Homicide Responds To Being Labeled A "Wannabe New Jack"
The notorious 187 Homicide joined Sam Roberts' Notsam Wrestling podcast recently to talk about his career. Homicide began by talking about how he was labeled by some, early in his career, as a wannabe New Jack, something that bothered him. Eventually, the two became tight, and according to Homicide, their bond was going to lead to Homicide getting booked in ECW before the promotion closed down.
"All my life, I was a wannabe New Jack and I hated that. I hated it so much," Homicide said. "Back in 1997, I had a show in Jersey All-Pro and I wrestled my friend Lowlife Louie. It was a hardcore match. It was a really crazy match and I had a machete, and there was a reporter who yelled out, 'Oh, you want to be New Jack.' I jumped over the guard rail with my machete and tried to cut him like Jason Vorhees. I was really crazy, like I didn't want to hear that. I'm myself.
"I later wrestled New Jack. God bless him, rest in peace, we became good friends. We never had some kind of beef or whatever. He took me under his wing. A lot of people don't know that he was going to take me to ECW at the time it closed down. We were supposed to be the New Gangstas and it all just went 'boom!' and fell off, you know?”
Homicide is best known for his runs with Ring of Honor and TNA (Impact Wrestling) during the mid-2000s, where he was a member of LAX. He revealed to Roberts that he almost had a different trajectory following WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley seeing one of his ROH matches.
"One day, I wrestled Colt Cabana in Ring of Honor in New York City," Homicide said. "Mick Foley was there and he kind of digged it. He said, 'Vince would like that. Here's a number. You call John (Laurinaitis),' at the time who was (the head of) talent relations, 'You give him a call.' I had to pick between TNA and WWE at the time, so I picked TNA because of the travel. I had a baby and everything, and I heard that WWE was chaos with traveling.
"I wanted something new and Konnan told me he had a new project called the Latin American Xchange. It'd be myself and a guy named Apollo from Puerto Rico, so I picked that. So the first time I went to TNA was December 29, 2005 and the first thing I did was attack Bullet Bob Armstrong and the Road Dogg, Jesse James."
With Ring of Honor entering a hiatus following the conclusion of 2021 and not returning till April of 2021, it means there will likely be no 20th anniversary for the promotion, which formed in 2002. This is unfortunate for Homicide, who would've liked to have seen a situation where many stars of ROH's past reunited for a 20th Anniversary show.
"I'm kind of sad that there's not going to be a 20th anniversary," Homicide said. "It's going to be stuck at 19. but it is what it is. I'd have loved to see the old-school guys come to the 20th Anniversary Show. I'd love to have seen Samoa Joe, if he had gotten permission, to come. Maybe CM Punk, if he got permission from All Elite Wrestling, could've come to the show. Amazing Red, SATs, all those guys. It is what it is. The world is crazy man."
You can watch the full interview below.