The Phantom Rant: Remembering Sabu

Greetings everyone and welcome to The Phantom Rant. I am Joseph Davis and it’s a somber start to the week as the wrestling world lost the Homicidal, Suicidal and Genocidal mad man Sabu at the age of 60. He just wrestled his last match at Joey Janela’s Spring Break where for one night they turned back the clock to the late 90’s in ECW (complete with a Sandman full entrance) and Sabu went out on top in a barbwire match.

My first experience with Sabu was seeing him mentioned in the wrestling magazines back in the early 90’s. This was around the same time Eddie Gilbert and Cactus Jack were having their feud and here’s some articles about this guy named Sabu who is doing crazy stuff like going through tables (which was unheard of at the time for most of us). I didn’t have cable back then so all I had was the WWF on Ch. 5 here in NYC. I didn’t have access to tape traders either so the legend of Sabu grew and grew until I finally saw him in WCW of all places when I finally had Directv. He was on the first few Nitro’s and even had a PPV match in Detroit with his uncle The Sheik in his corner against the mysterious Mr. JL. But as soon as he was there…poof he was gone.

Sabu would really make his mark in ECW. I remember the first time I saw ECW (it was the week of the Beulah McGillicutty pregnancy angle) and I was blown away. Sabu was a big part of that. Truthfully I didn’t see much of ECW for the next year because MSG Network and all the sports channels were on a separate tier for Directv at the time. But right before ECW Barely Legal they started including sports in the package we had and the build up for Sabu and Taz was amazing.

Barely Legal was NOT offered on Directv PPV, but it was fun waiting to see the results on the next week’s ECW Hardcore TV. The success of ECW in 1997 hinged on Sabu and Taz and they delivered big time. Sabu joined forces with Bill Alfonso and Rob Van Dam after Barely Legal and there was no looking back.

Of course if you want to talk about Sabu’s peak of insanity, you have to watch Born To Be Wired. The barbwire match between him and Terry Funk for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. To this day when I hear “Phantom of the Opera” I think Born to be Wired.

What can be said about that match that hasn’t been said in the last 27 or so years? Sabu lived his nickname that night. It was so crazy that even Paul Heyman was like “nope…never doing another barbwire match again in ECW”. You watch death match wrestling today and it really has no meaning. This match had meaning and Sabu winning the ECW World Title was fitting for him surviving that damn match.

Sabu has had more violent matches over the years. His barbwire massacre with Abyss in TNA comes to mind as another one you should watch if you never seen it.

But Sabu did everything with a purpose in the ring. It was not done for the sake of being done just to look cool on a clip somewhere.

I think what’s messed up about his death is people are trying to blame GCW and Joey Janela for it. It’s just stupid and disrespectful for anyone who says they are a fan to point blame at Janela or GCW. Sabu knew what he was doing. He knew his limitations due to age and his body being broken down, but he said screw it and gave everything he had and went above and beyond for that match.

Well I have nothing but respect for Sabu and I can only hope he is at peace now free of the pain that he was in for decades after giving his body to the sport of professional wrestling for our entertainment. Sabu will always be remembered for that above all else.

So dig out your old video tapes and dvd’s and watch some classic Sabu when you get a chance.

Off the top of my head, here’s a few matches of his you should watch.

Sabu/RVD vs. Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki from ECW Heatwave 1998

Sabu vs. Rey Mysterio for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship ECW One Night Stand 2006

There are many more you should seek out. Sabu was one of a kind and we’re all gonna miss him.

Super finger point to the sky.

That’s it for this week. As always if you have any feedback you can leave it down below, on twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com