The night was November 23rd, 1996 in Revere, Massachusetts. While not one of their regular stops, ECW traveled to Revere periodically during their rounds around the Northeastern part of the country. The semi-main event of the card was supposed to be The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa) against D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten. Unfortunately, Axl Rotten didn't show up for the event, so Paul Heyman was suddenly short one wrestler for his card.
Eric Kulas was a kid that always wanted to be a wrestler. Even though he had no trained experience, he came by the ECW show looking for his big break. The only wrestling experience he had was wrestling midgets as "Mass Transit," a gimmick he wrestled under while wearing a bus driver's suit. Besides not really being a wrestler, Kulas was not in shape either, weighing in excess of 350 pounds. But there he was, standing next to Paul Heyman, asking for an opportunity. Unfortunately for him, Heyman had just the place for him.
Even though Kulas was only 17 at the time of the ECW show, he had a fake ID that stated he was 18, and his father vouched for him. Kulas also told Heyman that he had been trained by Killer Kowalski. Heyman needed no other proof, and told him that he would be placed in a match against The Gangstas. One catch: he had to blade. Kulas wasn't too vocal against it, but he said he didn't know how to blade. He asked New Jack to blade him, New Jack agreed, and that seemed to solve the problem.
Leading up to their match, the crowd seemed to be particularly rambunctious, even for an ECW crowd. Several of those in attendance later would say that the night had already been filled with dozens of sexual slur chants and chants for more blood in the matches. This atmosphere would lead to the events that would unfold in the next match.
Mass Transit, as you would expect, was not greeted kindly by the ECW crowd. Not only were they not seeing Axl Rotten, but instead had to watch some overweight kid that they had never heard of or seen before. Mass Transit yelled back at the crowd, even though it is impossible to tell whether he was offended by the comments or just playing a heel. When The Gangstas came down they brought their loot with them, making it clear that this was going to be a crazy brawl. And it certainly was.
After only a few minutes of fighting, Mustafa and D-Von fought out of the ring. This would be the last time that D-Von would be a part of the match, for every time he tried to get back into the ring he would get knocked out. He knew what everyone else knew: This was about Mass Transit getting destroyed. It wasn't an odd occurrence at all in ECW for The Gangstas to focus on one opponent and hit them with every weapon imaginable. It just usually didn't go this far.
It started out innocently enough. New Jack first worked over Mass Transit with a crutch, breaking it over his back a few times. Mass Transit yelled in pain, but this was all just part of the match. Then came the guitar, a favorite weapon of New Jack, and he hit Mass Transit over the head with it several times. New Jack next found a toaster in his bag of goodies and smashed it with force over his head. The crowd yelled with delight, as Mass Transit was laid out on the mat, groggy from the hit. What happened next depends on who you believe, so we will stick to the facts and go into the discrepancies later.
While Mass Transit lay on the mat, New Jack bent down and picked up Mass Transit by the hair, pulling him into the sitting position. New Jack then took his Exacto knife and deeply gouged Mass Transit in the head, clearly cutting well below the skin. Mass Transit immediately screamed in pain, pulling away from New Jack. Already, blood could be seen pouring down his face and making puddles all over the mat. Mass Transit's once blue shirt was rapidly turning red before the crowd's eyes, and they were loving it.
Around this time, you can hear Kulas's father screaming from the outside, screams that showed that he now realized what he had allowed his son to do. While many of his cries for help are inaudible, you can distinctly hear him yelling that Kulas "is just 17 years old," and to "ring the damn bell." It is too late though, the damage has been done and the match is not stopped. New Jack goes to scoop slam Mass Transit, but Kulas is too heavy and in no condition to jump, so New Jack just plops him back down. New Jack then climbs the top turnbuckle with a chair and comes down hard on Mass Transit, sending the chair crashing into his head. Blood could be seen literally squirting out of the top of his forehead in a scene that likely no one that has seen it will ever forget. Finally, he pins Mass Transit. But there is no referee... there is no one in the ring but Mustafa, New Jack, and Mass Transit.
With the match unofficially over, a paramedic comes sliding into the ring and applies gauze to the head of Kulas. Even though she was used to seeing blood, she had never seen something like this. Her hands were visibly shaking as she tried to stop the blood, but it kept flowing. While this is going on, New Jack gets on the house mic and insults Mass Transit, who is unconscious on the mat. Finally, more help arrives after a few minutes as they continue trying to stop the bleeding, as Kulas's father continues screaming from outside the ring.
The ECW Damage Control came out in full force, making an attempt to clean up the ring while the paramedics tended to Mass Transit. There is another match on the card, after all. After a few minutes, Kulas manages to raise his hand to flick off the crowd, responding to the resounding chant of "you fat fuck" that was echoing throughout the arena. At least it showed he was conscious once again. A stretcher was eventually brought in the ring, and Kulas was taken to a nearby hospital. He would get over 50 stitches to his head. After a delay to clean up the ring (reportedly several towels had to be used), the card would continue as planned. After the event, New Jack made it clear that he was happy with his work, and even Heyman did not seem overly concerned.
There were many repercussions from this incident that would effect many people. Some at the event were outraged and disgusted, and posted their views on many different message boards. News sites picked up on it, and ECW was blasted throughout the Internet. Even worse, a tape of the incident (taped on a handheld) was send to the PPV providers. They were naturally disgusted with what they saw, and not realizing this was an isolated incident, pulled plans for an ECW PPV. Even though ECW would eventually get a PPV a few months after their planned original one, many providers refused to carry it.
Eric Kulas and his family were horrified by the treatment that Kulas received at the hands of ECW and New Jack. In July, 1998, Kulas would sue ECW and New Jack for physical and psychological damage stemming from the incident. The Kulas family claimed that Kulas had no idea he was going to be in a hardcore match of that type and that he was savaged and almost killed in the ring. ECW and company claimed that it was part of the match, and while it got a little out of hand, nothing criminal had occurred.
During the trial, many interesting points were brought out. Firstly Kulas denied ever saying it was ok for New Jack to blade him. He also denied knowing what kind of treatment he would be put up against in a match against The Gangstas. He said he was there to do matches with midgets. There was also a claim that Heyman had told a reporter that it was an initiation for Kulas by the ECW family.
On the other hand, Jerome Young (New Jack) said that Kulas was well aware of what kind of match was about to take place. He also said Kulas had said it was ok for him to blade him, and that Kulas's father was aware of all the talks backstage as well. Young also pointed out that when he hit Kulas with a crutch, he first removed part of it so that it would hurt Kulas less while still making a large noise. Young said that on the video you can see Kulas puffing his cheeks, which is a method to increase bleeding. As to the deep cutting, Young said that his first two attempts to gig Kulas failed, since Kulas's forehead was harder then he was used to cutting due to the fact he had never bladed before. When Young pressed down harder, he said, he accidentally cut down too deep which caused the massive bleeding.
Part of the evidence against Young included his mic work afterwards and a shoot interview that he had done with RF Video in which he bragged about the stabbing. Young explained that in the interview he was staying in character, and that his "New Jack" character was vicious and loved inflicting pain on others. To add to ECW's case, part of the Kulas's complaint said that Eric had been permanently scarred, even though at the time of the trial no scar could be seen. Also, Kulas was reportedly walking around backstage talking to the wrestlers before he was taken to the hospital, and he only decided to sue after realizing that he was not going to be a regular ECW wrestler.
In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of any wrong doing and Kulas would not get any money from ECW. While Kulas had a case, he had trouble keeping his story straight, which hurt his case. On May 12th, 2002, Eric Kulas would die at the age of 22.
Who was to blame? In my opinion, Eric Kulas was actually the most innocent one of everyone involved. His biggest mistake was thinking that because he watched wrestling on TV that he was ready to step into the ring. He was a mark in the purest sense of the word, but he didn't understand what was about to happen. Sure, he knew it was a hardcore match, but he wasn't expecting to get ripped open in the manner that he was. He also thought that by doing so that he was going to become an ECW wrestler, which was obviously illogical. So while he wasn't completely without blame, especially when you consider his age and apparent ignorance, he deserves the smallest amount in regards to the actual in-ring incident on November 23rd.
The first deliverance of blame goes to the father of Eric. First of all, he lied to get his son into the event. Since Eric Kulas was under 18, it was his father's job to help him do the right thing, not encourage him to lie. Even if he was not aware of the ECW product (which isn't known), he should have known that his untrained overweight son had no business being in a wrestling ring.
Next, Heyman is to blame for basically feeding an untrained rookie to New Jack. Even though he had every reason to believe the kid was 18, and Heyman was in a bind, he knew that New Jack was going to decimate him as did everyone else. As the head of ECW, everything that goes on in the ECW ring is his responsibility, and he did nothing at all to prevent the incident from happening. Showing no remorse also was a pretty low thing to do, as he should have been calling Kulas every day wishing him well.
Finally, obviously New Jack is to blame, for taking advantage of a someone that had no business being in the ring against him. Even if he did not mean to cut Kulas that deep (which we will never know), it is clear that he was trying to slice him open more then just a regular blade job. The shots with the toaster and chair were also extremely stiff. As a "trained professional," New Jack should have been doing what he could to protect the kid, not take the opportunity to violently work him over. If New Jack had acted professionally then none of this would have happened in the first place.
Other people are to blame as well, including D-Von and Mustafa (or anyone else) for not stepping in once things got out of control. Which brings it all back to Heyman's comments that it was an "initiation" for Kulas - jobbers coming into ECW and being killed by The Gangstas or another heel was not uncommon. Unless they were watching closely, many of the wrestlers were probably not even aware that anything out of the ordinary was happening in the ring. The problem wasn't that Kulas was hit with weapons and left a bloody heap in the ring, the problem was that Kulas was untrained, under-aged, and was hurt so badly he needed over 50 stitches to close the wound.
Can this happen again in wrestling? Of course, but probably not to this degree. In the summer of 2004, New Jack was arrested again for his actions in the ring, but no charges were filed since the wrestler he was against said it was all part of the match. Which is the main reason that it probably won't happen again - promoters are more strict with allowing wrestlers in the ring. Learning from Heyman's mistake, most promoters want proof that a wrestler is trained before they are allowed to wrestle. While this is a positive result from the Mass Transit Incident, it is one of the few. Lives were changed, fans were lost, money was lost, and a kid was traumatized for the rest of his short life.
If you ever get to watch the event, be warned, it is not for the weak of heart. For it isn't just a bad blade job like Eddie at Judgment Day 2004 - it is an untrained kid screaming from getting his head ripped open with an Exacto knife. All we can do is hope that another incident like this doesn't ever happen in the wrestling ring again.