Posted May 11May 11 comment_6029931 https://pwinsider.com/article/195979/sabu-passes-away.html He was 60 and just had his retirement match a few weeks ago. Whatever else can be said about him, it can't be denied that he was one of the most influential and memorable wrestlers of the modern era with an aura like few others.
May 11May 11 comment_6029932 Wow, this is crazy, considering I was just watching his retirement match during Mania week. Sabu was and remain one of my all-time favorites. There was an intangible quality in Sabu's matches back then in term of producing this unparalleled aura of "controlled" chaos. One of the hardest working wrestler ever for sure, the absolute cult figure of indie wrestling for the tade trading era. No matter what anyone says, whenever a table is broken nowadays, and for the last 30 years : it is Sabu. Not Terry Funk in 89, not some stuff happening in Memphis in the 80's, not the Dudley Boys nor Public Enemy, it is Sabu. He's a guy who probably was his own worst enemy, but he's also someone who really never got the recognition he deserved. THE ECW original. Yeah. His Uncle might have been a huge star, but Sabu's influence on modern wrestling is gigantic. *points to the sky*
May 11May 11 comment_6029936 This sucks. I freaking love Sabu. He was the only Pro Wrestler I followed on Twitter, and actually had a couple of brief back-and-forths with him. I was his high vote in the last GWE and I’m proud of it. He holds a record for me, being the one guy I actually went out of my way to see the most times live. I even have an autographed piece of broken table from an independent show he did, the only autograph I ever bothered to get in all my years as a Pro Wrestling fan. Between ECW shows in Buffalo and independent shows in the Toronto area, I have lost track of how many times I went to see him perform live, just because it was him. The highlight was when he fought Terry Funk in Funk’s final Canadian match and final appearance in Toronto. If you can find it, I highly recommend the “Breaking Kayfabe” interview he did with Sean Oliver. He was an innovator and he never got the true credit he deserves. I’m sad for him that he never got his wish, to die in the ring. This one hurts.
May 11May 11 comment_6029937 Oh man, this really activates a sentimental impulse. Actually Sabu often does that for me. Sabu was not my favorite wrestler as a kid because I hadn't seen him. But I knew about him. I heard about him in magazines and I'm positive I saw him in an ad during an episode of Monday Night Raw (I know I missed the ECW invasion episode, I didn't watch Raw that winter/spring). I had no idea how to watch ECW until it was on TNN. Kids with cooler parents than mine had seen him wrestle at the Elks Lodge. I love when people talk about his mystique/reputation because that actually how I remember it from my childhood. When I first became aware of the idea you could watch older wrestling on tape, ECW shows were the first thing I wanted to find, before I ended up buying a copy of Kawasaki Dream. I was a Foley fan but I finally got to see Sabu. I was a teenager at this point and we had a friend that used to get drunk and "act like Sabu" which basically meant jumping from high places. This was 2004 or so. One Night Stand got me back into watching WWE, meanwhile my friends and I got into puroresu, ROH, and watching lucha libre on Galavision. When the Benoit murder/suicide occurred my friends and I stopped watching wrestling for a few months. I briefly thought that I might be finished until a friend just said "let's watch some Sabu matches." It was a reminder that we still loved this stuff, in spite of the shadows that obscure it. I've been a pretty casual viewer in the last few years. I've followed AEW off and on and not much else. But to me, the Sabu retirement match was something I had to see. And it was a mess! I wouldn't have asked for anything else. Sabu was my number 100 for the 2016 GWE and I'm sure I'll put him there again.
May 11May 11 comment_6029941 Goddamn. Between magazines and then newsletters (along with some of the folks from Japan at this point), probably the single wrestler I thought the most about yet had never seen. When I eventually found ECW on TV and got into tapes he was the dude I sought out first.
May 11May 11 comment_6029950 6 hours ago, El-P said: Wow, this is crazy, considering I was just watching his retirement match during Mania week.
May 12May 12 comment_6029953 Sabu was honestly one of the last innovators professional wrestling had. His chaotic style, often mocked by people who craved for mechanical perfection, is something that is sorely missed. You just never knew what the fuck you'd get from him, in the best of ways.
May 12May 12 comment_6029963 Sabu's the kind of guy where you aren't really surprised would die at 60, but also kind of were surprised since it seemed like he would live forever after all the shit he survived already. It was always weird to me how some folks will admit ECW changed the business but somehow didn't want to give Sabu any credit for it.
May 12May 12 comment_6029977 I wrote this article for Yahoo Sports about his last match, really proud of this piece https://sports.yahoo.com/wrestling/article/sabu-was-sabu-until-the-very-end-ecw-wwe-joey-janela-155636332.html
May 13May 13 comment_6029984 5 hours ago, Phil Schneider said: I wrote this article for Yahoo Sports about his last match, really proud of this piece https://sports.yahoo.com/wrestling/article/sabu-was-sabu-until-the-very-end-ecw-wwe-joey-janela-155636332.html I know these interviews were from before he died but holy shit do Brett, Joey, and GCW probably deserve a liability investigation reading this. Joey's already trying to do damage control saying that he was just adding to "the lore" by claiming Sabu was knocked out and that he actually wasn't, but I don't know how you fucking watch that match and think he was anything but unconscious on that floor bump.
May 13May 13 comment_6029996 Joey Janela has to be the single dumbest wrestler alive, and that encompasses a very long list. Tony Khan is too nice to ever say it, but I bet he had major instant buyer's remorse after signing Janela to AEW. That was probably the one contract he was relieved not to renew.
May 13May 13 comment_6029997 It's fucking disgusting that they're trying to portray getting a guy all fucked up to work a match that no doubt contributed to his death as a good thing and letting him go out on his shield shit. You thought it was unbelievable to have someone as carny or more in 2025, yet here we are.
May 13May 13 comment_6029998 Sabu and X-Pac's match was arguably more influential than the Eddielenko matches. Sabu finished 2nd on the WON wrestler of the year 1994 ballot. His influence is ridiculous. RIP to an icon.
May 13May 13 comment_6029999 11 hours ago, PeteF3 said: I know these interviews were from before he died but holy shit do Brett, Joey, and GCW probably deserve a liability investigation reading this. Joey's already trying to do damage control saying that he was just adding to "the lore" by claiming Sabu was knocked out and that he actually wasn't, but I don't know how you fucking watch that match and think he was anything but unconscious on that floor bump. I even made the obligatory "Sabu tried to die because of course" joke. In retrospect, yikes. Janela basically admitting they got Sabu high as a kite to be able to perform and now Lauderdale is pissed at him because "It makes GCW looks bad" is classic old-school carny bullshit. This shit is turning really sour really fast. And yeah, if I'm Sabu's family, I'm considering pressing charges, really.
May 13May 13 Author comment_6030000 If Janela's claim that 85% of pro wrestlers are on kratom is even close to accurate, that has the potential to open up a massive can of worms for the industry.
May 13May 13 comment_6030005 5 hours ago, NintendoLogic said: If Janela's claim that 85% of pro wrestlers are on kratom is even close to accurate, that has the potential to open up a massive can of worms for the industry. Nothing will happen because no one takes wrestling seriously. It's a miracle the Vince stuff has gone as far as it has, and I still think he'll skate in the end.
May 13May 13 comment_6030009 https://www.theringer.com/2025/05/13/wwe/sabu-best-matches-ecw-fmw Wrote up some Sabu classics for The Ringer
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