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I can't help but worry when I'm watching any Sabu matches. Sabotchamania!~

 

 

Great way to waste 30 minute watching all those!

 

See its stuff like that I feel is earning Sabu no kudos amongst newer fans and that 'Sabu = Botch' to them, when the below post is a much fairer assessment.

 

one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, without doubt.

 

Back in the day when i got into ECW (around 97-98) Sabu blew my f'n mind. He's one them guys that kind of blurs the line of kayfabe, the gimmick was outstanding, all mysterious and silent, he had the look and with all them scars it just made him have a mythic quality. I used to buy all the Best of Sabu comps and watch random shit from all kinds of weird promotions. In the ring he was innovator no doubt...the fact that he botched so many things actually made me like him more, his matches always had that element of danger about them, the botches weirdly fitted in with the risk-factor involved.

 

I followed him after ECW with his XPW run and all that stuff but i fell off when TNA came around and stuff. Since ive started watching ECW again recently ive started to love Sabu all over again, absolute maniac.

 

One of the best stars of the the last 20 years imo, even though he's had some bad matches over the years they were still pretty watchable due to his crazy style. I can still hardly believe he got a WWE run, wrestled at Wrestlemania and had a World Title shot whilst not really conforming to the WWE style, makes me smile that he did that.

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He can be fun to watch, but a lot of the time (particularly his entire WWE run) he makes Sin Cara look like Shawn Michaels.

 

Unfortunately he was totally banged up at this point, but he was never going to turn down one last big run, especially up North.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My all-time second favourite wrestler.

 

There's no denying he did a lot of botches, leading a lot of people to dismiss him as being a crappy worker.

I believe the crazy madman gimmick often helped when such a cock-up happened, as you could justify it by saying he wants to do anything he can to cause his opponent harm.

 

Often he would try a complicated highspot for the first time ever on TV or ppv. In this day and age (as proven by Sin Cara) that is too risky so matches and spots are usually run through numerous times on house shows first. Again, some could call it careless, others like me find it endearing.

 

His wildman character didn't follow the basic rules of working a crowd either. I always remember the outstanding Stairway To Hell match with Sandman at House Party 1998 where he did a legdrop off the balcony through a table below. General wrestling rule would have the person pause on that balcony to build anticipation, but after laying Sandman out he simply run up the ladder and dived off the balcony in one motion.

 

One thing I think says a lot about his ability is him standing his ground through his entire career with the gimmick bestowed on him by his Uncle. He could have gone to WWE in the early 90's after successful tryout matches but they wanted to change his gimmick. Eventually he would go there with that gimmick and be successful.

 

He worked in every indy worth mentioning as well as WWE, WCW, ECW, and TNA and kept the gimmick over a 15+ year period. There aren't many people you can say that about.

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He worked in every indy worth mentioning as well as WWE, WCW, ECW, and TNA and kept the gimmick over a 15+ year period. There aren't many people you can say that about.

 

I am racking my brain trying to think of others who have kept the same gimmick in multiple promotions:

 

Nasty Boys

The Steiner Brothers (not really a "gimmick")

Taz

The Public Enemy

 

 

any more additions?

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Legion of doom, rockers, foley kinda (cactus came out to play in all of em) kevin nash (big bloke with a powerbomb) big show (big bloke with a chokeslam) flair, randy savage, it's more the rule than the exception when you take recent wwe sillyness out of the equation. Once you got a character that's over you keep it.

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Legion of doom, rockers, foley kinda (cactus came out to play in all of em) kevin nash (big bloke with a powerbomb) big show (big bloke with a chokeslam) flair, randy savage, it's more the rule than the exception when you take recent wwe sillyness out of the equation. Once you got a character that's over you keep it.

 

Your not grasping it at all.

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I didn't explain it very well, but what I was meaning when I talked about Sabu's character remaining unchanged and still getting work all over the world without being re-gimmicked - was for an American to be playing a non-American, non-speaking character.

 

Besides Sabu, I can only think of Abdullah The Butcher & Kamala to do it in so many promotions for such a long time.

 

Lot's of people with cool personas like Flair & Hogan went decades without much change, but they were playing extensions of themselves. Sabu didn't talk, wasn't part of huge elaborate angles, he got over only by his work in the ring.

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Besides Sabu, I can only think of Abdullah The Butcher & Kamala to do it in so many promotions for such a long time.

 

You may not have spotted it, but you inspired a thread.

 

My all-time second favourite wrestler.

 

Who's your first?

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I've always thought the one thing Sabu was never rated enough for was his selling ability. It's not something people usually associate with Sabu but it's always been the one thing that stood out for me. In fact for years I could never tell if he was selling or if he was just genuinely hurting (and his style obviously lent itself to that) and it's only been in the past few years since he started doing shoot interviews that I've realised how good he actually was. It's hard to describe in words but it was never an OTT "wrestling" sell but rather he sold how you'd imagine you'd react in that situation. Even something as simple as taking a punch and immediately clutching his jaw which nobody else seems to do. Really set him apart for me from the first time I saw him.

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I suppose the botches are part of the charm. You can get to see Sabu do a fucked up 360 splash off a chair and the ropes into the crowd...or you can watch him trip over the chair clatter into the ropes and knock himself bandy. :D

 

I read in Turning The Tables that when they X Rayed him after Benoit dumped him on his turnip, they found a bullet buried in his face. Anyone know anything more about it?

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My all-time second favourite wrestler.

 

Who's your first?

 

Steve Austin.

 

Dopper - didn't you go to the USA for his "retirement" match?

 

I went over to Michigan for "A Night of Appreciation For Sabu" done by his local indy fed Border City Wrestling to raise money for his massive medical bills.

 

It was in December 2004 after he had spent 6 months in hospital and at the time everybody "in the know" were saying he would never wrestle again. TNA sent some of their big stars like Jeff Hardy, Abyss, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels and Mick Foley was also there, all of them appeared for free.

 

It was awful to see the formerly invincible Sabu shuffle out to the ring before the main event that night, but he returned to the ring 7 months later and his appearance at ECW One Night Stand was only his 3rd match since being hospitalized.

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I hope he ends up like his uncle... 75 years old, stumbling around Japanese arenas with; forks, spikes & flash-paper. That'd be cool.

 

Concerning the bullet in his face: he said he was at a party (this'd be some 20-25 years ago), somebody pulled a gun & directed it at his buddy. Sabu tried to block the guy & ended up getting hit (ricochet or whatever).

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