Mass Transit incident The Mass Transit incident was an infamous event in professional wrestling that occurred at an Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ) house show on November 23 , 1996 at the Wonderland Ballroom in Revere , Massachusetts . The incident . Aspiring 350 - pound ( 158 . 7 kg ) wrestler Eric Kulas , who performed as a Ralph Kramden - esque bus driver gimmick named " Mass Transit " , convinced Extreme Championship Wrestling president and booker Paul Heyman to allow him to fill in for Axl Rotten by lying that he had been trained by Killer Kowalski . Rotten was scheduled to work a tag team match with D - Von Dudley against The Gangstas ( New Jack and Mustapha Saed ) at a house show in the city , but was unable to compete due to travel issues . During the match , D - Von and Mustapha brawled outside the ring while New Jack and Kulas fought inside the ring . The match was very one - sided with Mustapha easily isolating D - Von outside before he and New Jack severely beat Kulas with foreign objects such as crutches , garbage cans , chairs and toasters . The end of the match saw New Jack blade Kulas deeply with what appeared to be an X - acto knife , causing Kulas to start bleeding profusely . The match was not televised as it was a house show . However , Extreme Fan Cam was on hand to record the event on a camcorder and , thanks to the internet , the video soon went viral throughout the wrestling community . The match sparked a chain of events that would see New Jack get arrested and ECW ' s impending first pay - per - view show , " Barely Legal " , threatened with cancellation . Aftermath . Authorities later determined that Kulas had lied to Heyman about his age and experience . Kulas was actually 17 years of age , not 19 as he had said , and he had absolutely no formal training as a professional wrestler . Kulas ' father , Stephen , even vouched for his son . Three years after the incident , Jerome " New Jack " Young was tried on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and later sued by the Kulas family . After hearing about Eric Kulas ' request to New Jack to make him " get colour " ( bleed ) , a jury acquitted Young of all charges in the criminal trial and he was later declared not liable in the civil trial . But , the incident also had more immediate consequences : ECW ' s planned first pay - per - view , " Barely Legal " , was cancelled by pay - per - view provider Request TV . Paul Heyman , by his own admission in " The Rise and Fall of ECW " documentary , begged and pleaded with Request before he was finally able to convince the company that they had been misled and ECW were placed back on the schedule some time later . Performers who testified at Jerome Young ' s trial stated that Eric Kulas was extremely arrogant and demanding backstage prior to the match , and , when told he ' d have to bleed as part of the match , Kulas had asked Young to do it since he had never done it before . They testified that Stephen Kulas began berating The Gangstas and screamed , " He ' s only 17 ! " and " Take it easy on him , he ' s just a kid ! " when they isolated his son from D - Von Dudley and double - teamed him . When the time came to actually blade Kulas , Young claimed that Kulas had flinched during the process , causing the X - acto knife ' s blade to cut deeper than he planned . Two arteries in Kulas ' forehead were severed and the resulting wound would take fifty stitches to close . Young later stated , in Jeremy Borash ' s unauthorized documentary , " Forever Hardcore " , that it was actually a surgeon ' s scalpel . Video footage showed New Jack asking Kulas : " You alright ? " This prompted some to consider his actions moments later as part of the show and not representative of his true feelings . After the blading , the Gangstas proceeded to work Kulas over even more , prompting Stephen Kulas to scream , " Ring the fucking bell , he ' s 17 ! " As medics rushed into the ring to aid Kulas , New Jack grabbed the house microphone and exclaimed , " McMahon , Bischoff , look at this motherfucker ! As far as I ' m concerned , that fat piece of shit can bleed to fucking death , because I don ' t give a fuck " . New Jack later stated in interviews that after he found out about Kulas ' duplicity , he didn ' t have any remorse for what he had done . In the WWE book , " The Rise and Fall of ECW " , Paul Heyman states that Kulas ' s dubious credentials as a student of Killer Kowalski were endorsed by a then - known midget wrestler who was with Kulas when he and his father approached the staff about getting Eric in . The book also states that as the medic crew carried Kulas out , he was escorted by Tommy Dreamer , who held his hand . Passing by the audience , Kulas began giving them the finger in an attempt to continue " playing the bad guy " . Death of Kulas . Eric Kulas died on May 12 , 2002 at the age of 22 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery stemming from his weight problems .