Jerome Young, better known under the ring name New Jack, passed away last week after suffering a heart attack. Many fans and wrestlers paid respect to the former ECW wrestler on social media. WWE also released a video of Paul Heyman paying tribute to New Jack from Talking Smack.
Former WWE superstar D’Lo Brown, who is New Jack’s longtime friend and former partner, appeared on Busted Open Radio to talk about New Jack’s life and career. D’Lo mentioned that he was hurt when he Tommy Dreamer told him about New Jack’s passing. He added that he is still hurting because of it.
“I was hurt, and I’ll tell everybody, full disclosure, let’s break down the fourth wall. Yesterday I was standing in the locker room and I was talking to some talent and as I turned around, I see Tommy [Dreamer] walking across the locker room and Tommy was walking with this look on his face and I was like, ‘Woah’ and he’s walking right to me, and he walks up and he says, ‘Hey, you know, we lost Jack’ and I go, ‘What?’ Yeah, and you could see the look on Tommy’s face, he was hurt and I was like, ‘Oh’ and my heart sunk, and immediately I thought to myself you know, I know [New] Jack lived like he was gonna die tomorrow. I just didn’t think today would be the day he would go, and it hurt me.”
“I had to walk away, I had to go sit down for a minute and Jack was my friend. Jack was someone I talked to regularly. And Jack was someone — if he was your friend, he was your friend for life. If he was your enemy, he was your enemy for life. I’m still right now hurting because of it.“
New Jack was one of the most contreveserial figures in pro wrestling. Before he joined ECW, he competed in Smoky Mountain Wrestling where he a member of a tag team known as The Gangstas. If you would like to donate to a GoFundMe for his family, please click on this link.
(H/T POST Wrestling)
What advice would give D’Lo Brown to help him cope? Sound off in the comments!