

When Mustafa s standing
there next to him going,

Na-na", 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
that for the interview,

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"

[laughs]

I plead the fifth.
[laughs]

He's like, Jack,
this is the new shit."

He had pencil shavings.
He had some shit he found

growing on the side
of the building in a bag.

I said, If you
smoke that shit,

it's gonna come back
and haunt you one day."

He's like, Nah, man,
this is some good shit, man.

I'm fucked up right now.
You gotta try."

So, we're sitting
in the hotel...

I hear knock at the door.
Somebody said,

"Jack, Mustafa's
downstairs fighting the cops."

So, we dropped everything.

They had him
handcuffed, face down.

He's blowing
snot on the floor.

And this is what
Mustafa was saying,

You wanna fuck me, don't you?
I know you wanna fuck me."

I'm like-- [laughs] What the
fuck is wrong with you?"

He s like, Nah,
Jack, they wanna fuck me.

Everybody wanna fuck me."

I said, "Mustafa, you
lost your goddamn mind."

The Gangstas had
embraced the idea that,

I m going to go out there
and I m going to be

a menace to society.

[New Jack]
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 doll.

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 they was like,

Get the fuck out of here
with that shit!"

New Jack had everyone
so mad at The Gangstas,

Hitler could have walked
out through the curtain,

and he d have
been a babyface.

I pissed people
the fuck off.

And we got so much hate
to the point

where these
motherfuckers was like,

We gonna kill them
fucking niggas."

And they said, "Niggers.

We gonna kill them
fucking niggers."

Unleashing their unfiltered
vision of the times,

The Gangstas are
quickly becoming the

hottest villains
in the territory.

I wanted to get
The Gangstas right into

the tag team title picture.

So, they have to
attack the champions,

The Rock n Roll Express.

Now, this is
Ricky and Robert,

[New Jack]
The Rock n Roll Express.

I mean, these motherfuckers
been around forever,

and they d 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 sudden, The Gangstas
and their posse,

there's like 3 or 4 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 to fans in

the front row, Help me .

And they beat the bejeezus out
of him with these night sticks.

So, when we got done,
all the white people,

they went out in the back,
and they was waiting for us

at the fucking door,
and they had

bricks in their hands
and sticks.

So, we got behind the cops,
they turned their fucking

lights on, and escorted us
out of the fucking town.

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

The NAACP in
Knoxville had called, and,

We don't think this
is a good representation."

So, Jack took
that and he said...

Some negroes down in
Knoxville calling theirself the

NAACP or something
or another, they don t like me.

I say it once and
I ll say it again,

the hell with them
homegrown monkeys.

Ah!

Right? So,
from that point on,

we started putting
up a disclaimer:

The views of The Gangstas
are not necessarily

those of Smoky Mountain
Wrestling or this station".

You thought maybe we was...

Cotton pickers?
Wrong!

Maybe you thought you had
some homegrown negroes.

Wrong!

No. To have somebody...

calling you a nigger, I ain't
got damn 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 Gangstas 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 freely 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.

[New Jack] I had a 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 did you rub my fucking 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 off on you,
and you'll turn black."

And I was just like,
You little shit!"

As their provocative
routine runs its course,

The Gangstas 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,

the 1990's 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 have you.

The stuff that you would see
in one arena show was like,

it was a whole
hard-core night.

I had been talking
to Paul E. at ECW.

I had never heard of ECW. They
invited me to come up there,

and I told Cornette, I said,
"Paul E. offered me a deal.

And he offered me a lot of
goddamn money,"

and he was pissed about it.

[Jim] 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 guys

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 Jack had to be
the guy that went

farther than anybody.

I'm like, man,
welcome home motherfucker,

you know what I m saying.

[screams]

In June 1995, The Gangstas
leave the hostile crowds

of Smoky Mountain,
and join the eclectic crew

of Philadelphia s
wildly popular ECW.

I told you, boy,
we whooped their ass, again!

When we got to ECW,
we fit right in.

New Jack is on a mission
here tonight in Atlanta!

And, it was just like,
fuck, we love this shit.

You gotta understand, dude,
we're clicking hard and

we know that we're like the
hottest thing on the planet

by '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 fuck with me,
which was cool by me.

You know what I mean?
I'm like,

oh, this guy's
gonna fit right in.

Our locker room
was one big family.

It's Tommy Dreamer,
RVD, Tazz, Sabu,

you know, New 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 fucking the Steven
Spielberg of all of it,

you know what I mean.

That dude was 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 most extreme
guy in any situation,

but there were no
limits up there.

I'd come out with weapons...

Dive off shit...

Fighting out in
the audience,

going through chairs
and tables and

knocking down chairs and shit.

It 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 who he is --

I mean, it has to.

My childhood was fucked.

I had a daddy that
was an alcoholic.

He hated my mom.

One night, she came
home from work.

She walked in the door.

He pulled out a knife
and he stabbed her,

five times he stabbed her...

[hand in fist]

In front of the whole family.
He didn't give a fuck.

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 23rd, 1996,

a chance encounter with a novice
wrestler is about to send

shock waves through the
entire wrestling world.

[laughing]
I knew it was coming.

He was 17.
He told he was 21.

And, he had a
little person with him.

Listen, New Jack,
I m not gonna 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 short.

[Tiny answers]
Jerry springer. Twin Terrors.

Over 52 million
viewed this episode.

Jerry's the one that gave me
the first opportunity

to really speak on a
nation level like that.

[Tiny answers]
Oh, yeah

Oh, great, man. You know,

that's how I got
most of the pussy I got.

[Tiny on TV] I'm used to having
good looking women.

That's true. [laughs]

I got ego, too, 'cause I ve
been on TV, you know.

New Jack was like,
if you went out of script,

he would make
you pay for it.

If you're gonna cut
somebody all the fuck up

on their first match, that don't
make no fucking sense.

And... and, you know,

and that's basically
what happened with...

with the Eric Kulas
type situation.

Teenage wrestler,
Eric Kulas,

calls himself Mass Transit.

Dressed in a bus
driver gimmick,

his matches with Tiny
and his brother

attract the attention of ECW.

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

Paul Heyman couldn't believe
that a big guy could work

with midgets because
that's like unheard of.

The three men are asked to
appear at an upcoming match

in Revere, Massachusetts.

The best wrestling is...
is not being able to

discern the line between
fiction and reality.

That was one of the
big appeals of ECW.

- 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 the
talkie and said,

"There's 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
last time I saw Eric

until he came out of 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.

Axl Rotten didn't
show up for the show.

He had a family emergency.

So Paul E. was like,
"He gets a tryout."

He decided to
cut us out.

Eric, like, just fucking,
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 Jack to beat up.

So they said, "Okay".

That was their
first mistake.

So, Paul E. was like, Jack,
y'all go for, like, 7 minutes.

Whatever you want to do
to the fat kid, just do it."

I said, "Paul E., what I m
going to do to him,

people are gonna be talking
about this 10 years from now."

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

♪

By the end of 1996,
New Jack has taken

his controversial career
to dangerous new heights

in the violent world of ECW.

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

with novice wrestler,
Eric Kulas.

You know, we're on the
grounds now of the

Wonderland dog track, where,
the ECW famous gangster,

Eric Kulas
incident happened.

And, we got here early.
We got here probably 2

or 3 hours before the show. 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

3 local matches in his life,
is now gonna wrestle New Jack.

I saw Eric coming out,
and I m like, wow,

that was the guy that was with
his father when he came--

he must have
gotten on the show.

Eric Kulas is paired up
with D-Von Dudley,

replacing Axl Rotten in
their tag team match

with The Gangstas.

Mass Transit,
this big teenager,

went up to New Jack
and told him

he wanted to get
some offense in.

He came to me and he
was like, Can I do this?

Back drop you out of the ring,
push you through a table?"

And I said, Fuck 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.

[laughs] So, that's
what pissed Jack off!

Alright, now it all makes
sense why Jack was like,

"I m gonna cut this
motherfucker."

He wanted me to cut him.

He had already pissed
me off at the time,

so I was like,
"I m good with it.

I'll cut the
shit out of you."

I didn't try to kill him, but I
wanted to go close to death.

Not only did the kid want
to get some offense in,

but he wanted to have a
great match so,

he wanted to, 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 you 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

some tape, and then you can
keep it on your wrist,

in your mouth, in the
waistband of your tights.

In wrestling, it 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... as fuck.

So, we told D-Von, we said,
We gonna 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 New Jack
giving it to Eric.

Ah!

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 scalpel...

about that long.

And I had it
taped to a stick.

So, I stuck him in the
forehead a couple of times,

and then nothing happened...

So, I just sliced him and
blood was skeeting out.

I'm sure you saw it.

And, I beat the shit
out of that kid.

His father was there,
in the audience.

Mustafa picked him up
and slammed him.

He was bleeding everywhere.

[Audience]
Oh!

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

I m standing there, and I
could see over my shoulder,

they need paramedics, but New
Jack was firing up the crowd.

I hope this fat piece of
shit bleeds to fucking death

because I don't give a fuck!

[Audience cheers]

At that point, I m like,
Okay, let s just get him out."

I knew we were
part of history.

A defiant middle finger
from Eric

seems to suggest he's okay.

But everyone at ringside
can see that's not the case.

Especially his family.

His father was trying
to get in the back,

but I m not gonna let him
get into the locker room

or near New Jack.

He was just calling me a nigger.

He's like, You fucking nigger,
you stabbed my son.

You goddamn nigger,"
you know.

We was off camera then,
all bets was off.

I'd 'a killed that old man.

I went backstage with him,
but I was like,

Was it worth it?
And 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 bit of the heat
off of New Jack.

We got into an
argument in the car.

Eric s father was like,
Where are you guys going?"

I said, You re fucking
giving us a ride back."

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

I said, "Steve, yes, the fuck
you are or we're gonna

be fighting again up
in this motherfucker."

And, you know,
he got in the van,

went to the hospital.

And I remember him
taking this fucking,

the bandage off in the car,
pulling his hair up and

just looking at it in
the fucking mirror.

[News] Eric received 50
stitches for his injuries,

and says he never wants
to get in the 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. So-

The underground world
of hardcore wrestling is

exposed to unprecedented
national attention,

as New Jack is charged
with assault and battery.

So, he took me to trial.

I told my attorney, I said,
Are they offering me a deal?"

He said, "Right now,
they want you to do 5 years."

I was like, [groans]
"I don't know."

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

♪

Oh!

The brutalization of teenage
wrestler, Eric Kulas,

has created a media
frenzy and 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?

I want to go to court.

Now understand something:
It was a six-jury panel.

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

He was nodding out.
I was like, That's my savior.

I'm like, "Stay awake,
motherfucker.

You're my savior"
[laughing] You know?

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.

'Cause, I mean,
at that time,

Kulas wasn't on my side.
We weren't fucking 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."
And New Jack promised me,

If I get off, Tiny, I swear
I will take care of you"

They had Paul E. on the stand.
The D.A. asked him,

"What did Mr. Kulas call
Jerome Young?"

But he was like...
He called him the n- word".

The DA said,
For the record, say it."

Paul E. looked at me,
he said, Jack, I m sorry".

He said,
He called him a nigger".

The old juror, the black dude,
he sat up. He was like...

And the white women
was like, [gasps].

I was laughing so hard,
I'm sitting there, like...

[mumbles & laughs]

He was working
the motherfuckers. I mean,

he was working the
shit out of the goddamn--

the judge, the D.A.,
the fucking jurors.

He did his best work.

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 back 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
is introducing me and

my partner as The Twin Towers
to go against The Rock.

Oh, fucking great, dude.
There's me.

There's my partner that
could do the eyebrow.

And this was fresh
after Eric Kulas.

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?

I didn't even know,
really until like, years--

[coughs] Years later.

I forgot how it went,
but people said,

"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
bypass surgery.

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

I didn't give a fuck.
It wasn't my fault.

I heard about it,
I was 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
who 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
snorted coke in the locker room.

I mean, it was like a boost.
[laughs] You know what I mean?

It was like if I get high,
I can go get high.

And I was
snorting every night.

[cheering]

[Jim] Once you've jumped off
a 10-foot balcony, what's next?

Jump off a 15-foot balcony
and then a 20-foot balcony.

[cheering]

And at some point,
there's no way that

this can end well,
even if you do it right.

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 wanted 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."

Now, we're on Pay Per View.
There's no time for error.

I said, Vic, let's go on 3."
He said, Jack, I can't do it."

I said, Fuck you,
we going on 3."

I said, "1, 2, 3,"
and I pulled him.

He did this flip and his back
landed up against the

side of my, my head,
and I cracked my skull.

I've 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
'cause I cracked my skull.

Vic, this is all your fault,
you dumb fuck.

That's one of Jack's rules:
Don't say you re gonna do

something and get up
there and chicken out.

Jack's the kind of
guy that if you,

you break those rules, well
then, he'll probably break you.

[screams]

A year after the horrific fall
that cracked open his skull,

New Jack agrees to a
rematch with Vic Grimes,

with even higher stakes.

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 when
New Jack, when New Jack--

And he told me
he was going to do it

before it
happened too, so-

He told me he was going to
tase the motherfucker.

[New Jack] In the locker room,
he came up to me,

and I was ready to
kill this motherfucker.

He said, "I m sorry."

I said, Motherfucker
you didn't even call me."

I said, "Almost a year," I said,
"You didn't even call me...

to see how the
fuck I was doing."

[Announcer] This is the
highest elevation

of any match in the
history of our sport!

I was high. [laughs]
You know what I mean.

I was high as a
motherfucker.

So, I just tased him.
I tased the shit out of him.

He was like, " Jack, Jack,
I can't feel my legs."

I said, You ain't gonna
need 'em." Bombs away!

[screams]

Vic was a foot from
missing the ring completely,

which would have killed him.

I wanted him to
hit the floor.

I just didn't
throw him hard enough.

I was trying to throw his
ass to the fucking floor.

That's why you don't
piss Jack off 'cause,

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
guy was not at least paralyzed.

And I don t think Jack was
particularly broken up about it.

I climbed down off
of the fucking scaffold,

and I went up to him.
He was laying in the ring.

I told him, I said,
Now we're even, you fuck."

[Announcer] Vic grimes is gonna
need medical attention.

[D'Lo] Could you have got him
for attempted murder?

I don't know.
I mean, I think

throwing someone off
of scaffolding kind of...

is right on that line.

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 a

new generation of
hardcore wrestlers,

willing to give and receive
disturbing levels of punishment.

So, it became a
one-ups-manship,

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.

Well, I can name a
few of them, but I'll 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 gonna be

the today's hardcore
icon and the old pro

from yesteryear that
everybody knows is

tougher than a
two-dollar steak."

So, the night of the show,
Joe comes up.

He said, Listen to me kid.
I can teach you a lot."

I said, Are you talking to me?"
We didn't talk no more.

I went into the ring.
Joe comes in the ring.

And Gypsy Joe,
as per his gimmick,

wasn't selling New Jack's
stuff because you really

have to hit Joe to make him
go down and register

because he's so tough.

So then, I got
listening to these fans.

Go home nigger!
Fucking nigger!"

And then, I was pissed.
I started beating Joe like

motherfucker owed me money.
I beat the shit out of him.

Outside the ring,
I got a bat...

had barbed wire
wrapped around it.

[Audience]
[shouts] No! No!

Hit him in the head 3 times.

[Jim] Jack just said,
"Fuck this old man."

I threw a row of chairs on him.
And they got louder,

Go home nigger!
You fucking nigger!"

And, dude,
the more they said it,

the more pissed off I got.

[indistinct shouts]

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 just 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...

Yes, some promoters would,
yeah. Absolutely.

New Jack never made it to
the WWE because

they were never
gonna touch him...

because he was
too controversial.

They were afraid of lawsuits.

They were afraid
of bad publicity.

They were afraid he
was gonna hurt somebody.

With the mainstream appeal
of hardcore now in decline,

New Jack is resigned to
working for much

smaller outfits in the
independent circuit,

some of whom can
barely muster a crowd.

Despite this, New Jack
isn't slowing down,

and he crosses the
line again in 2004.

♪ [singing] I ve had
many trials in my life. ♪

♪ Yet I keep trying
to do what's right. ♪

We bonded
really, really well.

I'm MWW, independent
recording artist now.

But 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.

Spaghetti.

But he enjoys making sure
that everybody's happy.

♪ [singing]
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 Red.

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 ball game."

[New Jack] Hunter Red
comes up, and he's like,

"What you wanna do?"

I said, Dude, we can go in the
back and talk about this."

He said, Well, we can
talk about it now".

I said, No, we'll go in
the back and talk about it."

So, I laid it out. I said,
"This is what we're gonna do."

And, in the middle of me
talking he got up and he said,

"Alright. We'll do what the
fuck, whatever the fuck.

Fuck it." I m looking around
like, what the fuck?

I said, "Who put
him up to this?"

I said, "I will
see you in the ring.

What the fuck ever we do,
just whatever."

Something was troubling Red,
the actual reality of

wrestling New Jack, I think,
it kind of set in.

[New Jack] Once again,
I been snorting coke.

Once again, I was
high as a motherfucker,

drinking vodka...
like I m doing now.

And, I had a claw,
a wolverine claw

that had these 3 blades on it.

One of the blades had 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 the
motherfucker no bigger.

Then he punched me again...
in the nose.

It looks like this guy is
really hitting Jack hard and,

Jack, yeah, well, the way Jack
moves across this ring,

now he's hooking him,
and he's talking to him.

[New Jack] 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 this mother...
Run!

Oh shi... Ooooh!

♪

It's never good when you
open a wrestling video

with a shot of a stage
in an 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 fucking
pants and is now apparently

stabbing this guy,
who's trying to get away.

What the fuck is
going on here?

But, is he actually
stabbing this fucking guy?

Look at that woman with her
hand over her mouth and

the 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 wrestling
a world of good.

The line in wrestling
between cooperation and

felonious assault is also one
of those lines that's blurred.

But, I always looked at it
this way: If two guys agree

to something beforehand,
and everything that happens,

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 slash a guy's face,
that's crossed the line

from cooperation to
felonious assault.

I stuck him like 9 times.
On the news they said 16.

I said, "No, it was 9."
I counted. It was 9.

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's been a
stabbing at the Ramada Inn.

There s a black guy
with camouflage on,

stabbing a white guy."
So, that s how they treated it.

The cops came in, guns drawn.
Get on the floor!"

[MWW] 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
up to the 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 could do the
whole Florida circuit."

I said, Well, you gotta
drop the charges first."

I sat in jail for 3 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.

And she was like, Oh,
my god, I can't believe

you were up there and you
stabbed somebody in the ring.

You should be
ashamed of yourself."

I m like, "Bitch, it was a
fucking show. What the fuck,

leave me alone," you know
what I mean?

'Cause me and my mom,
we never got along.

She didn't fucking back me
when I was wrestling.

I'm like, "Bitch, I got
action figures in Toys R Us.

How many of your fucking
friends' sons got

action figures in Toys R Us?"

My dad died when I was 5.
He died when I was 5.

But, I remember the fucked up
shit he did before he died.

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

Because, motherfucker,
I was raised in a family

that was fucking 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 was no Jerome young.
It was just New Jack.

[Jim] 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.

[New Jack] I was New Jack
when I came in the door and

I m still New Jack.

That's a difficult question
because the line is blurred

between Jerome Young
and New Jack.

[Jim] If there's a difference,
I don't know because

I don't know if I ever
met Jerome Young.

I don't think I wanted
to know for sure...

'cause here was a guy that I
could even halfway believe in.

Best part about
it is the legend,

believe it or not, it's probably
gonna be bigger

than the person, you know
what I m saying?

How stories can-- the tales
get taller and taller,

and bigger and badder
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 don't need you.

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

You know, New Jack ain't
gonna probably like

what the fuck I m
saying about it.

Fuck you, man.
You know what you did.

You fucked up
innocent people.

Eric Kulas' family declined to
participate in this documentary,

stating it was too
traumatic to revisit the

circumstances and
aftermath of the incident

in Revere, Massachusetts.

I'm sitting in a wheelchair,
snorting coke.

[laughing]

I'm just sitting there
snorting coke,

just getting high
as a motherfucker,

and it'd be, like, the end.
I'd be like,

"Thank you, bitches!"
[laughs]