Sabu has died. RIP.

[Cannibal Man]

was just thinking last night that Sabu actually had two of the very few good XPW matches, first one was the match with Funk from Go Funk Yourself in the summer of 2000. Mostly just a walk and brawl but the crowd energy really brings it up a step and about 8 minutes in the two of them fucking pull the entire XPW entrance set down dangerously close to the crowd - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF4XoLZeRBw

and for the second one i'm going to say i've not actually seen this in years and you're happy to call me a fucking lunatic for daring to suggest this is a good one but for this he's tagging with Homeless Jimmy against The Messiah and Vic Grimes. I don't know why but they let this one go nearly a full 40 fucking minutes. so there's an air of what'd happen later in places like IWA MS ie letting weird matchups off the leash and letting them go some insane length of time just because they could. Mileage will vary but if you're into that type of indy super match style of things you could probably do worse. The quality is fucking awful as was XPW's style but i'm going to give this a watch later - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEVUeVXBDmY

I don't know how he did it because there's maybe barely about ten good matches in XPW history but he did it, and fair play to him. No doubt god will have considered these two XPW appearances and told him "fair play" at the gates.

 

[wandshogun09]

Love this picture…

Been watching bits and pieces of his TNA and WWE runs this week and they’re even better than I remembered. He had a lot more good matches in both than I recalled. Just one example but I’d never have imagined a Sabu vs John Cena match could work as well as it did. What a mad career when you really look back on it. He’ll always be associated mostly with ECW and those crazy matches in Japan but he was a genuine attraction and a highlight of any promotion he ever appeared in, from the biggest promotion in the world to the grimiest looking indy going.

The talk in here of him in the WWF in 93-95 or whatever is fascinating to me. I can’t even really picture what Sabu vs Bret Hart match would look like but I bet it would’ve  been the bollocks. I could just imagine that match being thrown on an In Your House show in 95 actually, it would fit right in with Bret’s year of randomness that was 95 with the Hakushi, Pierre Lafitte, Yankem merry go round he was on. Sabu could’ve also rekindled his stuff with 123 Kid and probably would’ve had some cracking matches with Owen. And if Kliq politics would’ve allowed for it, Sabu vs Shawn Michaels? But yeah, it’s nice to think about but I doubt it would’ve worked out. 

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, Cannibal Man said:

 the second one i'm going to say i've not actually seen this in years and you're happy to call me a fucking lunatic for daring to suggest this is a good one but for this he's tagging with Homeless Jimmy against The Messiah and Vic Grimes. 

 

A man after my own heart

[jm29195]

38 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Love this picture…

Been watching bits and pieces of his TNA and WWE runs this week and they’re even better than I remembered. He had a lot more good matches in both than I recalled. Just one example but I’d never have imagined a Sabu vs John Cena match could work as well as it did. What a mad career when you really look back on it. He’ll always be associated mostly with ECW and those crazy matches in Japan but he was a genuine attraction and a highlight of any promotion he ever appeared in, from the biggest promotion in the world to the grimiest looking indy going.

The talk in here of him in the WWF in 93-95 or whatever is fascinating to me. I can’t even really picture what Sabu vs Bret Hart match would look like but I bet it would’ve  been the bollocks. I could just imagine that match being thrown on an In Your House show in 95 actually, it would fit right in with Bret’s year of randomness that was 95 with the Hakushi, Pierre Lafitte, Yankem merry go round he was on. Sabu could’ve also rekindled his stuff with 123 Kid and probably would’ve had some cracking matches with Owen. And if Kliq politics would’ve allowed for it, Sabu vs Shawn Michaels? But yeah, it’s nice to think about but I doubt it would’ve worked out. 

Re Sabu vs Bret, that would have been awesome. They actually wrestled on the same card in 1997, at the Terry Funk Wrestlefest show.

Imagine if their opponents had been swapped on that night, so you'd end up with Sabu vs Bret and Funk vs Foley in the headline spot.

RVD was also on that show, vs Dory Funk, and I wonder what him vs Foley or Bret in 97 would have looked like?

 

 

[SaitoRyo]

 

[Chili]

Can we agree Huka Blues is a bit of a banger. Lovely sax.

[Arch Stanton]

An absolute all-time great theme tune. Added so much to his aura. 

[wandshogun09]

This was a nice listen. Rob Van Dam and Taz paying tribute and telling Sabu stories. 

Van Dam must’ve known Sabu better than anyone in wrestling, they always seemed so close they were basically like brothers. And I always link Taz and Sabu due to their rivalry in ECW. So this was pretty cool. Interesting that RVD says some of the info out there is wrong and that Sabu was actually born in December 1963, not 1964, so he actually made it to 61.

There’s a GoFundMe to help with his funeral expenses that’s currently smashing the $25K target…

[LaGoosh]

That cunt Heyman should pay the whole bill for fucking him out of his WCW contract.

[Snitsky's back acne]

7 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

That cunt Heyman should pay the whole bill for fucking him out of his WCW contract.

Van Dam says in that interview that Sabu told him it wasn't Paul who got the deal pulled, but acknowledged that he doesn't know that for a fact. He has no reason to doubt Sabu but agrees it was something Paul would do. 

[LaGoosh]

13 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Van Dam says in that interview that Sabu told him it wasn't Paul who got the deal pulled, but acknowledged that he doesn't know that for a fact. He has no reason to doubt Sabu but agrees it was something Paul would do. 

Regardless I'm sure Heyman shorted him on more than a few paydays over the years. He's a scumbag.

[Merzbow]

I'm playing a 1993/New Generation save in Journey of Wrestling right now and this thread just pushed me to sign Sabu, I repackaged Marty Janetty into a bootleg Hayabusa type so they're feuding from the off.

But yeah Sabu has said it was Paul in previous videos so I don't know, most wrestlers have multiple versions of a story..

[wandshogun09]

The thing is, if it wasn’t Heyman who got the deal kiboshed, who else could it have been? Someone got it binned and it sounds like exactly the type of scummy shit Heyman would pull. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

6 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

The thing is, if it wasn’t Heyman who got the deal kiboshed, who else could it have been? Someone got it binned and it sounds like exactly the type of scummy shit Heyman would pull. 

Nobody, according to Van Dam.

Apparently around the time Sabu's mother got ill and he chose to stay home and care for her than go on the road with WCW.

As has been said, wrestlers usually have many versions of a story. I'm sure, for the purpose of a shoot interview that the Heyman story is the juiciest. I'm also sure Heyman shorted Sabu on lots of pay and would pull the legal card with WCW - however the fact he folded when it later happened with Mike Awesome also shows it could be bs. If WCW wanted Sabu they would have got Sabu. 

 

 

[SaitoRyo]

40 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Nobody, according to Van Dam.

Apparently around the time Sabu's mother got ill and he chose to stay home and care for her than go on the road with WCW.

As has been said, wrestlers usually have many versions of a story. I'm sure, for the purpose of a shoot interview that the Heyman story is the juiciest. I'm also sure Heyman shorted Sabu on lots of pay and would pull the legal card with WCW - however the fact he folded when it later happened with Mike Awesome also shows it could be bs. If WCW wanted Sabu they would have got Sabu. 

 

 

Listened to a Sabu shoot the other day and I think the stories conflate. 

The way he told it was that WCW offered him a big contract and he went to call his mother to tell her the good news. While he was on the phone with his mother, her dogs began stressing her out and she had a heart attack there and then. Sabu hung up, called his brother to call an ambulance and got the next flight from Atlanta to Michigan to see her. 

He hadn't signed the contract and by the time he checked in with anyone, Kevin Sullivan told Sabu that Heyman informed WCW that he already had an 'iron clad' contract with ECW and they backed out of the deal as they didn't want the legal headache.

Sabu then said he never worked for ECW again and that Heyman would try and blackball Sabu by calling up indie promoters and telling them not to book him. 

He really didn't like Heyman and definitely held a grudge from how their working relationship ended. They barely spoke during Sabu's WWECW run and he spent the last fifteen years of his life calling Heyman a motherfucker during interviews.