ECW: The Mass Transit Incident
May 23, 2005 by Steve Brinn
When shocking wrestling events are thought up, one thinks of many names. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, but few think of a jobber named Mass Transit.
Mass Transit was a portly kid that showed up at an ECW show. Had he known what would happen that night, he probably would have stayed home.
It was November 23, 1996 in Revere, Massachusetts. It was a stop on ECW's tour of Northern part of the country. The semi-main event was The Gangstas vs D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten. For whatever reason, Axl Rotten could not make it to the show. Enter, Eric Kulas. He was a kid that wanted to make it big as a wrestler. He had no previous training, but he thought it would be his big break. He did have some in ring experience, wrestling midgets. He went by the name Mass Transit and he went to the ring wearing a bus driver's suit. Now not only did he have this against him, but he was terribly out of shape, weighing in over 350 pounds. Having talked to Paul Heyman, he was given a chance.
The boy was only 17, but had a fake ID. Not only that, but his father vouched for him. Kulas had told Heyman that Killer Kowalski had trained him. Heyman, with enough proof for him, had him replace Axl Rotten later that night. Kulas was fine with this, even after being told he had to blade. Kulas told New Jack that since he didn't know how to blade, he'd have to do it for him. New Jack agreed, solving that problem. Like quite a few jobbers, Mass Transit was not taken kindly by the fans. They were furious that they saw this fat kid instead of Axl Rotten. Mass Transit yelled back, not endearing himself to the fans. After a few minutes into the match, Kulas was left in the ring with New Jack.
D-Von was a factor in the match, he just never was able to help Kulas. Like most matches from The Gangstas, they were gonna focus on one man with every weapon they had. Nothing new, except for how far it went. At first, New Jack hit Mass Transit with a crutch a few times. This, of course, was nothing new. Next came the guitar, a favorite of New Jack's. A toaster was used next, hitting Mass Transit over the head. The crowd cheered seeing Mass Transit laying across the mat. New Jack pulled Mass Transit up by the hair, and sat him up.
Taking his trusty Exacto knife, New Jack cut deeply into Transit's forehead. Much deeper than it usually and should be. Mass Transit screamed, pulling away from New Jack. Blood pooled across the mat. Of course, being bloodthirsty and all, the ECW fans ate it up. To finish the kid off, New Jack tries to scoop slam Mass Transit, but he's too heavy. Laying him down, New Jack gets to the top turnbuckle with a chair and crashes into Mass Transit's head. Blood was literally squirting out of his head.
New Jack goes for the pin, but there's no ref around. Unofficially over, the paramedics come out and try to stop the bleeding. As more medics come out, New Jack gets on the mic and insults Mass Transit. At a nearby hospital, Kulas would get 50 stitches into the head. This shocking event was recorded on tape by fans. It was sent to Pay Per View providers and the television debut of ECW was cancelled. It was eventually rescheduled, but several providers refused to show it. ECW's problems would not stop there.
In July of 1998, the Kulas family sued ECW and New Jack for physical AND psychological damage. The family claimed that Eric did not know he was going to be in a hardcore match, and he also claimed that he was almost killed in the ring. ECW claimed that it was a match that got out of hand but nothing illegal had occurred. In the trial, Kulas claimed that he did not know that New Jack would blade him. He denied that he knew he'd be treated the way he was in a match against The Gangstas. He also claimed that Paul Heyman told a reporter that it was an initiation for him into the ECW family.
On the flipside, New Jack claimed that Kulas did know what was going to happen. He also said that Kulas said it was okay for him to get bladed and that Kulas' father knew of what was going to happen from talks backstage. New Jack claimed that you can see Kulas puffing his cheeks, a way to increase the bleeding. Jerome Young, aka New Jack, claimed that his first to attempts to blade did not work. This is due to the fact that Kulas had never bladed before. When he tried again, he accidentally pushed too deep and that caused the massive bleeding. Evidence used against New Jack was his mic claims and a shoot interview he later did.
Young claimed that on the interview he was working in character. That his New Jack character loved to inflict pain and violence. Adding to ECW's case, although Kulas claimed to be scarred, no scars could be seen. Also, Kulas was reportedly walking around backstage and talking to wrestlers before being taken to the hospital. Supposedly he was only suing after he found out he would not be an ECW regular. In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of the charges and Kulas would not get any money. Kulas could not keep his story straight, which severely hurt his case. On May 12th, 2002, Eric Kulas died at the age 22.
There will always be the question on who is to blame. All parties are partially to blame, but I think the one who shares the most blame is the father. He should have known what his son was getting into beforehand. Also, he should not have lied for his son. Lets say he didn't know the ECW product, he should have known that his untrained son was in no shape to be in the ring.
3BTV
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