Paul Heyman Says New Jack In WWE 2K26 Is As Authentic As It Gets (Exclusive)
ECWthe fabled Philadelphia promotion, was as actual as you can probably get in skilled wrestling. One of the “Big Three” promotions throughout the Monday Night Wars, the place WWE and WCW volleyed for supremacy in wrestling, ECW was the disrupting power, the uncooked catalyst for the change in an business that felt caught previously.
Although the WWE 2K26 Monday Night Wars Edition focuses totally on the WWE/WCW rivalry, there are greater than sufficient ECW Originals featured within the sport to create your personal ECW faction, most notably New Jackthe controversial and beloved ECW performer. In an unique interview with TheSportsterWWE Hall of Famer and former ECW proprietor Paul Heyman spoke about New Jack’s inclusion on WWE 2K26.
Paul Heyman Calls New Jack Portrayal In WWE 2K26 “Magnificent”
There was nobody like him earlier than, nobody like him after, and so far as contemporaries go, New Jack is a one among one. Violent, outrageous, and hard, New Jack blazed a bloody path by way of ECW as one among its most feared opponents, one which gained him a repute as each feared and admired in wrestling circles.
Due to his violent edge and persona, New Jack was hardly ever talked about within the historical past of ECW, till he made his first look in a WWE online game, WWE 2K25final 12 months. He makes his return to the 2K collection once more this 12 months in WWE 2K26full together with his trash can filled with weapons and his music enjoying on loop all through the match.
Paul Heyman, the person who labored inextricably shut with New Jack all through the height of his profession, thinks he’d be extremely completely satisfied to know he was in WWE 2K26.
I believe New Jack would have been so completely satisfied, after which he would have gone out and randomly stabbed a bunch of individuals simply because that is what New Jack would do, as a result of he is a gangster.
Heyman says the best way WWE 2K26 portrays New Jack within the sport is magnificent as a result of it is so genuine to him as a person and a performer.
New Jack was fairly the distinctive character for our business as a result of, in an business wherein the followers and the viewers on a world foundation are at all times searching for one thing that’s real and actual. New Jack was precisely what he portrayed himself to be on tv.
When I used to be the co-founder of The Bloodline, I used to say that SmackDown was the best actuality present on tv since you get to SEE Roman Reigns, as a result of he IS the Tribal Chief. This is just not a portrayal of a personality. This IS Roman Reigns. This IS actuality tv. New Jack was earlier than that. The portrayal of New Jack was no portrayal in any respect. If something, on this business, we educate you when you’re at a ten, you are taking it as much as a 12. With New Jack, we typically needed to convey it down slightly as a result of the violent fact of that man typically couldn’t be advised.
New Jack Was As Much ECW As Paul Heyman
It’s unimaginable to speak concerning the historical past and the impression of ECW with out acknowledging the contributions of New Jack. As modern as he was violent, his matches at all times rapidly changed into head-on collisions, with blood and chaos taking up by way of the blaring sounds of “Natural Born Killas”, the horrorcore rap document by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube that performed all through his match on a constant loop.
A 3-time ECW Tag Team Champion, twice with Mustafa Saed as a part of The Gangstas and as soon as with John Kronus because the criminally underrated Gangstanators, New Jack was by no means talked about on WWE programming after ECW folded in 2001 as a result of stage of violence and controversy surrounding his profession.
New Jack handed in 2021 on the age of 58, and Paul Heyman’s emotional tribute to him on Talking Smack marked the primary acknowledgment of New Jack on WWE programming.
Usually, after we would pay tribute to somebody right here in WWE, we might present you a variety of footage of that particular person, and to be blunt, we won’t present you a variety of footage of New Jack as a result of he was THE most non-PG performer in sports-entertainment historical past. Because New Jack was a gangsta. Everybody who was a fan of ECW, who got here to see ECW, who watched ECW, knew that truth from the second his music hit – and no, we by no means had the rights to make use of his music. Why? Because as a corporation, we had been gangstas, and New Jack was essentially the most gangstas of all of us gangstas.
It’s over 20 years in the past, and anyone that ever noticed New Jack carry out stay, or heard him lower a promo, understood simply how actual he was. Jerome Young was fairly a person. And deep in his coronary heart, he was each little bit of New Jack that he may give you.
New Jack was lastly included within the WWE 2K collection in final 12 months’s WWE 2K25reportedly on the behest of WWE President Nick Khan, the place he was featured in a DLC pack mid-year, marking his first look of any form on a WWE property. Shortly after, it was introduced that the primary WWE New Jack motion determine could be produced by Mattel for his or her “Defining Moments” collection someday in 2026.
New Jack stays one of the feared opponents of his time, and his legend continues to develop as extra followers uncover his work. With his inclusion in WWE 2K26New Jack joins Bam Bam Bigelow, The Sandman, and Rob Van Dam because the marquee gamers of the ECW period, ripe for the choosing for a real Monday Night Wars occasion inside the sport.
