Sabu has died. RIP.

[Browser Brady]

 

RIP.

In a way it’s shocking but also amazing he made it to 60. 

I learned of Sabu through Powerslam in the mid 90’s who painted him as an out of control aerial maniac…..which he was completely.  It was clear by looking at him that he suffered for his craft.

A bit of a shame he never got a long run in a big company in the 90’s but he never fit.

He was ECW for me and the wrestler i associate most when i hear that company mentioned. He really did personify what they were about. 
Great gimmick. Great maniac. Great high-flyer, great innovator and truly an icon.

 

He did wrestling on his terms. 
 

Rest in peace. 

 

https://wrestlingheadlines.com/pro-wrestling-legend-sabu-dies-at-age-60/amp/

 

https://www.pwmania.com/sabu-dead-at-age-60

Edited May 11, 2025 by Browser Brady

[FLips]

Look out @Tim Healys Chutney Spoon you’ve got competition here. What a touching tribute.

Edit: my joke doesn’t work if you edit the fact you just wrote RIP!

Edited May 11, 2025 by FLips

[Thunderplex]

He took a nasty bump to the head in his last match, I wonder if that has had anything to do with it?  He was the main reason I started to pursue tape trading again in the early and mid 90’s as the things i read about him grabbed my interest like nothing else at that time.  I wasn’t disappointed, he really threw everything into his matches in those days.  Really sad news.

[Browser Brady]

29 minutes ago, FLips said:

Look out @Tim Healys Chutney Spoon you’ve got competition here. What a touching tribute.

Edit: my joke doesn’t work if you edit the fact you just wrote RIP!

Sorry i’ve made your joke no longer work. Maybe you’ll have better luck the next time someone dies. 

[Browser Brady]

8 minutes ago, Thunderplex said:

He took a nasty bump to the head in his last match, I wonder if that has had anything to do with it?  He was the main reason I started to pursue tape trading again in the early and mid 90’s as the things i read about him grabbed my interest like nothing else at that time.  I wasn’t disappointed, he really threw everything into his matches in those days.  Really sad news.

That Joey Janela bump did cross my mind. Seemingly he didn’t show up for the match exactly stone sober. 
 

I remember showing my friends picture of him wrestling in Barbed Wire and inferno matches in Japan and they couldn’t believe the pictures were real. 

[Rob Lowe]

Sabu deserves his own thread! He shouldnt be tucked away in a megathread.

Can a clever mod move the posts over?

Edited May 11, 2025 by Rob Lowe

[Browser Brady]

39 minutes ago, Rob Lowe said:

Sabu deserves his own thread! He shouldnt be tucked away in a megathread.

Can a clever mod move the posts over?

Changed the title again, don’t want to cause any aggro but yeah i think he does deserve his own thread . 

[quote the raven]

Sabu blew my mind the first time i saw him via 6th gen VHS tape trading. He was so far ahead of his time. 

60 is no age at all. 

 

RIP

Edited May 11, 2025 by quote the raven

[SpykeDudlei1]

5 minutes ago, quote the raven said:

Sabu blow my mind the first time i saw him via 6th gen VHS tape trading. He was so far ahead of his time. 

60 is no age at all. 

 

RIP

For someone who wrestled the way he did and abused his body in such a way, it’s probably a minor miracle he reached 60 so in this instance I’d suggest the “it’s no age” thing doesn’t work as well.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Genuinely an innovator.

It is difficult to truly convey how different Sabu was to absolutely everything else in the early to mid 90s. I remember seeing pictures of him in magazines, and then watching some of his early matches, including the insane fire match from 92 and the moment he got tangled neck first in barbed wire during a match with Tarzan Goto around the same time.

I was completely blown away! 12 year old me had never seen anything like him before! Absolutely bonkers!

A total one of a kind. We will likely never see anyone quite like him again. RIP. 

 

Edited May 11, 2025 by Snitsky's back acne

[NeverYield]

60 is no age ,not long back I posted on here how wild it was the bump he took at his age at GCW

You bet he wouldn't have had it any other way though, he was a legend 

A very good friend of mine when we was kids used to set up our makeshift rings and love 'pretending' to be Sabu and imitating his moves, great memories of absolute carnage, but simpler times in life.

I can think of so many moments of Sabu that are brilliant, and he always maintained himself, great shape, ripped and dedicated, RIP, 

[Vegeta]

What absolutely awful news. Was an innovator and never got the full credit for innovations and his work.

R.I.P Sabu, thoughts are with his family and friends 

[TheBurningRed]

This spot against Rey. Worth seeking out this match. In just over two months, he faced Rey and John Cena on ppv in WWE and against Samoa Joe on ppv in TNA. All fun matches. 

[SaitoRyo]

Sabu was great and a true one-off.

Proper innovator who brought a real sense of excitement and danger to every match he was in. Even if he was just squashing some nobody, you had the feeling that *something* was going to happen when he was in the ring. Lightyears ahead of his time and he paid the price for how much of himself he gave to the business. I watched a thing relatively recently where he was being worked over by that mad chiropractor guy the wrestlers go to (it's on YouTube) and it was clear that every inch of him ached and he was in a bad way. Still, considering his style and how long he wrestled, it's amazing he was walking at all tbh.  

I know he was a somewhat problematic figure who burned just about every bridge he ever came across, but I've also heard a tonne of stories about how generous Sabu was to others. For example, he paid for Louie Spicolli to be on shows out of his own pocket after he somehow accidentally got him fired from his FMW gig (something about pissing in bottles on the bus). 

Wonder if Paul Heyman will do one of his insincere tributes on WWE TV this week (remember the New Jack one?) after he pettily fucked Sabu out of a WCW contract in 2000...

[LaGoosh]

In a time where matches often feel more contrived, choreographed and mapped out than ever, Sabu is one of the few wrestlers who always felt alive and real in the moment. When he ran up those ropes it always felt like even he didn't know what he was going to do when he was up there - he'd just figure it out when he was in mid air. A great, believable wrestler whose spirit will never be replicated. 

He had a lot of great matches, including a hugely underrated cracker with the Big Show of all people, but this was probably his best: