Paul Heyman Pays Tribute To New Jack On WWE Talking Smack

Paul Heyman paid tribute to New Jack at the end of the May 15th edition of Talking Smack.

Yesterday, it was reported that Jerome Young, known to those in the wrestling community as New Jack, passed away following a heart attack. He was only 58 years old.

New Jack was a top star for ECW where Paul Heyman served as the CEO and creative force behind the brand. He offered a heartfelt and teary-eyed message to end Talking Smack. Here is what he said:

“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.'”

Fightful sends its condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Jerome “New Jack” Young.

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