10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: New Jack

3. Red Hunter Wanted To Turn His Stabbing Into An Angle

Outside of a match with 72-year old Gypsy Joe, which New Jack thinks might have been the match where he took things too far, the other big story in the documentary is an incident with Hunter Red in Florida in 2004. The show’s promoter, a man named MWW, says that Hunter Red wanted a match with New Jack as it could make him famous, but got agitated during their pre-match talk and stormed off. MWW says, “something was troubling Red. The actual reality of wrestling New Jack, I think that kind of set in.”

At the start of the match, Red punches New Jack in the nose as hard as he can, so Jack responded by stabbing him. The media reported it as sixteen, but New Jack claims he stabbed him nine times. As Cornette puts it, “This is a first. In the 125 years of wrestling history. This is not something that does the public image of professional wrestling a world of good.”

New Jack was arrested and was facing jail time. However, Red Hunter came to visit him in prison and said that he would drop the charges if New Jack would go on the road with him and turn the whole thing into an angle. New Jack agreed, but when the charges were dropped fled Florida and never spoke to him again.

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2. WWE Was Afraid Of New Jack

As you might imagine, New Jack didn’t get a run in WWE like a lot of ECW wrestlers at the time did. According to Jim Cornette, WWE were afraid of New Jack. There was a rumour – which in fairness was started by New Jack himself – that he was going to be revealed as the man who stabbed John Cena in 2005, but nothing ever came to fruition. Cornette argues, “New Jack never made it to WWE because they were never going to touch him. He was too controversial. They were afraid of lawsuits, they were afraid of bad publicity, they were afraid he was going to hurt somebody.” 

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1. New Jack’s Childhood

D’Lo Brown argues in the documentary that New Jack wrestles the way that he does is because of the terrible upbringing that he had. New Jack tells a story that his father once stabbed his mother five times in front of him, and when she tried to leave he shot her in the leg. “And you wonder why sometimes I flip the f**k out,” he says in the documentary. He later adds, “If I show up to a show, and I go out there and do my thing, be grateful that I’m not attacking your ass.”

And as a bonus thing we learned, so we can end this video on a lighter note, is:

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BONUS: New Jack Is A Good Cook

MWW says that New Jack stayed with him while he was working the Florida scene in 2004, and really enjoyed cooking for him. When asked by the production crew what New Jack’s favourite meal to cook was, MWW simply reptiles: “spaghetti.” 

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