Mass transit incident

[Guest]

I see there was a thread about the death of Eric "Mass Tansit" Kulas a bit earlier on, but it turned into a slanging match over whether it is ethical to insult dead folks or not.

 

Not a lot was said about the actual Mass Tansit incident. I'd like to hear peoples opinions about it. I would especially like to hear from anyone who has actually seen the tape of the incident.

 

Who was in the right? Who was in the wrong? Whose actions were justified and whose were not? And what of the aftermath of the incident? It's actually quite an interesting debate when you think about it.

 

Let the the debate roll..........

[Guest franchise632]

My opinion of the situation is that Eric was dumb enough to lie about his age and get in the ring with New Jack and was at his own risk. If he needed to get color for the match he should have been man enough to do it. He wasnt and left it in the hands of New Jack. However I think New Jack was at fault as well because he was taking liberties with the guy. That is part of the buisness and in a place like ECW with a more extreme nature, Kulas did not know how to protect himself, he lied about his age and experience and he paid the price. The lawsuit that came from this is a joke because Kulas lied and shouldnt have been in there, therefore he discredits himself. Was New Jack wrong, yes but he was asked to get the color for the kid, so it sucks, unfortunatly thats how it goes.

[Guest The Son of Sting]

I think both parties were in the wrong. Kulas was dumb to lie about his age and his father shouldent have let him.

New Jack shouldent have taken a knive to any of the wrestlers let alone a young kid.

[Guest]

I've seen a hundred deathmatches and I've never seen blood gush like in the the Mass Transit video. It's pretty EXTREME.

[Guest HBK16]

I have to agree with all of you.  I really don't think he really knew New Jack's style or he wouldn't have gotten in the ring.  He was a back up and he didn't actually know he was wrestling in the match till the day of the event so I don't think he was very well prepared and able to think of what he was going into.  I have seen 2 of the sickest things in wrestling.  One has to be the match between Invader III and Manny Fernandez.  Invader III receives a knee drop from the top rope and pukes up gallons of blood.  The sickest thing I have ever seen in a wrestling ring.  The second has to be the Mass Transit incident.

[Guest dreamer420]

I've downloaded it and it is easily the most graphic piece of footage I have seen.  For blood to squirt out of someones head the way it did there, then New Jack must have tapped an artery and dig a little too deep.

[Guest J*ingus]

The cut on Kulas's forehead was quite literally down to the bone, and completely severed the muscle in his forehead.  It took EMTs fifteen minutes to stop the bleeding, and eventually the wound took fifty stitches to close.  No matter what lies Kulas told or how stupid he was, such a butchering to an unwilling victim was a brutal criminal act, and I'm still amazed that New Jack and ECW got away with it.

[Guest areacode212]

Just in case this interests anyone, here's are the obituaries from the Observer and the Torch.

 

I agree with Jingus and Keller, btw. Kulas and his dad were idiots for lying about his age, but still. Even if Kulas were, say, 19 instead of 17, carving up his face the way he did would still have completely unjustified, and it's kind of unreasonable for ECW apologists to say, "well, he agreed to blade, so...". There's a difference between a thin slice on your forehead from the edge of a razor (like what Bret did to Austin in the WM13 match) and what New Jack did to Kulas. Kulas even said that after the incident, his grandmother couldn't look at him without crying.

 

(credit for the following goes to Dave Meltzer, Wade Keller, and the awesome Justin Shapiro & Seadawg over at Seadawg's forum for typing all this stuff up):

 

from the Observer:

Erich Kulas, 22, the victim of one of the ugliest incidents in modern pro wrestling history, passed away on 5/14 at his home in Cranston, RI. The coroners office in Providence is still awaiting test results to determine cause of death, but Kulas had been in porr heatlh from a number of different ailments in the months leading up to his death. Kulas, 17 at the time, came to an ECW show on November 23, 1996 and requested to work a gimmick match against a midget. Instead, in his gimmick as a 350-pounder in a bus driver outfit called Mass Transit, he was offered a tag match teaming with D-Von Dudley against New Jack and Mustafa. From virtually all accounts, the promotion wasn't aware he was underage. New Jack gave him a horrible beating afte D-Von bailed out on him as his partner (apparently D-Von got sick but many with experience in wrestling saw it as a setup). After hitting Kulas full force with crutch shots and other weapons including a toaster, New Jack pulled out an Xacto knife and sliced his forehead viciously, causing blood to flow like water from a faucet. Blood flew so thick that towels put over his forehead by EMTs were drenched in seconds and he needed more than 50 stitches to close up the wound. The live crowd popped afterwards when Ne Jack grabbed the house mic afterwards and said he hoped the guy would bleed to death. Because of the graphic nature of the videotape, this almost became a Rodney King pro wrestling tape, which Paul Heyman immediately pulled from circulation but not before a few tapes had gotten around. The incident left a black mark on ECW that took a long time to erase and almost cost them their PPV deal.

The case ended up going to a legal trial for Jerome Young (New Jack) on felonious assault, assault with a deadly weapon, and intent to maim charges. A combination of the jury being unable to differentiate between where the fake world of wrestling ended and reality began (because it did start out as a pro wrestling match and Kulas was waiting for the weapon shots instead of bailing) and moreso Kulas himself being a terrible witness on his own behalf in trying to overstate his case (saying things like he was unaware he'd be facing New Jack when he went to the ring and unaware he was going to be cut in the match) destroyed his credibility. After the trial, his family filed a civil suit against Young, ECW, the building, Paul Heyman, and several other defendants. Attorneys for all the plaintiffs got lawsuits against them dropped with the exception of Young, and his is still on the books. Although Kulas claimed he would never wrestle again, he ended up doing a few indie matches a few years later.

 

and from the Torch:

- Erich Kulas, famous for being carved up by New Jack, died at age 22. His father found him dead in his room when he went to get Erich for a hospital appointment. Kulas had been in and out of the hospital in recent months with post-operative health problems including infections. The cause of death was not yet known. Steven Kulas, his father, told the Torch that he'd prefer not to discuss what ailed Erich. But he did say the death was unrelated to anything that happened in his ECW match. Well, I'd hope so.

 

The Kulas incident caused ECW's negotiations with one main PPV distributor to stall, while the other main distributor had already decided not to carry their shows due to concerns over content. Kulas has been made a scapegoat by ECW loyalists for speaking out against how he was treated and drawing attention to ECW's seedier side. Years ago he filed a suit, but it was dismissed. "The last six years all we did was fight," says his father. "And they played dirty every step of the way." Kulas hadn't wrestled since that match with the Gangstas.

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(later on in the issue)

- Erich Kulas may have had more impact on wrestling with his one match than some guys had after 10 year careers. A lot of people get hung up on Kulas lying about his age, and forget that if he was 19 or if he was 25 what happened to him was still wrong. Kulas stood stood up for himself against a cruel and unusual "initiation", as Paul Heyman put it. The coward wasn't Kulas, it was those who accepted what happened to him as okay and those who, even to this day, still make him the scapegoat for a promotion that, before the Kulas tape got out, was rejected by one of the 2 major PPV distributors for being too slimy to risk doing business with.

[Guest Anorak]

Was the incident in the Manny Fernandez vs Invader III match legit? I seem to remember reading somewhere that it somehow wasn't although i'm possibly even getting confused with another match.

 

I've never seen the Mass Transit incident and i've got no desire to get my hands on it either. Just reading the graphic accounts of it around the web turns my stomach.

[Guest areacode212]

I didn't want to see it either, because after reading everything about it after he died sickened me (in both the "gross-out" sense, and in disgust with Heyman/New Jack). Still, morbid curiosity won out eventually, and I found it on Kazaa. (search for "mass transit")

[Guest Ace309]

Anorak:

 

My understanding is that Invader drank large amounts of vodka and pig's blood before the match, and signaled Fernandez when he was about to vomit.

[Guest HBK16]

Anorak:

 

My understanding is that Invader drank large amounts of vodka and pig's blood before the match, and signaled Fernandez when he was about to vomit.

Wow, that is dissapointing.

[Guest buffybeast]

What in the hell is wrong with New Jack?  An Xacto knife?  Why would anyone do that?  And was this all a setup?  Did they really have the intention of doing this much damage to this guy?

[Guest The Son of Sting]

I think New Jack had it planned what he was going to do. I dont know why he wasnt fired for what he did. I would have quit the company over it if i was one of the wrestlers.

[Guest]

I have no sympathy for anyone involved in the incident. Both Kulas and his father were screaming dipshits and New Jack was/is mentally unstable.

[Guest buffybeast]

Yes, both parties were definitely at fault here.  But my God, how sick can one person be to pull some shit like that?

[Guest thebear]

Man, What gets my ass is that you guys mention him as if he were a real wrestler... From what we know, He was untrained, he only wrestled a few matches, and did fuck all for the legacy of wrestling, but waste alot of Paul Heyman's money in court.

 

It disgusts me, as a person enrolled in a pro wrestling school, that He can even be mentioned as a Professional Wrestler, period.

 

All He was was a big guy who was able to get a lie past Paul Heyman. I feel no sympathy for him whatsoever, and he got what was coming too him.

[Guest J*ingus]

Nobody had that "coming too him".  I've also seen stupid fuckos who were untrained but thought that they could waltz into the ring and "play wrestler".  Well, any halfway-competent worker knows a few shoot holds to stretch an idiot like that and send him packing.  But New Jack took a knife and carved that guy quite literally from ear to ear, as hard as he could.  Even the psychos in CZW and Big Japan don't do shit like that.  Nobody does.  Jack specifically set out to permanently maim this kid, if not kill him, and that's wrong.

[Guest The Son of Sting]

Well, any halfway-competent worker knows a few shoot holds to stretch an idiot like that and send him packing.  But New Jack took a knife and carved that guy quite literally from ear to ear, as hard as he could.  Even the psychos in CZW and Big Japan don't do shit like that.  Nobody does.  Jack specifically set out to permanently maim this kid, if not kill him, and that's wrong.

 

Exactly if they wanted to teach the kid a lesson they should have just let someone work a bit stiff on him.

ECW were very lucky it wasnt worse.

[Guest dreamer420]

Yes, both parties were definitely at fault here.  But my God, how sick can one person be to pull some shit like that?

it's new jack remember.  seeing what that guy is like out of the ring, i wouldn't have trusted him to blade my head.

[Guest buffybeast]

I don't know too much about him off camera.  I saw him on 'Beyond the Mat' where he was trying to get gigs in Hollywood.  But he didn't come across as crazy or sadistic.

[Guest areacode212]

True, but IIRC, he also said that he was a bounty hunter who commited justifiable homicides.

[Guest]

I can understand why New Jack got off in the Kulas incident: the prosecution's case--with mumbling nimrod Erich Kulas as its center--was weak. Sure, it would've been nice to see that sick fuck New Jack get some punishment on general principle, but that's the justice system for ya.

[Guest dreamer420]

I don't know too much about him off camera.  I saw him on 'Beyond the Mat' where he was trying to get gigs in Hollywood.  But he didn't come across as crazy or sadistic.

I'd rewatch Beyond The Mat then.  I'm sure he makes some quote about "punching a bitch in the mouth" and talks about being a Bounty Hunter