Young’s death was confirmed on his Facebook page. He reportedly suffered a heart attack in his native North Carolina.
The character name was a nod to the 1991 movie “New Jack City.” Extreme violence and erratic behavior in and out of the ring became Jack’s signatures after he moved to ECW in the mid-’90s. The short version of the carnage: He was arrested twice after cutting opponents during matches and almost killed an opponent when he threw him off scaffolding high above the ring.
Those incidents were covered in a 2020 episode of Vice’s “Dark Side of the Ring” documentary series.
Here’s a short video and still compilation of what made New Jack, New Jack. (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES AND OBSCENE LANGUAGE AHEAD.)
Young had a lasting impact on the game, as evidenced by some of the notable remembrances that reached Twitter:
