Insane Insights From Dark Side Of The Ring: New Jack

If there is one thing pro wrestling can be sometimes, it would be controversial. Pro Wrestler New Jack fits in the category of controversy. Some of the stuff that he has done in his life and wrestling career, he should have gone to jail for. Dark Side of the Ring did a documentary on him and it is a hard watch, but it is enlightening regarding how crazy New Jack is.

10. New Jack’s Promos Created Riots

The best trait of New Jack in his professional wrestling career is that he can cut a great promo. He went way too far with the promos and said some distasteful things.

During his time in Smokey Mountain Wrestling (SMW), Jim Cornette would tell New Jack to say something that would anger the crowd. SMW was a southern territory in wrestling and there was a lot of racism. New Jack went there by using real-life situations in his promos. 

One example was when he told O.J. Simpson to keep up the good work after he murdered his ex-wife and her friend, and yes OJ did commit the murders. This type of promo was not cool to say then and it angered a lot of people. If he were to do that today, he would be blackballed from the industry. This is not going to be the last time that sentence is used.

Another example of New Jack's promos was his promo after beating the Rock N Roll Express. This was during a time when SMW was heavily pushing The Gangstas (New Jack & Mustafa Saed) as their next big tag team. A segment that SMW did was having the Gangstas attack Ricky Morton and beat him in the middle of the ring with nightsticks. This was at a time during Rodney King controversy. SMW wanted to reverse the roles in what happened, and try to make money coming off of that scandal. This was not the greatest idea to try to capitalize off a heinous action like that, but it's the wrestling business. There are so many distasteful angles that have been done throughout history.

It didn't help that New Jack even cut a promo attacking Morton and started a legit riot at the stadium. It got so bad that the police had to escort the Gangstas out of the arena to safety. The company is lucky they didn't lose their TV license or get a huge fine for what happened.

The promos were so distasteful that the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) called Smokey Mountain Wrestling and said they did not like New Jack’s representation and told them to stop. New Jack heard about it and what does he do? Cut a promo on them along with calling them “homegrown monkeys.”. That's a terrible thing to say, especially to an organization like the NAACP

Jim Cornette realized SMW could be sued or lose sponsorship from New Jack’s promos. There needed to be an assurance that SMW was protected legally. Cornette placed a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen reading that these views weren’t of SMW during the New Jack promos. That should have been done after the riots occurred, but better late than never.

9.  Mustafa Saed Was Legit Crazy

New Jack was in a tag team faction that was called The Gangstas and he had a tag team partner named Mustafa Saed. When New Jack cut those promos, Saed was the enforcer and made those crazy faces to hype Jack up. That was actually him in real life and he would do that almost everywhere he went in life.

Saed was legit nuts and loved to roll up pencil shavings and smoke them. It's fascinating to know that it was even possible to smoke pencil shavings, but Saed did it. Pro wrestler The Sandman told the story about the pencil shavings and even he refused to smoke it. Out of all people in the locker room, if the Sandman refuses to take a substance, that's a telling sign that you are insane to do it in the first place. Even New Jack went up to Saed and told him, don't smoke pencil shavings it's going to haunt you.

New Jack himself even though Mustafa was crazy as well. When a person as crazy as New Jack thought that Saed was crazy for the substances he did, thats telling. New Jack even tells a story that Saed would pick mushrooms that Saed found growing on the side of the building and just eat them.

Mustafa was so crazy that while fighting the police, he was about to get handcuffed, he said that the police were trying to "screw him". Saed also was snotting everywhere as well as on the cops which is just disgusting. Being paired with New Jack was perfect as both are legit crazy and got along. The craziness just made their tag team work.

8. New Jack Had A Rough Childhood

It is clear that New Jack was legitimately crazy, and a big reason for this is his rough childhood.

New Jack’s father was an alcoholic and he hated New Jack's mother. New Jack's father decided one day to stab his wife multiple times in front of the kids. He did not care who saw him abusing or attacking his wife at all. To make it worse, New Jack’s mom decided to try and take the kids and leave. New Jack's dad decided to shoot New Jack’s mom in the leg while she was carrying New Jack to make her stay there. No kid should never grow up in an environment like that at all. His childhood was a big reason why he flipped out on people all the time.

Something not mentioned in the documentary, was his visit to a psychologist when he was young. When New Jack was 12 years old, a psychologist pulled him over in school to speak with him. New Jack said that the psychologist legit told him, you are crazy and need help. New Jack is 12 years old and he is already labeled as crazy in the head.

7. Tiny The Terrible Got Eric Kulas Into ECW

At this point in the documentary now starts to dive into the Mass Transit Incident. The Mass Transit Incident is one of the most controversial moments in the industry's history. This incident almost took down ECW for good before the bankruptcy occurred. Mass Transit is Eric Kulas a 17-year-old kid who managed to trick Paul Heyman into getting booked on the show as a last-minute replacement. A big reason he got on was thanks to pro wrestler Tiny the Terrible and Kulas had a few matches with Tiny. Tiny even still had footage of their match which is cool.

Paul Heyman saw it and decided to invite the wrestlers involved in that match to an ECW show to try out. This made more sense as to how Kulas even got in touch with the company to begin with. Many thought he was a random fan, but that's not the case.

6. Eric Kulas Rubbed A Lot Of Wrestlers In The Locker Room The Wrong Way.

Eric Kulas was brought in as a replacement for Axel Rotten who had to miss the show due to a family emergency. Kulas, who was underaged, became his replacement. While he got the role, he did not exactly handle himself well in the locker room. Tiny the Terrible even stated that, "Eric went into business for himself and took roles that left many off the card which angered many".

He especially rubbed New Jack the wrong way as Eric Kulas during the meeting about the match, asked to get the offense in a 7-minute match, which New Jack found disrespectful. Kulas even wanted to put New Jack through a table, which continued to anger New Jack. The reason given was due to New Jack being a veteran and Kulas being a rookie in the business.

Kulas also wanted to bleed and did not know how to blade himself. He decided to go up to a pissed-off New Jack and ask him to cut him. It is obvious what was going to come next when the match happened. New Jack was so angry that his goal when blading/cutting Kulas was that “I didn’t want to kill him, but wanted him close to death." He wanted to hurt him so much to bring him close to death. All for the fact that he was annoyed with how Kulas was in the locker room.

New Jack cut this kid so deep that he needed 50 stitches, and it messed up Eric Kulas mentally. It also didn't help that New Jack hit Kulas with toasters, crutches, etc. This would mentally destroy anyone, let alone a 17 year old. If any pro wrestler were to do that today, he would be blackballed from the industry and probably thrown in jail.

5. Eric Kulas’s Father Tried To Get Backstage To Beat Up New Jack

An insane part of the aftermath of the Mass Transit Incident is that Eric's father was in the crowd. In the footage his dad begged them to ring the bell, he's 17 years old. Kulas's dad seeing him in that state must have been terrifying. It haunts him to this day as Eric Kulas’s dad and his entire family declined to participate in the documentary. Especially since it's too painful to reflect upon what happened.

When the event was over, Eric’s father tried getting backstage so he beat New Jack up and allegedly called him a racial slur. Security stopped him, which was probably for the best, as New Jack admitted that he would have killed/beat up the old man as well if he got close. 

4. New Jack Beef With Vic Grimes

New Jack was known to do these insane jumps. One fall went bad in a match against Vic Grimes. The plan was for both to dive a high distance, but Grimes got cold feet and did not want to do it. New Jack did not like that and said "you’re going down like it or not". They both fall and Grimes lands straight on New Jack's head and it causes serious permanent damage. Not only did he crack his skull, but New Jack, as a result of that fall, made him blind in one eye.

New Jack hated Vic Grimes after this, and it didn't help that Vic Grimes never once visited or called him at the hospital. That's a terrible thing for Grimes to do. It was because of this incident New Jack had a goal to get even with him.

In XPW, New Jack was booked in a scaffold match with Vic Grimes. A Scaffolding match takes place on a scaffold 40 feet in the air and the way to win is to push an opponent off it. That just sounds like a terrible idea from the get-go. Another crazy fact and this was not mentioned in episode, XPW didn't even have insurance for the match. Dark Side of the Ring did an episode on the promotion and it will be covered in the future.

Rewatching the scaffold match its evident that this was not built properly. It was moving back and forth, it looked like the whole thing was going to collapse, and thank goodness it didn't. New Jack somehow snuck a stun gun in the match, and he used it on a surprised Grimes. The stun gun Jack used wasn't a part of the planned match and it broke from the script. In their conversation, Grimes said, “he could not feel his legs”. Jack’s response was, “You aren’t going to need them, Bombs Away!” and he threw Vic Grimes off the top of the scaffold. It was a scary bump too.

3. Vic Grimes Only Suffered A Dislocated Ankle

It was a crazy fall and the thing that is insane is that Grimes only suffered a dislocated ankle, which is a miracle.

The way he landed on those ropes was scary too. Those ropes at the time were pure steel cables with little to no rubber on them. It is stunning Grimes did not suffer a severe back or neck injury. He is lucky that he wasn't paralyzed or dead from this. XPW the company that did this match also gets a portion of the blame as well because the stipulation was so insane.

New Jack admitted that he was trying to throw him to the floor and seemed disappointed that he did not. New Jack admitted on film that he attempted to murder this man. If New Jack did this today he would have been blackballed from the wrestling industry. He's lucky he wasn't thrown in prison for this incident even after the documentary ended.

2. The Gypsy Joe Incident

The Gypsy Joe incident is another crazy event that occurred in an independent promotion. Gypsy Joe is a pro wrestler whose gimmick was a legit tough guy who does not feel pain at all. Joe would often to no sell moves as [art of his gimmick.

Joe had a match with New Jack and so much went wrong. New Jack forgot what Gypsy Joe’s gimmick was about and that Joe was only 73. How a person forgets about that before entering a match is mind-boggling. New Jack was annoyed with Gypsy Joe, a veteran saying he could teach New Jack a lot, which rubbed him the wrong way. When the match started a lot of fans in this show were throwing racial slurs at New Jack and it made him super angry.

Combine all of that, along with him hating others not selling his moves and getting rubbed the wrong way and this was not going to end well for Gypsy Joe. New Jack just started beating the living heck out of Gypsy Joe. He threw Joe into a ton of hard steel chairs in the crowd and hit Joe with a barbed wire baseball bat in the head multiple times.

The guy is 73 and is clearly concussed trying to walk away from the multiple blows to the head. The adrenaline rush Joe was on must have been so powerful. Even New Jack said that he probably went too far in this incident. If New Jack did this today, he is blackballed from the industry.

This wasn't mentioned in the documentary, but in the aftermath of this incident, Gypsy Joe would from this point on carry a bag with a knife inside of it every time he got booked in an independent show. This was not only for his protection but for revenge if New Jack was ever booked on a show with him. Thank goodness he wasn't, as Gypsy Joe would retire in 2011 and they never got booked together again.

1. The Insanity Of The Hunter Red Incident

This incident does not paint New Jack or anybody involved in a good light. What New Jack does is beyond disgraceful. The worst part is the footage of this incident is on YouTube.

At this point New Jack now is working the independent scene as nobody wanted to even touch him with his many scandals. He signed with a promoter named MWW and while he was booking the card, a young wrestler called Hunter Red came up to him and requested to work with New Jack. Hunter Red thought it would be a good idea to have a match with him, as it could get him noticed by other companies. He got noticed alright, but not in the way he wanted.

Hunter Red then got to speak with New Jack and wanted to know how the match would be run. New Jack did not like to talk about matches unless it was backstage, which was common. Red just kept pushing on wanting to know now which angered New Jack. Red left pissed after they talked about the match too and it further angered New Jack. The match was about to happen and New Jack gets high on cocaine and was even drinking vodka which was his ritual before the match.

New Jack was clearly under the influence as usual, and when the match began, Hunter Red got stiff with him. Red legit threws punches at New Jack which connected with his nose. New Jack got pissed and reached into his pocket for a blade and stabs Red multiple times in front of cameras and front of fans.

Jim Cornette reacted to this video saying  “This does not do the public image of pro-wrestling any good.”. New Jack's career can be summarized in that statement alone.

New Jack crossed the line for the ten thousandth time in this. In the documentary, he makes a bizarre statement about clarifying the amount of times he stabbed Hunter Red. The news said he did it 16 times, and New Jack strangely clarified that he did it 9 times. It doesn't matter how many times he did it? Stabbing somebody one time is too much.

Somebody in the crowd called the police and New Jack got arrested. New Jack is now facing 15 years of prison as a result of what he did. Here is where it gets insane, Hunter Red gets checked out of the hospital and immediately goes to the jail to speak with New Jack. He says that he will drop the charges if New Jack goes on the road with him and make this incident into an angle to make more money. Is Hunter Red out of his mind?

Hunter Red drops the charges and once he does, New Jack immediately leaves Florida and never speaks to Hunter Red ever again. There was no way New Jack was going to do this or even go near Hunter Red ever again. New Jack was lucky because he would have easily been in a prison cell if Red never dropped those charges.

My Thoughts On The Documentary

This has to be one of the craziest episodes ever made in the Dark Side of the Ring Series. Some of the stuff that New Jack has done, should have landed him in a prison cell. The fact that he never once got sentenced for the stuff he did is just insanity. How he never got blackballed didn't made any sense. People have been blackballed for a lot less in professional wrestling and yet New Jack still got bookings.

New Jack never got signed with WWE, because he was too much of a liability. New Jack easily is one of the craziest individuals who has ever stepped foot in the ring and probably ever will. There will never be another New Jack in the wrestling business, and it is for the best. Honestly, the world and the wrestling business are a better place with New Jack gone.

New Jack passed away on May 14th, 2021, at the age of 58 years old. he leaves behind a tainted and complicated legacy in the wrestling business.