New Jack Dead

An individual who did some work for a small level indy promotion I did some announcing for in the early '10s worked with him toward the very end, and said basically the same thing. Guy probably needed to be heavily medicated; his childhood socio-economic situation - and being surrounded by extreme violence at a young age - contributed, no doubt about it, as well as losing his own dad to a heart attack at a young age. I dunno if he would've been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder or what (and I doubt he'd care), he was a sociopath and criminal who assaulted many and somehow wasn't in prison at the end. Kind of the black GG Allin of pro wrestling. Good entertainer? Yeah, his Smoky Mountain promos were interesting, and he contributed in ECW. That's really all there is good to say.

Serious childhood trauma has very serious lifelong effects. Witnessing what he did at his age would alter his brain development in ways that we can't fix.

RIP New Jack

It's not meant as an excuse, and it's also not as simple as 'make of it what you want'. Yes, success stories like your father absolutely exist, but they're rare.  It's fantastic when they do. By all standards yes, your father could, and perhaps "should" (and I hope you understand what I mean by should here) have turned out to be a psycho. It's great that he's not. Breaking that cycle is one of the toughest things in the world to do. Full credit to him for being a phenomenal human. 

I'm not using it to excuse New Jack's behaviour. But it's also undeniable that his brain chemistry was altered because of the trauma he went through.  In a few fortunate cases, like your father, for whatever reason, they are strong enough people to be able to deal with all of that and come out of it better people. How? I honestly don't know, I can't imagine being able to be a good person growing up like that.  For the majority of humans, when they go through trauma like that, their brains get potentially irreparably damaged.  Brain scans of kids and adults who have gone through that level of trauma typically show parts of their brains that are severely damaged.  Fight or flight responses get perma-set to fight, and the ability to regulate emotionally is totally ed.  Combine that with the influences around them, where often gangs are the only family they know, and it's easy to see how they end up turning into people who do completely horrible things. 

It doesn't mean there's no accountability for actions. New Jack did some really, really crappy stuff.  He should not have been wrestling, probably ever.  All I'm saying is there's more to it than 'he's a garbage human'.  We gotta look at what made him that way.  If we just place the onus on people who grow up with that level of trauma to just 'make of it what they want' then stories like your dad's will continue to be incredibly rare, and these cycles of traumatized kids turning into adults capable of doing horrid things will just keep continuing. It's not an easy or simple fix. I don't think it takes anything away from success stories to acknowledge that some people have been damaged enough that they can't come back, especially when lacking the proper societal support to do so. Not all humans are created equal in that regard. 

I'm not super privy to the states situations being Canadian, but I can tell you up here the effects of residential schools are still felt. (If anyone isn't aware, residential schools were these awful schools where the Canadian gov't basically kidnapped all the indigenous kids to train the 'savage' out of them, and the schools were ran by a bunch of psycho religious zealots. The last ones only ended in '96. Yeah, Canada sure as hell ain't perfect, we got no business throwing stones). 

Edit: I guess you deleted that post, sorry. I can delete your quote from here if you'd like. I don't think you said anything bad at all, I'm just offering a different perspective on it. 

I liked watching New Jack work.

Was, Is and Always will be a scumbag.

I'm glad some of you guys told it like it was. I got kicked out of a thread by moderators on another board for saying he was an awful person and didn't deserve sympathy. The board used to be run by the guys from wrestlecrap but it was taken over at some point years ago with moderators trying to distance themselves and the moderators act as if they are the keeper's of wrestler's legacy. Saying something negative, though trutful, will result in a firm scolding and trying to defend yourself will result in a warning of a banning.

100% agree.

When a wrestler dies people talk of them like they were the best thing since sliced bread. Sorry I can’t do that about New Jack.

I just shortened your quote for the one part I wanted to address. 

I'm not trying to argue with you or be a jerk here, but I think it's possible to have both of those things. Like, yeah, objectively, New Jack was not a good person, like at all. The dude stabbed a guy 9 times in a wrestling ring. That's not ok, that's not something to glorify, and it's insane he didn't get incarcerated for that. That's just one thing. There's a whole laundry list of things that he's done. No where do I want my comments with Old Mad... to be construed as an excuse for the things New Jack has done, or claiming he was a great person, because that's not what I'm saying. 

I think it's also possible to have sympathy/empathy for him despite that. Because yes, the dude had a hell of a lot of trauma in his life. I think it's totally possible and ok to both feel empathy/sympathy for New Jack, while at the same time recognizing that he did not lead a good life and was not a good person.  It means it's not excusing the behaviour at all, but having sympathy/empathy for the circumstances he endured that helped contribute to him turning into that person.  To be honest, I think that's an essential perspective to be able to have in order to help make an impact on kids who experience that kind of trauma and help them avoid going down New Jacks path. 

I also totally get how for some people that's just too much to look past, and that's totally ok.  I come from a bit of a different perspective because I've worked with so many kids that have been through that stuff, and I see them before they end up like New Jack, and I see who they could be or could have been if not for the trauma.