Paul Heyman recently paid tribute to New Jack at the end of the May 15 edition of Talking Smack. The former ECW star passed away on Friday aged 58.
Paul Heyman opens up about New Jack
New Jack was a top star during his stint in ECW where Heyman was the CEO and part of creative team. He went on to offer a emotional and touching message on the conclusion of this week’s edition of Talking Smack. WrestleMania Backlash Major Title Change Leaks?
Here is what Heyman had to say:
“I was asked before this show went on the air if I would like to say a few words about the passing of ECW original, New Jack. I avoid eulogies as best I can because anytime I’m faced with them, the first thing that comes to mind is, ‘hey, this sucks and there’s no good spin I can put on it.’ When I heard that New Jack had passed away, my hope was that New Jack had turned to his own wife and said, ‘hey, I’d like to read my own obituary. Call a bunch of people and tell them that I died. Everybody’s going to make a big fuss about it and I’ll read about my own life.’ Then, at some point this weekend, they’d sell a bunch of t-shirts and he’d sit there and go, ‘gotcha!’ Because that’s what New Jack would do. Apparently, it’s not so, which sucks. Usually, when we would pay tribute to somebody here in WWE we show a lot of footage of that person and to be blunt, we can’t show you a lot of footage of New Jack because he was the most non-PG performer in sports-entertainment history. New Jack was a ‘gangsta.’ Everybody who was a fan of ECW, that came to see ECW, who watched ECW, knew that fact from the moment his music hit and no, we never had the rights to use his music. Why, because as an organization, we were ‘gangstas,’ and New Jack was the most ‘gangstas’ of all of us ‘gangstas.’ It’s over 20 years ago — to anybody that ever saw New Jack perform live, or heard him cut a promo, understood just how real he was. Jerome Young was quite an individual but deep in his heart, he was every bit of New Jack that he could offer you. I wish you all a most extreme weekend, ‘gangsta style.'”
Many stars of the wrestling world have sent their condolences to Jack’s family and friends. Her daughter also paid tribute to her father recently as well.