Ep. 419: The TLF Tribute to Sabu Part 1

<v Speaker 1>It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn
<v Speaker 1>s e O and JP Sorrow.
<v Speaker 2>He's a lapsed fan and all my years and wrestling.
<v Speaker 3>I never seen anything.
<v Speaker 4>And it's the laps fan man like the one in
<v Speaker 4>the ring forget Aboussislada, be a real king of swing
<v Speaker 4>when the bell goes in with the kick like me
<v Speaker 4>throwing in the corner, but gets rash like stick.
<v Speaker 2>Even Jerry King can.
<v Speaker 5>Take off the crowd nodded in his head like a
<v Speaker 5>Steve low Brown would get low down, go even high up,
<v Speaker 5>flipp you on your head, but you know cool, drive
<v Speaker 5>and move out and dragon smiths fire give you more
<v Speaker 5>shot than the head reats higher, drop a more truth
<v Speaker 5>than a con of sniper.
<v Speaker 2>Bless you with a coconut, Roddy Piper, Jack and JP
<v Speaker 2>ne a j.
<v Speaker 5>Wat d drop a cupcakes and gold the Brain Bob
<v Speaker 5>Beans the best podcast.
<v Speaker 6>First start the Close Round.
<v Speaker 7>You all been his classic and polls.
<v Speaker 8>Whilst they said about Saboo that he was death defying,
<v Speaker 8>didn't they?
<v Speaker 2>I guess yes and failed at that, didn't he.
<v Speaker 8>Sixty one years according to Rob van Dam sixty years
<v Speaker 8>according to everything else that came out the passing of
<v Speaker 8>a true original, an ECW original. As a matter of fact,
<v Speaker 8>I guess that you could say that, Yes, when Sabu
<v Speaker 8>departed two weeks ago or so, as we record this,
<v Speaker 8>the thought was, what do we do?
<v Speaker 3>How do we handle it?
<v Speaker 8>Because Saboo isn't somebody that even got a call because
<v Speaker 8>he's not a Hasbro era a warming fun on.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I'd just say we move on.
<v Speaker 8>But as I sit here and think about it the
<v Speaker 8>case what happened after the Hasbro era? What was the
<v Speaker 8>demarcation line to where it wasn't going to be that
<v Speaker 8>way anymore wrestling?
<v Speaker 3>It was Sabo.
<v Speaker 8>It was what Sabu brought to the table, and then
<v Speaker 8>everyone ended up copying in the Big two that led
<v Speaker 8>to the starle so decidedly shifting in the direction of
<v Speaker 8>aerial technique, hyperviolence and busted furniture and using that furniture
<v Speaker 8>in ways that wasn't just picking it up and dunking someone.
<v Speaker 3>Over the head with it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, And I can't wait to get into the legacy
<v Speaker 8>of Saboo here because exactly that this is a guy
<v Speaker 8>that everyone you know genuflected upon on his death, and
<v Speaker 8>somebody who you know newsletter reading fans of the nineteen
<v Speaker 8>nineties were captivated by he was someone you saw still
<v Speaker 8>images of. Yeah, and we're like, what is this guy
<v Speaker 8>doing flying from that angle, from that perch onto that
<v Speaker 8>landing spot?
<v Speaker 9>Is?
<v Speaker 8>What is Sabu? What are those pants?
<v Speaker 2>Does he talk? I'll tell you what that. I definitely asked,
<v Speaker 2>did you I definitely asked, what the fuck is with
<v Speaker 2>those pants? And what's with the pointing up like that? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's just all whatever.
<v Speaker 8>And so upon the passing of Saboo, Tia left trying
<v Speaker 8>to bring something unique, as so many in the wrestling
<v Speaker 8>industry who were his contemporaries and shared the ring with
<v Speaker 8>him reflect on what they thought was special about him.
<v Speaker 8>We're in a unique position to almost give you a
<v Speaker 8>first look at a wrestling fan who's encountering what kind
<v Speaker 8>of stuff made Saboo so legendary and so many fans' minds.
<v Speaker 8>As the post Man hasn't really seen a ton of Saboo.
<v Speaker 2>No, I would say the majority of my Sabu experience
<v Speaker 2>is what we've watched in ECW and what he did
<v Speaker 2>in WWE for that brief time.
<v Speaker 8>And I think that that is a much bigger part
<v Speaker 8>of the equation than people tend to remember, considering how
<v Speaker 8>variantly hardcore ECW fans were and how easily they extrapolated
<v Speaker 8>that to be, you know, the experience of all fans,
<v Speaker 8>even though it was exceptionally difficult to access a lot
<v Speaker 8>of that stuff as it was happening on a relatively
<v Speaker 8>small scale at THECW Arena before sub one thousand crowds,
<v Speaker 8>But the impact of what he was doing was so
<v Speaker 8>magnified that as time has passed, people, I think forget
<v Speaker 8>just how often the corner it kind of was in
<v Speaker 8>terms of wrestling fandom of the nineties or at least
<v Speaker 8>sure the mid nineties. And so let's level set before
<v Speaker 8>we dive in to the life and times of Terry
<v Speaker 8>brounk Uh huh. How can a guy, by the way,
<v Speaker 8>who comes to you know, share the ring with one
<v Speaker 8>of his key rivals in Terry Funk, literally be named
<v Speaker 8>Terry Brunk?
<v Speaker 3>How does that?
<v Speaker 2>I know? What we do?
<v Speaker 1>We have?
<v Speaker 2>We have we have Terry Brounk Terry Funk, and uh,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I'm just I'm just happy to be here.
<v Speaker 3>What was grappy?
<v Speaker 8>They did a tribute on ww TV and they called
<v Speaker 8>him Terrence Bronk. And his name isn't Terrence. His name
<v Speaker 8>isn't Terrance.
<v Speaker 2>He's another one of those. He's those freaking idiots. Who's
<v Speaker 2>actually named is Terry is on Terrence?
<v Speaker 8>According to RVD, who was on a Let's Correct the
<v Speaker 8>Accuracies campaign, after several days of reporting about SABA would
<v Speaker 8>come out in tribute to come out, So that was
<v Speaker 8>that was fun to hear. But no, Terry Brounk, let's
<v Speaker 8>level set. Where are you on Sabu? From what you've seen?
<v Speaker 2>Where am I? I mean, okay, I think he's an idiot.
<v Speaker 2>I think he's an idiot. I think he's at fool
<v Speaker 2>for like you know, for doing for doing this kind
<v Speaker 2>of stuff. It's my opinion on that. I don't I
<v Speaker 2>I I understand the need to stand out, but and
<v Speaker 2>I and LI listen. If I I've said this before
<v Speaker 2>about ECW, if I watched, if I had, and I'll again,
<v Speaker 2>I want to say this is very important to say.
<v Speaker 2>I would have watched this, Okay, there's no question about it.
<v Speaker 2>Had I really known, had I had access in the
<v Speaker 2>mid to late nineties, had I known where to watch,
<v Speaker 2>I would have watched ECW, no question. This is stuff
<v Speaker 2>that I would have been I would have gone nuts
<v Speaker 2>for because I really I really appreciated, you know, I
<v Speaker 2>wanted more violence and stuff like that. But as a
<v Speaker 2>forty four year old adult, I just I can't fathom.
<v Speaker 2>I can't fathom the need, the desire, or the wherewithal
<v Speaker 2>to sacrifice your body jumping fifteen feet from the air
<v Speaker 2>over fucking barricades onto the floor. Yes, it just don't.
<v Speaker 2>I don't. Yeah, I have, I just can't. I can't
<v Speaker 2>agree with that. I cannot. I cannot abide. I cannot
<v Speaker 2>abide or endorse no exactly. And again that's kind of
<v Speaker 2>why a TLF tribute to someone so well covered and
<v Speaker 2>understood a Saboo is a little different, you know, because
<v Speaker 2>we're taking an assessment of this guy without you know,
<v Speaker 2>huge nostalgia behind it. Like so many other topics that
<v Speaker 2>we cover, we can come to ECW without the beer
<v Speaker 2>goggles of nostalgia. Now I can't so much. I can't
<v Speaker 2>ever say that I was one of those huge, you
<v Speaker 2>know Saboo marks that was trying to chase down things
<v Speaker 2>of this legendary guy that you would hear about, not
<v Speaker 2>because I was you know, negative towards him, just because
<v Speaker 2>at the time he was doing the most buzzworthy early
<v Speaker 2>stage stuff in his career. I just wasn't plugged into
<v Speaker 2>the internet. I wasn't really reading the pages of the
<v Speaker 2>after mags that would have covered, you know, the lower
<v Speaker 2>level organizations like Saboo was wrestling on and I just
<v Speaker 2>didn't have I didn't have a sense that I wanted
<v Speaker 2>something like that out of wrestling. I think Saboo and
<v Speaker 2>what he did in the ring introduced people to what
<v Speaker 2>they could want and expect out of a wrestler. Now
<v Speaker 2>you can debate all day if that's a good or
<v Speaker 2>bad thing. I think it's a bad thing because of
<v Speaker 2>the damage it did to so many I think it's
<v Speaker 2>a good thing because so many guys would have never
<v Speaker 2>made a dime in the business that ended up making
<v Speaker 2>a living because they realized that if they could take
<v Speaker 2>risks and in a way that Sabou did that. There
<v Speaker 2>was actually an audience that was hungry to see that
<v Speaker 2>happen in a wrestling ring as a clear, indisputable alternative
<v Speaker 2>to what the Big Two were offering, and as the
<v Speaker 2>years passed, the Big Two so heavily resembled it, in
<v Speaker 2>no small part by WCW plucking some of the international
<v Speaker 2>high flyers that Paul Hayman brought to America via ECW
<v Speaker 2>to the first time over to WCW and showcasing them
<v Speaker 2>as such. But Sabou was one of those first hot properties,
<v Speaker 2>one of those indie sensations that everyone was hyper curious
<v Speaker 2>to see what would happen once he put him in
<v Speaker 2>the national spotlight, and come to find out, he just
<v Speaker 2>wasn't cut out for that, not because he couldn't hang,
<v Speaker 2>but because the way he had developed, his idea of
<v Speaker 2>himself and his idea of why any fans ever wanted
<v Speaker 2>to see him just could not click in to the
<v Speaker 2>way the Big two organized their angles, their matches, the promos.
<v Speaker 2>You know, Vin's was obsessed with making him talk.
<v Speaker 8>Did you know that the Sultan was supposed to be Saboo?
<v Speaker 2>I did not know that. We didn't know that, did
<v Speaker 2>we did? I didn't know that. At least we didn't talk.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think we talked about that. Maybe we did,
<v Speaker 2>but that was during that invasion, right invasion period that
<v Speaker 2>they were doing.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, yeah, they they went with the Sultan being Rakishi
<v Speaker 8>after they realized much better, Oh yeah, well for sure,
<v Speaker 8>much better. Well, I mean if the Sultan was kind
<v Speaker 8>of a svelt high flyer instead of a domineering big man.
<v Speaker 8>You know, not to say he was anywhere as big
<v Speaker 8>as he would later be as Rakishi, but he was.
<v Speaker 2>You know, he was going there. He was heading there.
<v Speaker 2>Oh listen, listen, a difference had been made, and it
<v Speaker 2>was on the waistline. I was gonna say, it's not
<v Speaker 2>like he he he made a change in the between
<v Speaker 2>his his making a difference days and his Rakishi days.
<v Speaker 2>It was the gradual, a gradual growth. Yeah.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, we're probably talking two to three thousand Turkey tales later.
<v Speaker 3>Oh fuck you by that stage.
<v Speaker 8>So that all said, the idea that Sabu as interested
<v Speaker 8>as the Big two were in securing him. And we know,
<v Speaker 8>as we've talked about, and we've watched shows where Sabu
<v Speaker 8>was in WCW in nineteen ninety five, the Second Nitro
<v Speaker 8>where he leg drops Alex right through a table, World
<v Speaker 8>War three nineteen ninety five, where he makes an appearance
<v Speaker 8>in Detroit with his uncle, the famous chic at Farhat
<v Speaker 8>an amazing bout of serendipity. You know, Sabu passing away
<v Speaker 8>the week before Dark Side of the Ring premiered their.
<v Speaker 2>Episode Nuts, That's nuts.
<v Speaker 8>The poignancy was through the roof on that because Sabo
<v Speaker 8>was in the episode talking in emotional terms about his
<v Speaker 8>beloved uncle, and you know, it was just a it
<v Speaker 8>was sort of a flash in the Pan deeal in
<v Speaker 8>ninety five with sab in WCW and further in WWF.
<v Speaker 8>You know, we got that glimpse, like you said, the
<v Speaker 8>Febu ninety seven invasion raw F you will from the
<v Speaker 8>Manhattan Center where he fails to launch off the R
<v Speaker 8>on the RIW just because it was so it was
<v Speaker 8>so rickety. You know, one ever try to jump off
<v Speaker 8>the thing?
<v Speaker 2>What do you do? Palm? What's your deal? You jump?
<v Speaker 2>You do jumping things and jumping maneuvers. I don't know
<v Speaker 2>who you are? Who are you? What is this? What
<v Speaker 2>are you? What are you wearing? What are these pants?
<v Speaker 3>Can we find can we find a way for you
<v Speaker 3>to descend?
<v Speaker 10>Or?
<v Speaker 11>Are you?
<v Speaker 2>Are you a Mustafa? Are you related to the iron cheek?
<v Speaker 2>Are you a Mustafa? That's pretty good? When do you
<v Speaker 2>we call you Sabu Mustafa?
<v Speaker 8>Yes, Vince and I just can't wait to be King
<v Speaker 8>of the Ring.
<v Speaker 2>I don't so what do you when you jump, you
<v Speaker 2>do flippy floppy things, all right, great, get up there
<v Speaker 2>on the get up there on the on one of
<v Speaker 2>the letters.
<v Speaker 8>Vince Zone's ever try to jump off this thing. I
<v Speaker 8>just think this is sturdy.
<v Speaker 12>And get up there, and your fucking ass up there,
<v Speaker 12>your tiny ass up there. Do it now, show me
<v Speaker 12>what you've got. Grab the brass ring. I want to
<v Speaker 12>see how close you're willing to go to death to
<v Speaker 12>get ahead.
<v Speaker 2>We'll get it. We'll get to it.
<v Speaker 8>If you've never seen it, needless to say. Saboo fails
<v Speaker 8>to launch, okay, the first time he was ever on
<v Speaker 8>WWF television, and he goes directly down, missing by quite
<v Speaker 8>a few feet. An entire crew of guys who are
<v Speaker 8>supposed to be like Taz's understudies standing there to catch
<v Speaker 8>him because the raw logo was just shaking so much under.
<v Speaker 2>His foot that it was just it was like cardboard,
<v Speaker 2>wasn't it. It was wood?
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, according to him, it was wood. And they had
<v Speaker 8>like the Dudley stand down there and try to hold
<v Speaker 8>it in place so he could launch, and it was
<v Speaker 8>just it is, you know, it's ignominious for Saboo. It
<v Speaker 8>was like it was truly like a high wire daredevil act.
<v Speaker 8>You watch that in parts you want to see if
<v Speaker 8>he's going to fall, and when he doesn't fall, it's
<v Speaker 8>a beautiful thing. But if you absolutely don't think he'll
<v Speaker 8>ever fall, it isn't quite as dramatic and interesting as
<v Speaker 8>it could be, as morbid as that sounds, and that
<v Speaker 8>was that was a lot of the high wire act.
<v Speaker 2>That was saboo.
<v Speaker 8>But one one of the fascinating kind of contradictions of
<v Speaker 8>the man is he was really steeped in an old school,
<v Speaker 8>traditional way of going about pro wrestling. His uncle was
<v Speaker 8>certainly no high flyer. I mean, no one's made more
<v Speaker 8>doing less than the Sheikh. I mean just stabbing people
<v Speaker 8>and walking around with a pencil exactly.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that's just right, exactly. He just you know,
<v Speaker 2>I can do that, right, I can walk around and
<v Speaker 2>take a take some kind of weapon and just stab
<v Speaker 2>people with it.
<v Speaker 8>And as I think we talked about, you know, when
<v Speaker 8>he first broke in is whatever it was, Sheikh l
<v Speaker 8>Arab in the black and white days of wrestling in
<v Speaker 8>the I think Dumont Network days, as a matter of fact,
<v Speaker 8>or at least big time wrestling out of Detroit before
<v Speaker 8>color television this guy. You know, while he did have
<v Speaker 8>the gimmick, the Sheikh gimmick, he would go out there
<v Speaker 8>call her elbow, fireman's carry, head luck takeover. He was
<v Speaker 8>he was an amateur. He not a high level one.
<v Speaker 8>But Sheik believed in a base that was, you know,
<v Speaker 8>trying to replicate amateur wrestling. And it was something that
<v Speaker 8>when his nephew Sabou wanted to break in to the
<v Speaker 8>business and had to sort of, according to Saboo, really
<v Speaker 8>pull on that pant leg until uncle decided to give
<v Speaker 8>him a chance to train. It all started with that
<v Speaker 8>very solid base. And as much as Saboo is known
<v Speaker 8>for the high flying, he didn't have much time for
<v Speaker 8>wrestlers that couldn't go hold for hold with him, even
<v Speaker 8>if that wouldn't be a huge part of the match.
<v Speaker 8>But as you watch, and as I'm looking forward to
<v Speaker 8>watching with you, he didn't insist on putting some of
<v Speaker 8>that stuff, some of those building blocks in just about
<v Speaker 8>all of his matches. Of course, the highlights would only
<v Speaker 8>show the high flying table crashes.
<v Speaker 2>Also, I should I want to preface okay, listen, my
<v Speaker 2>honest to gud hope in doing this is that I
<v Speaker 2>gain respect for this man. Yeah, that's my hope. I
<v Speaker 2>do want that. I don't want to sit here and
<v Speaker 2>dislike him, you know, both professionally and personally. Right, I
<v Speaker 2>never knew him personally, but I don't like him.
<v Speaker 8>He was and he wasn't one of those like what's
<v Speaker 8>the word I'm looking for divisive characters. He was one
<v Speaker 8>guy who was really People liked them. People really like
<v Speaker 8>this guy. Apparently he was incredibly generous, Like with with
<v Speaker 8>young guys coming up. He sometimes he'd split his paydays
<v Speaker 8>with guys who were in a tough spot. He would, yeah,
<v Speaker 8>he would. He would give, you know, go out of
<v Speaker 8>his way to pay for meals.
<v Speaker 2>He would.
<v Speaker 8>At one point he bought a Winnebago so he could
<v Speaker 8>drive around the country and make shots, and a lot
<v Speaker 8>of people would travel in the Saboo Winnebago as he
<v Speaker 8>wears cowboy boots with shorts and a backwards ball cap
<v Speaker 8>everywhere he goes.
<v Speaker 2>Just he was just walking, well, you know what, he
<v Speaker 2>just want to point that, he just want a point
<v Speaker 2>for being generous. I appreciate that. I am always about
<v Speaker 2>I I one of the things I hate in general
<v Speaker 2>about the wrestling business is how people you know, how
<v Speaker 2>people are dicks when it comes to young talent. They're
<v Speaker 2>gonna haze them or you know, you're coming from my
<v Speaker 2>spot that whole thing.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 2>So if someone's willing, if someone's willing to go out
<v Speaker 2>of their way and and kind of make make them,
<v Speaker 2>make make the young guys feel good and like help them,
<v Speaker 2>that's a big win for me in this business. Yep, yep.
<v Speaker 8>And I think honestly, having taken in a lot of
<v Speaker 8>what people have been saying and reflecting upon Sabu, that
<v Speaker 8>that really was something that he rightly gets credit for.
<v Speaker 8>Enough people have said it kind of in silos that
<v Speaker 8>it echoes like, Okay, that was that was a prevailing thing.
<v Speaker 8>That wasn't just one or two guys who thought he
<v Speaker 8>was generous and everybody else thought he was a dickhead. Now,
<v Speaker 8>his history with Paul Hayman really gives you a fine
<v Speaker 8>and I think detailed sense of the man's compass and
<v Speaker 8>what he was all about in the business, up or down,
<v Speaker 8>left or right. And so Paul Hayman spotlighted Saboo, as
<v Speaker 8>did Todd Gordon of course in ECW first on these
<v Speaker 8>shores after Sabu had made a big impact as far
<v Speaker 8>as buzz spreading far and wide in the FMW organization
<v Speaker 8>in Japan, where his uncle, the Sheik was brought in
<v Speaker 8>for a series of death matches at Chushio. Nita, of course,
<v Speaker 8>as who we've talked about extensively over the years, most
<v Speaker 8>recently on the Lapsed Funk, had started that organization and
<v Speaker 8>had great admiration for the Sheik. He'd in fact ben
<v Speaker 8>Sheik's ring boy in the glory days of All Japan
<v Speaker 8>Pro Wrestling. We'd watched some of those matches with the
<v Speaker 8>Sheik and had bueled the butcher again to the Funks.
<v Speaker 8>So Onnita was all about involving the Sheik in this
<v Speaker 8>upstart FMW deathmatch concept. It wasn't entirely death match. I mean,
<v Speaker 8>it was frontier martial arts, so they would have like,
<v Speaker 8>you know, kickboxer versus wrestler matches as well and karate guys,
<v Speaker 8>but that was part of the offering. Was sometimes we
<v Speaker 8>just replaced the ropes with barbed wire, and that was
<v Speaker 8>where the Sheik, who brought his nephew along with him
<v Speaker 8>to these shots in Japan, really began to do the
<v Speaker 8>things that caught the wrestling underground's attention. And the attention
<v Speaker 8>of the wrestling public such as it was watching FMW,
<v Speaker 8>which was not a small amount of people in Japan
<v Speaker 8>at the time. And it was from there that Todd
<v Speaker 8>Gordon and Paul Haymond at ECW brought Saboo to the States,
<v Speaker 8>put him in the spotlight, and showcased what it was
<v Speaker 8>he was doing to an American audience for the first
<v Speaker 8>time unless you happen to be on some of those
<v Speaker 8>early ear early independent shots through Lake Minnesota, Michigan and
<v Speaker 8>to some degree in like the New Jersey, New York
<v Speaker 8>care area for Dennis Corluso, where Sabu got booked even
<v Speaker 8>concurrent with his FMW breakthrough time ninety one ninety two,
<v Speaker 8>even before he came over to ECW, such as it
<v Speaker 8>was in nineteen ninety three. But here's the man, Paul Hayman,
<v Speaker 8>this is years before Sabo's passing. In a interview on
<v Speaker 8>stage with Kenny McIntosh from Inside the Ropes, I think
<v Speaker 8>really well crystallizing what is being said about Saboo now
<v Speaker 8>that he's passed away, and what I think will be
<v Speaker 8>said about Sabu for some time to come. In the
<v Speaker 8>spirit of setting the table, who should.
<v Speaker 10>Have been a much bigger star than they were. Sabu yes,
<v Speaker 10>and a lot of that, much like Shane Douglas and
<v Speaker 10>Saboo will be the first one to confess to this
<v Speaker 10>was self inflicted. But by the time Sabu had an
<v Speaker 10>opportunity to perform in front of a much bigger audience
<v Speaker 10>than ECW could present to him, Saboo had destroyed his
<v Speaker 10>own body, both in the ring and with out of
<v Speaker 10>ring activities, and the world never got a chance to
<v Speaker 10>really see the best of Saboo unless you either a
<v Speaker 10>have videotapes from nineteen ninety three, nineteen ninety four, the
<v Speaker 10>beginning of the beginning of nineteen ninety five, or you know,
<v Speaker 10>I'm not plugging the WWE network, but if you happen
<v Speaker 10>to get it and they have those shows on it
<v Speaker 10>and Saboo's on those shows, you can see him at
<v Speaker 10>his best, or you know, or on any other you
<v Speaker 10>know YouTube which whichever, whichever method you choose. Saboo in
<v Speaker 10>that era was revolutionary. He was ahead of his You know,
<v Speaker 10>that's the thing about being ahead of your time. You
<v Speaker 10>don't make the money that other people will stealing all
<v Speaker 10>of your And which case e c W bankrupt attitude
<v Speaker 10>era billionaires.
<v Speaker 2>So Sabo Saboo falls into that. Sabo Saboo had.
<v Speaker 10>The right or or or should have gone down in
<v Speaker 10>history as truly one of the most influential, one of
<v Speaker 10>the most groundbreaking superstars ever. And I don't think that'll
<v Speaker 10>be his legacy though. And again he has to take
<v Speaker 10>some of the blame for this. But that's the answer
<v Speaker 10>of all the people that I've seen in the past
<v Speaker 10>thirty years.
<v Speaker 2>You know who deserves who deserved more than he ended
<v Speaker 2>up with?
<v Speaker 8>Saboo there it is, that's wild who got more than
<v Speaker 8>he ended up with? Who deserved more rather than he
<v Speaker 8>ended up with? And yeah, I mean we have to
<v Speaker 8>come to terms with the fact that part of the
<v Speaker 8>reason Saboo could be Saboo was because he worked those painkillers.
<v Speaker 3>Brother, mmm, I mean Soma's.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's that's the reality right there.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, later in his WW Runny that was vicoting on
<v Speaker 8>his person. I remember in that Rob Van Damn traffic stop.
<v Speaker 8>You know, that's also probably part of the reason that
<v Speaker 8>you couldn't easily transport the magic of Saboo to the
<v Speaker 8>Big Two, because there was a lot of uh drugs
<v Speaker 8>prerequisites that went into him being able to do this
<v Speaker 8>to himself night in and night out, and it doesn't
<v Speaker 8>necessarily work with a weekly schedule, you know, where you're
<v Speaker 8>making towns and the transport is like seventy percent of
<v Speaker 8>the job. Not to say it was easy for him
<v Speaker 8>to get around taking one off indie bookings all over
<v Speaker 8>the place, but ECW was once a month promotion, you know,
<v Speaker 8>twice a month, three times a month when he first
<v Speaker 8>started with extensive commitments in Japan. Part of the reason,
<v Speaker 8>and we'll get to it, that Paul Hayman has that
<v Speaker 8>provide around Sabu being part of the reason for his
<v Speaker 8>own limitations was because he chose Japan over ECW famously
<v Speaker 8>or infamously in nineteen ninety five. And that was the
<v Speaker 8>first real crack in the Sabou story. It was like, Wow,
<v Speaker 8>this guy, maybe, you know, maybe he is a little
<v Speaker 8>bit of a businessman. Maybe he isn't just here to
<v Speaker 8>flagellate himself for our enjoyment and to up the stakes
<v Speaker 8>every single time he jumps off the seat of a
<v Speaker 8>chair to the top rope and then proceeds to do
<v Speaker 8>god knows what from there. Maybe this guy is just
<v Speaker 8>going to go to the highest bidder at the end
<v Speaker 8>of the day. And so there's a lot to learn
<v Speaker 8>about the way Sabu navigated the business that way. But yeah,
<v Speaker 8>I mean, and he'd be the first to admit it,
<v Speaker 8>and he did admit it quite a bit when he
<v Speaker 8>was on this earth, the role that the drugs played
<v Speaker 8>and you know, the painkillers and being able to get
<v Speaker 8>through this thing. People talk about him sort of recharging
<v Speaker 8>right before he goes through the curtain, and that pain
<v Speaker 8>that he carried with him before the match and in
<v Speaker 8>between the match and in the locker room where he
<v Speaker 8>took naps and stuff, and hmm, it was just you know,
<v Speaker 8>you have to wonder how many of those naps were naps.
<v Speaker 2>It's certainly right.
<v Speaker 8>It was a very difficult thing for him to keep
<v Speaker 8>the routine that he had to to be Saboo in
<v Speaker 8>e c W, in any other locker room in the industry.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, let's put it that way.
<v Speaker 8>You know, E CW was not an organization that you
<v Speaker 8>had to worry about getting busted really for anything. And
<v Speaker 8>we're learning and we're seeing the human toll of that
<v Speaker 8>as the years pass. You know, a ball's mahoney, an
<v Speaker 8>axel rotten. Of course, Saboo and so many others that
<v Speaker 8>really seemed to be casualties of the fact that what
<v Speaker 8>ECW was offering was not possible without extreme drug use. Okay,
<v Speaker 8>And I know that's an unfair characterization in some ways, but.
<v Speaker 2>I mean not really. I mean I get it. I
<v Speaker 2>mean I mean don't get it, get it. But you know,
<v Speaker 2>I can see Johnny grunge. It's keep going. It's it's
<v Speaker 2>such an it's a night mayor you know, it's a nightmare.
<v Speaker 3>Uh uh uh.
<v Speaker 2>Kind of the way the business is. That business E
<v Speaker 2>c W was run like you're you're you're gonna get hurt. Yep,
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna hurt.
<v Speaker 8>It's gonna hurt, and it's going to it's gonna hurt
<v Speaker 8>at the exact wrong time for your career. It's gonna
<v Speaker 8>hurt at the exact time where you tell yourself, well,
<v Speaker 8>Jesus Christ, I gotta I gotta pop bills, because this
<v Speaker 8>is the absolute worst time for me to disappear for
<v Speaker 8>six months to properly hear heal mandryes. And that's part
<v Speaker 8>of why Saboos so legendary, because he went to links
<v Speaker 8>no one in the business had ever seen to make
<v Speaker 8>the next shot. Literally because he was. He was very
<v Speaker 8>against going to the hospital, in no small part because
<v Speaker 8>it was difficult to afford the medical bills. Wow, and
<v Speaker 8>also because it would just be a huge inconvenience for
<v Speaker 8>him to be able to continue going. He would super
<v Speaker 8>glue cuts together. I'm tough, literal super glue. We've watched E. C. W.
<v Speaker 8>Burn to be wired against Terry Funky. Yes, we saw
<v Speaker 8>him tape his wanted that people wanted that for this?
<v Speaker 8>Did they want they they I don't know if they
<v Speaker 8>wanted it, but once they got it, they made it
<v Speaker 8>so legendary that the next guy to come along would
<v Speaker 8>feel obliged, would feel obliged to do that to himself.
<v Speaker 8>And you know, taping his ripped up bicep from the
<v Speaker 8>barbed wire, which, because they wanted it to look authentic
<v Speaker 8>and didn't have a ton of resources to go buy
<v Speaker 8>gimmicked barbed wire anyway, was legit barbed wire that you
<v Speaker 8>would buy to string up a prison fence.
<v Speaker 2>This this goes under the idiot part of my discussion
<v Speaker 2>with him about him. He just idiot. He was so.
<v Speaker 8>He was so afraid of his stuff looking fake that
<v Speaker 8>he would just throw himself like a like a torpedo
<v Speaker 8>into these self destructive spots.
<v Speaker 2>Was he weird of what the business he was in was?
<v Speaker 8>Seriously, I know, I mean but once only once people
<v Speaker 8>talk about you just for this reason. It's you know,
<v Speaker 8>all right, I'm gonna go to color elbow to drop
<v Speaker 8>toe hold style. Now it's like it just doesn't work
<v Speaker 8>that way. And Sabo was kind kind of the first.
<v Speaker 8>I mean, you know, Foley was out there, but fully
<v Speaker 8>had talking. Fully Fully was able to give you a
<v Speaker 8>sense of he was doing this because of the character,
<v Speaker 8>you know, that's why he was going this crazy and nuts.
<v Speaker 8>Saboo was dogmatic, just like his father his uncle about
<v Speaker 8>never talking, never talking. And you know, Vince became when
<v Speaker 8>he had Sabo and w b obsessed with making him talk.
<v Speaker 8>You know, that goes like Bishov got obsessed with unmasking Luchadors.
<v Speaker 8>It's just you can't you can't tell people like that
<v Speaker 8>that they can't do something, because then that's all they
<v Speaker 8>want to do. And it became a huge, a huge
<v Speaker 8>kind of limitation for Saboo and that like he his
<v Speaker 8>actions absolutely had to do all the talking. And if
<v Speaker 8>you bought into the Sabo package, you had to kind
<v Speaker 8>of turn over part of your show to the Sabo experience,
<v Speaker 8>because there was so much that the other wrestlers would
<v Speaker 8>do to fit into the programming style of the time
<v Speaker 8>that Sabu just couldn't and didn't want to do, and
<v Speaker 8>would very gladly say no and walk out if you
<v Speaker 8>insisted that he do something that he didn't feel was
<v Speaker 8>sustainable for him as a character. He's stringing together paydays,
<v Speaker 8>the phone's ringing, and he knows why, and he's not
<v Speaker 8>about to usurp that to serve any other purpose or
<v Speaker 8>to be any other kind of wrestler. But I think
<v Speaker 8>that's the tragedy that Paul put his finger on there.
<v Speaker 8>It's when you do that, you become legendary, but you
<v Speaker 8>do not reap the rewards of the revolution you set
<v Speaker 8>in motion. I think that is definitely true for Sabo.
<v Speaker 8>Here's Rob Van dam a post Sabo's passing. Of course,
<v Speaker 8>as we'll talk about, RVD and Sabou go all the
<v Speaker 8>way back to teenage years training with the Sheikh in
<v Speaker 8>Sheikh's backyard in Michigan, getting to know each other from there,
<v Speaker 8>and just riding the wave of this industry all the
<v Speaker 8>way to WWE in two thousand and six. Here's RVD
<v Speaker 8>talking about the Saboo he knew. And as he's talking
<v Speaker 8>about this and describing some of the some of Saboo's
<v Speaker 8>uniqueness and peccadillos, you almost get the sense he he
<v Speaker 8>had to know the state would come.
<v Speaker 13>Here's dude, if you if you've never seen Sabu mad
<v Speaker 13>and or you've never thought Saboo was gonna die, then
<v Speaker 13>you really didn't know him.
<v Speaker 6>Let me just say that, do you mean going now?
<v Speaker 13>But the way I see it, Grim Reaper versus Saboo
<v Speaker 13>was really like three thousand, four hundred and ninety nine
<v Speaker 13>for Saboo against one time for a grand Ready pers
<v Speaker 13>So if you look at the big picture, I really
<v Speaker 13>think Sabu kicked his ass.
<v Speaker 6>There's been so many times, and even on the documentary
<v Speaker 6>Boom he gets.
<v Speaker 13>Shot in the fucking mouth, he got there, got that
<v Speaker 13>bacteria in his leg and die there. Those are just
<v Speaker 13>two quick ones, and I bet I would come up
<v Speaker 13>with more more ways than there were attempts on killing
<v Speaker 13>Fidel Castro, and.
<v Speaker 2>No one probably get.
<v Speaker 6>So many.
<v Speaker 13>I mean I pulled him out of the swimming pool
<v Speaker 13>when he when he was could have drun. He didn't
<v Speaker 13>even know how to swim right and and but and
<v Speaker 13>this wasn't a sou mad days too, which made it
<v Speaker 13>even harder. But he would stand with his back to
<v Speaker 13>the pool on the edge and he would jump backwards
<v Speaker 13>and catch himself with his fingers on the side to
<v Speaker 13>get wet and just pull himself right back out so
<v Speaker 13>he could lay in the sun. Sometimes his fingers would
<v Speaker 13>slip and he didn't have a plan B.
<v Speaker 3>He didn't have a plan B.
<v Speaker 2>Plan B.
<v Speaker 1>A lap fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows
<v Speaker 1>the boys need their candy. It's the Lampsed Fan. He's
<v Speaker 1>the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn Seo
<v Speaker 1>MJP Sorrow.
<v Speaker 8>I think that can definitely be said about Terry Sabu Bronk,
<v Speaker 8>who are going to take a good solid look at
<v Speaker 8>here in our TLF tribute to Sabu, we do want
<v Speaker 8>to remind folks that there is no shortage of ways
<v Speaker 8>to access this show ad free and everything else we
<v Speaker 8>do in a very white glove fashion at Patreon dot
<v Speaker 8>com slash the Lapsed Fan. We know when we do
<v Speaker 8>these tributes to giants in the industry, we get a
<v Speaker 8>lot of people listening in for the first time. So, Boss,
<v Speaker 8>there's a little something called under the cinemat that I
<v Speaker 8>want to remind folks lists for your executive producer, TI,
<v Speaker 8>your dollar and above. But before we get into the
<v Speaker 8>latest offering, which is in all Timer, I think if
<v Speaker 8>the feedback is any indication, why don't you tell folks
<v Speaker 8>how they would already know the story of where Sabu
<v Speaker 8>got his name if they listened to the cinema that
<v Speaker 8>you know that that is the thing if you uh,
<v Speaker 8>you know, in case you don't know, but you can
<v Speaker 8>learn about it, you can learn about it. But the
<v Speaker 8>Sabu's name, he took it as an homage to his
<v Speaker 8>uncle's the Sheikh's favorite actor whose name was Sabu.
<v Speaker 2>And Sabo was uh. He was a he was a
<v Speaker 2>fairly big movie star, you know, kind of a young
<v Speaker 2>actor and stuff. And he he started in a number
<v Speaker 2>of movies, one of them that we we watched under
<v Speaker 2>the cinement Black Narcissist. It's a classic film, beautiful film,
<v Speaker 2>and yeah, that was that's that's where he took the name.
<v Speaker 2>He took the name as a as an homage to
<v Speaker 2>to the sheikhs. Fandom of of Sabu was sab like
<v Speaker 2>a character actor. What was his deal? I think it
<v Speaker 2>was gonna be a leading man type. Uh, you know, honestly,
<v Speaker 2>it's funny. I forget the whole the whole thing we did.
<v Speaker 2>We did cover his history in the uh In in
<v Speaker 2>that episode. But you know, he was he was an actor,
<v Speaker 2>you know, he was. He was young. I mean he
<v Speaker 2>died young too, He died before he was forty. But
<v Speaker 2>he had a uh you know, one of his big
<v Speaker 2>movies was The Thief of Baghdad. They had some crazy
<v Speaker 2>ass special effects and you know, he had a kind
<v Speaker 2>of a decent career, you know, not great, not bad,
<v Speaker 2>but when we were watching, he was kind of at
<v Speaker 2>his at his peak. And uh but yeah, he died
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen sixty four. Yeah, but a number of you know,
<v Speaker 2>with a number of movies. Again, I would say the
<v Speaker 2>ones that I knew the most A Thief of Baghdad
<v Speaker 2>and then Black Narcissist and.
<v Speaker 8>You know, chic but despite being a Lebanese man, you know,
<v Speaker 8>would would portray himself as being from Saudi Arabia or
<v Speaker 8>right or the Arab nations, and Sabu would come along
<v Speaker 8>and even though everyone knew he was the nephew of
<v Speaker 8>the Chik. He would portray himself as being from India
<v Speaker 8>for the most part, Bombay India. They'd also, yeah, because
<v Speaker 8>Sabu was an Indian guy, wasn't he?
<v Speaker 2>Or was he Middle East? The act? Yeah he was,
<v Speaker 2>he was uh India, Yeah, Indian, he was Indian, right,
<v Speaker 2>he was from uh. God, it's a Karapura, Mysore, Kingdom
<v Speaker 2>of Mysore, British India. That the words right current day,
<v Speaker 2>that the words right out of my mouth exactly current day, Kamataka,
<v Speaker 2>India got it. And so he would represent himself as
<v Speaker 2>you know, Indian, but also Saudi Arabian. And there were
<v Speaker 2>there were times in Saba's career where he was introduced
<v Speaker 2>from Saudi Arabia. There was also a time when he
<v Speaker 2>was introduced from Bombay, Michigan. In E.
<v Speaker 8>CW and I believe Lisa's book, he says that was
<v Speaker 8>because you know, people were getting him to the fact
<v Speaker 8>that he actually could speak English. He wasn't right, you know,
<v Speaker 8>they'd hear them call spots or just make utterances in
<v Speaker 8>the ring and things like that. And there was I
<v Speaker 8>think a handful of times where he said a word
<v Speaker 8>or two on an ECW promo back then.
<v Speaker 3>But that was it.
<v Speaker 8>And so once it became kind of a laughing thing
<v Speaker 8>that he was actually from an international jurisdiction. They just
<v Speaker 8>said he was from Bombay, Michigan, which doesn't exist. Really funny,
<v Speaker 8>but it became kind of a like a wink wing
<v Speaker 8>nudge nudge thing. But yeah, that's that's one of the
<v Speaker 8>beauties of under the cinemat. You know, there are these
<v Speaker 8>there are these stories, there are these wrestlers who are
<v Speaker 8>involved in these movies, or there are these characters in
<v Speaker 8>movies that inspire future gimmicks.
<v Speaker 2>Exactly, and and uh uh, you know, one of the
<v Speaker 2>it was it was funny. I actually didn't know that
<v Speaker 2>know that until I just was like, it's a weird name.
<v Speaker 2>It's a weird name. And I remember what was funny
<v Speaker 2>is that I knew of the wrestler Saboo before I
<v Speaker 2>knew of the actor Saboo. And I was like, what
<v Speaker 2>you know, So I go see a movie. I want
<v Speaker 2>to go see Black Nurissis when I lived in Los Ange,
<v Speaker 2>of US and I did not know the movie at all.
<v Speaker 2>I'd never heard of it before, but my friend encouraged
<v Speaker 2>me to go see it, and I go there and
<v Speaker 2>all of a sudden, I see that Saboo is in
<v Speaker 2>the movie, and I'm like, what the fuck he was
<v Speaker 2>alive back then? Help? Come on, he's that old. You know,
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know. I did not I'd never heard that
<v Speaker 2>name except for the wrestler, and of course it wasn't him,
<v Speaker 2>like I thought, maybe he was like a tiny little
<v Speaker 2>kid in the movie. You know, I had no clue.
<v Speaker 2>But then you know, as ye know, as we started
<v Speaker 2>under the Cinemat, I was like, you know, that name
<v Speaker 2>seems kind of like that there's something weird there. It's
<v Speaker 2>not a common name. You know, you don't hear that
<v Speaker 2>name very often, Saboo, at least in that kind of prominence.
<v Speaker 2>And so then I just decided to look it up
<v Speaker 2>and then boom, there it was. So you know, uh, Saboo,
<v Speaker 2>the actors entire filmography, his entire you know, a library
<v Speaker 2>of film work is qualifies for under the Cinema.
<v Speaker 8>Yes, you must qualify. Even if we have to scratch
<v Speaker 8>and claw to review movies that we so desperately want
<v Speaker 8>to and we don't even know if there's a wrestler
<v Speaker 8>or wrestling involvement, well we'll find it well on earth
<v Speaker 8>that if it exists especially with the Solar system rooting
<v Speaker 8>for us as well, the smartest fans and all of
<v Speaker 8>podcasting going out there rooting out connections as well. But yeah,
<v Speaker 8>that was that was great in that we were able
<v Speaker 8>to kind of trace what the word Sabou would have
<v Speaker 8>meant to culture Before Terry Bunk became a pro wrestler,
<v Speaker 8>and originally he was called in the earliest days breaking
<v Speaker 8>in in the Indies, after being trained by his uncle,
<v Speaker 8>he was called Terry SR. And no one really knew
<v Speaker 8>what SR meant, including Sabu. Some speculated it stood for
<v Speaker 8>like sheikh's revenge or Sheik's relative or something. But I
<v Speaker 8>don't think anybody really knows if he doesn't what was
<v Speaker 8>meant by that. But yes, so that is that is
<v Speaker 8>the etymology, if you will, of the name Sabou. And
<v Speaker 8>that was a great connection that was found there for
<v Speaker 8>the all time class film Spotlight.
<v Speaker 2>Oh boy, Yes, indeed, not.
<v Speaker 8>Only did you find a connection, but we brought that
<v Speaker 8>one across the finish line by finding the connection and
<v Speaker 8>interviewing him at length, tell him about it.
<v Speaker 11>You know.
<v Speaker 2>So, I have been aware of this connection for a
<v Speaker 2>while and I wanted to put Spotlight under the Cinemat before,
<v Speaker 2>but I really could not find any information on the guy.
<v Speaker 2>And that's always been a thing I like to bring
<v Speaker 2>at least something. I want to bring at least a
<v Speaker 2>tiny bit of something if I can't find anything. And
<v Speaker 2>usually I'm able to find stuff digging really really deep
<v Speaker 2>in newspaper or newspaper archives or on ancestry, but sometimes,
<v Speaker 2>you know, it's their wrestling career is just not necessarily
<v Speaker 2>something that's that's going to make press to be written,
<v Speaker 2>you know, and it isn't. And this guy, Glenn was
<v Speaker 2>a referee, and you know, then I found him on Facebook.
<v Speaker 2>We had a bunch of mutual friends, and so I
<v Speaker 2>felt comfortable reaching out and saying, hey, you know, would
<v Speaker 2>you want to talk to us? And then he came
<v Speaker 2>on and we had a great, great conversation and uh
<v Speaker 2>and uh, you know, he he helped us understand even
<v Speaker 2>more why Spotlight qualified for under the Cinemat. Ladies and gentlemen,
<v Speaker 2>Glenn Caine is what you're trying to say, Yes, Glenn Jacobs,
<v Speaker 2>Kane Glenn again, Glenn, don't call me Jacob's Kane.
<v Speaker 8>Not Glenn Kane Jacobs, but Glenn Jacob.
<v Speaker 2>Glenn William Glenn William Kane.
<v Speaker 8>Who was an independent referee in and around the Northeast
<v Speaker 8>and uh and makes an appearance in Spotlight as kind
<v Speaker 8>of a background player during a key scene at Fenway
<v Speaker 8>Park where the reporters are arranged in a row talking
<v Speaker 8>about their investigation and what an epic it was, hours
<v Speaker 8>and hours talking about one of the mediest and most
<v Speaker 8>consequential subjects we've ever covered here in the main feed
<v Speaker 8>at TLF or under the cinemat for that mass doesn't
<v Speaker 8>get much weight here than the clergy sex abuse scan
<v Speaker 8>and and.
<v Speaker 2>And also you know that, and then also it being uh,
<v Speaker 2>you know, a homegrown movie for us being from New England,
<v Speaker 2>that's right kind of connection. It's always it's always great
<v Speaker 2>when we're able to bring to bring mat to it.
<v Speaker 3>Yep.
<v Speaker 8>Friends of Eddie Coyle was another Boston movie that exactly
<v Speaker 8>we're desperate to find a connection for and never thought
<v Speaker 8>it would happen. And man, did you find somebody there?
<v Speaker 14>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>And you know, and he's got he gives us quite
<v Speaker 2>a few more too, a few more gems that I
<v Speaker 2>can't wait to throw on you.
<v Speaker 8>So under the cinemat highest recommendation, as we uh meld
<v Speaker 8>the worlds of wrestling and movies, kind of in a
<v Speaker 8>reverse format of what you hear here with the boss
<v Speaker 8>man in the host seat running point as a lifelong cinephile,
<v Speaker 8>and man do we do we get onto a lot
<v Speaker 8>of different stuff on that episode.
<v Speaker 3>It's one for the ages.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, oh my, it absolutely is. I mean it's it's
<v Speaker 2>and it's great to be able to because we also have,
<v Speaker 2>you know, for that one, those who aren't who haven't
<v Speaker 2>listened yet, or who aren't on the eptier or above.
<v Speaker 2>It's also that all happened while Jack and I were
<v Speaker 2>first getting acquainted. Yes, sure each other in college. That's
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of a personal history too. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>there's a lot, there's a lot there, and and yeah
<v Speaker 2>it was it was, I mean as much fun as
<v Speaker 2>it can be. I mean, fortunately, I'm I wasn't really
<v Speaker 2>looking too much into the actual yeah, the actual you know,
<v Speaker 2>story of the of the the priests. I was looking
<v Speaker 2>more into as the movie as the movie doesn't know
<v Speaker 2>there the movie is about the trade craft right exactly exactly,
<v Speaker 2>so it wasn't necessarily too difficult to to dive into.
<v Speaker 2>But uh, you know, it certainly brings up a lot
<v Speaker 2>of you know, just a tough, tough, tough time.
<v Speaker 8>At a time of great transition for the church as well. Exactly,
<v Speaker 8>so do check it out if you want to get acquainted.
<v Speaker 8>Spotlight available now under the cinemat for your Patreon dollar botline.
<v Speaker 8>That's right, good article, good greattic guys. Great article, guys.
<v Speaker 8>I couldn't agree more and we thank her for that.
<v Speaker 2>This is so amazing.
<v Speaker 8>Of course, the tip top most rock solid tier is
<v Speaker 8>our Moat tier, which is god yeah, very uh. It's
<v Speaker 8>rich for a lot of folks blood, but for those
<v Speaker 8>who can ride or die with us, we deeply, deeply
<v Speaker 8>appreciate their support. And among the many things they get
<v Speaker 8>in exchange for that support is wrestling Mamia, where the
<v Speaker 8>boss Man takes it back to the living room carpet
<v Speaker 8>watching with your mom in the room, wrestling on the
<v Speaker 8>TV and let the commentary flow.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, you know she uh, it's it's really,
<v Speaker 2>it's truly a wonder to sit there and and and
<v Speaker 2>watch wrestling and and you know, watch wasn't that she
<v Speaker 2>never really would have watched either, but watch it and
<v Speaker 2>letting her kind of soak it in with a very
<v Speaker 2>you know naive. Oh you got to hear her on
<v Speaker 2>easy w Oh god, yeah, it's. I mean when she
<v Speaker 2>there's it's it's it's great because there every time we
<v Speaker 2>watch NCW match, it usually ends with I'm okay if
<v Speaker 2>we never see one of those, and then we do.
<v Speaker 8>She's confused enough by the rules as they are in
<v Speaker 8>traditional matches, but when they're using weapons with no consequence,
<v Speaker 8>she blows her.
<v Speaker 2>Mind when she you know, it's great when when someone
<v Speaker 2>is lying on their stomach on the mat and nobody
<v Speaker 2>you know, the other the person's opponent is somewhere else,
<v Speaker 2>and my mom, well, why isn't the referee counting right? Well, mom,
<v Speaker 2>the the guy's not on his back and the guy
<v Speaker 2>has to cover from what do you?
<v Speaker 15>What do you what?
<v Speaker 8>She doesn't she doesn't know. The shoulders have to be down.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, mommy, have to cut the shoulders have to be
<v Speaker 2>down on the mat.
<v Speaker 8>Oh, it's it's And then she forgets it on the
<v Speaker 8>next one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she does.
<v Speaker 8>So really recapture the innocence. That's a big part of
<v Speaker 8>what we do here. I will say, by the time
<v Speaker 8>this drops, I it's not just matches too. Sometimes it's
<v Speaker 8>moments and you know, angles on the TV shows and
<v Speaker 8>I showed her the angle where Dusty Rhodes challenged the
<v Speaker 8>Road Warriors and he got the spike in the eye. Yes,
<v Speaker 8>that's that's that's what people would have That's what motors
<v Speaker 8>would have gotten. What you miss about wrestling is still
<v Speaker 8>alive at wrestle Mamia because they're out there in the wild,
<v Speaker 8>people of a certain vintage who didn't get smart about
<v Speaker 8>the business when everybody else did, and still look at
<v Speaker 8>it as you hand to hand combat with a befuddling
<v Speaker 8>set of rules and an even more befuddling set of ethics.
<v Speaker 8>So do check it out for your Patreon dollar, and
<v Speaker 8>of course you're a monthly or even more so lately
<v Speaker 8>ww the premium live calls where we watch modern WWE
<v Speaker 8>so you don't have to Yes, the grownup fest continues.
<v Speaker 8>Recently took in Backlash Sina versus Orton available now for you,
<v Speaker 8>so a ton of value at patreon dot com. Slash
<v Speaker 8>the lapsed fan, the engine that makes it worth doing
<v Speaker 8>the show honestly, and the spark of life behind the
<v Speaker 8>whole thing. A great byproduct of what we do is
<v Speaker 8>that we've got a lot of ton of smart listeners
<v Speaker 8>who are enterprising in their own right and produce all
<v Speaker 8>manner of media in response to the path that we
<v Speaker 8>illuminate for them, and no further than at the tip
<v Speaker 8>top of that list are our pals, Gabe and Blake
<v Speaker 8>over at the Whole Ballgame podcast, and we're obliged to
<v Speaker 8>let you know that The Whole Ball Game takes a
<v Speaker 8>lapsed approach to the game of professional baseball, digging deeply
<v Speaker 8>into the archives of games from days gone by and
<v Speaker 8>just having a fucking blast with it and the way
<v Speaker 8>your co chairman do highest rec mandation and our friends
<v Speaker 8>at the Whole Ball Game want you to know it's
<v Speaker 8>no sacred cows over there as well.
<v Speaker 13>Boss.
<v Speaker 2>I like that.
<v Speaker 8>It's a lesson you've all learned, right, yep, unlesson you've
<v Speaker 8>all learned sitting at them.
<v Speaker 2>M I'm not afraid to say that I think is an.
<v Speaker 8>Idiot, especially when you know that's what when when the
<v Speaker 8>temperature is highest around saying the opposite, you know, in
<v Speaker 8>the in the wrestling community.
<v Speaker 2>I know, but you know again, I'm here to be
<v Speaker 2>proven wrong. I'm here to change my mind. Yeah, but
<v Speaker 2>it's part of the fun of it. Yeah, you lay
<v Speaker 2>down where you're at and we'll see if it changes.
<v Speaker 2>You know, people are watching with great interest. If if
<v Speaker 2>Jacob Fattu could ever change your mind, for instance, good luck.
<v Speaker 2>I I all the best to him. I hope he
<v Speaker 2>I hope he can. But he's a he's a he's
<v Speaker 2>a fucking idiot too, and he's not going to make
<v Speaker 2>it as much nearly as far as as as people.
<v Speaker 8>Think, we actually laid down the gauntlet. I was trying
<v Speaker 8>to find a way to kind of make it concrete
<v Speaker 8>enough that you could actually like take bets on it. Yes,
<v Speaker 8>and I think we agreed that you're willing to say
<v Speaker 8>that Jacob thought too will not make an event, a
<v Speaker 8>pay per view for a world title for how long?
<v Speaker 16>What was it?
<v Speaker 2>I mean at least I'll say, I'll say, wrestle wrestle
<v Speaker 2>you of next year, yeah, okay? Or two years? Maybe
<v Speaker 2>it was two years. I think that's a better bet.
<v Speaker 2>Two years, yeah, right, I mean I think even if
<v Speaker 2>halfway through the year, yeah, no, no, yeah, he's not
<v Speaker 2>going to make an event. He's not gonna I'll tell
<v Speaker 2>you what. He may have made an event for a
<v Speaker 2>world title, he's not going to win a world title.
<v Speaker 2>Say that. There's the call the boss in DEXes he's
<v Speaker 2>not going to be winning a world title for at
<v Speaker 2>least two years. And if he doesn't win in two years,
<v Speaker 2>forget it. He's done. Why because what.
<v Speaker 8>About winning a world title means you're done?
<v Speaker 2>No, no, not winning a world title.
<v Speaker 8>Oh, I see, if he fails, you're saying.
<v Speaker 2>I'm saying. I'm saying after two years, he's not going
<v Speaker 2>to win a world title. After that, wek tremendous.
<v Speaker 8>So set your watches to it and we'll see. You know,
<v Speaker 8>you got to give him credit even if he goes
<v Speaker 8>against the grain, he lays it down to be proven wrong,
<v Speaker 8>we'll see.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm I'm listen, I will I will gladly. I
<v Speaker 2>mean listen. Will he Will he be successful? Yes? Will
<v Speaker 2>he be? Will people love him? Yes? I won't. I
<v Speaker 2>don't think I will. Uh, I'm again, I'm I'm I'm
<v Speaker 2>glad to be turned, but thus far I have not been.
<v Speaker 3>We wait with a bated breath.
<v Speaker 8>But with our friends at whole ball game, you know
<v Speaker 8>it's a lesson they've learned and you've all learned. Sitting
<v Speaker 8>at the right hand of the kings, call them jesters,
<v Speaker 8>call them what you will. Two of the charter members
<v Speaker 8>of the TLF Solar System have been delving deeper and
<v Speaker 8>deeper into baseball lore from a time when it used
<v Speaker 8>to be better, and now, as they've learned from their forebears,
<v Speaker 8>they understand that catering to the whims of those that
<v Speaker 8>nut up and put their cheddar on the table, we'll
<v Speaker 8>get them far further than two forty five a day.
<v Speaker 2>In ad revenue.
<v Speaker 3>Mm hmm, ain't that's the truth?
<v Speaker 2>And damn right.
<v Speaker 8>Gabe Blake and their cast of characters from baseball's past
<v Speaker 8>welcome you to the whole ballgame. The whole ballgame. Friends
<v Speaker 8>has launched a Patreon three tiers to get exactly what
<v Speaker 8>you need, exactly as often as you need it. Does
<v Speaker 8>all this sound familiar?
<v Speaker 2>Boss?
<v Speaker 15>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>You know they listen you? What do they say? Good? Good,
<v Speaker 2>good good writers?
<v Speaker 8>Borrow great writers, steal indeed, steal, second, steal, third, steal
<v Speaker 8>home if they're feeling they're feeling prickly froggy, And here's
<v Speaker 8>Russell's rules. Here's Russell's rules on that Patreon for ninety
<v Speaker 8>five a month, just like former Big Man baseball pitcher
<v Speaker 8>Rick Ruschel, who happens to live on Gabe's couch as
<v Speaker 8>a seventy five year old man.
<v Speaker 2>Just like here.
<v Speaker 8>If you do that for the Whole Ball Game, you'll
<v Speaker 8>get all of their episodes from the main free feed
<v Speaker 8>add free and here's the Huff stuff. The next tier
<v Speaker 8>is nine to ninety four a month. That's old knuckle
<v Speaker 8>knuckleballer Charlie Huff, who's a rabid wrestling fan like Gabe
<v Speaker 8>and Blake. Get two episodes a month dedicated to the
<v Speaker 8>sport of kings. On that tier, Oh wow, they can
<v Speaker 8>jump up to nineteen ninety four month. That's Harry's Hall
<v Speaker 8>of Famers. The legendary Harry care Harry Carey Sorry and
<v Speaker 8>his time traveling Glasses provide everything from the other tiers offering,
<v Speaker 8>plus another bonus show each month that might not fit
<v Speaker 8>into the other categories. All Hall of Fames will be
<v Speaker 8>entered in a drawing to pick. This is all Hall
<v Speaker 8>of Fame tier members will be entered into a drawing
<v Speaker 8>hoff if you will to pick a ballgame for the
<v Speaker 8>Whole Ballgame treatment, and each month you'll get a signed
<v Speaker 8>card or relic from your favorite TWBG the Whole Ballgame
<v Speaker 8>characters delivered directly to your mailbox. Listen for a freebee
<v Speaker 8>dropping on the TLF feed coming up soon here, folks.
<v Speaker 8>We're gonna give the turn the feed over to them
<v Speaker 8>quickly to give inside and the lapsed pensiant for hero
<v Speaker 8>worship and why it's so dangerous as Blake and Gabe
<v Speaker 8>explore John Stockton and wrestling superstar Carl Malone and how
<v Speaker 8>problematic they truly are.
<v Speaker 2>Ye listen to.
<v Speaker 8>Gabe's heartbreak again and then Gabe calls Dallas Page live
<v Speaker 8>on the air. He doesn't add sir, but he does
<v Speaker 8>call Gate back in that audio is damning. Wow, that
<v Speaker 8>doesn't what the appetite. Okay, it's the whole ballgame, Foxpatreon,
<v Speaker 8>dot com, Slash the whole ballgame, and anywhere you get
<v Speaker 8>your podcasts. Tip of the ball cap to our pals.
<v Speaker 8>It's working beautifully. And as we spectacular circle our attention
<v Speaker 8>back to the homicidal, suicidal, death defying maniac known as Sabu,
<v Speaker 8>we are going to, I would say, orient a little
<v Speaker 8>bit of this first part of the tribute to Sabo.
<v Speaker 8>I'm not sure how long it'll be, how many installments
<v Speaker 8>it'll be. Strike me down if it becomes a sid thing,
<v Speaker 8>that's impossible.
<v Speaker 2>But strike me down if it becomes a thid thing.
<v Speaker 8>I know to say nothing of that, but we're going
<v Speaker 8>to orient this first one around him, getting to the
<v Speaker 8>point that he works his famous SCW Matches series with
<v Speaker 8>Rob van Dam through to the end of nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 8>five and ninety six. Rather and so it's appropriate then
<v Speaker 8>to set the table, considering how intertwined their lives and
<v Speaker 8>careers were and how deep their friendship was, to kind
<v Speaker 8>of orient our understanding of Saboo around RVD, whom he
<v Speaker 8>leaves behind. And here from Sabu's recent book released along
<v Speaker 8>with Kenny Casanova, is the foreword that RVD penned for
<v Speaker 8>Sabu's career retrospective. Sabu was always there for me, even
<v Speaker 8>since day one. Back in December of nineteen eighty nine
<v Speaker 8>was the first time I met Sabu. Our friend Samson,
<v Speaker 8>whom i'd known through bagging groceries, set up the deal
<v Speaker 8>for a tryout. So we were off to Chik's son's
<v Speaker 8>garage in the middle of a cold winter. When I
<v Speaker 8>walked in, I was looking at a wrestling ring that
<v Speaker 8>was cut in half to fit in a mechanic's garage.
<v Speaker 8>It was really weird, something like an eight by sixteen
<v Speaker 8>feet long rectangle chik was there. I was a little
<v Speaker 8>intimidated at first, and then realized that I wasn't going
<v Speaker 8>to be working out with him or anything, but rather
<v Speaker 8>someone else. I didn't know who this hippie was in
<v Speaker 8>the ring with me. Sabu had long hair, bushy like
<v Speaker 8>an afro, almost, and he didn't look at all how
<v Speaker 8>he looks now. He was a lot smaller. I was
<v Speaker 8>smaller too, was a hundred eighty five pounds. I think, well, now,
<v Speaker 8>I'm probably around two thirty five. I didn't want to
<v Speaker 8>be rude and ask the Sheik who this dude was
<v Speaker 8>in the ring with me. I thought, if he was
<v Speaker 8>the one who was going to be training with me,
<v Speaker 8>he must have been someone, right, So I remember I
<v Speaker 8>eyeballed Sabu up and down and tried to figure.
<v Speaker 2>Out just who he was.
<v Speaker 8>At this point, I was just eighteen years old. All
<v Speaker 8>we got for wrestling was WWF on our TV. I
<v Speaker 8>didn't even know there was an independent scene. I looked
<v Speaker 8>at Sabu. I wondered if he was someone who had
<v Speaker 8>had his hair different from Maybe was a guy who
<v Speaker 8>wrestled with a mask on, like mister X or a
<v Speaker 8>conquistador that's hilarious.
<v Speaker 2>Are you a conquistador man?
<v Speaker 8>And yeah, this was this was quite an environ that
<v Speaker 8>the Sheik had set up to train wrestlers. Like I said,
<v Speaker 8>Sabu would really beg his uncle to train him and
<v Speaker 8>kind of got blown off quite a few times in
<v Speaker 8>the initial entreaties. But eventually when he did agree, he
<v Speaker 8>made Sabu basically chop wood for him for like months
<v Speaker 8>before he even showed him a single headlock, before he
<v Speaker 8>even showed him, according to Sabu, where the ring even
<v Speaker 8>was on his property.
<v Speaker 2>Which was that's there. It is. See, this is what
<v Speaker 2>I'm talking about. This is what wrestlers do. This is
<v Speaker 2>what they do. This is this is family annual.
<v Speaker 8>Labor disguised as you know, dues paying.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah exactly, I mean listen, I would gladly. Uh, I'd
<v Speaker 2>do that. I'd do that.
<v Speaker 10>Hey.
<v Speaker 2>You know, well, hey, if you want to learn the
<v Speaker 2>secure of the business, you gotta clean my toilets three
<v Speaker 2>times a week.
<v Speaker 8>Pal let's chop it up if you will. Yeah, yes,
<v Speaker 8>So that strange ring inside.
<v Speaker 2>Of a actually you know what you're gonna do. Actually,
<v Speaker 2>when I take a shot, you're gonna wipe my ass,
<v Speaker 2>all right, that's going to teach you the secrets of
<v Speaker 2>the business.
<v Speaker 8>After a few minutes of following the commands from the
<v Speaker 8>man outside of the ring, already writes it didn't matter
<v Speaker 8>who was in the ring with me. We started training
<v Speaker 8>and we immediately clicked. Saboo, for as long as I
<v Speaker 8>can remember, was always hurting himself because of the crazy
<v Speaker 8>stuff he would try. Maybe that is how he built
<v Speaker 8>up his huge tolerance for pain.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what I do that.
<v Speaker 8>The few of us who trained with him all figured
<v Speaker 8>he wouldn't be happy until he was in a wheelchair.
<v Speaker 8>One time during our training time together, when the Sheik
<v Speaker 8>wasn't around, I remember wanting to work in some crazy
<v Speaker 8>stuff myself. I wanted to learn how to do a jumping,
<v Speaker 8>spinning back kick out of the turn buckle. Saboo knew
<v Speaker 8>I was a kickboxer, so when I told him I
<v Speaker 8>wanted to learn how to do it off the ropes,
<v Speaker 8>the request didn't strike him as weird.
<v Speaker 2>So how do I do it? I asked, Just try it.
<v Speaker 8>Sabu's answer was to just try it, and I didn't
<v Speaker 8>realize it at the time, but there were no rules.
<v Speaker 8>Nobody was doing that kind of shit at the time,
<v Speaker 8>so asking Sabu how to do it wasn't really going
<v Speaker 8>to get me anywhere. I was hesitant, though, because I
<v Speaker 8>didn't want to hurt the Sheik's main guy and get
<v Speaker 8>any heat.
<v Speaker 2>You know. Just try it.
<v Speaker 8>M yeah, but I mean how I haven't done it
<v Speaker 8>before and I don't want to hit it too hard.
<v Speaker 8>Just try it, he said again. I don't like break
<v Speaker 8>your jaw. Well, when you do try it, he said,
<v Speaker 8>just try not to break my jaw. That's really funny.
<v Speaker 8>I laughed at his fearlessness, but he was serious. I
<v Speaker 8>don't know how to pull it. Look, you can do it,
<v Speaker 8>and if it doesn't work at first and you break
<v Speaker 8>my job, we will just have to wait until it heals.
<v Speaker 8>But then he will we will try it again, he said,
<v Speaker 8>you understand. I nodded, right, he said, so he went
<v Speaker 8>over to the corner. We lined the whole thing up.
<v Speaker 8>I jumped a few times up to practice where my
<v Speaker 8>fee were going to land that. I went through the
<v Speaker 8>motions with nobody there. Once I had it figured out,
<v Speaker 8>Sabou stepped right in, offering his face as the target.
<v Speaker 8>I took a breath, I ran up, did my thing
<v Speaker 8>and bang and he was right.
<v Speaker 2>I could do it.
<v Speaker 8>I was all proud of myself for a moment until
<v Speaker 8>I looked down at the mat. After that, Sabo was
<v Speaker 8>eating through a straw for weeks.
<v Speaker 10>Ah.
<v Speaker 8>I should be noted that in recently addressing you know,
<v Speaker 8>Sabo's passing Rvidy, he did say in his podcast that
<v Speaker 8>some of this stuff seemed to be taken a little
<v Speaker 8>too far and exaggerated a little too much as far
<v Speaker 8>as how hard they hit each other in training, and
<v Speaker 8>Arvedy said, you know, because he was a huge fan
<v Speaker 8>of like blood sport and kickboxing and martial arts before
<v Speaker 8>he trained for the ring, that he was trying to
<v Speaker 8>impress the chic, he would show him a lot of
<v Speaker 8>these kicks as well. So this idea that he could
<v Speaker 8>only sneak the kicks in when chic wasn't watching because
<v Speaker 8>he would crack whip on him is probably a bit
<v Speaker 8>of an exaggeration, but we can still have some fun
<v Speaker 8>with it. This was published, after all. I mean, yeah,
<v Speaker 8>I think so now. Just as he said, though he
<v Speaker 8>was a man of his word. It would be another
<v Speaker 8>three weeks before we tried it again. But Sabu was
<v Speaker 8>right there again for me. Once he could chew again,
<v Speaker 8>helping me get the courage to finally do it right.
<v Speaker 8>I owe Sabu for that. Incidentally, that was the same
<v Speaker 8>kick that would eventually knock out Abyss's teeth in TNA.
<v Speaker 8>Another cool Saboo training story I remember illustrating Sabo's superhuman
<v Speaker 8>threshold for pain happened in the summer. We had the
<v Speaker 8>full ring set up outside in the Sheik's backyard when
<v Speaker 8>Sabu came up to me, my uncle isn't around, he said.
<v Speaker 8>I immediately knew what that meant. That was code for
<v Speaker 8>we didn't have to worry about basics and could do
<v Speaker 8>some crazy stuff. Sheik never said this is how you
<v Speaker 8>don't hurt your opponent or this is how you bump
<v Speaker 8>like this. Sheik only wanted to see us working on
<v Speaker 8>the basics when we were training. That meant a little
<v Speaker 8>lock up, go behind, combos, pinfall attempts after every big
<v Speaker 8>move every time. Sabu really emphasized his boss in this
<v Speaker 8>book that sab that Chik would just constantly drill into him.
<v Speaker 8>You have to make it look like you're trying to
<v Speaker 8>win at all times in a wrestling match.
<v Speaker 2>That I appreciate.
<v Speaker 8>So that was there in him. He believed in us,
<v Speaker 8>believing in the sport of it. In a real match,
<v Speaker 8>would you go for the pin? You would go for
<v Speaker 8>the pin rather whenever you could try to win the match.
<v Speaker 8>Right today, I really appreciate him drilling the basics into us. However,
<v Speaker 8>when he would answer the phone, he would immediately jump
<v Speaker 8>up to the top rope. That it's the same when
<v Speaker 8>the sheik would go in the house to answer the phone. See,
<v Speaker 8>I want to practice diving through the ope, Saboo said,
<v Speaker 8>when his uncle was away. Can you stand there in
<v Speaker 8>the grass so I have a target, but move just
<v Speaker 8>before I hit you.
<v Speaker 2>What the fuck?
<v Speaker 8>I asked, Why I want to practice my fall? He said,
<v Speaker 8>I want to dive through the ropes, but land like
<v Speaker 8>flat and open on my ribs like a belly flop. Yeah,
<v Speaker 8>he laughed. The audience will pop because it looked like
<v Speaker 8>it really hurt. But that's because it actually will really hurt,
<v Speaker 8>I said, chuckling back. Are you sure anyhow? Sabou lined
<v Speaker 8>himself up and I got in a position just as
<v Speaker 8>he asked. He bounced off the ropes and I moved
<v Speaker 8>out of the way.
<v Speaker 2>See I can see, I can see like saying that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>oh totally. Oh, what would it really hurt?
<v Speaker 8>Like him, he's kind of like bugging out, like almost
<v Speaker 8>thinks he's too high to like, whoa are you really
<v Speaker 8>saying this man? Whoa bounced off the ropes? Hey, I
<v Speaker 8>moved out of the way last second, less sick and yeah,
<v Speaker 8>let's sick and man. And now he came right at me,
<v Speaker 8>graceful as a swan. He kept himself open and yes,
<v Speaker 8>it looked just like hell, just like he wanted. Splat,
<v Speaker 8>he knocked the wind right out of himself. I told
<v Speaker 8>you so, I told you so, I said, running over
<v Speaker 8>to Saboo, who was gasping for air. As soon as
<v Speaker 8>he caught a breath, he stumped to his feet and
<v Speaker 8>held his rib. Saboo was coughing and probably had a
<v Speaker 8>broken rib. His eyes were watering, and he patted me
<v Speaker 8>on the shoulder. Let's try it again, he said, we
<v Speaker 8>were so stiff, our little crew of God. These are
<v Speaker 8>some other wrestlers that were training at the time, Samson, Dango,
<v Speaker 8>Judge Dread. Some of those would follow them, incidentally to Memphis,
<v Speaker 8>the first territory they worked together out of a Sheik's
<v Speaker 8>training camp and me, we were the only ones that
<v Speaker 8>can handle the beatings. So other guys would come and
<v Speaker 8>hang around a day or two, maybe a week if
<v Speaker 8>they were lucky, but they would all eventually quit because
<v Speaker 8>we were just so stiff. We literally beat the living
<v Speaker 8>shit out of each other until we were dead. And
<v Speaker 8>that's something that Harready kind of takes issue with the
<v Speaker 8>characterization there. But this is supposed to be his forward.
<v Speaker 8>I don't know if he dictated this verbally, Orte wrote
<v Speaker 8>this or signed off on it, but it's kind of
<v Speaker 8>weird to say you mischaracterized my own forward. But that's wrestling.
<v Speaker 8>That's the wrestling books for you. Once we got going,
<v Speaker 8>the first real territory tour I did was for the
<v Speaker 8>USWA and Memphis. I probably only really had twelve matches
<v Speaker 8>or so before this, and I was still really new.
<v Speaker 8>We literally made no money in there, coming up paying
<v Speaker 8>our dues. I remember crashing with Saboo and four or
<v Speaker 8>five other guys in the same small, shitty hotel room.
<v Speaker 8>It was something like twenty eight dollars a night at
<v Speaker 8>the Jefferson Days Hotel in Indiana. What we would do
<v Speaker 8>is move the box spring out from under the bed
<v Speaker 8>and lay them both out on the floor. Then we
<v Speaker 8>would fight over who would get to sleep on the mattress.
<v Speaker 8>Sometimes it was so bad that we would rent space
<v Speaker 8>out to the other workers on the show. That is
<v Speaker 8>how we both met Lance Storm, who is the sleeping
<v Speaker 8>in my room? Sabou said one night, stepping over the
<v Speaker 8>New Canadian. I was like the only baby face in
<v Speaker 8>our crew, and therefore I at least could sell my
<v Speaker 8>pictures to the fans during intermission. But our guys made nothing.
<v Speaker 8>We almost had no money, but Sabo was often the
<v Speaker 8>first to buy us something to eat with the little
<v Speaker 8>bit he had. Sabu was all about survival outside of
<v Speaker 8>the ring and inn. I remember one time in a
<v Speaker 8>barber match in Japan, what really impressed me was Sabo's
<v Speaker 8>impro improvability. No, yeah, improvability. Now I didn't mean in
<v Speaker 8>calling spots in all, which he did, but I mean
<v Speaker 8>his ability to use whatever he had to make the
<v Speaker 8>best out of a bad situation. One time, he got
<v Speaker 8>a massive cut from one of the barbs, but didn't
<v Speaker 8>freak out. He had the wherewithal to see that he
<v Speaker 8>was going to bleed to death, so he just calmly
<v Speaker 8>ripped the athletic tape off of his wrists to close
<v Speaker 8>his arm up to finish the match, He just bit
<v Speaker 8>into the tape with his teeth and re wrapped it
<v Speaker 8>over the wound. How many battles do you have to
<v Speaker 8>have to build up the knowledge do something like this
<v Speaker 8>out of instinct? Speaking of crazy injuries, one time Saboo
<v Speaker 8>went down from a vicious sandman whack on the head.
<v Speaker 8>When he came back to the locker room, Saboo looked
<v Speaker 8>drunker than the bastard that just hit him, and he
<v Speaker 8>didn't yet have anything to drink. He was floating in
<v Speaker 8>and out of consciousness, and it was obvious that he
<v Speaker 8>had a bad concussion. After falling over one too many times.
<v Speaker 8>The medic scooped him up into a gurney and started
<v Speaker 8>to wheel him over to the ambulance. Sabu rolled off. No,
<v Speaker 8>he said to the medics trying to help him, Rob,
<v Speaker 8>don't let them take me. Then, as quickly as he
<v Speaker 8>said that, he went back unconscious. The medics picked him
<v Speaker 8>back up, put him on the stretcher with wheels, and
<v Speaker 8>headed right back en route towards the ambulance. Sabu rolled
<v Speaker 8>off again. No, Rob, he said, calling for me, I said,
<v Speaker 8>don't let them take me. If you can stay awake.
<v Speaker 8>I won't, I said, deal, he said, before immediately closing
<v Speaker 8>his eyes and passing out again. Incidentally, I rode over
<v Speaker 8>to the hospital with him myself that night. I've never
<v Speaker 8>met anyone who loved wrestling as much as Saboo. When
<v Speaker 8>he was making great money and needed the time off,
<v Speaker 8>he didn't want to slow down even one bit for
<v Speaker 8>a little break. He would continue to take bookings even
<v Speaker 8>when ECW was off for a weekend, when everybody else
<v Speaker 8>was resting. He was amazing in that way. Sabou and
<v Speaker 8>I are the last of the old school. It is
<v Speaker 8>a whole different thing today.
<v Speaker 3>Today.
<v Speaker 8>If the curtain got jerked open, people would think the
<v Speaker 8>wrestlers were all friends and that we love each other.
<v Speaker 8>But where we came from, it wasn't like that. When
<v Speaker 8>Sabo and I would go to Japan, there was always
<v Speaker 8>a lot of crazy stuff going on. You could say
<v Speaker 8>that wrestling was supposed to be fake, but back in
<v Speaker 8>the day, especially over in Japan, there was a lot
<v Speaker 8>of brutal competitive shit going on in the ring every night.
<v Speaker 8>If we were working one of those trademark clusterfuck Japanese
<v Speaker 8>tag matches with massive teams Saboo and I would stand
<v Speaker 8>out on the apron waiting for our turns and figure
<v Speaker 8>out how to throw their own competitive crap right back
<v Speaker 8>at them. We would just talk about blowing up guys
<v Speaker 8>and not tagging in to stay away from certain guys
<v Speaker 8>on the other side, we're having the same conversation about us.
<v Speaker 8>Saboo didn't give a shit, and that was what I
<v Speaker 8>love about him. When he had to, he would treat
<v Speaker 8>it real. Another time in ECW, we were to show
<v Speaker 8>in Boston. We were very old school, as you know,
<v Speaker 8>and k fabe was still a very big thing. It's
<v Speaker 8>not like now where everyone and their mom take lessons.
<v Speaker 8>Back then, we didn't let just anyone come in the
<v Speaker 8>locker room. My mom did take lesson that's true. Admittance
<v Speaker 8>was only on a need to be their basis. Outsiders
<v Speaker 8>could expose the business. Anyhow, we were talking about out
<v Speaker 8>our match when all of a sudden, a concession guy
<v Speaker 8>who worked for the hall excused himself and walked right
<v Speaker 8>between our little discussion circle. Who the fuck was that,
<v Speaker 8>Sabu said, pissed his hell. He ignored the offense the
<v Speaker 8>first time. The offense the first time, but the second
<v Speaker 8>time the Vender took a short cut through our dressing room.
<v Speaker 8>Sabo was right there to give him the business fuck
<v Speaker 8>you hot dog man go around while he was trying
<v Speaker 8>to pop the boys, he was serious at the same time,
<v Speaker 8>and that he didn't want him coming through there. That's
<v Speaker 8>the thing about Sabu I've noticed, like whenever he gets
<v Speaker 8>to the point where it seems like he's kind of
<v Speaker 8>wigging out and actually threatening somebody, he seemed to always
<v Speaker 8>do it in a way where you could kind of
<v Speaker 8>interpret it as a joke as well. Like he threatened
<v Speaker 8>like stab Ric Flair in the balls with a pencil,
<v Speaker 8>and it's like, it's so ridiculous that, like it's a
<v Speaker 8>way to threaten somebody without actually threatening them, do you
<v Speaker 8>know what I mean? Yeah, I know, And he's he
<v Speaker 8>was just nuts enough that he didn't know because he
<v Speaker 8>was nice in the back, so when he went there,
<v Speaker 8>it kind of had to be with like this kind
<v Speaker 8>of pretense of silliness too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 8>that's that's that's a lot there and a guy who
<v Speaker 8>doesn't to talk like that.
<v Speaker 2>It's funny too, right.
<v Speaker 8>We went back to discussing the show until the third
<v Speaker 8>time he came through still not taking the hint, Sabu
<v Speaker 8>politely excused himself from our conversation and pushed him out
<v Speaker 8>the door, returning like nothing had happened. Finally, however, Sabu
<v Speaker 8>had enough. On the final short cut event, Sabou smacked
<v Speaker 8>the vendor tray right out of his hands and the
<v Speaker 8>boy went running. Saboo shrugged, unwrapped the foil in one
<v Speaker 8>of the warm hot dogs, and started eating it. Saboo,
<v Speaker 8>I can picture eating hot dogs. That's all I'm gonna say, yes,
<v Speaker 8>oh yeah, oh my god, no condiments, just like grabs
<v Speaker 8>it and wolves it down in two bikes.
<v Speaker 17>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>The La Fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows
<v Speaker 1>the boys need their candy. It's the Lampsed Fan. He's
<v Speaker 1>a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Jpro.
<v Speaker 2>Listen. You know this this, you know, I can I
<v Speaker 2>can see him, you know, in some kind of like
<v Speaker 2>catering line, you know, and they got one of those
<v Speaker 2>big bins of hot dogs in the water, and it's
<v Speaker 2>like he'll just like take five and just hohm on
<v Speaker 2>a plate with five buns and just go sit down
<v Speaker 2>and just scarf him down.
<v Speaker 8>And that's like all he wants to eat all day,
<v Speaker 8>you know, trying to save on food. You know, Sabu
<v Speaker 8>was like the leader of the pack. Being on the
<v Speaker 8>road with him was like camping with your family as
<v Speaker 8>a kid. Once he got his Winnebago, we would drive
<v Speaker 8>until we couldn't drive anymore and stop at like a Walmart.
<v Speaker 8>Then we would sit in lawn chairs and get some
<v Speaker 8>son in the parking lot. Wow, I invite you to
<v Speaker 8>get her Sabo and Rob.
<v Speaker 2>Van Dam and the E. C. W.
<v Speaker 8>Day's sonning in a Walmart parking lot.
<v Speaker 2>Just I'm perfect. It's like I think of poly walnuts
<v Speaker 2>and sopranos with the the reflective panel that he put
<v Speaker 2>underneath his very much so Jesus.
<v Speaker 8>Then we would sit in lunchairs. Yes, it was funny
<v Speaker 8>to see him cook in the little redneck kitchenette, fully
<v Speaker 8>dressed in gimmick. That mobile home was a monster. Imagine
<v Speaker 8>him preparing like a like a chicken dish, you know.
<v Speaker 8>Oh yeah, you guys, you guys want mango salsa. Oh,
<v Speaker 8>that mobile home is a monster. I don't know how
<v Speaker 8>many fethers I imagine.
<v Speaker 2>I also I imagine like making like he's in this
<v Speaker 2>in this mobile home and he but he makes like
<v Speaker 2>a crazy amount of like gourmet food, you.
<v Speaker 8>Know, like like perfect like right Syrian like bread.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly, you know, like just absolutely perfect, you know,
<v Speaker 2>just well made tabuli like middle right tabuli, and and
<v Speaker 2>and some some some rock kibba. The grape leaves are
<v Speaker 2>coming out exactly exactly, leaves are coming out hot middle
<v Speaker 2>Eastern chicken, you know, just fresh off the grill to
<v Speaker 2>up the ass. Oh, it's all like but it's all
<v Speaker 2>cooked on like an electric grill and some exactly it's
<v Speaker 2>all right, it's exactly, it's it's all. It's all like
<v Speaker 2>you know, making dew and but it's all this. It
<v Speaker 2>looks absolutely exquisite love that he makes, like fucking shwarma.
<v Speaker 8>He makes these perfect dishes and he puts them on
<v Speaker 8>paper plates, you know, not even not even.
<v Speaker 2>But he still but he still decorates it like you know,
<v Speaker 2>he might put like through like a line of sauce
<v Speaker 2>around the edge, a drizzle exactly, a couple of drops
<v Speaker 2>of whatever.
<v Speaker 8>It's funny to see him cook in the little redneck kitchenette.
<v Speaker 2>Yes it was.
<v Speaker 8>Bubble Home is a monster. I don't know how many
<v Speaker 8>fenders we pulled off of cars. Squeezing down the little
<v Speaker 8>skinny streets of Queens. Can you imagine, Oh my god,
<v Speaker 8>driving a Winnebago to a shot in the heart of man.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, so stressed me. If they're I mean,
<v Speaker 2>if they're in I mean, but if they're in queensbody
<v Speaker 2>he said, Queens.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, they used to work the Elk's Lodge and Queens
<v Speaker 8>all the time.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, I don't know where the Elk's Lodge is,
<v Speaker 2>but I'll tell you it's the streets and Queens. They're
<v Speaker 2>not they're not forgiving, right, all right, they're they're they're tight.
<v Speaker 8>Not only did sat Tight Boo teach me firsthand how
<v Speaker 8>to wrestle, but he also taught me the ways of
<v Speaker 8>the industry. This included a lot. When I first got
<v Speaker 8>to E. C W, he said those guys were the shits,
<v Speaker 8>and these guys are good. I took that as a
<v Speaker 8>fact before I eventually learned how to analyze the talent
<v Speaker 8>better and eventually learned he was right when I say
<v Speaker 8>Saboo showed me the ways of the business. I don't
<v Speaker 8>mean just like etiquette or how to protect the business,
<v Speaker 8>but actually how to handle myself in the business. My
<v Speaker 8>business itself. Saboo taught me my value. If it wasn't
<v Speaker 8>for him telling me I was better than everyone else
<v Speaker 8>and that we run another level, I wouldn't have known
<v Speaker 8>and probably would have settled for peanuts like everyone else.
<v Speaker 8>He taught me insight that I wouldn't have without him,
<v Speaker 8>and even went to ask for more money, which is
<v Speaker 8>so funny because one of the big things that was
<v Speaker 8>a mark against Saboo was he never really asked for
<v Speaker 8>the big money that he probably could have gotten paid.
<v Speaker 8>He was almost too bashful, even when he was negotiating
<v Speaker 8>for WCW in nineteen ninety five to ask for more
<v Speaker 8>than like the standard five hundred bucks. He was already
<v Speaker 8>getting to the point that they thought that they'd basically
<v Speaker 8>secured him for five hundred bucks a shot, and that
<v Speaker 8>there need to be no follow up conversations around an
<v Speaker 8>actual contract. He was just like you know, he would
<v Speaker 8>he would admit it. He was just too bashful to
<v Speaker 8>ask for for a lot of money. But I guess
<v Speaker 8>that wasn't something he instilled in every d I mean, it's.
<v Speaker 2>Hard, you know, but you gotta I mean, can get
<v Speaker 2>then get a representative man. Yeah, he's something so that
<v Speaker 2>you have someone negotiating for you, because that's just rough,
<v Speaker 2>fucking rough.
<v Speaker 8>Became He became acquainted with with a valet later who
<v Speaker 8>he would become his girlfriend, who would do.
<v Speaker 3>A lot of that.
<v Speaker 8>Mosta coats for him. But that's sort of like in
<v Speaker 8>the convention legend circuit days, you know, not not so
<v Speaker 8>much as prime. How long has it been since you
<v Speaker 8>asked for a raise? He asked me after I really
<v Speaker 8>started to take off in ECW. After I answered, he
<v Speaker 8>would say, ask for another, but but it doesn't matter,
<v Speaker 8>ask for another. He seriously is the most generous man
<v Speaker 8>I've ever met, as far as legitimately wanting to help
<v Speaker 8>out other people RVD rights. Sabu even taught me real
<v Speaker 8>life things about being a man. Sabu changed the business.
<v Speaker 8>If you've seen ECW or Japanese wrestling, you know he
<v Speaker 8>has left his mark.
<v Speaker 2>I think the most I need I need to know
<v Speaker 2>more about what he did to make you more of
<v Speaker 2>a man or of a man. Yeah, that's what I needed.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the more of that. Very day, you're you're
<v Speaker 2>you're you're short changing me here.
<v Speaker 8>I think that's probably something to do with knowing when
<v Speaker 8>to tell someone to fuck off. That's probably what he
<v Speaker 8>means by that. I think that most wrestlers will all
<v Speaker 8>agree with this. Taking a lead from the Sheikh's bold ways,
<v Speaker 8>Sabou found a way to also be original in his
<v Speaker 8>own way and how to always strive to be different.
<v Speaker 8>He is the originator of so much in the innovator
<v Speaker 8>of being innovative like that. Yeah, they didn't talk about
<v Speaker 8>innovation and wrestling so much until he started doing some
<v Speaker 8>wacky shit.
<v Speaker 2>I can I can't understand that, and and just and
<v Speaker 2>I'm listen. I do find he's very clever with with
<v Speaker 2>many things, and you know, like jumping off of chairs
<v Speaker 2>and ship like that.
<v Speaker 9>I just.
<v Speaker 2>H he's a fucking idiot, you know, Like, I just
<v Speaker 2>don't understand the the appeal of of of again, of
<v Speaker 2>sacrificing your body for what, right for what?
<v Speaker 8>It's really so that A we've been in the A
<v Speaker 8>CW Arena. Can you picture that place with no ac
<v Speaker 8>before renovation, packed wall to wall with Philly wrestling fans, sweating, stinking, screaming,
<v Speaker 8>demanding sacrifice.
<v Speaker 2>Smelling like you know, cheese steaks and pork sandwiches, all right,
<v Speaker 2>like pork and vegetables on the on the ground, you know,
<v Speaker 2>stepped on you know, like just fucking melded into the
<v Speaker 2>floor of the of the building.
<v Speaker 8>And what do they want out of their They want sabu.
<v Speaker 8>They until they don't by the way, but we'll get.
<v Speaker 2>There, right. They want somebody for some reason, they want
<v Speaker 2>somebody to jump in a way that could kill them
<v Speaker 2>for their entertainment. Well, I mean, you don't have to
<v Speaker 2>do that.
<v Speaker 8>There are plenty of guys that made huge impacts in
<v Speaker 8>ECW the Guerrero's, Mulinko's Mysterios, Juventudes, Benoa's Scorpios that didn't
<v Speaker 8>do that.
<v Speaker 2>But can you imagine how much more popular they would
<v Speaker 2>have been had they tried to kill themselves on interesting mess.
<v Speaker 8>It's it's something to think about. It's something to think about.
<v Speaker 8>Taking a lead from the Sheik's bold ways, Sabo found
<v Speaker 8>a way to also be originals own way. Yes, he's
<v Speaker 8>the originator of so much in the innovator of being innovative.
<v Speaker 8>There are a lot of imitators who try to copy him,
<v Speaker 8>but he is the first fandam rights. He is the
<v Speaker 8>ogist of the ogs and still loves the business more
<v Speaker 8>than anyone today, no matter where he is. Right now,
<v Speaker 8>I know that he wishes he was in the ring
<v Speaker 8>if he is not RVD.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, in.
<v Speaker 8>In that forward he mentioned sab getting shot in the face.
<v Speaker 2>Doesn't he like you do? Like you do? Like he did?
<v Speaker 8>Okay, Here's the thing that I think tells us so
<v Speaker 8>much about Sabou getting shot in the face. Happened before
<v Speaker 8>he ever gotten into the wrestling business. It's before he
<v Speaker 8>was a pro wrestler. This was kind of the life
<v Speaker 8>he was living, the crew he was running with, the
<v Speaker 8>circles he was approaching before finally the Sheik agreed to
<v Speaker 8>train him for the wrestling ring. And I've shared with
<v Speaker 8>you a piece that thankfully verifies that this in fact
<v Speaker 8>took place. Because it's such a wild story the way
<v Speaker 8>he describes it in his book that you almost wonder
<v Speaker 8>how much of it might be fictionalized, or if it
<v Speaker 8>even happened. But indeed, your boys pulled the following clip
<v Speaker 8>and I've emailed it to you if you can share
<v Speaker 8>it from the Lancing State Journal. Of course, Lancing, Michigan
<v Speaker 8>got it. Lancing, Michigan was where the Sheik had his
<v Speaker 8>his Mance or some some township around there, and he
<v Speaker 8>was very much, very very much a Lancing family and
<v Speaker 8>Rob Mandam actually was going to go train with Killer
<v Speaker 8>Kowalski in Boston to be a pro wrestler before while
<v Speaker 8>he realized in one of the kind of the happenstance
<v Speaker 8>conversations at the grocery store he worked at that he
<v Speaker 8>mentioned that there was actually a wrestling school forty five
<v Speaker 8>minutes from where he was living in Michigan that he
<v Speaker 8>never knew anything about. You imagine he could have been
<v Speaker 8>the next Triple H. Could have been the next triple
<v Speaker 8>he could he could have been Triple H. He probably thought,
<v Speaker 8>because he was Rob Skokowski, a polock, that uh, Killer
<v Speaker 8>give some prough rastial treatment.
<v Speaker 2>Heye, sure he would, you know, for some reason. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know why. I don't know. I don't know what
<v Speaker 2>Killer Kowalsk sounds like. But you know the voice I
<v Speaker 2>picture now in my mind, the the the old guy
<v Speaker 2>who hosts the kids TV show before Robin Williams and
<v Speaker 2>Missus doubtfires if very much, honey, He was always like that,
<v Speaker 2>I prefer I prefer the guy from from Missus dout
<v Speaker 2>fire steph fire.
<v Speaker 3>Well we haven't.
<v Speaker 8>It hasn't stopped us before, and and so yes, it
<v Speaker 8>was upon learning that the chic even had a school.
<v Speaker 8>It's important remember too, when SAB was breaking in early nineties,
<v Speaker 8>you couldn't just look up a wrestling school in your area.
<v Speaker 8>You couldn't google it. First of all, I think they
<v Speaker 8>used to sell like a super secret directory of wrestling schools,
<v Speaker 8>Like if you sent money to a self addressed and
<v Speaker 8>a self address stamped envelope certain adresses, they would advertise
<v Speaker 8>that in the magazine. It was like Larry Sharp school,
<v Speaker 8>a Monster Factory was known. There was like two or
<v Speaker 8>three others. People knew Kowalski had a school. People knew,
<v Speaker 8>of course Johnny Rods had a school in I think
<v Speaker 8>Brooklyn or the Bronx, And it was really that was
<v Speaker 8>about I mean, I don't think that it was very
<v Speaker 8>easy to find out if you were from a part
<v Speaker 8>of the country that wasn't like a wrestling hub where
<v Speaker 8>you could get trained. And I don't think that the
<v Speaker 8>schools necessarily wanted to advertise that behind these doors, you're
<v Speaker 8>learning how to pretend pro wrestle, you know. M That's
<v Speaker 8>kind of what he was saying, is that, you know,
<v Speaker 8>people didn't just get into the business. You had to
<v Speaker 8>be kind of ushered in. You had to someone had
<v Speaker 8>to open the side door for you. And even then
<v Speaker 8>they wouldn't explain it all to you one day, one
<v Speaker 8>how many times?
<v Speaker 3>Boss?
<v Speaker 2>If we, oh God heard the stories, It's like they
<v Speaker 2>explained to you all right before they finished the match.
<v Speaker 8>Right exactly. They actually let you go into your first
<v Speaker 8>match thinking it might be real.
<v Speaker 2>It's fake. It's fake. Right here, it's fake.
<v Speaker 8>Right here, they lock up, the guy pulls the headlock
<v Speaker 8>and goes right, son, it's fake.
<v Speaker 2>Just so you know, follow my lead, follow my lead
<v Speaker 2>right exactly as he's got you in a hold, by
<v Speaker 2>the way, like you know, if you they could be
<v Speaker 2>it could be fucking fucking with you to beat the
<v Speaker 2>shit out of you.
<v Speaker 8>Doesn't it make so much sense that the reason Saboo
<v Speaker 8>never feared the physical consequence of the risks he took
<v Speaker 8>in the wrestling ring was because he survived taking a bullet.
<v Speaker 2>Through the jaw. Ah. That's fucking nuts in.
<v Speaker 8>A confrontation at a party in Michigan. And when you
<v Speaker 8>come back from that, I'm not sure a table or
<v Speaker 8>a chair or a string of barbed wire is all
<v Speaker 8>that intimidating. So we'll enter our understanding of Sabou's life
<v Speaker 8>and times in the wrestling business by starting with this
<v Speaker 8>raw material. This is an article from the Lancing State Journal,
<v Speaker 8>published June thirteenth, nineteen eighty three. It's a short one,
<v Speaker 8>but it serves as documentation that this indeed went down.
<v Speaker 2>That's all you need. Two persons were left with a
<v Speaker 2>gunshot wounds, and a third man is in jail today
<v Speaker 2>after an early Sunday morning argument in the eight hundred
<v Speaker 2>block of Cross Street. Lansing police had the shootings occurred. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>I'm shootings, dude.
<v Speaker 8>Not only is Sheik's nephew getting into the bus business,
<v Speaker 8>but he's involved in shooting already. Brother, Brother, that's like
<v Speaker 8>a little early dude, didn't teach her work.
<v Speaker 2>First with it? Is he shooting on me? Dude? My
<v Speaker 2>brother am mine Lancing Dude?
<v Speaker 3>Is he is he mad that I went over iron
<v Speaker 3>cheek and iron cheek was.
<v Speaker 2>Bigger than he was? What is he coming from me?
<v Speaker 8>Next?
<v Speaker 2>Brother? He said, decent and relatives and fucking whack me brothers.
<v Speaker 8>Someone said he has the pencil behind dude. Someone said
<v Speaker 8>he had the pencil.
<v Speaker 3>Brother.
<v Speaker 8>Somebody's booking not exactly Terry brother for Vince, does he
<v Speaker 8>have the pencil for Vince. I heard he used to
<v Speaker 8>be tied to Vince Senior.
<v Speaker 2>Brother.
<v Speaker 8>I heard at one point Vince Senior basically the Vince
<v Speaker 8>Junior called Chik his babysitter at one point because Vince
<v Speaker 8>Senior entrusted so much oversight of Vince Junior the sheep.
<v Speaker 2>Dude, brother, he's tied Vince, Dude, I mean Vince the
<v Speaker 2>time the belt a brother, I mean.
<v Speaker 3>Wasn't Chik's first.
<v Speaker 8>Wait a minute, brother, all right, well fine, do you
<v Speaker 8>want me to say, all right? You want me to
<v Speaker 8>calm down?
<v Speaker 3>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>That's fine.
<v Speaker 8>All I need to do is a little bit of
<v Speaker 8>background check, and I'm sure it's all a bunch of paranoia.
<v Speaker 8>All I needed know I need to know is what
<v Speaker 8>is Shek's nephew's first name?
<v Speaker 2>You ey mm hmm. It's Terry, Terry Terry what brother,
<v Speaker 2>Terry Brount, Terry trying to work, Terry Bronk Hogan, Terry
<v Speaker 2>Bronk Hogan, Terry funk brother. I mean, that guy has
<v Speaker 2>it out from me since Japan. Dude, are you trying
<v Speaker 2>to funk with me? Terry Bronk?
<v Speaker 14>Brother?
<v Speaker 3>What do you think of some kind of game?
<v Speaker 14>Dude?
<v Speaker 2>We see he's a t B. I'm a TV dude.
<v Speaker 2>I live in Tampa Bay. I'm Terry Blair brother t
<v Speaker 2>B D. You know he determined. What else is to
<v Speaker 2>be determined to finish is dying? Brother? Right? Terry s R?
<v Speaker 3>Like what could that mean?
<v Speaker 2>Brother? Terry wa't Terry seth rawlins?
<v Speaker 14>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>He says that when she's breaking in, I understand. I
<v Speaker 2>gotta brother. I just want to kind of get this
<v Speaker 2>all laid out and find dude. All right, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know what it is, is brother.
<v Speaker 3>Any bullshit trying to hitting camera? Hide the ball.
<v Speaker 8>Let's let's say Terry. Let's say Terry bronk to see
<v Speaker 8>his reaction. Dude, that's not funny.
<v Speaker 2>Want to see. I just want to understand, brother, who's
<v Speaker 2>he shooting on? Dude? Who's shooting on him? And how's
<v Speaker 2>it getting back to me? Brother? Where am I at?
<v Speaker 3>Where am I at?
<v Speaker 1>You?
<v Speaker 2>Someone else? Where he's at? Where are you at? Where
<v Speaker 2>am I at? My Michigan? Dude?
<v Speaker 8>You're gonna telling me his name is Terry? That's really
<v Speaker 8>what you're saying.
<v Speaker 2>I thought I thought I was in Tampa, Dude? Am
<v Speaker 2>I in Michigan?
<v Speaker 5>Right?
<v Speaker 2>I got you see there are two Terryes out there, Brother,
<v Speaker 2>I mean there's I'm a brother.
<v Speaker 8>I know there's other Terries, but you're telling me coincidentally.
<v Speaker 8>This guy I'm extremely concerned about his also name Terry.
<v Speaker 2>Brother. I mean, mm hmm, guy, ask you something, Dude,
<v Speaker 2>who's he been talking to? Chic? Who's Kolowski? Who's gonna go?
<v Speaker 2>Wait a minute? Who's wait? Dude? Are you saying brother?
<v Speaker 8>They Are you telling me that Terry SR. Stands for
<v Speaker 8>Terry Special Recon?
<v Speaker 2>Mm hmmm? What are you saying this Total special recon? Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Are you saying that Terry Brown is doing total special
<v Speaker 2>reconn on hul Coogan in Tampa Bay but in Michigan
<v Speaker 2>at the same time? Brother, I don't know mean my house? Okay?
<v Speaker 2>That mean have been Pontiac brother, Michigan. Dude, do you
<v Speaker 2>see the connection? I sink action Terry Brook tink Hi
<v Speaker 2>my spot? What is Terry Brooke? Sam Andre right?
<v Speaker 14>Right?
<v Speaker 8>I mean that isn't look you want me to ask
<v Speaker 8>it directly? All right, don't worry about it, Terry.
<v Speaker 2>Just here.
<v Speaker 8>Look, if you're worried about where, if you're worried about
<v Speaker 8>where you're going, pretend this is ninety six. Look, we
<v Speaker 8>just came out with this new video game. It's hot
<v Speaker 8>off the presses w W versus the world, your front
<v Speaker 8>and center would staying you couldn't be more well pushed.
<v Speaker 8>You know, it's very clear from the game that you're
<v Speaker 8>not losing your spot anywhere. He loads up the menu
<v Speaker 8>and he comes upon the icon of David Harley, which
<v Speaker 8>is the fake name of Saboo in the game.
<v Speaker 2>What do you do? I why you said this was
<v Speaker 2>my game? Dude, David? Why is the other Terry in this? Brother?
<v Speaker 3>David Harley?
<v Speaker 2>I know who's David Harley? Tell me with me, dude,
<v Speaker 2>I know exactly who this guy is. Dude, I don't
<v Speaker 2>where he is. Brother, I know what's going on. Why
<v Speaker 2>is David Harley come from my ass to wrestlers.
<v Speaker 8>In history of threatn to shoot on Hulk Hogan, Dude
<v Speaker 8>one was Terry Frock in Japan and eighty three one
<v Speaker 8>was Harley raised when I broke in, brother ire to
<v Speaker 8>tell me his name is Terry Brunk and David Harley, Dude,
<v Speaker 8>signal from that brother?
<v Speaker 2>What I need to know? Dude? Okay? Brother, whose idea
<v Speaker 2>was it to basically say he's my motorcycle brother would say,
<v Speaker 2>I've been riding Terry Bronk all these years, Dude? Is
<v Speaker 2>that we tell me? Brother? H? Is he here? H?
<v Speaker 2>You said he's here?
<v Speaker 14>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>I mean does Terry s R stand for Terry security Risk? Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Waits the security risk? Right? Which TERR? Are we talking about? Dude?
<v Speaker 2>Bron Yah?
<v Speaker 15>I can the Bronk.
<v Speaker 2>I can feel here, Dude, here right now? Brother?
<v Speaker 3>What is this is?
<v Speaker 17>This?
<v Speaker 2>Is this?
<v Speaker 3>Is this a Bronk house stampede?
<v Speaker 2>Dude? What women do? Wait a minute? Do whoa whoaa?
<v Speaker 2>We got Donalds thing back in?
<v Speaker 10>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Are we sure? Dude? Are we sure about bronkhouse buck? Dude?
<v Speaker 2>Do we have confirmation that is bronkhouse Bok Dude? Not
<v Speaker 2>Terry bron Brother, Terry Bronkhouse, Terry, Terry Fronk Bronkhauser, Brother, Terry.
<v Speaker 2>What were you the bron Funk connection, dude? At so
<v Speaker 2>many Terry's yes.
<v Speaker 8>Some Some refer to the famous August ninety seven Born
<v Speaker 8>to Be Wired match as the Bronk Funk Connection because
<v Speaker 8>they were tied together in strands of barbed wire like
<v Speaker 8>so many peas in a pod. People tell me I'm paranoid, brother,
<v Speaker 8>and then you tell me his first name is Terry,
<v Speaker 8>his last name's Brounk, and then in the video game
<v Speaker 8>he's David Harley, and I'm supposed to just brush that off.
<v Speaker 2>Dude, we're talking about trying to Terry's dude, right, trouble
<v Speaker 2>Terry madg brother? What where did Cheek's sister get off
<v Speaker 2>naming him Terry? I want no dude, who allowed other
<v Speaker 2>people to be named Terry? Dude? I don't allow that. Brother.
<v Speaker 3>Is that a Terry claw?
<v Speaker 2>Specifically? Is that a Terry cloth on his head? Dude?
<v Speaker 2>I have a Terry clause in my contract before you,
<v Speaker 2>right before you get the wrong idea, Please please continue
<v Speaker 2>with this. Lancing Police Dispatch Jesus Christy all from shootings
<v Speaker 2>Lancing Police at the shooting has occurred about twelve fifty
<v Speaker 2>one Sunday after the third man brother, Dude, I haven't
<v Speaker 2>even read that forehead, honestly, I really hadn't. Uh fired
<v Speaker 2>into a large crowd gathered during an open house at
<v Speaker 2>UH eight one to nine Cross Chris Cross. Brother, we're
<v Speaker 2>talking to Warrior now too, Dude. The gunman pulled a
<v Speaker 2>pistol from his sock, witnesses told police, and fired five
<v Speaker 2>or six shots into the air and grounded into the crowd.
<v Speaker 2>At least two bullets struck to two victims, police said.
<v Speaker 2>One victim, Terry Brunk, nineteen of seven to three three
<v Speaker 2>West Linawe Street, was listed in fair condition at Saint
<v Speaker 2>Lawrence's Hospital today. He was shot in the mouth, police said.
<v Speaker 2>The other, Richard Garcia, twenty eight, of Lake Odessa, shot
<v Speaker 2>once in the hip, was treated at Sparrow Hospital and released.
<v Speaker 2>Police arrested arrested Frederick Hick twenty seven of eight one
<v Speaker 2>four Cross Street and booked him into city jail while
<v Speaker 2>they seek warrants in this incident.
<v Speaker 8>I wonder if he knows about Sabo passing away. I
<v Speaker 8>wonder if he knows that the guy he shot was
<v Speaker 8>went to be Saboo, because he talks in his book
<v Speaker 8>about going to the trial and mean dogging him mad
<v Speaker 8>dog and the guy and the guy showing no remorse.
<v Speaker 8>It was some kind of like party in his neighborhood
<v Speaker 8>where like they had set up a party and these
<v Speaker 8>guys showed up and like almost invited themselves, and then
<v Speaker 8>it got out of hand and someone got shot, and
<v Speaker 8>Sabu was like pushing his way through to try to
<v Speaker 8>find the gunman ended up in a tussle, and I
<v Speaker 8>think he got shot in the face while like on
<v Speaker 8>top of the gunman, not knowing he had a second gun.
<v Speaker 8>The guy, apparently, according to Saboo, dropped the first gun,
<v Speaker 8>and while he was tussling with him, thinking it was
<v Speaker 8>safe to just you know, engage in hand to hand
<v Speaker 8>combat or at least relatively safe, the second gun was
<v Speaker 8>produced and got him right in the fucking mouth from
<v Speaker 8>the bottom. Jesus, the way he describes, like the roof
<v Speaker 8>of his mouth collapsing and just like the combination of
<v Speaker 8>bullet shards and metal in his mouth. It's amazing, it's disgusting.
<v Speaker 8>He should have died. He should have died. The guy
<v Speaker 8>was trying to kill him, clearly. And that's that's how
<v Speaker 8>life begins for nineteen year old Terry Brunk. And we've heard,
<v Speaker 8>you know, his ascendency in the business described as you know,
<v Speaker 8>the shekh deciding that I really need to get my
<v Speaker 8>nephew out of this path that he's on, you know,
<v Speaker 8>and if training him for the ring is the way
<v Speaker 8>to channel his his free time, then then so be it.
<v Speaker 8>Even if I don't think the wrestling business is necessarily
<v Speaker 8>the best for him, and there he is Sabu on
<v Speaker 8>his way and he would break in with with RVD,
<v Speaker 8>of course, and they would go up and down the
<v Speaker 8>roads together. And now boss, so folks know at home,
<v Speaker 8>we're gonna be watching along with several key matches along
<v Speaker 8>the way, and we're going to start with our first one.
<v Speaker 2>Here, go ahead. I want to say so, just you know,
<v Speaker 2>I found something interesting here about you know, you mentioned
<v Speaker 2>the crazy glue thing. Oh yeah, before, like there's a
<v Speaker 2>whole he I don't know. I just happened to find
<v Speaker 2>this thing as you were as you were talking, and
<v Speaker 2>it's an article about him and the crazy glue. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if you'd had it or not, but I've
<v Speaker 2>got some stuff. Talk about it if you want to
<v Speaker 2>go with it, okay, I no, no, I know if
<v Speaker 2>you're going to talk about it later, I don't want
<v Speaker 2>to talk about it. But it's just wild. Like I
<v Speaker 2>was just I can't believe this ship that he did.
<v Speaker 2>It was legit. He was just he was the one
<v Speaker 2>thing I said. He said he founded on mcguiver. It's
<v Speaker 2>what he says, that's exactly right.
<v Speaker 8>He he he ended up gluing the cut after a
<v Speaker 8>Barbara match in Japan, I think it was. And his
<v Speaker 8>uncle was very against going to the hospital and drilled
<v Speaker 8>that into him, and he said that he saw it.
<v Speaker 8>He thought he saw it on like a documentary, like
<v Speaker 8>a World War II documentary, but soldiers in the battlefield
<v Speaker 8>trying to close up wounds. And then it became very
<v Speaker 8>clear that no, you're actually thinking of mcguiver. It just
<v Speaker 8>happened in an episode.
<v Speaker 2>Of Oh My God and barely.
<v Speaker 8>It's you know, if you're not gonna if you refuse
<v Speaker 8>to get stitches and you want the bleeding to stop,
<v Speaker 8>it's it does close.
<v Speaker 2>It does close the cut I mean, I mean, I
<v Speaker 2>am imagine. I guess it does. It's just wild shit, man,
<v Speaker 2>like I just that's that's insane. Like I was, you know,
<v Speaker 2>as you mentioned it before, and I was like like
<v Speaker 2>what what but and the narrative was right there, like literally,
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even mean to I didn't think. I didn't
<v Speaker 2>think that there would be a Terry Brunk if I
<v Speaker 2>searched Terry Brunk and crazy Glue, that something would come up.
<v Speaker 3>Oh really with his first real first name.
<v Speaker 2>I did, I did? I did that Just fucking wild,
<v Speaker 2>But I do.
<v Speaker 8>I mean think about it, like, if you survive that,
<v Speaker 8>you know, oh yeah, you're a different person visa V
<v Speaker 8>risk going forward. Yes, you can't tell someone nothing that's
<v Speaker 8>been shot in the face and come back from.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, oh yeah, no, no, no, you really can't.
<v Speaker 2>I I can. You're going to do what you want
<v Speaker 2>to do. So whether you know again I whether I
<v Speaker 2>agree with it or not, doesn't matter. You're gonna do
<v Speaker 2>what you're gonna do. And that I brother, sorry to
<v Speaker 2>shoot on you there. So uh.
<v Speaker 3>So this is our first offering.
<v Speaker 2>Boss.
<v Speaker 8>If you're a you up there, yes, you can find
<v Speaker 8>this one on YouTube. This is Saboo versus Rob van
<v Speaker 8>Dam before Rob van Dam was Rob van Dam. Wow
<v Speaker 8>Wrestling is Rob Sakowski, Rob Zakowski's Wild Jerry Jarrett and
<v Speaker 8>Jeff Jared's us w A with Lawler was the first
<v Speaker 8>territory that they worked. This from nineteen ninety one, and
<v Speaker 8>we're going to get a glimpse of I don't know
<v Speaker 8>that kind of give and take in Chik's backyard that
<v Speaker 8>RVD was describing without without weapons yet you know, this
<v Speaker 8>is pre Saboo discovering that if he smashed a table,
<v Speaker 8>people completely lost their fucking minds, and here we go
<v Speaker 8>earliest Saboo and the link between Saboo and RVD established
<v Speaker 8>in the ring as well as outside of it. Here
<v Speaker 8>we go do a three two one play.
<v Speaker 3>Look at him.
<v Speaker 8>Wow, he is going to get that puffy hair out
<v Speaker 8>of the ring where they called him sam they did.
<v Speaker 8>I first called him Samuel, all right, and he was barefoot.
<v Speaker 8>See that efforts?
<v Speaker 10>Ye?
<v Speaker 8>Do you see that it does have the pants, does
<v Speaker 8>have the look already dialed in with the white waistband
<v Speaker 8>and the tape leaps leaps. I mean that is I
<v Speaker 8>can't believe it's Rob van dam You know, he looks
<v Speaker 8>like the brother and missus doubt fire. It's so sad,
<v Speaker 8>but would always do the thing where he'd look up
<v Speaker 8>at the ceiling. There's a voice talking to him. Yeah,
<v Speaker 8>it's kind of like the chic. You know, we're supposed
<v Speaker 8>to be hearing voices that we're telling him. That's what
<v Speaker 8>the point is all about, pretty much. Yeah, I didn't
<v Speaker 8>know that. I didn't know that.
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was like praising Allah or something.
<v Speaker 8>That's kind of it's kind of that, Okay, it the
<v Speaker 8>boots or the feet if you would to Van Dam
<v Speaker 8>on a failed leg dive the whip vandam it's.
<v Speaker 3>A nice dropkick.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, nice dropkick.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, have a studio setting here, w MC TV at
<v Speaker 8>Memphis break down.
<v Speaker 17>And.
<v Speaker 2>That's being generous in the studio setting. Oh yeah, stop
<v Speaker 2>right there.
<v Speaker 1>He keeps at the light grid before he.
<v Speaker 2>Understands pointing at the light grid. I'm not sure he
<v Speaker 2>understands what's going on.
<v Speaker 8>As far as the television sides. At one point, I
<v Speaker 8>don't know if someone had said that. At one point,
<v Speaker 8>I think Rob Dam said this. He jumped and hit
<v Speaker 8>the light by mistake and pointed up at it, and
<v Speaker 8>then he decided to go with that whenever something unexpected happened. Dragon,
<v Speaker 8>this is like solid fundamental stuff here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is this is going and what ninety one
<v Speaker 2>this is? I mean, it's very.
<v Speaker 3>It's still action packed in ninety one.
<v Speaker 2>I was also going to say it's very like it
<v Speaker 2>actually feels much more mid to late nineties in terms
<v Speaker 2>of the speed and the action and stuff took r
<v Speaker 2>v D off his feet. That's something like it's very
<v Speaker 2>fast paced. I was not expecting that.
<v Speaker 8>As far as drop by sab each other, I was
<v Speaker 8>going to take off the middle rope. He dropped nice
<v Speaker 8>rolled through, choking him out. Now, I was just in
<v Speaker 8>baby blue trunks and boots.
<v Speaker 2>No, uh, I've never seen r VD not wear you
<v Speaker 2>know the onesie right.
<v Speaker 8>I think of where we were in ninety one, you know,
<v Speaker 8>and this is happening. Oh I know, yep, get ready
<v Speaker 8>for Summersland in ninety one exactly.
<v Speaker 2>And now still stumbling on wrestling every now and again,
<v Speaker 2>wondering how to find it regularly exactly.
<v Speaker 8>This seems like the kind of match I would see
<v Speaker 8>on ESPN when I didn't know wrestling was on.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yes, a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>I would you know, before before I had a ring,
<v Speaker 2>I would go outside with my has bros. We had
<v Speaker 2>a tree stump, move outside and that would be my ring. Wow,
<v Speaker 2>I used the tree stump as a ring.
<v Speaker 8>Nice backslide, rolled way too far and that was like
<v Speaker 8>they're still there's still rough around the edges. Yeah, picked
<v Speaker 8>up fundamentals, a strong punches, look good that.
<v Speaker 9>Wrap.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna say, I don't know, I don't know what
<v Speaker 2>if they were in a university yet, but I would
<v Speaker 2>say those educated feeder at least an a P class
<v Speaker 2>full display. Yea, they're getting ready to take the s
<v Speaker 2>A T S.
<v Speaker 8>And he sends to the corner of flying back, running
<v Speaker 8>back elbow by Saboo.
<v Speaker 7>Again.
<v Speaker 3>Wow, the way this is a corner charge and collapse.
<v Speaker 2>What's gonna do? What's he gonna do? What's he gonna do?
<v Speaker 8>Oh oh, Judge Dread one of the guys that trip
<v Speaker 8>them off the roape. Sabo covers with this field the
<v Speaker 8>bottom rope two three. Sabo steals the wind and he
<v Speaker 8>points high And it's crazy. He was doing that from
<v Speaker 8>day one.
<v Speaker 2>That is wild, I mean, and he had to look
<v Speaker 2>and everything. That's pretty wild.
<v Speaker 3>How perfectly dialed in.
<v Speaker 8>I mean, he did have his absolute earliest matches to
<v Speaker 8>straight trunks and boots. Yeah, from what I heard, it
<v Speaker 8>kind of looks like it's described like what Harvey ds.
<v Speaker 1>Maury ready to leap down on Sam.
<v Speaker 2>Judge Dread shoved him and that was that.
<v Speaker 12>Sam also used the rope robway soon, which occurred this
<v Speaker 12>past week.
<v Speaker 8>We can we can pause this. They're they're showing Jeff
<v Speaker 8>chart robber. Yeah, I do play it because that actually
<v Speaker 8>does involve. Saboo teams with Judge Dread against Ron Fuller,
<v Speaker 8>the Tennessee Stead and Jeff Cherrett in nineteen ninety one,
<v Speaker 8>as they pitched from the studio to it a mid
<v Speaker 8>South coliseum match. I think it was Hey, look at
<v Speaker 8>Samu look at him. Yeah, it was Powder Missus hits
<v Speaker 8>Judge dread in.
<v Speaker 2>The foul.
<v Speaker 8>And you can see actually glimpses of because everyone says
<v Speaker 8>Memphis is what inspired the CW hardcore style in the
<v Speaker 8>earliest days. And here's that chair swinging craziness.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I mean, I can definitely say what they're
<v Speaker 2>talking about because I mean you think about the Moon Dogs,
<v Speaker 2>yes and stuff like that, how violent they were. I
<v Speaker 2>mean totally Jeff Jarrett swinging that chair man.
<v Speaker 8>Like a old school territorial baby face finally getting his yep, yep,
<v Speaker 8>jure Jeff Jared just clonking Saboo. Pretty wild thing that
<v Speaker 8>Jarrett cross paths with Saboo as early as ninety one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's insane.
<v Speaker 8>And of course Jerry Lawler are part of the outfit then,
<v Speaker 8>and Jerry Lawler would be the key foil for Saboo
<v Speaker 8>when they entered, you know, put together w w F
<v Speaker 8>and ECW in ninety seven. He is familiar with Saboo
<v Speaker 8>all the way back then. Big d d T by
<v Speaker 8>Jarrett jumping DDT plants Saboo jump ahead, whipped to the corner. Yep,
<v Speaker 8>it's pretty dynamic. Jarrett and Saboo for nine one.
<v Speaker 2>Look at that Jesus Christ.
<v Speaker 3>Like slam.
<v Speaker 8>Saboos climbing the ropes inside of a steel cage. By
<v Speaker 8>the way, Oh yeah, oh yeah. Fuller up behind knocks
<v Speaker 8>Sabo off the ropes. He front flips double suplex. Have
<v Speaker 8>the baby faces rock Saboo going for the double DDT
<v Speaker 8>now yes, Oh, Sabo takes it beautifully. Wow, plants on
<v Speaker 8>the top of his head. Now they're bringing it home.
<v Speaker 8>Judge dread getting beaten on by Fuller while Jarrett climbs
<v Speaker 8>the ropes with the steel chair. Get the Chared Jesus
<v Speaker 8>it comes.
<v Speaker 2>His hair is maniacal. Jared's Wow full fluff. How about
<v Speaker 2>them for some slap nuts.
<v Speaker 8>Top rope chair shot to the head on Dredd and
<v Speaker 8>a one two three for Jeff Jarrett old school heat.
<v Speaker 2>Jared and Fuller are handling Judge.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they probably should have been there.
<v Speaker 1>It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast, the wrestling podcast that
<v Speaker 1>knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
<v Speaker 1>He's The Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast with Jack and JP Soro.
<v Speaker 8>So that little ECW interregnum makes me think that it's
<v Speaker 8>from some kind of ECWU tape and I'm not sure
<v Speaker 8>about that. Maybe they played that on EASTWTV at one
<v Speaker 8>point to build up the match that I'm ignorant of.
<v Speaker 8>But it's from July sixth, nineteen ninety one. So impressions
<v Speaker 8>on the earliest Saboo you can find on tape.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, listen, I appreciate that he's working a very
<v Speaker 2>fast paced style for the age for nineteen ninety one.
<v Speaker 2>It's great, It's really good. Honestly, not what I was expecting.
<v Speaker 8>It's something people don't necessarily know about Sabu because that
<v Speaker 8>wasn't his calling card. But he could do he could
<v Speaker 8>do matches that would not be you know, scoffed at
<v Speaker 8>by a more traditional approaches.
<v Speaker 2>I can appreciate that. I can definitely appreciate that.
<v Speaker 8>And Eddie Gilbert, as another you know, student of Memphis
<v Speaker 8>Wrestling through and through, would of course be essentially the
<v Speaker 8>first booker that Todd Gordon would hire an E and
<v Speaker 8>would you know he would he would transport a lot
<v Speaker 8>of that style, that ethic, that approach to ECW. So
<v Speaker 8>it really made a lot of sense for Sabu because
<v Speaker 8>he was already steeped in the same circuit and approach
<v Speaker 8>and style that Eddie Gilbert brought over to ECW in
<v Speaker 8>its earliest extreme days. Now when Paul comes along and
<v Speaker 8>gets a lot more influence, he goes even further in
<v Speaker 8>that direction where it's like, let's just throw out psychology
<v Speaker 8>and everything and let's just let people go as nuts
<v Speaker 8>as they can to blow the people away, and that'll
<v Speaker 8>become our calling card. But it wasn't long before the
<v Speaker 8>Sheik gets a call to go over for Anita, as
<v Speaker 8>we mentioned at the top of the show, to help uh,
<v Speaker 8>you know, let it light a spark if you will,
<v Speaker 8>over at FMW in Japan. Sheik brings his nephew, who
<v Speaker 8>was kind of an unknown quantity, but it was it
<v Speaker 8>was his idea to bring him there to help him
<v Speaker 8>on the road and to give him some exposure as well.
<v Speaker 8>And it's in this environment where suddenly Sabu realizes that
<v Speaker 8>there's such a thing as these death matches and you know,
<v Speaker 8>barb wire and tables and all of these other accouterments
<v Speaker 8>that he could do quite a bit with. And really
<v Speaker 8>the table is the thing, you know, the table is
<v Speaker 8>what he uniquely brought to the table. There'd been pile
<v Speaker 8>drivers through tables in Memphis, which is probably.
<v Speaker 2>Where he picked it up.
<v Speaker 8>Honestly, he doesn't really remember the first time he saw
<v Speaker 8>someone go through a table, but or at least he
<v Speaker 8>doesn't talk about it in particular, but it probably was
<v Speaker 8>knowing that it happened in Memphis. Like there's footage of
<v Speaker 8>Randy Savage pile driving Ricky Morton through a table at
<v Speaker 8>ringside in Memphis.
<v Speaker 2>Wow. Stuff like that.
<v Speaker 8>Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk bashed each other into tables
<v Speaker 8>and their legendary Memphis feud, And here in his book,
<v Speaker 8>Sabo talks about all this. I had seen wrestlers go
<v Speaker 8>through tables before and had always got a great response.
<v Speaker 8>In the past, however, you would only see wrestler doing
<v Speaker 8>a pile driver or throwing their opponent through it. But
<v Speaker 8>the very first time I did a table spot in Japan,
<v Speaker 8>I needed it to be different. I wanted to incorporate
<v Speaker 8>tables and all of my matches because I wanted them
<v Speaker 8>to be my sick So the first time I used
<v Speaker 8>the table, I did a moon salt onto a person
<v Speaker 8>who was lying on it. As far as guy's going
<v Speaker 8>through tables and matches as part of my character. Most
<v Speaker 8>people credit me as being the first to do so.
<v Speaker 8>Back then, you couldn't just reach under the ring and
<v Speaker 8>pull one out. There weren't any under there because that
<v Speaker 8>idea didn't exist yet. That's a weird idea. By the way,
<v Speaker 8>when I pulled a table out from under the ring
<v Speaker 8>to use it, it was because the promoter was paying
<v Speaker 8>me to use it that way. That isn't the best setup,
<v Speaker 8>in my opinion. Today, ringside tables are under the ring.
<v Speaker 8>Extra chairs are under the ring, but that seems kind
<v Speaker 8>of obvious to me. This idea is not natural, and
<v Speaker 8>it is not how it started out. When I first
<v Speaker 8>started working tables into all my matches in FMW, I
<v Speaker 8>only broke the table because it happened to be at
<v Speaker 8>ringside and he's so nuts, he's grabbing anything he can
<v Speaker 8>get his hands on. It wasn't so convoluted. Is I
<v Speaker 8>got to bring a table to the ring because we
<v Speaker 8>want to do table spots. That's where it That's where
<v Speaker 8>the style loses a lot of people that have a
<v Speaker 8>traditional mindset about wrestling. It's like, yeah, it's one thing
<v Speaker 8>that incorporated the table because it's there and the action's
<v Speaker 8>getting out of hand and you just start using your
<v Speaker 8>environment to try to kill the guy you're wrestling. Yeah,
<v Speaker 8>it's another to just grab the table and bring it
<v Speaker 8>into the ring and set it up and everyone waits,
<v Speaker 8>you know. And Sabu was of the more traditional mentality
<v Speaker 8>about that. Even though he was he came to be
<v Speaker 8>known as like the flag bearer for just gratuitously using
<v Speaker 8>tables without any psychology, which is really weird because he
<v Speaker 8>didn't believe in it that way. I used it, he says,
<v Speaker 8>because it was right there and made itself available. I
<v Speaker 8>didn't want it to look like I had predetermined a
<v Speaker 8>spot where I wanted to break a table and then
<v Speaker 8>go looking for a stack waiting for me being stored
<v Speaker 8>under the ring. I mean, why would there even be
<v Speaker 8>a stack of tables under the ring? Other than that,
<v Speaker 8>why would a ladder.
<v Speaker 3>End up in under the ring?
<v Speaker 8>It's not impossible, but it's stupid. You try to make
<v Speaker 8>sense of why that would even be done. Now, I
<v Speaker 8>do it today's matches because that's what promoters want me
<v Speaker 8>to do. Anyhow, at FMW, I used the timekeeper's table.
<v Speaker 8>At first, I chose to flip onto my opponent outside
<v Speaker 8>the ring, lying there and use the impact of my
<v Speaker 8>own body as the weapon. That made the most sense
<v Speaker 8>and seemed more real to me. And that's a huge
<v Speaker 8>thing that I think people don't remember about Sabu is
<v Speaker 8>when he first started doing table stuff, while it was
<v Speaker 8>spect it was with the idea that he was so
<v Speaker 8>nuts that he was launching his body as a weapon,
<v Speaker 8>and if he put you on the table, maybe he
<v Speaker 8>could hurt you even worse than if he just launched
<v Speaker 8>his body at you without a table involved. But Sabo
<v Speaker 8>was able to do table spots in a way where
<v Speaker 8>it seemed like he was trying not to break the table,
<v Speaker 8>but to break his opponent. And I think there's a
<v Speaker 8>huge difference there now, Yes, yes, yes, there is because
<v Speaker 8>it was part of his gimmick. It was part of
<v Speaker 8>his He was crazy enough to do it. It wasn't
<v Speaker 8>a spot in a match that everybody in the card
<v Speaker 8>could do. It was a spot that made sense for
<v Speaker 8>how crazy Sabo in particular was, and it even he
<v Speaker 8>somehow even found a way to make it make sense.
<v Speaker 8>And we saw this during the Lapsed Funk Journey. Do
<v Speaker 8>you remember it because he did it in some of
<v Speaker 8>the earlier indie matches the two had, which were crazy
<v Speaker 8>table bashing brawls. He would sometimes just take a table,
<v Speaker 8>set it up and moon salt through with no one
<v Speaker 8>on top of it, and and people would go nuts, right,
<v Speaker 8>and remember he did that, and it's like, what the
<v Speaker 8>fuck is he doing?
<v Speaker 2>Right? That's there my issue right there, right, And at.
<v Speaker 8>The time, in the context, it almost was like, yeah,
<v Speaker 8>he's doing it because he's so psycho that he isn't
<v Speaker 8>satisfied until there's been destruction. He's like almost punishing himself
<v Speaker 8>was kind of the idea. It wasn't like a it
<v Speaker 8>wasn't a super deep like philosophy behind it. But it
<v Speaker 8>also when he did it to no one, in particular,
<v Speaker 8>when he just put himself through a table, it still
<v Speaker 8>somehow fit with the character.
<v Speaker 3>He was just tapped.
<v Speaker 8>He was tapped in a way where he wasn't screaming
<v Speaker 8>and yelling and trying to play the tapped character. He
<v Speaker 8>was just a guy that he was able to convince
<v Speaker 8>you that he didn't have almost any control over his
<v Speaker 8>self destructive tendencies. That's how I how I put the
<v Speaker 8>initial ore of the guy. Anyhow, at FMW, he writes,
<v Speaker 8>I used the timekeeper's table. At first, I chose to
<v Speaker 8>flip on my opponent outside the brain lying there and
<v Speaker 8>use the impact of my own body as the weapon.
<v Speaker 8>That made the most sense and seemed more real to me.
<v Speaker 8>The Japanese tables were massive, by the way. They weren't
<v Speaker 8>like particle board folding tables. They were like monstrous thick beams,
<v Speaker 8>almost like doors with legs on them.
<v Speaker 3>Doors with legs on them.
<v Speaker 2>Ouch.
<v Speaker 3>The first Jesus first table I went through broke rude
<v Speaker 3>an impact, and it got a great response.
<v Speaker 2>And that's it. The die is cast.
<v Speaker 8>He does it the first time people go nuts. He's
<v Speaker 8>gonna do it until they stopped going nuts after that night,
<v Speaker 8>he writes, I will admit it. I landed a few
<v Speaker 8>time wrestlers on the tables and they didn't break. When
<v Speaker 8>that would happen, we would both like bounce a little.
<v Speaker 3>And fall off.
<v Speaker 8>It would really hurt too, but I would just run
<v Speaker 8>back up to the ring and do it again until
<v Speaker 8>it worked. If the bouncing thing happened that very first
<v Speaker 8>time I attempted to moonsalt through a table, maybe I
<v Speaker 8>would have never continued the idea of pursuing it. As
<v Speaker 8>becoming part of all my matches. I don't know who knows.
<v Speaker 8>So that was because that first table broke. Sabou is
<v Speaker 8>the table innovator for all those years and just wild
<v Speaker 8>and again, I need to bring in barbed wire, which
<v Speaker 8>he saw and kind of got started in Puerto Rico
<v Speaker 8>as part of Carlos Cologn's Hyperviolent WWC. And then, of
<v Speaker 8>course there was some barbier involved even in the Crocket
<v Speaker 8>Dusty Tully Blanchard feud. They had a ladder. I forgot
<v Speaker 8>exactly what they called it. I think they called it
<v Speaker 8>a bunk house match. There was a ladder and there
<v Speaker 8>was also barb wire wrapped around the ropes, so it
<v Speaker 8>hadn't been done, but FMW decided to make it kind
<v Speaker 8>of a centerpiece of special attraction match. And there's Sabu
<v Speaker 8>ready to make an impression, hungry to do something different.
<v Speaker 8>And here we go to nineteen ninety two, just about
<v Speaker 8>seven eight months after the Memphis match we just watched.
<v Speaker 8>Sabo's now made his way to Japan by the side
<v Speaker 8>of his uncle the Chic, and it's time to sacrifice.
<v Speaker 8>It's time to face down the barb wire. Before there
<v Speaker 8>was prop wire and basically.
<v Speaker 2>Do what it takes.
<v Speaker 8>So it's okay Anita En sambo Osaco from FMW versus
<v Speaker 8>Sabu and who Horace Boulder? Oh fuck my wise if
<v Speaker 8>there wasn't enough grounds for concern at it at camp Terry.
<v Speaker 2>Horse, what are you doing? Dude?
<v Speaker 3>What do you is this this Terry brunt guy?
<v Speaker 1>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>I want to I just want to know. You know,
<v Speaker 2>it's a different Terry right, Brother, he was not me right?
<v Speaker 2>Tell me no, dude, he did he get to you
<v Speaker 2>by any chance? I mean, I'm not going to hold
<v Speaker 2>it against you if he did. I know you're trying
<v Speaker 2>to make in the business, dude, I got your I don't.
<v Speaker 2>I don't hold anything against your brother. I just want
<v Speaker 2>to know the truth, dude. You know, is he trying
<v Speaker 2>to get to me through you? Dude? Is that kind
<v Speaker 2>of what he's doing? Brother?
<v Speaker 16>You know?
<v Speaker 2>You know, I just you know who you've been talking
<v Speaker 2>to look for? You know, I just don't even know
<v Speaker 2>about this one a character brother. I just want to know, dude.
<v Speaker 2>I'll tell you what, man, something going on. Brother, I'm
<v Speaker 2>going to hear about this guy that the Sheik's training.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that's concerning enough. And then I hear his
<v Speaker 2>name is Terry. That I hear, I don't even know
<v Speaker 2>which she he's talking exactly, that it's Terry brother.
<v Speaker 8>And then and then I finally calmed myself down that
<v Speaker 8>this hasn't have anything to do with me, despite all
<v Speaker 8>the weird and I and then I turn around and
<v Speaker 8>my nephew is working with him in Japan.
<v Speaker 2>Brother and brother, and now you're telling me, dude, he's
<v Speaker 2>going by nickname Bronster. And that's what you're telling me
<v Speaker 2>right now, dude. And he's working. He just told me
<v Speaker 2>that brother that's working with my nephew in Japan. That's
<v Speaker 2>not supposed to be a subliminal message to me. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>we're talking about the Mega Boulder Bronster's brother, right, that's
<v Speaker 2>a huge question.
<v Speaker 8>Are we talking about the Mega Boulder Bronsters. Well, I
<v Speaker 8>have to ask you to prepare yourself for Horace Boulder
<v Speaker 8>with hair. Okay, oh god. So this is the aforementioned match.
<v Speaker 8>It's from April twenty third, ninety two, according to this
<v Speaker 8>YouTube link. Now, the weird thing is in his book,
<v Speaker 8>Saboo talks about a February nineteen ninety two Barberire match
<v Speaker 8>in FMW being the one where he absorbed a ton
<v Speaker 8>of punishment and you know, got the kind of scars
<v Speaker 8>that you still see. That trademark scar that Sabu has
<v Speaker 8>right across his midsection came from He's as this Barbier match. Now,
<v Speaker 8>I think he's thinking about this one, but says it
<v Speaker 8>happened in February. He says it was like a six
<v Speaker 8>person tag. If that happened, I can't find video of it.
<v Speaker 8>But this match and the way it plays out seems
<v Speaker 8>to match a lot of the rhythms he describes for
<v Speaker 8>the Barbier match that gave him a signature scarring. So
<v Speaker 8>when you see Sabo with all those like cuts on
<v Speaker 8>his upper body, yeah, that's from FMW Barbwire, that's not
<v Speaker 8>from ECW. That's before he ever starts going crazy.
<v Speaker 2>And okay, so.
<v Speaker 8>Let's acquaint ourselves Sabo versus the wire for some of
<v Speaker 8>the first times here in three two one play Orse
<v Speaker 8>o'neita on his way under the wire to wild Thing,
<v Speaker 8>and that's Horase Boulder right there with the red boots. Wow,
<v Speaker 8>there's Sabo in blue pants, black boots. He's now and
<v Speaker 8>this is kind of like a fancam thing too, the
<v Speaker 8>version I'm watching is a combination. There's a version that's
<v Speaker 8>just a broadcast that doesn't have kind of like a
<v Speaker 8>continuous match like this.
<v Speaker 3>This is like a meld of the two horse boulder
<v Speaker 3>throwing the rights. I mean that hair.
<v Speaker 2>I can't get over it.
<v Speaker 8>They're walking each other a wire and what are they doing.
<v Speaker 2>They're just they're wrapping the barbed wire around faces and
<v Speaker 2>bodies and ship like. I mean, it's a real bob wire.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, doze tea boy boulder that's two I agreed.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah you said it, buddy.
<v Speaker 8>So this again for the fan can angles you're hearing
<v Speaker 8>stepping there, get excited to the crowd sab it was
<v Speaker 8>wrapping Onnita's head in the wire and just I mean,
<v Speaker 8>I just can't older throwing the arm over the wire.
<v Speaker 8>These guy who's dressed in T shirts. It's just war
<v Speaker 8>for the sounds like Hogan, brother, what do this?
<v Speaker 2>And oh my dude, what he went crazy for? I
<v Speaker 2>don't know what he did.
<v Speaker 8>He flew in there was like the Jeff Hardy whisper
<v Speaker 8>on the one thing he's got like a uh almost
<v Speaker 8>like a cheetah print to his waistbands. Yeah, I watched
<v Speaker 8>here we go. He's gonna take across the chest. Yes, slicing.
<v Speaker 8>Fuck mine, is it sticking to his skin? His exposed chest?
<v Speaker 8>Sabu didn't go in there with T shirts. Boss, he
<v Speaker 8>didn't go in there with T shirts. He war in
<v Speaker 8>their dress precisely as he went for a straight match.
<v Speaker 8>Fuck And now, oh Jesus Christ, I didn't hit the skin.
<v Speaker 8>It's blading too.
<v Speaker 2>He's blazing. I mean he's like he's this is fucking
<v Speaker 2>like literally right in front of everybody, like just carving
<v Speaker 2>his fucking head. Oh my god, Oh my god.
<v Speaker 8>I look so young too. Oh Jesus Christ, he was
<v Speaker 8>weather day. He looked he looked sixty by the time
<v Speaker 8>he was twenty eight.
<v Speaker 3>I know, huge DDT.
<v Speaker 8>In the middle of the ring, Dioneitaa was blading his
<v Speaker 8>arm as well.
<v Speaker 2>At least blading his I mean he's not even fucking
<v Speaker 2>trying to hide it.
<v Speaker 3>Oh I'm close, I mean like power bomb by the'needa
<v Speaker 3>and sad like he.
<v Speaker 2>Just I mean, I've seen some pretty ridiculous blade jobs,
<v Speaker 2>but this is he's like just sitting around and cutting
<v Speaker 2>his arm.
<v Speaker 3>Oh so, when are we see born to be wired?
<v Speaker 8>He's already got this kind of ship out of his belt,
<v Speaker 8>you know, ye always cornered Oneita wrapping his bicycle on
<v Speaker 8>the top strand Oh.
<v Speaker 2>Fuck my life, I just I'm misimagining, like muscles like
<v Speaker 2>popping from being punctured by.
<v Speaker 8>They're so warm when they get cut. Oh can you
<v Speaker 8>imagine this is going on while we're watching wrestling the eight?
<v Speaker 8>Think about that? Yeah, seb he's got a need on
<v Speaker 8>the mat now, digging in his fat.
<v Speaker 2>Agreed, yes, agreed, yes, Joya kaza Elia Kazan.
<v Speaker 3>Oh no, he's wrapping the Barbara.
<v Speaker 2>Oh look at look at Look at the woman in
<v Speaker 2>the back. She's like just laughing and clapping. Look at her.
<v Speaker 2>Look she's not even joy joyful.
<v Speaker 3>Look at date with it.
<v Speaker 2>Look it looks like John laughing at these poor guys
<v Speaker 2>themselves laughed at dating Harold from Harold and Kumar. At
<v Speaker 2>that right I got She's like, yeah, she's laughing. Look
<v Speaker 2>they're laughing. They're laughing. They think it's not real blood.
<v Speaker 2>I can only assume.
<v Speaker 9>So.
<v Speaker 8>Horace Boulders ripped his shirt off now and it's putting
<v Speaker 8>the boots.
<v Speaker 2>Oh oh, whipped into the water. He's gonna hang himself. No, no,
<v Speaker 2>they're screaming.
<v Speaker 8>Look at his face, Oh my goodness, panicked. Yeah, no, ship,
<v Speaker 8>Like you know that wire is close to his arteries,
<v Speaker 8>you know, his leg herotige. It's a lot like the spot.
<v Speaker 3>Funk does in the Recey naturally.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know exactly. Like it's so concerning, like he's.
<v Speaker 8>All these ringsider attendants trying to help him extract his
<v Speaker 8>body and hair and climbs right back over like a nut,
<v Speaker 8>stinging his hands and everything.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think he was. I don't honest, I feel
<v Speaker 2>like he's more. I feel like he was more concerned
<v Speaker 2>about the fact that he, you know, was couldn't get
<v Speaker 2>back in the match right away.
<v Speaker 3>He slowed things down.
<v Speaker 8>Older knockdown covered by Onita, gets too sad, became charging
<v Speaker 8>back up at the ring that was dropped by like
<v Speaker 8>a barge or body block.
<v Speaker 2>Oh that's the thing.
<v Speaker 8>When he's in these barbed wire matches, he just goes
<v Speaker 8>as hard as he would without any hesitation, no sense
<v Speaker 8>of like I got adjust my offense because I'm I'm
<v Speaker 8>dealing with an unpredictable factor like blah blah. He just
<v Speaker 8>does the same stuff at the same speed. Older is
<v Speaker 8>just settled for putting o'need on the mat, laying next
<v Speaker 8>to him and shoving him backwards in a little while
<v Speaker 8>to get as many of those visuals of the the
<v Speaker 8>barb sticking into the T shirt as possible.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just I I mean, I don't I don't think
<v Speaker 2>you couldn't pay me. You couldn't pay me to fucking
<v Speaker 2>do this. Never there's no money.
<v Speaker 8>Oh fuck trying to boulders, trying to pull the barbier
<v Speaker 8>up to or eat his fat.
<v Speaker 2>It's so funny that Hull Coogan's nephew had to do
<v Speaker 2>this to get ye get into the business. You know, brother,
<v Speaker 2>I gotta do. I'll tell you what, brother, I'll give
<v Speaker 2>you a shot over in Japan. He said, you know,
<v Speaker 2>you know, kind of off to you know, pay your
<v Speaker 2>dues a little bit and barbed wire. Well, you know, dude,
<v Speaker 2>I actually was brother. I was supposed to do these
<v Speaker 2>barbed wire matches. And I said, you know what I said,
<v Speaker 2>you know what, Well, you're gonna get a Hogan, brother.
<v Speaker 2>You're not gonna get a Hulg Cogan. You're gonna get
<v Speaker 2>a Terry, and you're gonna get a boulder, But you're
<v Speaker 2>not gonna get Terry, right, that's right.
<v Speaker 8>Those pants too, are always so perfect for Barb Waller
<v Speaker 8>that Sawara get so caught.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, of course, I mean out like you know, he
<v Speaker 2>wears like the tinfoil ones later on that and just
<v Speaker 2>getting like you fucking fold them a little bit.
<v Speaker 8>They rip the shreds oh no, no wrapping the wire
<v Speaker 8>on the throat of Saboo. Nope, exposed chest that's the
<v Speaker 8>oh he falls down on it. I'll to show this
<v Speaker 8>one of my mom.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, rest in peace Saboo the wrestle mammy attribute,
<v Speaker 2>but it's on his hair, and emphasize enough how wild
<v Speaker 2>this is in eighteen ninety two, This before Foley does
<v Speaker 2>the death match tournament.
<v Speaker 3>This is before a lot of that stuff.
<v Speaker 8>Here it comes, Oh no, Sabo running start his opponents
<v Speaker 8>side step. Seba throws his body into the barberire with
<v Speaker 8>such force that it breaks through and he hits the floor.
<v Speaker 3>That's what I mean.
<v Speaker 2>He just imagines he's falling. Just imagine as he's falling,
<v Speaker 2>ripping his flesh like just catching on in his hair.
<v Speaker 2>To throw your body at at that speed is completely
<v Speaker 2>fucking crazy, no control at all. He's doing the whole
<v Speaker 2>weight belt before Hogan ever did it.
<v Speaker 3>That's fascinating.
<v Speaker 2>There we go.
<v Speaker 8>Hogan took the white belt spot from his nephew, and
<v Speaker 8>who else was kind of like a distant cousin of
<v Speaker 8>the bulet is that was breaking through an FMW at
<v Speaker 8>the time as the Gladiator Mike Awesome would later be
<v Speaker 8>No Ship Wow, the guy that ec W would kind
<v Speaker 8>of poach from FMW. Oh what do you to crack
<v Speaker 8>Saboo with a chair of the hat is Saboo is
<v Speaker 8>still trying to extract the barbed wires.
<v Speaker 2>Funny, like wrestling business is all about poaching. Sure, honestly,
<v Speaker 2>you know that's what it all is.
<v Speaker 8>And they talked about bowling of MW's concepts. They did
<v Speaker 8>barboire earlier with like the Public Enemy and stuff.
<v Speaker 2>And Cactus. Oh no, they try to.
<v Speaker 8>They even talked about doing exploding match. They never put
<v Speaker 8>that together. Oh, Anita sneaks up on Boulder, shoves him
<v Speaker 8>into the barb wire ddts him in the center. Saboo's
<v Speaker 8>out cold on the floor if your chair shot, but
<v Speaker 8>Boulder kicks out brother looking around the hoof, he's got
<v Speaker 8>the same bald spot as Terry too.
<v Speaker 3>And he does coming through like eighty two.
<v Speaker 2>It's get him a jyd fucking headbutt.
<v Speaker 8>Both Anita and Boulder on their knees, and Anita's throwing
<v Speaker 8>bloody head butts. He knocks over Boulder and covers him again.
<v Speaker 8>I always thought covers were so funny and matches like this.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's ridiculous. You shouldn't do that. You should
<v Speaker 2>have like a there should always be submission, right, do
<v Speaker 2>you want to.
<v Speaker 3>Kill the guy?
<v Speaker 8>Saboo's back in now, he's got those cuts all over
<v Speaker 8>his stomach.
<v Speaker 3>You can see at his.
<v Speaker 2>Elbow in his hand, his fucking arm is sliced out.
<v Speaker 2>Did that to himself? Yep?
<v Speaker 8>And oh, Bowlder wraps his fist with wire and cracks
<v Speaker 8>Onita and then tosses the barbed wire nuts to Saboo. No,
<v Speaker 8>he's got a clippers. Saboo's clipping the barb wire off
<v Speaker 8>off the ropes.
<v Speaker 2>Why they do not? Now?
<v Speaker 8>Oh, I know what it does. He does the same
<v Speaker 8>thing he does in ECW against Terry Funky. He wraps
<v Speaker 8>his body in it. And it's just like this crowd
<v Speaker 8>is so like scared. They're screaming, you know, they're mortified
<v Speaker 8>by what's happening, or at least some laughing. Right, you
<v Speaker 8>can see people laughing, but you can hear even more
<v Speaker 8>people wailing in concern, especially women. Okay, now he's got
<v Speaker 8>the barbier strands completely clipped off, and Sabo he's taking
<v Speaker 8>the stuff and oh they're wrapping Oneita in at like
<v Speaker 8>a mummy. Jesus fucking Christ, like, how do you even like?
<v Speaker 2>How do you.
<v Speaker 3>Clothesline puts them down?
<v Speaker 2>Repair?
<v Speaker 8>Why with barbiere rapper doesn't prepare for this ship? They'll
<v Speaker 8>need a chance go up. Oh, Saboo is still going
<v Speaker 8>to work with the clippers, bringing up even more.
<v Speaker 2>Barbed wire and wrapping around the other idiot.
<v Speaker 3>I Needa's Parker.
<v Speaker 2>I can't remember his name.
<v Speaker 3>That's kind of his neck.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's a miracle. It's a miracle that that
<v Speaker 2>somebody didn't die during these barbed wire matches. So true.
<v Speaker 3>Anita hits the floor.
<v Speaker 8>Sabo pushes off Boulder's hand for a moon salt and
<v Speaker 8>covers on barbed wire.
<v Speaker 2>Gray it's over, and.
<v Speaker 8>He keeps looking at his hands like they're all fucked up.
<v Speaker 8>So Saboo and Horse, Boulder defeed and its tacting partner
<v Speaker 8>who barb wire in nineteen eighty two f MW and
<v Speaker 8>here comes to.
<v Speaker 2>Chik look at him, My god, what the.
<v Speaker 8>He would walk through the crowd in Japan and everyone
<v Speaker 8>would go screaming, you know, flying, and he's attack fans
<v Speaker 8>and was the subject of tremendous awe stomping around the
<v Speaker 8>ring in his trunks with his head bloody from here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, what's he?
<v Speaker 15>What's he?
<v Speaker 2>Kind of fucking too?
<v Speaker 18>I love they're playing like that. He just fell down,
<v Speaker 18>Oh yeah, because he didn't want to touch this ship.
<v Speaker 18>He's going after Anita. Chik is going after Anita and
<v Speaker 18>stabbing his head. Oh, harving him up. Officials hitting the ring.
<v Speaker 18>You can see in the profile of Sheik's face, you
<v Speaker 18>can see Sablo's profile a similar facial structure.
<v Speaker 11>Yeah.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, Che's at the floor and they're going they're scurrying. Oh,
<v Speaker 8>Zach Gary Albright? I think Gary Albright appears in the
<v Speaker 8>audience with a chair smacking.
<v Speaker 3>Cheek over and over. It's like Gary Albright. Now that's
<v Speaker 3>that's the other guy.
<v Speaker 2>I forget his name. Tarzan, Uh.
<v Speaker 3>No, no, the gu Tarzan going exact. You take a
<v Speaker 3>shots Paul.
<v Speaker 8>Over it as much as you can, and you can see,
<v Speaker 8>like you know, with the way the Sheikh's name traveled
<v Speaker 8>in Japan, like Saboo has a head start over there.
<v Speaker 2>I just realized, I'm like, you're me and I'm my mom. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>watching this exactly, definitely know what it feels like to
<v Speaker 2>be in her shoes.
<v Speaker 8>Tarzan Godo choking out Sabo with more wire way to side,
<v Speaker 8>He's got all stuck in his hair.
<v Speaker 2>It's just fucking I just oh oh, I mean, Imber
<v Speaker 2>still playing the music and the s sheets don't even
<v Speaker 2>there anymore.
<v Speaker 8>What this big moment where Anina stands up completely covered
<v Speaker 8>in barbiers so they can cheer them all and they
<v Speaker 8>do it was Martin Jeannetti. Yeah, it was a charismatic
<v Speaker 8>force a year out from a covering Terear.
<v Speaker 2>All the people, Holy shit there, all the people there
<v Speaker 2>and the ring side now they fucking approach the ring
<v Speaker 2>was No, there's nothing to stop them.
<v Speaker 3>They love Anita.
<v Speaker 8>Man, it's like this punk like anti heroo psychopath that
<v Speaker 8>thought it was so cool walking with barbier like for.
<v Speaker 2>Pants, you know, look at all. I mean, it's it's
<v Speaker 2>the women laughing that I think is the part that
<v Speaker 2>I'm and Stanley Kubrick taking pictures.
<v Speaker 8>And that's Izaki right there. That's the future Hyabusa, who
<v Speaker 8>of course would pattern himself after saboo right down to
<v Speaker 8>wearing the shiny baggy pants and end up suffering a
<v Speaker 8>tragic paralysis when he went for a springboard moon Salt
<v Speaker 8>landed on the top of his head and broke his neck.
<v Speaker 8>He'll share for the rest of his life, all those
<v Speaker 8>sprouts beginning to bloom here in FMW in nineteen ninety two,
<v Speaker 8>still playing.
<v Speaker 2>To his people.
<v Speaker 3>That's a rabbit. It's like ECW. It's like the ECW
<v Speaker 3>arena crat.
<v Speaker 2>It really is. I mean, I was just thinking that
<v Speaker 2>it really is like ECW. What's he He's pouring alcohol
<v Speaker 2>on his wounds, like guess water.
<v Speaker 14>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't a wine bottle, but maybe you're right.
<v Speaker 8>Photographers, and that's so much of this death match stuff,
<v Speaker 8>as we talked about during the Lapsed Funk in particular,
<v Speaker 8>this is still a magazine driven industry, particularly in Japan
<v Speaker 8>and the crazier lacking images, you could get photographers to
<v Speaker 8>snap of blood everywhere, barbed wire everywhere, the more you
<v Speaker 8>could sell tickets.
<v Speaker 2>Over the mic. You're that woman on the bop down
<v Speaker 2>there too. She's like, yeah, screaming what he said.
<v Speaker 3>But they love it.
<v Speaker 8>It makes their heart sing boss and for Saboo.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, Jesus heart beats.
<v Speaker 8>Anew, having discovered this new way to get through to
<v Speaker 8>the fans.
<v Speaker 2>Barbed wire make me care yep, you know I like
<v Speaker 2>it better when you don't need to use that stuff
<v Speaker 2>to get me to care about a match. But and.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's the thing.
<v Speaker 8>He had the foundation, and then he went in this direction,
<v Speaker 8>and yeah, there was no turning back, he writes in
<v Speaker 8>his book to Saboo. About two nights or so before
<v Speaker 8>on the same tour, I had a cut on my arm.
<v Speaker 8>Someone there had I'm going to let you do this one,
<v Speaker 8>because I think this is okay. I look forward to
<v Speaker 8>hearing you force yourself to describe the ways that Saboo
<v Speaker 8>would mend the kind of wounds that we just witnessed
<v Speaker 8>him suffer in the rings of FMW.
<v Speaker 2>About two nights or so before on the same tour,
<v Speaker 2>I had cut on my arm. Someone there had some
<v Speaker 2>crazy gloated desk. I picked it up and I put
<v Speaker 2>a glob over the cut. It quickly stopped the bleeding.
<v Speaker 2>Quote where did you learn to do that? The Sheikh asked.
<v Speaker 2>I saw it on television. I don't know the show,
<v Speaker 2>some documentary I think saying World War two soldiers used
<v Speaker 2>it in the field to stop bleeding until they could
<v Speaker 2>get sewed up. I saw that on TV, too, so
<v Speaker 2>the Sheikh said it was macguver, so he says a
<v Speaker 2>a diver. After the first barbed wire match, I figured
<v Speaker 2>I would just give the super glue another go. It
<v Speaker 2>worked well the first time, so what the hell. However,
<v Speaker 2>when I got back to the hotel, my towel looked
<v Speaker 2>like a white rug in a butcher's shop. I rinsed
<v Speaker 2>off and then stood in front of the mirror. I
<v Speaker 2>had many cuts an inch an inch or too long,
<v Speaker 2>all over my shoulders and arms. Those were easy. The
<v Speaker 2>tough one was the now famous eight inch one just
<v Speaker 2>under my chest and under my rib cage. I use
<v Speaker 2>a lot of glue on the Oh fuck, use glue
<v Speaker 2>on that one, and it still didn't stop. I don't
<v Speaker 2>understand why he didn't fucking go right to a doctor.
<v Speaker 2>Why is he going back to the hotel.
<v Speaker 8>Has he found a way to uh to close the
<v Speaker 8>wound without incurring medical expense essentially, and that would have
<v Speaker 8>for his ability to keep working.
<v Speaker 2>I went over to my gear bag and took out
<v Speaker 2>a large roll of athletic tape I put. I put
<v Speaker 2>a healthy portion of glue on both sides of the wound,
<v Speaker 2>then UH tape that ship together. I felt like a
<v Speaker 2>fucking Rambo. After I was done with everything I could reach,
<v Speaker 2>I went out into the hall with my torso wrapped
<v Speaker 2>like a mummy to enlist some help. Hey, bro, I
<v Speaker 2>said to Chris Candido, who was rooming with us. Chris
<v Speaker 2>was wrestling on the same tour, wrestling under the under
<v Speaker 2>the name The Blonde Bomber. I think this was his
<v Speaker 2>only uh if I fear filling Oh wait, wait, he's
<v Speaker 2>only what if this is E fear? I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>It might be a mistake, might be a he's only
<v Speaker 2>filling in for Kevin Sullivan, which I will explain again
<v Speaker 2>more in depth later on when I talk about Chris
<v Speaker 2>in the quote e CW Return chapter. So it was
<v Speaker 2>that first match where I received many of the quote
<v Speaker 2>trademark scars you see in my on my arms and torso.
<v Speaker 2>Some are from some other hardcore matches, including over two
<v Speaker 2>dozen more non rope barbed wire death matches I didn't
<v Speaker 2>for FNW, but the biggest one in the center that
<v Speaker 2>was from the very first one. No regrets. Okay, Well,
<v Speaker 2>if you say.
<v Speaker 8>Something glue and he cuts shut next time, boss to
<v Speaker 8>save on the transport to the hospital. Imagine, think of
<v Speaker 8>the sting, Think of the sting, Think of the sting,
<v Speaker 8>and then think of putting crazy.
<v Speaker 2>Glue on the cut. That's just fucking wrong.
<v Speaker 8>It's crazy that he does all this before anyone in
<v Speaker 8>America can even see it, like before he even has
<v Speaker 8>the audience that he would later have for these death
<v Speaker 8>defying stunts. But it gets him on many radars, to
<v Speaker 8>say the least. Now, how do you up these stakes
<v Speaker 8>from here? Now that we've done barb wire and everyone's
<v Speaker 8>got all cut up.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you either blow yourself up or you start cutting
<v Speaker 2>off limbs. You voluntary, Maybe.
<v Speaker 8>You soap towels in gasoline and sheets and wrap them
<v Speaker 8>around the barbed wire and light them on fire.
<v Speaker 2>Well, obviously, I mean is just the next stage.
<v Speaker 8>I mean, I ask you, like, what's the what's the problem?
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god? What the fuck?
<v Speaker 8>Now I'm gonna do something different instead of reading the
<v Speaker 8>context after the match, I think it's important you know
<v Speaker 8>ahead of time that the wind begins knocking pieces of
<v Speaker 8>the ignited sheets down. They're outdoors, of course, doing a
<v Speaker 8>lighting the ring.
<v Speaker 3>To They didn't know it was going to get this
<v Speaker 3>fucking hot. Yes, oxygen right fueling that.
<v Speaker 2>Fire always does. It always gets that bad charrosene on
<v Speaker 2>the canvas. Two it drips. You weren't after shave.
<v Speaker 8>The fire was just ohing, so much faster than they
<v Speaker 8>ever could imagine. And I invite you to consider how
<v Speaker 8>deprived of oxygen you are when surrounded by a wall
<v Speaker 8>of flame. These guys are struggling to breathe.
<v Speaker 2>And then let me guess, they don't stop. They just
<v Speaker 2>keep trying to have the match.
<v Speaker 8>It's getting so hot. Sabu writes that the fire was
<v Speaker 8>actually turning the barbed wire red. I knew that in
<v Speaker 8>staying in the ring any longer than that, we were
<v Speaker 8>going to be screwed. Finally, Anita waved his arms, following
<v Speaker 8>Anita and Godos lead. I quickly got out of the ring,
<v Speaker 8>diving through the flames the best that I could. But
<v Speaker 8>when I turned to I couldn't believe my eyes. Chic,
<v Speaker 8>I yelled, get out. My slower moving sixty five year
<v Speaker 8>old uncle was still in the ring with a crazy
<v Speaker 8>fire monster beginning to gobble down everything in sight. With
<v Speaker 8>that boss, we go to the match. Okay, eight sixth,
<v Speaker 8>nineteen ninety two. Sabu and his uncle the Sheik continued
<v Speaker 8>to up the stakes here against Anita and Tarzan Godo.
<v Speaker 2>Are you ready yeah?
<v Speaker 3>Three two one?
<v Speaker 2>Play? Hey.
<v Speaker 8>They have their torches lit and you can see the
<v Speaker 8>towels wrapped in gasoline around the wire and see it
<v Speaker 8>all over the floor, all over the ground. Here comes
<v Speaker 8>the Sheikh.
<v Speaker 3>Of course, he was known for throwing fire. Look at
<v Speaker 3>his face.
<v Speaker 2>So he's eating a fire.
<v Speaker 14>Now.
<v Speaker 3>It's one thing to have this idea of, you know,
<v Speaker 3>lighting a small fire.
<v Speaker 8>Looking this is even touching his stomach with the flame.
<v Speaker 8>It's the crazy chik. And there is Sabo. This is
<v Speaker 8>just off the turbine on his head, sliding into the
<v Speaker 8>ring as well, crawling in all fours.
<v Speaker 2>Anita and Godo already in the ring. And just when
<v Speaker 2>we were trying to kick the flame away. As she approaches,
<v Speaker 2>she dropped to the canvas. The announcer. You know they're
<v Speaker 2>gonna light it.
<v Speaker 3>Oh Jesus, think of how quickly you're trapped in this
<v Speaker 3>heat wall. Look how quickly it goes up.
<v Speaker 2>Look at it. Oh my god.
<v Speaker 8>Put this old man on the on the mat, trying
<v Speaker 8>to blade. Oh hot, it's getting how claustrophobic it's getting.
<v Speaker 8>Ah yeah, those things are ripping, roaring fire, incredible scenes.
<v Speaker 3>Old man cheeks in their border of the burin.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that is a violent that is violent violent fire.
<v Speaker 3>I mean you can't see.
<v Speaker 8>Oh my god, it looks like a fucking it looks
<v Speaker 8>like a goddamn in their sheep got houses and pants.
<v Speaker 8>He flies out of the ring and he knows, and
<v Speaker 8>everyone's out. And now everyone's out of the ring. That
<v Speaker 8>quickly they abandoned the whole fucking idea. Oh flash paper
<v Speaker 8>and over in his face.
<v Speaker 2>The referee is drenched Ei.
<v Speaker 8>They're pouring water too. They're porn buckets of water on
<v Speaker 8>the fell doom Eta. That was probably part of the
<v Speaker 8>post match playing anyway. That's how quickly it became a
<v Speaker 8>fucking emergency. See quick were they had to get out
<v Speaker 8>of there?
<v Speaker 9>You're not.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, that has got to be one of the
<v Speaker 2>dumbest things. I'm scared I've ever seen in my life.
<v Speaker 2>For this shit.
<v Speaker 8>It in nineteen ninety two, no less, Oh my slower
<v Speaker 8>moving sixty five year old uncle was still in the
<v Speaker 8>ring with a crazy fire monster beginning to gobble down
<v Speaker 8>everything inside.
<v Speaker 2>Just in time.
<v Speaker 8>A few young boys rushed to the scene with some
<v Speaker 8>fire extinguishers. The spray did just enough to subside a
<v Speaker 8>hole large enough in the flames so the sheep could
<v Speaker 8>slowly crawl his way to exit. After he was ushered
<v Speaker 8>to safety, they rushed my uncle in the hospital for
<v Speaker 8>smoking elation and third degree burns. He was pretty beat up,
<v Speaker 8>but fortunately he was okay. In the meantime, the entire
<v Speaker 8>area was covered in black smoke. There was no way
<v Speaker 8>for fire trucks to make it to the side of
<v Speaker 8>the fire, and in turn, that thing burned for something
<v Speaker 8>like nineteen hours. There was nothing left of that ring
<v Speaker 8>in the end but a burnt ring frame and a
<v Speaker 8>pile of ashes. Even the barbed wire completely burned up.
<v Speaker 8>In the end, it was declared to no contest. The
<v Speaker 8>match ended with no winner, but nobody could argue with
<v Speaker 8>Onnita on that one. Although it wasn't the worst in
<v Speaker 8>the end, that fire match got the most heat out
<v Speaker 8>of the whole tour. Yeah, Rocking Hell, talk about narrowly
<v Speaker 8>avoided disaster. You could have had just four dead wrestlers
<v Speaker 8>right there, exactly exactly five clo the referee and if
<v Speaker 8>word's just a fucking bunch of like, why, why, what
<v Speaker 8>does that do for anybody? Onnita had nothing Onnito was
<v Speaker 8>a mad scientist, and he had he had a way
<v Speaker 8>to get noticed in the Japanese magazines without being one
<v Speaker 8>of the big two companies All Japan and New Japan.
<v Speaker 8>And that was create these fucking Hollywood like scenes of
<v Speaker 8>explosion and fire and death and barbed wire and blood.
<v Speaker 8>And that was why those people are standing around his
<v Speaker 8>body screaming Ohna like he's a fucking god on earth.
<v Speaker 8>He tapped into the fact that wrestling fans can and
<v Speaker 8>often are tapped, can being often are tapped, And there
<v Speaker 8>were fans just like that waiting in Philadelphia screaming goutbirds
<v Speaker 8>and ready to fucking see someone get fucked up in
<v Speaker 8>the arena. Okay, that's what's going on, and that's where
<v Speaker 8>Sabu fits. So of course, the phone Rings we turned
<v Speaker 8>out of Todd Gordon's book, who of course was the
<v Speaker 8>progenitor of what was originally known as Eastern Championship Wrestling,
<v Speaker 8>and soon brings on Paul Haman as not only an
<v Speaker 8>advisor and consultant, but after the departure of Eddie Gilbert
<v Speaker 8>after a creative falling out which is also recently chronicled
<v Speaker 8>on Dark Side of the Ring, as they did their
<v Speaker 8>Eddie Gilbert episode a couple of episodes ago. Paul Haman
<v Speaker 8>then takes much more creative dominion over ECW and eventually
<v Speaker 8>takes the company out from under Todd Gordon in a way,
<v Speaker 8>but in the earliest days of Sabu making his impact
<v Speaker 8>in an ECW ring to an American audience, it was
<v Speaker 8>a Tap and Paul working hand in glove. And here
<v Speaker 8>from Todd's book How It All Started with Saboo. I've
<v Speaker 8>shared it with you, boss, if you can share it
<v Speaker 8>with the Solar System.
<v Speaker 2>Oh I see hold on one second.
<v Speaker 8>Here there comes Todd Gordon. It's time for Saboo to
<v Speaker 8>come state signed.
<v Speaker 2>The phone rang at my store in the fall of
<v Speaker 2>nine ninety three. Todd Gordon, a quiet voice asked, yes,
<v Speaker 2>Saboo fine, thanks and you that's funny. No, it's Saboo.
<v Speaker 2>I first saw Saboo when Joel Goodhart was running t
<v Speaker 2>WA the airline.
<v Speaker 8>Hopefully not TWA was Trica Resting Alliance, which was basically
<v Speaker 8>one of the first attempts at doing an ECW like
<v Speaker 8>super Indie in the United States, where you would bring
<v Speaker 8>in this talent that had, you know, underground and international reputations.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, sometime it passed and he gave me a
<v Speaker 2>call to see if I would book him. I remembered
<v Speaker 2>him doing some cool stuff, particularly how fast he could
<v Speaker 2>scale a steel cage. He looked like a friggin' squirrel.
<v Speaker 2>I asked him how much you wanted, and he said
<v Speaker 2>two hundred. I agree to give him a shot, and
<v Speaker 2>within a couple of months he was my world champion.
<v Speaker 2>It was very apparent this guy was something special, and
<v Speaker 2>more importantly, in wrestling different. That's the holy grail in
<v Speaker 2>our sport that runs every week of every year without
<v Speaker 2>an off season. Our season never runs across dozens of
<v Speaker 2>global federations. If you're going to be authentically unique, you'll
<v Speaker 2>work forever. At least you used to work forever when
<v Speaker 2>there were more than a couple of companies. Saboo was
<v Speaker 2>like that. After his first match for US, he slid,
<v Speaker 2>excuse me, a table into the ring, set it up,
<v Speaker 2>and dove through the damn thing, breaking it into a
<v Speaker 2>million pieces, and sold a hurt leg. People myself included,
<v Speaker 2>were like, what the fuck exactly. Soon enough, it evolved
<v Speaker 2>into Sabu putting his opponents through tables. One night, while
<v Speaker 2>Sabu was off doing a tour in Japan, Roco Rock
<v Speaker 2>slid out a table and used it in his match.
<v Speaker 2>This created hard feelings between Sabou, Roco and Pauli, but
<v Speaker 2>eventually tables were coming out in every other match, to
<v Speaker 2>the point where the image of someone going through a
<v Speaker 2>table could have stopped could have become our new logo.
<v Speaker 2>If you have any doubt Saboo was an innovator, take
<v Speaker 2>just the tables in a wrestling ring for starters. I've
<v Speaker 2>been put through my share of tables, and I can
<v Speaker 2>tell you firsthand it's effective and safe when done correctly,
<v Speaker 2>and agonizing when done incorrectly. Correctly would mean a clean
<v Speaker 2>break across the center with your upper torso taking the
<v Speaker 2>bump through the table incorrectly would mean how Sabu landed
<v Speaker 2>on me one night when the legs of the table
<v Speaker 2>gave out and the table didn't break, rather drop flat
<v Speaker 2>onto the roast under the roastraver ice garden floor, which
<v Speaker 2>offered no cushion whatsoever. Fonzi, my on camera arch enemy,
<v Speaker 2>saw that botched spot and ran over to me looking
<v Speaker 2>for the eggy meaning my squeezing his finger gently to
<v Speaker 2>let him know I was okay. I'd seen the NFL
<v Speaker 2>players get the wind knocked out of them, but I
<v Speaker 2>didn't know the paralysis it caused until that night. I
<v Speaker 2>was unable to move and couldn't reciprocate Fonzi's finger squeeze.
<v Speaker 2>I remember one time, I was you know, when you
<v Speaker 2>get the wind knocked out of you, that is a
<v Speaker 2>scary fuck out.
<v Speaker 3>You can't even say anything.
<v Speaker 2>Nope, I was God. That just triggered a fucking crazy memory.
<v Speaker 2>I was must have been seven or eight years old,
<v Speaker 2>and we were living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a friend
<v Speaker 2>or there was a neighbor I lived. I lived basically
<v Speaker 2>in the same lot as my school when I was
<v Speaker 2>that when I when I was that age, and so
<v Speaker 2>in the back like, there were a bunch of like
<v Speaker 2>how homes around the school, and one of them had
<v Speaker 2>this incredibly large and crazy like tree swing all right,
<v Speaker 2>and there was like a long like kind of hill,
<v Speaker 2>and it used to be one of our favorite things
<v Speaker 2>as students at the school, Like, we loved going to
<v Speaker 2>the swing. And one time after school I was with
<v Speaker 2>a friend, I was doing it, and I was trying
<v Speaker 2>to like, you know, he one of the big things
<v Speaker 2>you do, like the big risky thing you do, is
<v Speaker 2>you'd because it was you know, you could get pretty
<v Speaker 2>high on the swing because of the hill. Is that
<v Speaker 2>you jump off and land on your feet, right, you
<v Speaker 2>pick a spot, you do a certain thing, and everyone
<v Speaker 2>was doing it and whatever, and so I try to
<v Speaker 2>do it. But I I mistimed it and I slipped
<v Speaker 2>off and I let it flat on my back.
<v Speaker 1>And I.
<v Speaker 2>Get the wind knocked out of me and I could
<v Speaker 2>not breathe. I could not move. It was petrifying. It
<v Speaker 2>was absolutely horrified to like, you know, like you're I
<v Speaker 2>don't know. I felt like I was gonna die because
<v Speaker 2>I was so afraid of not being able to breathe.
<v Speaker 8>Yes, oh yeah, that's a real thing too wrestling, because
<v Speaker 8>you want to get the communication growing and it doesn't work.
<v Speaker 8>I think Sabou described feeling like that when he failed
<v Speaker 8>to jump correctly off the the r on the raw
<v Speaker 8>in nineteen eighty seven. Too sure just made it even
<v Speaker 8>more chaotic because like you can't community, you can't like
<v Speaker 8>find a way to Yeah, what it was was he
<v Speaker 8>wanted to bounce up and like try to save the
<v Speaker 8>segment somehow. Just his instinct always, and this is a
<v Speaker 8>fascinating quality that Sabu had. If he ever failed on
<v Speaker 8>a spot, if he fell off the ropes, or if
<v Speaker 8>the table didn't break, or if something was fucked up,
<v Speaker 8>his immediate instinct would be to just like run down
<v Speaker 8>and start throwing things into the crowd, start climbing the
<v Speaker 8>rail and going crazy.
<v Speaker 2>All that's crazy, That is crazy, because his thing was.
<v Speaker 8>Like, if I was a wrestler trying to do this
<v Speaker 8>to hurt my opponent and I failed to do it,
<v Speaker 8>I should react in a way where I don't give
<v Speaker 8>away that I failed, but rather react in a way
<v Speaker 8>where not that I failed to perform the thing correctly,
<v Speaker 8>but that I failed to do the damage I wanted to.
<v Speaker 8>When I'm frustrated and pissed off and I'm psycho like
<v Speaker 8>I was going to launch that attack, but if it
<v Speaker 8>doesn't work, I'm still in my psychosis here and I'm
<v Speaker 8>still just going crazy. And it was really effective because
<v Speaker 8>he was able to mask a lot of failed spots
<v Speaker 8>behind the veneer of just acting out and being crazy,
<v Speaker 8>and a lot of time, you know, sometimes people even
<v Speaker 8>said and RVD says this a lot, and I don't know,
<v Speaker 8>it sounds like bullshit to me, but that he would
<v Speaker 8>miss spots on purpose on occasion to mix it up
<v Speaker 8>because his thought was apparently wow, as the reasoning goes,
<v Speaker 8>if some somebody was to do the things I do
<v Speaker 8>in the ring to try to defeat an opponent, it
<v Speaker 8>only makes sense that on occasion, if it were real,
<v Speaker 8>you would mess up sometimes, or you would miss your target,
<v Speaker 8>or things wouldn't go according to plan.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe he did that once, you know, and the rest were.
<v Speaker 8>All legitimate fails, because you can often tell when he
<v Speaker 8>had something in mind and fails.
<v Speaker 2>To do it.
<v Speaker 8>But he had a weird way of it being, you know,
<v Speaker 8>because he really didn't like the bachamania stuff. He talks
<v Speaker 8>in his book about how it kind of fucked with
<v Speaker 8>him to see like clips of him missing spots for
<v Speaker 8>forty five seconds straight, you know, or whatever the time
<v Speaker 8>duration was, and he was he had a way of
<v Speaker 8>not watching the match fall apart, like he wouldn't really
<v Speaker 8>be a you fucked up guy, e CW. Crowds love
<v Speaker 8>to chant you fucked up when a guy tried to
<v Speaker 8>do something and missed the spot. They never really chanted
<v Speaker 8>that at Sabu, not that much. And it was because
<v Speaker 8>as soon as you fucked up, he would do something
<v Speaker 8>that made you think, like, all right, well it doesn't
<v Speaker 8>you know, that's just par for the course for a
<v Speaker 8>guy who's trying to do what he's trying to do,
<v Speaker 8>he's going to sometimes miscalculate because he's just so nuts
<v Speaker 8>and point to the sky. That was another thing he'd do.
<v Speaker 8>He'd point to the sky and do like the thing like, oh,
<v Speaker 8>it was a voice in my head that fucked me
<v Speaker 8>up and that's why I slipped, you know, that's part
<v Speaker 8>of what he would use that for too, looking to
<v Speaker 8>the heavens.
<v Speaker 2>Jesus age Christ. That's just like, yeah, I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know how to It's just it's just stupid.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, yeah, he puts himself in these positions.
<v Speaker 2>He sure does. You know, I just cannot. It's hard
<v Speaker 2>for me to like support this, right, It's very hard
<v Speaker 2>because it's just I feel I don't know anyway. Where
<v Speaker 2>was I hear fun thing and like didn't break whether
<v Speaker 2>tem me as NFL players get the one knocked out
<v Speaker 2>of them, but I didn't know the process of called it.
<v Speaker 2>I was unable to move and couldn't reciprocate Phonsie's finger
<v Speaker 2>squeeze as he was not one to overact overreact. Rather,
<v Speaker 2>Phonsie broke character and began and began running around ringside
<v Speaker 2>yelling Todster is dead. Yes, we killed Todd's killed Toster.
<v Speaker 2>I was eventually able to tell the referee I was fine.
<v Speaker 2>When Sabu first came to e c W, we had
<v Speaker 2>him wear a Hannibal Lecter mask and get wheeled to
<v Speaker 2>the wing on a gurney by nine one one. Sabu
<v Speaker 2>was immediately resistant to doing that, citing a wrestler doing
<v Speaker 2>Doctor Hannibal in Japan and he didn't want to infringe
<v Speaker 2>on his gimmick. I told Saboo, no one here knew
<v Speaker 2>about Doctor Hannibal, and we do it, we do it,
<v Speaker 2>and he'd do it one hundred times better anyway. He
<v Speaker 2>agreed to try it out and see how it went,
<v Speaker 2>but he never fully committed to it. After a handful
<v Speaker 2>of appearances, the mask and the gurney were gone, but
<v Speaker 2>it really didn't matter. Saboo was over and away. I'd
<v Speaker 2>never seen. He wasn't babyface over and he didn't have
<v Speaker 2>massive heel heed. People just loved watching him work. He
<v Speaker 2>put his body in danger seemingly in every match. His
<v Speaker 2>matches were loaded with high risk aerial moves that he
<v Speaker 2>seemed to pay the price for every night. Just Sabo's
<v Speaker 2>use of a folding chair as a hallmark of his innovation.
<v Speaker 2>People had him whacking each other with them in wrestling
<v Speaker 2>rings for years, but Sabu used it like a ful
<v Speaker 2>crom to launch himself. He never seemed to get the
<v Speaker 2>credit for everything he'd created, except from the boys who
<v Speaker 2>knew firsthand and made money off it. Really bothers me.
<v Speaker 2>Everything the Dudleys did going through the tables flaming tables,
<v Speaker 2>there were no tables before Sabou. Did he get a
<v Speaker 2>bunch of awards for it? I don't think so. Part
<v Speaker 2>of Saboo's problem was how introverted he was. He's shy
<v Speaker 2>and the furthest thing from a braggart. But if he'd
<v Speaker 2>blown his own horn a little louder, he might have
<v Speaker 2>gotten the money and the credit he deserved.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, didn't blow his own horn loudly enough. That's uh,
<v Speaker 8>that's a refrain about him. These refrains, of course, come
<v Speaker 8>from people who could have just paid him what he
<v Speaker 8>was worth if they wanted.
<v Speaker 2>To right the exactly could they could have offered to
<v Speaker 2>do that anyway, But.
<v Speaker 8>It became a thing because his table spots were his signature.
<v Speaker 8>He was part and parcel. He introduced the concept and
<v Speaker 8>wrestlers and ECW shows would start using tables on shows
<v Speaker 8>he wasn't on that particular Rock of Rock and the
<v Speaker 8>Public Enemy would use them, and it would in the beginning,
<v Speaker 8>it really pissed him off because it was like it
<v Speaker 8>was essentially like doing someone else's finisher. He was the
<v Speaker 8>only guy that would do tables, and pretty soon he
<v Speaker 8>had to give up because he had to capitulate because
<v Speaker 8>very soon, you know, ECW realized how crazy crowds went
<v Speaker 8>and how much buzz there was coming out of the
<v Speaker 8>show if they broke a table. So we've got to
<v Speaker 8>break tables on pretty much every show to keep them
<v Speaker 8>coming back and keep the buzz going. And if Sabu
<v Speaker 8>wasn't on the card and so be it, We're still
<v Speaker 8>going to break tables. And that's kind of how it
<v Speaker 8>started to take on a life of its own, spreading
<v Speaker 8>much like the fire on the ropes in the FMW match,
<v Speaker 8>and pretty soon the whole business was counting down the
<v Speaker 8>moments in a lot of pockets until someone broke a table,
<v Speaker 8>and that came over to WCW with public enemy in
<v Speaker 8>Saboo and many others. WWF of course started doing it.
<v Speaker 8>When Brett goes to the Table Survivors series ninety five,
<v Speaker 8>he says in his book he got the idea from Saboo.
<v Speaker 8>He got the idea from the attention Saboo is getting
<v Speaker 8>breaking tables, and we go from there. So that's kind
<v Speaker 8>of the second and third order effects of the thing
<v Speaker 8>Saboo was doing that. While it took place in small
<v Speaker 8>settings without huge exposure, or on circuits that people in
<v Speaker 8>the States didn't have the best access to like FMW,
<v Speaker 8>it still traveled far and wide enough in the business
<v Speaker 8>itself that had influenced what people who were in the
<v Speaker 8>spotlight were doing tremendously. And so that's kind of what
<v Speaker 8>people are talking about when they say Saboo influence an innovation.
<v Speaker 8>So the tables start breaking in ECW A funny note,
<v Speaker 8>or at least it's funny to me. Tommy Dreamer contributes
<v Speaker 8>a note, as do many of Sabou's ECW canots to
<v Speaker 8>Sabou's book, and he has this story about how they're
<v Speaker 8>sitting near him and Paul Hayman mesmerized by a person
<v Speaker 8>on the screen, was that Paul Hayman threw a tape
<v Speaker 8>in the VCR while hit. Him and Paul are sitting
<v Speaker 8>around watching it, and they see this Saboo, and pretty
<v Speaker 8>soon they bring in Saboo because they're so blown away
<v Speaker 8>by what they see on tape and Saboo. Ever, the
<v Speaker 8>Bullshit Detector puts an actual footnote to the to the
<v Speaker 8>contributed passage and says, Tommy, thank you so much for
<v Speaker 8>your story and kind words, but I just don't get it.
<v Speaker 8>Didn't we start with ECW on the same day after
<v Speaker 8>I cold called Todd there was really a private Saboo
<v Speaker 8>tape viewing with Paul first. Lol, that's pretty funny, as
<v Speaker 8>he knows he knows it's bullshit. Of course, Dreamer mentions
<v Speaker 8>two comedians talking over the action. I think he's talking
<v Speaker 8>about I think he's confusing it with the ICP doing
<v Speaker 8>their tape of the Cactus and Terry Funk death matches.
<v Speaker 8>Remember we talked about that during the Lapsed Funk. How
<v Speaker 8>in sant som Passe he had their video. I forgot
<v Speaker 8>what they called it but strangle many or something like that.
<v Speaker 8>Maybe that's what he's thinking of. But hilarious that Sabu
<v Speaker 8>both accepts and prints Tommy's tribute to him and then
<v Speaker 8>calls it out at the very end, but in a
<v Speaker 8>way that you know, isn't it's kind of funny, you know,
<v Speaker 8>He's yeah, he was pretty good about that. So Sabu eventually,
<v Speaker 8>as Todd mentioned, was quickly made ECW World Champion and
<v Speaker 8>originally came in with a gimmick which he hated of
<v Speaker 8>having a face mask over his mouth, not unlike the
<v Speaker 8>Sultan mask that Rakeishi would wear in WWF and it
<v Speaker 8>wouldn't Oh funny prize me a. Fince saw that and
<v Speaker 8>got ideas from there about how to work the gimmick.
<v Speaker 3>We have now.
<v Speaker 8>This is available on YouTube as well. Shane Douglas, who
<v Speaker 8>of course was in ECW and kind of office as
<v Speaker 8>well and famously threw down the NWA Championship about a
<v Speaker 8>year after the formation of Eastern Championship Wrestling to declare
<v Speaker 8>and meant the new ECW title. They had the wonderful
<v Speaker 8>three way with Funk, Sabu and Shane Douglas as well,
<v Speaker 8>and one of the early night the line crossed matches
<v Speaker 8>in ECW the world title. Here is a SABO claiming
<v Speaker 8>e c W gold for the first time, all the
<v Speaker 8>way back in nineteen ninety three.
<v Speaker 2>Do you have it? I haven't me too. One play.
<v Speaker 7>Fire, Fire Fire.
<v Speaker 10>MTV may not have the k to back up Beavis
<v Speaker 10>and butt Head, but the Dangerous Allions backs up anything
<v Speaker 10>Paul Dangerously wants to.
<v Speaker 3>Do or say.
<v Speaker 10>For example, I'd like to say right now that you
<v Speaker 10>people in Philadelphia are just a little bit too hard
<v Speaker 10>on your hometown baseball team. It's not the Phillies fault
<v Speaker 10>that Joe Carter stepped up to the play Championship Series
<v Speaker 10>hit the ball right out of the ballpark. No, no, no, no,
<v Speaker 10>it's not Jim Fragosi's fault that he couldn't manage a.
<v Speaker 17>Team like.
<v Speaker 3>Find way to get the local fans attention.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, he's a baseball a bunch of free agents for
<v Speaker 10>in Canada.
<v Speaker 2>No, not at all.
<v Speaker 10>It's not your fault that you believe in a guy
<v Speaker 10>that they call wild thing. You make my heart sing
<v Speaker 10>and my bookie just a little bit richer because I
<v Speaker 10>bet against you. No, it's not the Phillies fault that
<v Speaker 10>they blew the World Series. It's not the Phillies fault
<v Speaker 10>that they had fourteen runs in one game and still
<v Speaker 10>couldn't win. It's not the Phillies fault that they were
<v Speaker 10>ahead in Game six and blew the lead. It's not
<v Speaker 10>their fault at all that they blew the World Series.
<v Speaker 10>For one of anti Americans from the North.
<v Speaker 2>Not at all anti American Bee.
<v Speaker 10>They're from Philadelphia.
<v Speaker 6>They were born to lose.
<v Speaker 10>Everybody in Philadelphia is a loser.
<v Speaker 14>Just ask me.
<v Speaker 10>I'm from New York. I can spot winners and losers
<v Speaker 10>all the time. For example, everybody for the state of
<v Speaker 10>Pennsylvania is a stinking loser. Just ask your ECWAA champion,
<v Speaker 10>the franchise from Pittsburgh, Shane Douglas.
<v Speaker 2>He could have been the lead member in.
<v Speaker 10>The Dangerous Alliance, but ohten he had to listen to
<v Speaker 10>a stinking broad that I hired to take care of him.
<v Speaker 10>But that's ok hey, because Shane and Sherry, you're still not.
<v Speaker 3>Out of the Dangerous Eliar. Sherry Martell, you're.
<v Speaker 2>On double secret proption.
<v Speaker 10>And if you want to be back in with poly
<v Speaker 10>Dangerously and Saboo, if you want to make the Dangerous.
<v Speaker 3>Elm Paul was managing sabot the nw A.
<v Speaker 10>All you gotta do is drop down to your hands,
<v Speaker 10>hang your knees, look up towards me and say, yes,
<v Speaker 10>bully dangerously, we recognize you for the great man you.
<v Speaker 6>Shame goes this.
<v Speaker 8>Species sad man with his wife Peaches. This is when
<v Speaker 8>he was sadman, a fucking surfer guy. Look at his
<v Speaker 8>body suit and I.
<v Speaker 2>Guess I know that why he was a sad man,
<v Speaker 2>because it was right the surfer guy who was on
<v Speaker 2>the sand.
<v Speaker 8>And had nothing to do with the sand in your
<v Speaker 8>eyes when you fall asleep and Thatallica song at first
<v Speaker 8>I've had that belt. The Buddies with Todd Gordon be.
<v Speaker 2>There again all right as we just heard the Sandman. Wow,
<v Speaker 2>oh my god.
<v Speaker 19>Shay for the feature match of the evening, for the
<v Speaker 19>Easy You Heavyweight Championship, the champion the franchise Shane Douglas
<v Speaker 19>with sensational Sherry Martel at his corner to go one
<v Speaker 19>on one against the Saldman, who has his final words
<v Speaker 19>before this big championship matchup. He's back in the dressing
<v Speaker 19>room with Peaches at his side.
<v Speaker 2>See that is how.
<v Speaker 3>Sadman out cult in the locker room. I don't believe
<v Speaker 3>it for you?
<v Speaker 19>Oh my god, what is that with him?
<v Speaker 3>Todd Gordon?
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, he is the fucking worst. That poor
<v Speaker 2>alcoholic looks like a guy doing a fucking uh uh
<v Speaker 2>uh like a local furniture commercial.
<v Speaker 3>Abolutely, I am show.
<v Speaker 7>The manager of record a franchise Shane Douglas, and I
<v Speaker 7>can wait.
<v Speaker 9>And he calls in his.
<v Speaker 6>Contract such as the substitution clause.
<v Speaker 20>I can agree obstitution Claus Tonight, substitution for Saint Douglas sad.
<v Speaker 7>Broken flow.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, comes Sherry Martell Leader Championship, Shane Dog.
<v Speaker 2>Look at that holy ship.
<v Speaker 21>Guy Jug has no idea what is in stort for him.
<v Speaker 7>He thinks he's got a rematch with the Sandman.
<v Speaker 13>Little does he know Taboo.
<v Speaker 19>Is ready to come out here and hit this arena
<v Speaker 19>like a whirl whist.
<v Speaker 5>Oh Paul, he.
<v Speaker 7>Dangerously has outdone even himself this time.
<v Speaker 19>Not that I'm a big fan of the franchise Shane Douglas,
<v Speaker 19>but he should.
<v Speaker 2>At least know who his opponent is gonna be. What
<v Speaker 2>what is he going to do when Taboo hit.
<v Speaker 3>His head of electric immicks?
<v Speaker 14>Unbelievable?
<v Speaker 19>E DW Heavyweight Title Match has Here goes Saboo.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, dangerously kicking and screaming on the curtains.
<v Speaker 2>Cannibal. We look at the look on what a psycho yuppy.
<v Speaker 2>It's not for everyone, and you're not for anyone.
<v Speaker 7>We've seen what Taboo can do.
<v Speaker 19>He's tried to tear this arena down just weeks ago
<v Speaker 19>here on Sport Channel.
<v Speaker 2>This man is a.
<v Speaker 3>Mania Sports Channel. That's it's the first to declare.
<v Speaker 6>Elector was somewhat, says Pauli.
<v Speaker 2>Now doing is something that he's handlers.
<v Speaker 7>What did he do? What place did he casually have?
<v Speaker 8>Just so I already got the front row straw hat guy.
<v Speaker 2>Golly yeah, that a big show.
<v Speaker 8>Oh my god, looks like it. Oh, Sherry tackles Pouli.
<v Speaker 8>Saboo's in there, going after Sherry. Shane takes over Ram
<v Speaker 8>Saboo and the buckle and here we go popping the jab.
<v Speaker 2>Shane Douglas blue chipper.
<v Speaker 8>It's an athlete, he's a blue chipper. Cherry's going off
<v Speaker 8>rose line drops Saboo.
<v Speaker 2>I'll tell you what you know, that would be. That's
<v Speaker 2>one of the just fucking flops last I would love.
<v Speaker 2>That's like a that's a Dream right there to get
<v Speaker 2>beaten up by Sherry mark Uh.
<v Speaker 8>Slamming an elbow drop by Douglas tasseled boot. It's looking
<v Speaker 8>like Kerry van Eric out there. Yeah right as a
<v Speaker 8>personnel helped Polly to the back of the DCW arena.
<v Speaker 8>Douglas has perched Hayman's charge. Saboo on the top rope
<v Speaker 8>super plex on order.
<v Speaker 2>Oh boy, score.
<v Speaker 8>Sabo goes flying across the road. Crowd's all into Sabo Man.
<v Speaker 8>They're chitting.
<v Speaker 2>His name.
<v Speaker 8>Is now becoming part and parcel of DCW identity.
<v Speaker 2>With a pinstriped jacket on on Hayman.
<v Speaker 8>It's funny to still see him operating as a man
<v Speaker 8>of journey CW more than boss yep. Cherry even has
<v Speaker 8>his telephone in her hand. Whips reverse. Douglas hits the buckle,
<v Speaker 8>Saboo ducks enterneath backdrop, Driver drops him on his head.
<v Speaker 8>Saboo scrambles to the top. Douglas is prone moon salt press.
<v Speaker 8>He scores with a clap in midair, covered by Sabou
<v Speaker 8>too new chant.
<v Speaker 2>Anyway, Oh God. He was gonna go for some more,
<v Speaker 2>but they grabbed him.
<v Speaker 8>They immediately have to restrain him after the match because
<v Speaker 8>he's going to kill somebody, so they hold him.
<v Speaker 2>He's kicking it. Homicidal after genocidal.
<v Speaker 8>That's where a lot of that comes from. Is this
<v Speaker 8>gimmick with Hayman hoisting the belt and being held back
<v Speaker 8>by three guys.
<v Speaker 2>D B d d B d B d b d
<v Speaker 2>b d b d b d b d b d
<v Speaker 2>b B.
<v Speaker 3>There's nine one one or as uh this place, I've exploded.
<v Speaker 2>We're back and just a week and a half can
<v Speaker 2>kill it.
<v Speaker 1>There wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys
<v Speaker 1>need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan. He's the Lapsed
<v Speaker 1>Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnaco and JP.
<v Speaker 8>Sorrow and nine one one, also known in the AI
<v Speaker 8>read audiobook of Sabu's book, also known as nine hundred eleven.
<v Speaker 3>That's they were for.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, of course ridiculous makes sense.
<v Speaker 8>Uh so Sabu is now the world champ, so they
<v Speaker 8>bring him in with a with a lot of pop
<v Speaker 8>and circums, pomp and circumstance after calling Gordon.
<v Speaker 2>So there he is.
<v Speaker 8>This heirs in late November ninety three, and it's actually
<v Speaker 8>Terry Funk, as mentioned back in the Lapsed Funk that
<v Speaker 8>takes the title off Saboo for his first ECW title
<v Speaker 8>birth December twenty sixth, nineteen ninety three at Holiday Hell
<v Speaker 8>in Philadelphia, So Saboo and Terry Funk crossing paths in
<v Speaker 8>ECW there for the first time as well. Remember this
<v Speaker 8>is the era where Terry Funk is at ringside apologizing
<v Speaker 8>for the god awful first ECW show. Remember that, please
<v Speaker 8>please give us another chance. We know this wasn't the best.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, you know I went ahead and gave it a shot,
<v Speaker 2>But I want to go ahead and an offer to say, hey,
<v Speaker 2>forgive us, Please forgive us our seat, I guess.
<v Speaker 3>And accept our offer of future patronage.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we're here to I want to dance again for you. Oh,
<v Speaker 2>he would give me one more shot. He would say,
<v Speaker 2>I want to dance again for you. It's exactly what
<v Speaker 2>he'd say. Well, you want to know, it's a real
<v Speaker 2>mind fuck. And people didn't know this for years and
<v Speaker 2>years and years later. But at the same time Octoberber
<v Speaker 2>of ninety three that Sabu was first coming truly to
<v Speaker 2>the forefront and ECW winning the championship for the first
<v Speaker 2>time before cameras rolled at the Manhattan Center. Oh, boy.
<v Speaker 2>Now we're talking.
<v Speaker 8>Prior to an episode of Monday Night Raw. I believe
<v Speaker 8>the precise date I have it here. We're talking October eighteenth,
<v Speaker 8>nineteen ninety three. Sabou Wow gets a dark match for
<v Speaker 8>WWF wow Sa who gets a tryout this early in
<v Speaker 8>his development. He hasn't really become the table smashing machine.
<v Speaker 8>He hasn't had that landmark nineteen ninety four where he
<v Speaker 8>was voted reader's favorite wrestler and the Wrestling Observer and
<v Speaker 8>came in like number two for Wrestler of the Year
<v Speaker 8>and all this despite not competing anywhere near the brightest
<v Speaker 8>spotlights in the business. Though he would get into a
<v Speaker 8>high level at New Japan, so there was quite a
<v Speaker 8>big exposure there coming. But yes, this is a match
<v Speaker 8>that no one really knew about until we got to
<v Speaker 8>the point where people were making complete results lists on
<v Speaker 8>the internet and stuff and collecting and collating everything that
<v Speaker 8>was known. And this match actually surfaced when WWF started
<v Speaker 8>going through and trying to post, you know, hidden gems.
<v Speaker 8>They found the Saboo Scott Wow Scott Taylor dark match
<v Speaker 8>before Raw October eighteenth, nineteen ninty three. It's everywhere now,
<v Speaker 8>of course, Scott Taylor, the Future Scotty Too Hotty and
<v Speaker 8>the tag team Too Cool with Brian Lawler aka Grandmaster Sexa.
<v Speaker 8>But before he worked full time for WWF, he was
<v Speaker 8>just getting an opportunity to shine vis a vis Saboo.
<v Speaker 8>Here in this episode of Raw, we're going to take
<v Speaker 8>a look at it now. So the Saboo that you've
<v Speaker 8>been seeing as out of the lane as he seems
<v Speaker 8>to be with his approach, he got WWF's attention sufficient
<v Speaker 8>that he's going out there to show his stuff. So
<v Speaker 8>it's always fascinating to watch a guy basically trying out
<v Speaker 8>and auditioning for the job instead of already having it.
<v Speaker 8>So if you're ready, I'm ready. I'm ready to one play.
<v Speaker 8>Even have the time code on the screen.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>So crazy to think about going to the show and
<v Speaker 2>see that's not the Manhattan Center. What's that. That's not
<v Speaker 2>the Manhattan Center.
<v Speaker 3>Oh it's somewhere else.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, yeah, because the Manhattan Center is you know, it's
<v Speaker 2>got the the stage looks like it's a theater.
<v Speaker 3>I guess by October ninety three they were going elsewhere.
<v Speaker 7>Weighing two hundred twenty two pounds, Scott Taylor.
<v Speaker 2>Tailor.
<v Speaker 3>Can't see the word tailor.
<v Speaker 7>From Bombay, India.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, well you ain't.
<v Speaker 7>Two hundred and seventeen.
<v Speaker 8>Slides in the ring, diving at legs Ray, Look at him,
<v Speaker 8>he's nuts.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, look at him. He's a maniac. Yeah, ringing that bell,
<v Speaker 2>Timmy White, he's fucking crazy.
<v Speaker 8>There's a love of leg dives he did. Those are
<v Speaker 8>so effective, got his character over a meeting.
<v Speaker 2>It's a very I will say that's a very. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>It's a unique thing because it's it it it you know,
<v Speaker 2>people aren't expecting that.
<v Speaker 8>This time it's working. Is taking Scott Taylor down. Usually
<v Speaker 8>he misses them. This is an elbow drop tailor avoiding
<v Speaker 8>the impact single leg of his own to the half crab.
<v Speaker 8>It's a saboo without you know, all the without all
<v Speaker 8>the bells and whistles. He can't break any tables, a
<v Speaker 8>ton of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>He can't do work a limb.
<v Speaker 2>Brother, Yep, look at that. I caa pro. I know
<v Speaker 2>you gotta want it. Well, we do support integrated conditioning
<v Speaker 2>program programmatics have such difficulty. But that ww F logo
<v Speaker 2>and saboo in the ring, I yes, I mean it's
<v Speaker 2>it's it's I mean I'll tell you what I mean.
<v Speaker 2>I have difficulty. This is gonna be I bet it's Poughkeepsie.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, you're probably right, scoop and slam out to the
<v Speaker 8>age of Sabo with the leg drop.
<v Speaker 2>But like seeing the old raw logo like that and
<v Speaker 2>him in the ring, and I don't you know, it's
<v Speaker 2>not the same as the uh uh you know when
<v Speaker 2>the Raw letters were out there. This is this is
<v Speaker 2>like really old school, way.
<v Speaker 8>Before that era. I want to call it an era.
<v Speaker 8>So Sabo was able to show a little bit of
<v Speaker 8>stuff with that outside and leg drop. A versal on
<v Speaker 8>the whip now back flips over Scott Taylor's back and
<v Speaker 8>hits the flying spin kick. Wow, cut applauding.
<v Speaker 2>You think, uh, you think Scott he'll do the wormy
<v Speaker 2>He's gonna get to fly too, sling shot flipped. I
<v Speaker 2>didn't see that.
<v Speaker 8>A lot back then, not at all. After some applause,
<v Speaker 8>crowd's impressed to some degree. The Sabou try that way
<v Speaker 8>on that how different it would be if they hired him?
<v Speaker 2>You know we well you know, we got we got
<v Speaker 2>sam Ou. We might as well have Samoo, all right,
<v Speaker 2>we had it, We could have Saboo samoo fattoo. He
<v Speaker 2>didn't even fucking Scotty didn't even fucking catch him. He
<v Speaker 2>does a sign moon salt. He just freaking a sim
<v Speaker 2>moon salt. The nineteen ninety three on.
<v Speaker 8>Legs hit the guardrail. The crowd standing up with their
<v Speaker 8>hands over their mouths, like, what the fuck did he
<v Speaker 8>just do to himself? Children there like almost dying outstanding,
<v Speaker 8>like did he just do that? They can't reprocess it?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, not at all.
<v Speaker 8>Imagine how different would be if they signed him off this.
<v Speaker 8>He was like a WWF for ninety three. Yeah, backup
<v Speaker 8>which reverse now Taylor with the backdrop sadly hits hard.
<v Speaker 3>Taylor with a big right.
<v Speaker 8>The closest thing they had to a junior heavyweight style
<v Speaker 8>that Scott Taylor get hired back ninety seven for the
<v Speaker 8>light heavyweight tournament.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah out of Maine.
<v Speaker 3>Oh he was in that room. Yeah, Scott Taylor.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, oh oh oh was talking about Sabo.
<v Speaker 3>Oh No, Scott Taylor was because they got forward.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah that I knew that. I do remember Scott Taylor
<v Speaker 2>being on that thing. It's like Bob Holly, Oh my god,
<v Speaker 2>Bob Holly, like bodacious Bob, like Midnight Express Bob Holly.
<v Speaker 8>Saboo in all fours, Scott Taylor climbing the rope, Saboo
<v Speaker 8>catches up to him. He's it, gonna get to do
<v Speaker 8>the Superhokan raana in this dark matter.
<v Speaker 2>I think so.
<v Speaker 3>It would launch from the side instead of.
<v Speaker 2>No fucking way, you kidding it?
<v Speaker 3>Foot wasn't on the inside.
<v Speaker 2>Oh he did it? Yeah, kid. The kid in the
<v Speaker 2>back stood up like what the fuck?
<v Speaker 8>Okay, such a cool thing to remember going to see. Yeah,
<v Speaker 8>sat with the knucklelock running the ropes, back flips off
<v Speaker 8>the top and I saw him that didn't get him
<v Speaker 8>a job right there?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, on his knees.
<v Speaker 8>Here comes Arabian Press. He's using the ropes in ways
<v Speaker 8>no one else was. I think that's a three off
<v Speaker 8>the Arabian Press. Very nice, a crowd applauding per f.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not bad, kid, not bad, not bad at all,
<v Speaker 2>and I enjoyed your maneuvering athleticism. I believe that you
<v Speaker 2>know there may come a time when we will be
<v Speaker 2>needing the efforts that you put forth in said contest.
<v Speaker 8>However, as I continue reading this letter telling you not
<v Speaker 8>to come back.
<v Speaker 2>Oh I believe Well, I didn't say many time. Soon
<v Speaker 2>I said someday, maybe in say two thousand and six.
<v Speaker 8>I can assure you today it's not that day. Yes,
<v Speaker 8>So I don't know, I mean, nothing exceptional, but for
<v Speaker 8>the time, my god, like.
<v Speaker 2>I'm actually surprised he didn't get a contract based on
<v Speaker 2>that stuff.
<v Speaker 8>I wonder what they didn't see that they would have
<v Speaker 8>been looking for.
<v Speaker 2>There.
<v Speaker 8>He did blow a spot there coming off the backflip.
<v Speaker 8>He was doing some things where it's kind of like,
<v Speaker 8>what was that about?
<v Speaker 2>What was that for?
<v Speaker 8>But for the most part, he's really capturing the crowd's
<v Speaker 8>attention and doing things they don't expect. It's pretty Uh yeah,
<v Speaker 8>I don't know. I think it's meritorious in some ways,
<v Speaker 8>and it's it's it's fascinating that he's out there doing
<v Speaker 8>like non insanity. This is kind of before that. We
<v Speaker 8>just saw her win the title from Shane Douglas and
<v Speaker 8>there was no particular hijinks in that match. It was
<v Speaker 8>all based on.
<v Speaker 3>Story and angles.
<v Speaker 2>Yep. Right.
<v Speaker 8>One of the things Sabou would later decry about ECW
<v Speaker 8>during one of his falling outs with a company was
<v Speaker 8>that they they had no like anchor to sport. They
<v Speaker 8>weren't trying to present a sport. He was saying, everything's
<v Speaker 8>an angle. Everything's an angle. There's nothing that is in angle,
<v Speaker 8>including the big blowoff match and the blowout feud.
<v Speaker 2>And that is true.
<v Speaker 8>I mean sure he would you know, Paul would make
<v Speaker 8>every match just like a car crash, full of consequences
<v Speaker 8>for future directions, as opposed to necessarily this is the
<v Speaker 8>night where the guy finally wins the belt. He would overload,
<v Speaker 8>overload segments and matches with all kinds of far reaching
<v Speaker 8>significance for the characters involved. But we decided that since
<v Speaker 8>this is kind of a hidden gem moment in Sabo's
<v Speaker 8>career and Scott Taylor stood at an interesting juncture of
<v Speaker 8>Sabou being where he was and where he was going,
<v Speaker 8>that we would reach out to the future Scotty too
<v Speaker 8>haughty to get his recollections on working Saboo in this
<v Speaker 8>long forgotten matchup.
<v Speaker 11>And here he is now, Hey, JP, this is the
<v Speaker 11>master of the Worm Scotty Quetty, Happy Father's Day and.
<v Speaker 15>For the NFANDO.
<v Speaker 11>I'm actually doing this for my car, trying to get
<v Speaker 11>this done as quickly as possible for you. I just
<v Speaker 11>landed important remain a couple hours ago, I have a
<v Speaker 11>show here tomorrow night. Was in Chicago last night with
<v Speaker 11>Ady W. I think actually the show tomorrow is in Westbrookline,
<v Speaker 11>which is like town of playing this car playing the
<v Speaker 11>music coming back to here in wrestling, across the street
<v Speaker 11>from the high school that I actually went to.
<v Speaker 15>Us thirty years ago. So Tay, thanks for asking about Saboo. Dude,
<v Speaker 15>he was always very cool to me. And as far
<v Speaker 15>as that match in ninety three.
<v Speaker 11>Goes, it was what they call a dark match, which
<v Speaker 11>is basically a non televised match was to do before television,
<v Speaker 11>a television taping.
<v Speaker 15>And at the time, dude, I was twenty years old.
<v Speaker 11>Which is crazy because my son is now wrestling and
<v Speaker 11>he's exactly the same age as I was when I
<v Speaker 11>wrestled Sabou. And you know, and you got to think this, Uh,
<v Speaker 11>that match happened before Sabu had really made a name
<v Speaker 11>for himself, at least in the United States.
<v Speaker 15>He may have done some stuff in Japan, you know.
<v Speaker 15>I know I'd heard of him at the time.
<v Speaker 11>Uh, but it was you know, pre ECW So it
<v Speaker 11>wasn't good to become that Saboo yet really.
<v Speaker 2>And uh, he he was ahead of his time. If
<v Speaker 2>you look at you you know.
<v Speaker 11>I just watched that match back myself the other day,
<v Speaker 11>and uh, he was doing stuff that nobody else was doing.
<v Speaker 15>And uh, it's funny they put him with me. You know,
<v Speaker 15>I was just an extra at the time.
<v Speaker 17>I wasn't under contract yet, and uh, there weren't really
<v Speaker 17>a lot of guys on that roster at the time
<v Speaker 17>that would have been able to work that style with
<v Speaker 17>him in a in.
<v Speaker 15>A dark match, you know.
<v Speaker 11>And I know there was Owen Hart and Sean Michaels,
<v Speaker 11>but those guys weren't really in the position to me,
<v Speaker 11>you know, doing doing that.
<v Speaker 2>At the time.
<v Speaker 3>You know, we were higher up on the card.
<v Speaker 11>So but now he was always good doing a man
<v Speaker 11>and uh, you know we crossed paths many times over
<v Speaker 11>the years, and uh mostly in Europe for a company
<v Speaker 11>called a w R.
<v Speaker 15>Which was based out of Ireland, and we did, uh
<v Speaker 15>we did like two or three league tours.
<v Speaker 3>And when you were when you're on tour with.
<v Speaker 11>Somebody for for that long, you know, you kind of
<v Speaker 11>created a bomb with him, and it's a very cool thing,
<v Speaker 11>you know.
<v Speaker 15>So again, dude, thanks for ask and I hope I
<v Speaker 15>answered everything.
<v Speaker 11>Uh the way you were hoping and hoping get to
<v Speaker 11>meet you in presson one day. JP again, Happy Father's Day,
<v Speaker 11>and I hope you see down the road.
<v Speaker 2>Take it easy about happy Father, don't He sounded like
<v Speaker 2>six times? And it's did I maybe maybe maybe when
<v Speaker 2>I when I put it, I put father.
<v Speaker 3>That sounds like it to me. There's no other reason
<v Speaker 3>for I mentioned it.
<v Speaker 2>That happens. I mean because it was around Mother's Day
<v Speaker 2>when I made the that's the weird thing. But anyway, so, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's funny.
<v Speaker 8>He mentions owen Hard because yeah, Sabo did have a
<v Speaker 8>dark match with owen Hart really after the Scott Taylor one.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so he was available. Now I don't know what.
<v Speaker 8>Maybe that was the match that they determined, you know,
<v Speaker 8>yeay or nay on Saboo. Wonder if Brett remembers that,
<v Speaker 8>but I don't think so.
<v Speaker 2>And uh, that was it.
<v Speaker 8>That was it for Saboo and the dark matches on
<v Speaker 8>this run and he's back to CW and then Japan
<v Speaker 8>as well, in and around Philadelphia. This from the July
<v Speaker 8>twenty first, nineteen ninety four Philadelphia Inquirer, Just to snippet
<v Speaker 8>here in a large article about ECW where real Yeah,
<v Speaker 8>we get kind of one of the first I guess
<v Speaker 8>you could say. Mainstream press mentions of Sabu Peace reads
<v Speaker 8>ECW wrestlers include ring legends like super Fly Jimmy Snook,
<v Speaker 8>and probable champions like Mikey Ripwreck, who was squashed in
<v Speaker 8>every bout but still manages to win, and popular newcomer
<v Speaker 8>nine one one, not his real name, who has become
<v Speaker 8>a fan favored in the two months since he made
<v Speaker 8>his ECWW. Nine one one looks like the biggest, scariest,
<v Speaker 8>long haired, tattooed biker you ever saw. He stands six
<v Speaker 8>foot six and weighs three hundred and ten pounds and
<v Speaker 8>has hands the size of Catcher's mits. His wrestling specialty
<v Speaker 8>as a choke slam, in which he grips an opponent
<v Speaker 8>by the neck with one hand, lifts him off the
<v Speaker 8>floor with one arm, and then slams him into the ring.
<v Speaker 8>Don't try this at home, boys and girls. On Saturday Night,
<v Speaker 8>nine one one's one arm choke slammed a member of
<v Speaker 8>a number of unfortunates, including mister Hugh, an ECW wrestler
<v Speaker 8>who weighs a modest three hundred and fifty pounds. The
<v Speaker 8>impact from that particular slam may have caused atmospheric disturbances
<v Speaker 8>on Jupiter. Afterward, nine one one's psycho yuppie manager Polly
<v Speaker 8>Dangerously Hayman grabbed the ring microphone and shouted, that's what
<v Speaker 8>happens when you pick up a phone and call nine
<v Speaker 8>one one. As the ECW fans took up the chant
<v Speaker 8>nine nine one one, Hayman, who is Gordon's partner in
<v Speaker 8>the ECW Enterprise, discovered quote unquote nine one one, who
<v Speaker 8>was working in a biker bar in New York. He
<v Speaker 8>was the biggest guy I could find, he said. I
<v Speaker 8>met him through a friend of mine who's a Hell's angel.
<v Speaker 8>I needed a guy who could control this wrestler, Saboo,
<v Speaker 8>who is the epitome, Hayman says, the epitome of what.
<v Speaker 3>We do, Saboo.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, he didn't say what we did short, and I.
<v Speaker 8>Don't think he meant the wrestling business. I think he
<v Speaker 8>met ECW in particular. But what we do we do
<v Speaker 8>is Sabo. Sabu is what we do here at ECW.
<v Speaker 8>What we do here at ECW, Saboo is what we do. Saboo,
<v Speaker 8>Hayman says, is wrestling to the extreme. He's hardcore, he's
<v Speaker 8>death defying. He'll stand on the top rope and do
<v Speaker 8>a backflip into the seats.
<v Speaker 3>Ah.
<v Speaker 8>Yes, The article reads, Saboo nine one one was hired
<v Speaker 8>originally to wheel Sabou into the arena, masked and chained
<v Speaker 8>to a dolly like Hannibal electer. Saboo's arms, legs, chest
<v Speaker 8>and back are heavily scarred from past experiences and barbed
<v Speaker 8>wire matches and other encounters with sharp objects. His specialty
<v Speaker 8>is leaping from the ropes and splintering tables at ringside.
<v Speaker 8>During his bout Saturday with ECW Heavyweight Championship the franchise Douglas,
<v Speaker 8>Sabou attempted to finish off the apparently semi conscious champion,
<v Speaker 8>whom Sabou had propped up on a table outside the ring.
<v Speaker 8>As Sabu was doing a backflip off the ropes in
<v Speaker 8>an attempt to stomp the franchise on the face, Douglas
<v Speaker 8>suddenly moved and Saboo landed on his head on the
<v Speaker 8>concrete floor and had to be carried off on a stretcher.
<v Speaker 8>No one's ever been able to stretcher this guy before,
<v Speaker 8>said Gordon, as Sabou was carted away.
<v Speaker 2>Hmm wow.
<v Speaker 8>So yeah, you read that and you're like, who's this
<v Speaker 8>fucking guy? Yeah, what's the deal with this? Sabu would
<v Speaker 8>also make the cover of the Winter nineteen ninety four
<v Speaker 8>issue of The Wrestler, right next to Hulk Hogan as
<v Speaker 8>just the butt Wow. Ye, the buzz about this guy.
<v Speaker 8>The Wrestler, of course, being an after magazine's kind of
<v Speaker 8>like the second I thought of it as like the
<v Speaker 8>secondary magazine. Yeah yeah, and Inside Do you think Inside
<v Speaker 8>was bigger?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? The Wrestler, Um, I don't know. I probably thought
<v Speaker 2>of them about as equal. I mean, Pro Wrestling Illustrated
<v Speaker 2>obviously was the number one. Yeah, but about equal, I
<v Speaker 2>would say.
<v Speaker 8>And they had this this this approach for the Winter
<v Speaker 8>ninety four issue. It was kind of a year in
<v Speaker 8>review where they went alphabetically do you remember this feature
<v Speaker 8>like a to Z And it'd be.
<v Speaker 2>Like, uh, oh, I do, vaguely, vaguely. I remember that.
<v Speaker 8>It was like a would be for arn Anderson and
<v Speaker 8>they just do a little blurb about him and athleticism
<v Speaker 8>or acrobat And when I got to ask, you better
<v Speaker 8>believe asses for Saboo and he's moon sulting onto Terry
<v Speaker 8>Funk in a still image with his Wow yellow and
<v Speaker 8>green on and reads esses for Saboo maniacal master of
<v Speaker 8>pure ring Mayhem. Anyone wondering about the future of professional
<v Speaker 8>wrestling need only watch a Sabou match to get the answer.
<v Speaker 8>His moon salts, smashing of press tables, and general devil
<v Speaker 8>may care attitude have made him the most talked about
<v Speaker 8>wrestler on the independent circuit today. Not only do fans
<v Speaker 8>marvel at his talent, they wonder how his body manages
<v Speaker 8>to withstand such incredible punishment.
<v Speaker 2>So do we that's true.
<v Speaker 8>So that's how he's being written up. And if you
<v Speaker 8>read that in an After mag in nineteen eighty four,
<v Speaker 8>you want to see this guy, that's the thing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, Oh well, I don't know. I didn't really care,
<v Speaker 2>but I see it.
<v Speaker 8>Do you see him at all in the magazines before
<v Speaker 8>you saw him in action in the ring?
<v Speaker 2>I must have. I knew who he was. I must
<v Speaker 2>have at some point seen him. I really don't remember,
<v Speaker 2>but I was familiar with him, you know, like I
<v Speaker 2>knew guys like Sabu and like Rob Van Dam and Taz.
<v Speaker 2>I knew their names, so I must have seen them
<v Speaker 2>in the magazines at some point.
<v Speaker 8>I don't remember either when I saw him for the
<v Speaker 8>first time. I do remember being he's one of those
<v Speaker 8>wrestlers that I remember seeing in still photography before I
<v Speaker 8>ever saw in video. Yes, oh yeah, you don't forget that,
<v Speaker 8>you know, because it's like, oh, this is that guy.
<v Speaker 8>You know, you had that extra bit of context when
<v Speaker 8>you see them in motion. But as break through a
<v Speaker 8>year as nineteen ninety four was for Sabo, as you know,
<v Speaker 8>kind of the wrestling press such as it was, and
<v Speaker 8>the internet fans and the newsletter fans got hip to
<v Speaker 8>what this guy was up to and some of the
<v Speaker 8>revolutionary things he was doing in the ring, it all
<v Speaker 8>hit a brick wall. At the end of nineteen ninety four,
<v Speaker 8>the November to Remember pay per view, Sabu came up
<v Speaker 8>against a guy he wrestled quite a bit with and
<v Speaker 8>had quite a quite a working relationship with, in Chris Benwah.
<v Speaker 8>They worked in New Japan together and had those connections
<v Speaker 8>there and stateside. Sabu played no small part in getting
<v Speaker 8>a Crispin Wan into ECW as well on all the
<v Speaker 8>visa things that had to get worked out. Sabu at
<v Speaker 8>this point had joined up with the Taz Maniac the
<v Speaker 8>future Taz as ECW World Tag Team Champions and Chris
<v Speaker 8>bin wib was teaming with Dean Malenko and they would
<v Speaker 8>have a three way feud with the Public Enemy. That
<v Speaker 8>was pretty much the hottest issue in ECW, but it
<v Speaker 8>would introduce kind of an awkward situation because his hottest
<v Speaker 8>saboo was as a single star. Paul really saw the
<v Speaker 8>money and him and Taz for a while as tag
<v Speaker 8>team champions, And this is before Taz is the human
<v Speaker 8>souplex machine. This is when he's still kind of like
<v Speaker 8>that aborigine monster guide, just like a caveman, the Tazmaniac,
<v Speaker 8>but he was a maniac much like Sabo was, and
<v Speaker 8>so thematically they thought it fit together. But Sabu was
<v Speaker 8>never really that keen on working as a tag team wrestler,
<v Speaker 8>especially exclusively, and I think there was a lot of
<v Speaker 8>kind of borderline I want to say, resentment from Sabu,
<v Speaker 8>but he was kind of being, you know, a little
<v Speaker 8>difficult to work with around the fact that he didn't
<v Speaker 8>really want to propagate this idea that his future was
<v Speaker 8>as a tag team wrestler. I think he wanted singles
<v Speaker 8>run and wanted to keep the attention there and if
<v Speaker 8>New Japan was willing to offer single spotlight and with ECW,
<v Speaker 8>even if it was the main event of the show,
<v Speaker 8>wanted to do with him was tag team related, he
<v Speaker 8>would probably tilt in one direction in the other. To
<v Speaker 8>say nothing of the fact that ECW was like a
<v Speaker 8>one thousand dollars pay day every month and New Japan
<v Speaker 8>could be a six thousand dollars pay day for like
<v Speaker 8>a tour on a regular clip, so it was paying better.
<v Speaker 8>And he was trying to make money in the business
<v Speaker 8>and trying to find a way to monetize all this
<v Speaker 8>buzz around his name. And he comes across Chris Benoit
<v Speaker 8>at the nineteen ninety four November to Remember and Chris
<v Speaker 8>Benoit accidentally breaks Saboo's neck. Jezus, you've never seen this
<v Speaker 8>clip before. No, So what we're going to watch is
<v Speaker 8>not just the clip, but it's the clip as it's
<v Speaker 8>featured in the chrispin wa ww document Henry they came
<v Speaker 8>out with after he won the title in two thousand
<v Speaker 8>and four. So it's got Chris ben Wah doing an
<v Speaker 8>interview as well spliced in well, shit, I must have
<v Speaker 8>seen this then, you watched the documentary I had, I
<v Speaker 8>had the DVD set. I mean listen, like anybody, I
<v Speaker 8>was such a big Ben Wah fan at thet in
<v Speaker 8>two thousand and four, like I wanted everything that I
<v Speaker 8>could get, And fascinatingly, not only was Ben Wan ECW
<v Speaker 8>with Sabu, he also got WCW and WWF tryouts just
<v Speaker 8>like Sabu did, just like the moment we just saw
<v Speaker 8>wow several dark matches on Challenge tapings and things for WWF,
<v Speaker 8>and then of course he was in WCW and on
<v Speaker 8>television throughout ninety three. He wrestled Mark Bagwell on a
<v Speaker 8>TV taping. We talked about that on the recent Dark
<v Speaker 8>Side of the Ring Unheard on Bagwell.
<v Speaker 2>YEP, so he was.
<v Speaker 8>He was definitely getting noticed by American wrestling promoters, but
<v Speaker 8>couldn't quite find a home that made as much financial
<v Speaker 8>sense as working a combination of New Japan Pro Wrestling
<v Speaker 8>and US indies high paying usnd's relatively speaking, like Extreme
<v Speaker 8>Championship Wrestling. So here's the moment that takes Sabu's incredible
<v Speaker 8>nineteen ninety four and puts a big question.
<v Speaker 3>Mark around it. Hit play in three two one.
<v Speaker 21>Many think he is the finest wrestler in the sport today.
<v Speaker 21>Sabo dropped across.
<v Speaker 2>The top rope mad Wah, feeling very copident.
<v Speaker 8>Early on in this matchup, so Ben watches Gord bust
<v Speaker 8>him across the top.
<v Speaker 3>He hooks him up. Now get ready, what hook?
<v Speaker 7>Oh fuck fuck?
<v Speaker 15>I grabbed him by the leg and launched him in
<v Speaker 15>the air.
<v Speaker 2>He's supposed to come down on his belly.
<v Speaker 10>I guess he was up in the air midway decided
<v Speaker 10>that he went to line on his back and didn't
<v Speaker 10>have enough time to get.
<v Speaker 15>His head under and came right down in his head
<v Speaker 15>and freaked me out.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh Jesus fucking Christ. He's like, no,
<v Speaker 2>this guy could be paralyzed. So it was it was
<v Speaker 2>very It's scary.
<v Speaker 14>For me.
<v Speaker 2>Showing the aftermath.
<v Speaker 8>Paul Hayman was managing Saboo at the time and was
<v Speaker 8>right on top of him, and that was a fateful
<v Speaker 8>far for one. Saboo is faithful in a lot of ways,
<v Speaker 8>because this is not a guy who's ever done anything
<v Speaker 8>but keep going through punishment and gotten praised and become
<v Speaker 8>legendary forward already, He's only four or five years in
<v Speaker 8>the business. Three four years in the business, and his
<v Speaker 8>calling card is battling through cuts and bumps and bruises
<v Speaker 8>and burns or wherever the case might be, to keep
<v Speaker 8>on going. And here in the middle of a red
<v Speaker 8>Hot nineteen ninety four for the man where he's getting
<v Speaker 8>press everywhere, he's dealing with a broken neck. The deal
<v Speaker 8>was that just just as ben Wa described. He thought
<v Speaker 8>he was going for a flapjack, but Sabu thought it
<v Speaker 8>was a backdrop. And so when you do a back
<v Speaker 8>when you do a flapjack, you lift and drop the
<v Speaker 8>guy flat in his face, don't give him the rotation
<v Speaker 8>he needs to fully land on his back. And Saboo's
<v Speaker 8>mid air with ben Wan tending on him, falling on
<v Speaker 8>his face, and he tries to tuck and roll and
<v Speaker 8>he lands and he spikes the top of his head
<v Speaker 8>into that mat at a high angle. I mean, it's
<v Speaker 8>even worse than the Owen and Steve Austin one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, oh yeah, I mean, because I mean it's it's
<v Speaker 2>it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I mean, he's high up, he's
<v Speaker 2>got no there's no control, and he's uh, he just
<v Speaker 2>you can see his neck compress.
<v Speaker 17>Ugh.
<v Speaker 8>And in this moment was the first one that crossed
<v Speaker 8>my mind when I heard that clip we played at
<v Speaker 8>the beginning of the show of Paul Hayman talking about
<v Speaker 8>how Sabu was never quite the same after we never
<v Speaker 8>got the prime Saboo when he was in the spotlight.
<v Speaker 8>You know, the prime Saboo was the things he was
<v Speaker 8>doing before all the cameras were trained on him. And
<v Speaker 8>it's like, yeah, well, maybe part of the reason he
<v Speaker 8>took a step backwards was because he got his neck
<v Speaker 8>broken your Ring in November nineteen ninety four, got basically
<v Speaker 8>no time off. Not to say that if he wanted
<v Speaker 8>time off, he wouldn't have been given it. I'm not
<v Speaker 8>blaming anybody for this, but are they Do they have
<v Speaker 8>to book the guy just because he wants to work.
<v Speaker 8>Do they have to book the guy just because he
<v Speaker 8>tells them that even though he's in a fucking neck brace,
<v Speaker 8>he still can go. No, they don't have to do that.
<v Speaker 8>And so it's kind of bullshit to say he wasn't
<v Speaker 8>the same when it's because he suffered this injury in
<v Speaker 8>Your Ring and you let him keep working right right,
<v Speaker 8>And if you're not going to draw a direct line
<v Speaker 8>between this moment and Sabou ramping up the painkiller. Use you,
<v Speaker 8>my friend, are naive to the max. Yep, it's time
<v Speaker 8>to do what it takes boss in the medicine cabinet
<v Speaker 8>to keep going. Why is it that time? Why is
<v Speaker 8>it that time?
<v Speaker 2>Hear the rattling? Can hear the rattling of the pill bottles? Okay?
<v Speaker 2>Why well, come on, right? You know you expect him.
<v Speaker 2>You expect him to slow down after all this. You
<v Speaker 2>expect him to just suddenly because of a minor thing
<v Speaker 2>like breaking your neck, to just you know, take some
<v Speaker 2>time off often and and and and rehab. Come on,
<v Speaker 2>he's got to work, he's gotta get he's gotta go
<v Speaker 2>out there and entertain people. He's gonna go out there
<v Speaker 2>and try to break his neck again.
<v Speaker 8>And it became legendary. It actually is a fucking idiot
<v Speaker 8>that they sold VHS's on a CW television hyping up
<v Speaker 8>the tape where you can see when Chris Benwab broke
<v Speaker 8>Sabo's neck. To his Sabu's book, I slept in a
<v Speaker 8>neck brace. My career was continuing the skyrocket, and I
<v Speaker 8>couldn't take time off. Usually the way it works in
<v Speaker 8>wrestling is when you take time off, someone else comes
<v Speaker 8>along and takes your spot. I couldn't afford to let
<v Speaker 8>that happen at that time. About two weeks after my injury,
<v Speaker 8>I was up and moving and ready to get back
<v Speaker 8>in the ring, stay in the spotlight. I just asked
<v Speaker 8>Paully to be booked in more tag matches for a
<v Speaker 8>bit until I was up to higher profile singles bout.
<v Speaker 8>So my next match after the injury was with my
<v Speaker 8>tag team partner Tasmaniac against the Malnko brothers, Dean and Joe.
<v Speaker 8>Just to give you a little bit of an idea
<v Speaker 8>of where my drug abuse came from, I repeat, just
<v Speaker 8>to give you a little bit of an idea where
<v Speaker 8>my drug use came from. Drug abuse is the word
<v Speaker 8>he uses, drug abuse, yep. It all started soon after
<v Speaker 8>my match with Chris Benwah where he broke my neck.
<v Speaker 8>Chris and I didn't like each other all that much,
<v Speaker 8>like we didn't hang out or travel together, but we
<v Speaker 8>didn't hate each other. In fact, I was the reason
<v Speaker 8>he was in DCW as I said he wanted more
<v Speaker 8>matches in America, and I vouched for him to make
<v Speaker 8>it happen. So when he broke my neck, I knew
<v Speaker 8>what he did was an accident. He didn't at all
<v Speaker 8>want that to happen. As to why it happened, I
<v Speaker 8>just think he was kind of indifferent. He didn't care
<v Speaker 8>that much about stiffing me or not. I think he
<v Speaker 8>just figured I could take it. Laying it in snug
<v Speaker 8>is why he always looked so crisp. He was more
<v Speaker 8>concerned about making the wrestling look good than hitting me
<v Speaker 8>with a potato, that's all. However, after the worst happened,
<v Speaker 8>it was bad. I lost feeling in my hands. Regardless
<v Speaker 8>of my hatred of hospitals. They rushed me off to
<v Speaker 8>one and put me under. Chris Benois was very cool, though.
<v Speaker 8>He came and hung out in my room pretty much
<v Speaker 8>the whole time I was there recovering. I do remember
<v Speaker 8>coming out of unconsciousness at one point and seeing him there.
<v Speaker 8>He was very apologetic and even cried. He stayed there
<v Speaker 8>until I got released. In hindsight, I guess I was
<v Speaker 8>pretty crazy. I started to wrestle again on shows RECW
<v Speaker 8>in a very short time after that, with only maybe
<v Speaker 8>a few weeks of healing under my bill. This was
<v Speaker 8>certainly against the doctor's orders. But since when did I
<v Speaker 8>care about doctors. I had a bunch of good paying
<v Speaker 8>matches in Japan that I needed to do. Oh my god,
<v Speaker 8>that's what did Von eericson too. Yeah right, I know
<v Speaker 8>David's dead, but we got paydays in Japan that we
<v Speaker 8>can't do without.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, for God's sakes.
<v Speaker 8>Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. So I left for
<v Speaker 8>my last FMW tour with my head wrapped up in foam.
<v Speaker 8>Over in Japan. Actually wrestled my first match back wearing
<v Speaker 8>a neck brace, and FMW they didn't seem to care
<v Speaker 8>about the neck brace. They thought it made me look tough. However,
<v Speaker 8>once I jumped over to New Japan Pro Wrestling, I
<v Speaker 8>saw it different interpretation of my brace. I remember the referee,
<v Speaker 8>Tiger Atry, saying, we don't want you to wear the
<v Speaker 8>brace because it looks like you were hurt. But I
<v Speaker 8>am hurt, I replied. I ended up working in New
<v Speaker 8>Japan without the neck brace on. Even though the pain
<v Speaker 8>was crazy. During a match, I would get the adrenaline
<v Speaker 8>going and feel it and not feel it so badly.
<v Speaker 8>But at night, at night, I would have to prop
<v Speaker 8>up pillows and I could never really get comfortable. After
<v Speaker 8>one night of tossing and turning with practically no sleep.
<v Speaker 8>I realized that I needed to handle this one differently.
<v Speaker 8>That is when I started finally thinking about doing something
<v Speaker 8>I never did. Look for medication. I took the pills
<v Speaker 8>the doctor gave me as directed. I got more sleep
<v Speaker 8>as he suggested to. I followed his directions to the tee,
<v Speaker 8>but didn't notice much. Didn't notice much of a difference.
<v Speaker 8>I was even wrestling a little safer, But basically I
<v Speaker 8>think I was just breaking my neck over and over
<v Speaker 8>again every match. Fuck it, it's ninety four. How many
<v Speaker 8>years he has out of them?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 8>Any healing that may have happened was getting undone every
<v Speaker 8>time I stepped into the ring. Let's fucking go. Can
<v Speaker 8>I repeat that please? Any healing that may have happened
<v Speaker 8>was getting undone every time I stepped into the ring.
<v Speaker 8>It's a worthy sentence, but it might as well be
<v Speaker 8>his epitaph. It might as well be the epipaph of
<v Speaker 8>most wrestlers. Honestly, any healing physically or otherwise that may
<v Speaker 8>have happened was getting undone every time I stepped into
<v Speaker 8>the ring. My next bad condition lasted the good part
<v Speaker 8>of a year for my shoulders up. I was in
<v Speaker 8>constant pain back in the States. It was ben Wi
<v Speaker 8>who gave me my first few real pills outside of
<v Speaker 8>a prescription. Who's the doctor here, the doctor's in, Who's
<v Speaker 8>got the magic medicine, Chris ben Wah. I took them,
<v Speaker 8>and again nothing much happened. A little bit of the
<v Speaker 8>daily pain went away, and they did make it noticeably
<v Speaker 8>easier to work. There was no sort of high or
<v Speaker 8>buzz or anything of the sort, though. They just eased
<v Speaker 8>the aches and took away the edge. Ask me how
<v Speaker 8>they worked. I told him good and he got me
<v Speaker 8>some more. When I got to working with ben wagain.
<v Speaker 8>I never gave him a receipt for that broken neck.
<v Speaker 8>He tried to help. Yes, I would treat him like
<v Speaker 8>an asshole in the locker room. Yes, I was not
<v Speaker 8>very nice to him. However, I would never intentionally blindside
<v Speaker 8>somebody during a match physically, that was not my style,
<v Speaker 8>and he tried to help. I took almost zero time
<v Speaker 8>off from MECW After working with the neck brace for
<v Speaker 8>some time and wrestling with a broken neck, I figured
<v Speaker 8>I was unstoppable. If a broken neck didn't stop me
<v Speaker 8>in the ring, why should anything else then? Right after
<v Speaker 8>the neck I broke my jaw.
<v Speaker 3>He was in a match.
<v Speaker 8>There was a table. The table got flipped upside down
<v Speaker 8>behind his back. He springboard moon salted without realizing that
<v Speaker 8>the table had flipped over, and the bottom of his
<v Speaker 8>face hit the upside down table leg Oh my god.
<v Speaker 8>Goes to the doctor a fuck and he picks it
<v Speaker 8>up from there. At the doctor, he started prodding around
<v Speaker 8>the roof of my mouth with a stick and then
<v Speaker 8>some kind of metal poke thing. Then we finally figured
<v Speaker 8>out it was not a piece of the table or
<v Speaker 8>anything from the match the X rays were showing. The
<v Speaker 8>X rays detected.
<v Speaker 2>Bullet. What shards?
<v Speaker 3>Bullet?
<v Speaker 2>Get the fuck?
<v Speaker 8>Saboo still had deep embedded shrapnel from being shot in
<v Speaker 8>the face. As a kid with a needle and thread,
<v Speaker 8>he stitched all the pieces of my jaw back together.
<v Speaker 8>After the oral surgeon did everything he could, he grabbed
<v Speaker 8>a little piece of paper and wrote me a prescription
<v Speaker 8>for vic it in. Yep here we remember, just like
<v Speaker 8>the other pills Benoa gave me when I broke my neck.
<v Speaker 8>New pills didn't seem to help me either. How many
<v Speaker 8>milligrams one of the boys asked when I showed up
<v Speaker 8>back in the ECW locker room a few days later. Shit,
<v Speaker 8>I don't know, I said, never being one for pills,
<v Speaker 8>do you get a buzz when you take them?
<v Speaker 9>No?
<v Speaker 2>Off pills?
<v Speaker 3>You need more off pills, I asked.
<v Speaker 8>Ever hearing that before. Axel Rotten rest in Peace, looked
<v Speaker 8>at the bottle and said they were pretty weak. He
<v Speaker 8>suggested I take two instead of one. That night, the
<v Speaker 8>pain was unbearable, so I took doctor Rotten's new recommended
<v Speaker 8>allocation of a double dose in It didn't help. The
<v Speaker 8>Next day, the boys asked me in the locker room
<v Speaker 8>how my jaw was feeling. Since two pills didn't seem
<v Speaker 8>to do anything, I said, not very well. Why didn't
<v Speaker 8>you try.
<v Speaker 2>Two and a half?
<v Speaker 8>Axel asked that I did, and that was the magic number. Yep,
<v Speaker 8>you wouldn't think that half a pill would matter so much. However,
<v Speaker 8>after I tried that particular specific dose of pills, I
<v Speaker 8>never stopped taking them. I started taking two and a
<v Speaker 8>half anytime they started to wear off, and pain was
<v Speaker 8>never an issue after that. It really was fucking magical. However,
<v Speaker 8>after that I was instantly hooked. Now you have to
<v Speaker 8>remember that out of a lot of the wrestlers out there.
<v Speaker 8>I had a very brutal wrestling style. This meant that
<v Speaker 8>I would often end up working matches under crazy conditions.
<v Speaker 8>My arm might hurt, my leg muscle might be pulled,
<v Speaker 8>I might have broken fingers, my neck didn't feel quite right,
<v Speaker 8>and sometimes my knee would pop. You could take three
<v Speaker 8>or four of these symptoms and say that was the
<v Speaker 8>norm for me to experience anytime during a number of
<v Speaker 8>my man so pills became my best friend, yes, and
<v Speaker 8>a great tag team.
<v Speaker 2>Partner to have. Wow, motherfucker, do you.
<v Speaker 8>Know what the You know what the phrase was between
<v Speaker 8>Sabu and his manager Bill Alfonso when Sabu didn't have
<v Speaker 8>the uh, the appropriate amount of pills for the night's requirements.
<v Speaker 8>Do you know what they would say? They would be doing?
<v Speaker 8>What the term was, saboo daddy, I guess we're working
<v Speaker 8>without a net tonight. Ooh, I guess we're working without
<v Speaker 8>a net tonight. And it's without a net. Jesus take
<v Speaker 8>the wheel that RVD rolls into the equation. Rvd's brought
<v Speaker 8>into ECW toward the tail end of nineteen ninety five,
<v Speaker 8>as Sabo is going through quite a bit of turbulence
<v Speaker 8>and his own right. And here is a glimpse from
<v Speaker 8>RVD into how Sabo's increasing reliance not only pain killers
<v Speaker 8>but muscle relaxes like SOMA begin to color in the
<v Speaker 8>memories he has of him on the road.
<v Speaker 13>Sabo, man, I know when he had his one of Bago, like,
<v Speaker 13>the more self sufficient he could be, the more he
<v Speaker 13>liked it. So like he told me he would cook
<v Speaker 13>in the kitchen and sometimes we would have like meals
<v Speaker 13>in there, and and that that stands out more than
<v Speaker 13>than really even going into restaurants with him.
<v Speaker 6>And we used to go to the Denny's in Pittsburgh, Uh,
<v Speaker 6>the one that's it's by the area there you go, Yeah, totally,
<v Speaker 6>And that was the place.
<v Speaker 13>I just remember during the Soma days, me and Louis
<v Speaker 13>and Saboo being there and ordering sweet stuff because the
<v Speaker 13>sugar and the carbs helps kick the SOA's in.
<v Speaker 6>And it would be like a race to see who
<v Speaker 6>could shake first. We don't put our hands up, and
<v Speaker 6>we'd have pee wee. We'd say, check her check her hands, wrath,
<v Speaker 6>check her hands.
<v Speaker 2>You know he could.
<v Speaker 13>Yeah, it was so stupid. One of us, you know,
<v Speaker 13>would be like this and you know, and he'd be like, oh,
<v Speaker 13>oh he's got we got a winner.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 13>He raise his hand and pretty soon and be like, oh,
<v Speaker 13>he's got to shake you pudding. It's not can I
<v Speaker 13>get another.
<v Speaker 2>Us Jesus fucking Christ for the somas to kick in.
<v Speaker 2>You got to get sugar in. Let's see whose handshakes first.
<v Speaker 2>It's going well, it's going fine. Yeah, I mean this
<v Speaker 2>is I what I see here is just a guy
<v Speaker 2>who's just you know, he's just doing what he needs
<v Speaker 2>to do to kind of, you know, to get to
<v Speaker 2>get to work. All right. No, it's so different than
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you're driving along the Higay car breaks
<v Speaker 2>down or you get a flat tire and you getta
<v Speaker 2>you know, you're gonna just change the tire. That's what
<v Speaker 2>he's doing. He's just changing a tile.
<v Speaker 8>His new tag team partner. Are we working without a
<v Speaker 8>net tonight? Because Sabu goes from making that personal sacrifice
<v Speaker 8>to keep going to being on the outs and on
<v Speaker 8>the shit list of Paul Hayman within months. It's an
<v Speaker 8>amazing turn of events for what seemed to be a
<v Speaker 8>match made in heaven, Saboo in his style and ECW
<v Speaker 8>in its style. The two just seem destined to be intertwined.
<v Speaker 8>And as Sabu tries you know, Japan and tries you
<v Speaker 8>know WWF Dark Match and stuff, it doesn't go anywhere really,
<v Speaker 8>I mean Japan does, but as far as stateside, it
<v Speaker 8>just seems like ECW has got to be the place
<v Speaker 8>where it works. But the problem is, Paul is not
<v Speaker 8>happy that Sabu is juggling both. He comes to a
<v Speaker 8>point in April of nineteen and ninety five where he's
<v Speaker 8>going to have a highly promoted three way dance tables
<v Speaker 8>all of the place. It was to be Sabo and
<v Speaker 8>Taz versus Dean and Chris versus the public enemy. It
<v Speaker 8>was a highly built up match and they really thought
<v Speaker 8>it would propel the promotion forward and sell some tickets.
<v Speaker 8>It was a very hot issue at the time. Paul
<v Speaker 8>really do how to build up tag teams. And in
<v Speaker 8>the midst of preparing for this, the phone rings and
<v Speaker 8>Sabou is invited on a new Japan tour and it's
<v Speaker 8>for much more money than ECW was willing to pay him,
<v Speaker 8>according to what he says, and this became what's known
<v Speaker 8>as the fuck Saboo moment.
<v Speaker 2>This is where oh my fuck Saboo moment.
<v Speaker 8>Essentially, Yes, there's trouble in Paradise because Sabou no shows.
<v Speaker 8>The ECW shot to go to New Japan. Oh my god,
<v Speaker 8>Paul to hear him tell it, and he told everyone
<v Speaker 8>would listen, including the fans in the ECW arena, all
<v Speaker 8>the newsletters in particularly the Pro Wrestling Torch, that he
<v Speaker 8>was led to believe up until there was no going
<v Speaker 8>back and no way to pivot to a new option,
<v Speaker 8>as far as promoting a new option, as far as
<v Speaker 8>setting fans up to not expect to see Sabu, that
<v Speaker 8>he wasn't told with enough time to pivot, and that
<v Speaker 8>Sabu basically strung him along, making him believe he would
<v Speaker 8>be there until it was way too late to do
<v Speaker 8>anything significant about it. And the person who ends up
<v Speaker 8>getting that last minute phone call to fill in and
<v Speaker 8>team with Taz instead of Sabu won Rick Steiner. Rick Steiner.
<v Speaker 2>That is the oddest fucking choice.
<v Speaker 8>Yes, Rick and Scott were pretty much making their main
<v Speaker 8>living in New Japan at this time, having finished with
<v Speaker 8>WCW after the Bill Watts regime led to them coming
<v Speaker 8>to h loggerheads over and over again. And so this
<v Speaker 8>is when the Steiners are over there working like Hasse
<v Speaker 8>and Ken's k Sasaki and we've seen those matches. Incredible
<v Speaker 8>stuff over there, paying off the Pacific.
<v Speaker 2>High over the fucking that guy's a Fuckingian.
<v Speaker 3>Guys are suplexing, they're hurrican ranaing, they're tilta whirling, and
<v Speaker 3>it's reaching a higher level of workmanship over there.
<v Speaker 2>Listen, listen, listen. What they're doing is they're they're creating
<v Speaker 2>a sense of reality within a sense of of of
<v Speaker 2>of of fiction that just transcends, you know, what we
<v Speaker 2>are allowed to believe.
<v Speaker 8>Correct, So you know, Sabou ECW all the romanticism around it.
<v Speaker 8>Within two years, they fucking hate each other. Okay, that's
<v Speaker 8>the business. That's what you need to remember about all
<v Speaker 8>this lionizing of ECW is most of the time, as
<v Speaker 8>much as Paul could rally them behind a cause, they
<v Speaker 8>found reasons to fucking talk shit about each other and
<v Speaker 8>nitpick at each other and hate each other. And it's
<v Speaker 8>tremendous because they're barely they're barely doing a thousand people,
<v Speaker 8>you know, and they still can't get out of each
<v Speaker 8>other's way. And because Sabu made this decision, Paul felt
<v Speaker 8>he had no choice, apparently, but to take to the
<v Speaker 8>middle of the ring during this ECW arena event and
<v Speaker 8>explain to the people on a microphone exactly what happened
<v Speaker 8>and let the chips fall where they may. Here's a
<v Speaker 8>clip of that oh famous interview, as feed in the
<v Speaker 8>Rise and Fall of ECW documentary. This interview, I don't
<v Speaker 8>believe it's entirety exists anywhere, and in fact, it was
<v Speaker 8>originally just characterized to the newsletters by people who attended
<v Speaker 8>the show live and apparently took notes or remembered roughly
<v Speaker 8>what was said. I believe when the ECW home video
<v Speaker 8>release of this show came out there was no mention
<v Speaker 8>of this. I know the Peacock version of this event
<v Speaker 8>does not have Paul Hayman's interview, but the excerpt of
<v Speaker 8>it does appear in The Rise and Fall of e
<v Speaker 8>c W, with just a quick comment in studio right
<v Speaker 8>afterwards from Tommy Dreamer that I think really brings it home.
<v Speaker 8>But here is what saboo, the heart and soul of
<v Speaker 8>what we do right, Paul, the heart and soul of
<v Speaker 8>what we do. Here's the shit list he was on
<v Speaker 8>by the spring of ninety five.
<v Speaker 7>James, I'm being silent. Ever, recall he was over more
<v Speaker 7>other weekly Pasis than he.
<v Speaker 9>Well, that was you whats your paper sign?
<v Speaker 2>Not thinking me purty, I'm a phone Paul when he
<v Speaker 2>saw to.
<v Speaker 9>God, I'm something nice, don't all and as the production
<v Speaker 9>to give you last Tuesday, I tell Lemon show when
<v Speaker 9>I said, if you're not gonna baby, if you're gonna
<v Speaker 9>fuck the audience that baby you saw left when I'm
<v Speaker 9>going on anty and he said, I swear have.
<v Speaker 7>Got I'll be there.
<v Speaker 15>Paul never lied to the fans. He lied to the wrestlers,
<v Speaker 15>but he never lied to the fans.
<v Speaker 2>Wow. So Paul goes in the ring and says, what
<v Speaker 2>a fucking piece.
<v Speaker 8>Of saboo swore? And he says, you know that he
<v Speaker 8>said it too late for them to edit the television
<v Speaker 8>that aired the Tuesday before this event, you know, to
<v Speaker 8>reconstitute the match or announce a replacement or something like that.
<v Speaker 8>He told him as soon as Sunday when they were
<v Speaker 8>going into production that he would be there. Now maybe
<v Speaker 8>after that he found out he wasn't going to be there,
<v Speaker 8>and maybe Paul should been able to deduce that if
<v Speaker 8>he was going to Japan, he would not possibly have
<v Speaker 8>enough time to fly back on that Saturday to make
<v Speaker 8>the shot. And maybe Paul went into that knowing knowing
<v Speaker 8>that he wasn't going to be able to do it,
<v Speaker 8>and still not contingency planning anyway, just so he could
<v Speaker 8>get in there and do this. I mean, he did
<v Speaker 8>contingency plan to the extent that they brought in Rick Steiner,
<v Speaker 8>but he didn't to the extent that they put any
<v Speaker 8>kind of, you know, kind of wiggle room on the
<v Speaker 8>television show, making you think that, you know, perhaps Sabo
<v Speaker 8>wouldn't be there. And the reason this is called the
<v Speaker 8>Fuck Saboo is because at some point, while cutting this promo,
<v Speaker 8>which is more extensive than what you just heard, but
<v Speaker 8>that's I can think that's the only part that's kind
<v Speaker 8>of survived, so to speak, someone screams fuck Saboo, and
<v Speaker 8>according to the newsletter accounts, Hayman leans in and says, yeah,
<v Speaker 8>you know what, fuck Saboo.
<v Speaker 2>Wow.
<v Speaker 8>So for this night and for the next ECW television
<v Speaker 8>show that recaps what happened at the arena, it's fuck Saboo.
<v Speaker 8>And you can hear the crowd channing it all day long,
<v Speaker 8>including on their television show They are clearly accentuating it.
<v Speaker 8>They are clearly trying to feature it and not downplay
<v Speaker 8>it at all. They want to stick it to Saboo.
<v Speaker 8>And this is what it sounds like. This is going
<v Speaker 8>to take us through the original fuck Saboo how it
<v Speaker 8>sounded on the television show Todd Gordon announcing that Sabu
<v Speaker 8>had been fired essentially from ECW, and then also you'll
<v Speaker 8>hear the pop that Rick Steiner got, which is a
<v Speaker 8>massive pop when he comes out as the surprise replacement
<v Speaker 8>for Sabu to team with Rick Steiner, pardon me, to
<v Speaker 8>team with Taz.
<v Speaker 16>On behalf of Extreme Championship Wrestling. It is my unfortunate
<v Speaker 16>duty to inform the viewers that, due to his refusal
<v Speaker 16>to honor his obligation to both the e CW and
<v Speaker 16>its fans by appearing and performing at the Three Way Dance,
<v Speaker 16>Saboo has been indefinitely suspended.
<v Speaker 21>Hello everyone, and welcome to Extreme CHAV and you're wrestling.
<v Speaker 21>I'm Joey Stiles, and we had told you this would
<v Speaker 21>be the most exciting period in the history of u CW,
<v Speaker 21>and we have no intentions slowing down. This Saturday night,
<v Speaker 21>We'll be back at the ORNA. It's Hostile City Showdown
<v Speaker 21>ninety five, and then we head south of Florida, May fifth,
<v Speaker 21>Fort Lauderdale, NY sixth. It's Tampa And you said that
<v Speaker 21>the new e CW tag Keeve Champions the Public Enemy
<v Speaker 21>are looking forward to this Saturday night and to the
<v Speaker 21>Sunshine State of Florida this past Saturday the Three Way Dance.
<v Speaker 3>Did they really have to put that sound underneath Joey styles?
<v Speaker 8>You can stand up, think absolutely, as would be on
<v Speaker 8>his own.
<v Speaker 7>However, it was not the case. As the psycho y
<v Speaker 7>have be.
<v Speaker 21>Pauly dangerously had a surprise for his opponents.
<v Speaker 7>Our partner Night came in tonight to prove why we
<v Speaker 7>are easy w K Jenny to be best in the world,
<v Speaker 7>can be the VET in professional wrestling. If you've been there,
<v Speaker 7>then I'm going to be selling tonight.
<v Speaker 2>Tat me.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, you cause my partner the TV title.
<v Speaker 2>I will give you some credit.
<v Speaker 7>You've got some guts you sewed up tonight, not like the.
<v Speaker 2>World.
<v Speaker 11>I always told.
<v Speaker 7>These people here what kind of he was, and it
<v Speaker 7>took all this time for them to find out for themselves.
<v Speaker 14>We'll call we get the Three Way on the way
<v Speaker 14>tonight tatmaniac.
<v Speaker 7>If you want to come out here and prove your manhood,
<v Speaker 7>I'm waiting.
<v Speaker 14>Right here any time, Tatmaniac, anytime.
<v Speaker 2>Fos of w.
<v Speaker 3>H starn. Oh my god, how about one more.
<v Speaker 2>Fucks a boom? Oh my god?
<v Speaker 20>What style?
<v Speaker 6>Isn't said?
<v Speaker 10>Double?
<v Speaker 2>That's a fine. How do you do, isn't it? Yes? Yes,
<v Speaker 2>I'm surprised that that fucking uh uh. You know Steiner's
<v Speaker 2>getting that kind of verse.
<v Speaker 8>Well, and how quickly the fans decide Sabo's a piece
<v Speaker 8>of shit?
<v Speaker 2>Of course? Listen, he is.
<v Speaker 3>Among the things Hayman said, according to the newsletters.
<v Speaker 2>Listen all all he did, all right, you know this
<v Speaker 2>is what? This is what I don't understand. See you now,
<v Speaker 2>can we deal out of everything? All he did was
<v Speaker 2>fucking sacrifice his body, break his neck? Right? Who care?
<v Speaker 8>Told more things he did. But he's a piece of
<v Speaker 8>shit because he led us to believe he'd be here
<v Speaker 8>and he's not here.
<v Speaker 2>Uh yeah.
<v Speaker 8>According to the newsletters, Hayman, among other things, told the people,
<v Speaker 8>I am not the person who makes the decisions around here,
<v Speaker 8>not tas Maniac, not nine to one one, not Todd Gordon,
<v Speaker 8>not the accountants. It's you the fans. Sabu can walk
<v Speaker 8>through that door anytime and his suspension will be lifted.
<v Speaker 8>When you say you want him back, it's not my choice,
<v Speaker 8>it's yours, although he may not want to when he
<v Speaker 8>finds out I fulfilled my promise and told you the
<v Speaker 8>truth about his decision. Now, when Sabu gets back from
<v Speaker 8>Japan on the airplane, he speaks to a columnist with
<v Speaker 8>the Pro Wrestling torch and offers the following, I was
<v Speaker 8>going to quit ECW anyway, Sabou. This just makes it
<v Speaker 8>easier for me. You can't serve two masters. Japan is
<v Speaker 8>more important than ECW or anything else. Japan is my
<v Speaker 8>bread and butter. They feed me first. I deserve to
<v Speaker 8>be punished, but I don't deserve to have the fans
<v Speaker 8>turned against me. Haben disagree. He's saying he simply and
<v Speaker 8>objectively stated the facts of the situation and let the
<v Speaker 8>fans decide for themselves. Tasmaniac, Sabo's schedule tag partner and friend,
<v Speaker 8>told Sabu he shouldn't believe secondhand stories because Hayman simply
<v Speaker 8>stated the facts. He didn't push the fans either way.
<v Speaker 8>Sabu told Zavisa he would have preferred ECW announcement as
<v Speaker 8>being suspended and fined, and the fans would have quote
<v Speaker 8>unquote bought it. Then, he says, it would have been over. Yes,
<v Speaker 8>they could have just done an angle, you know, to
<v Speaker 8>explain why he wasn't there. Turnam heel. That could have
<v Speaker 8>been good. I messed up when I double booked myself,
<v Speaker 8>Sabu said. I thought I could make both shows, but
<v Speaker 8>six am is the earliest I could have made it
<v Speaker 8>to Philly. Main did Mai didn't, Sabou said, not going
<v Speaker 8>Japan tries. He said New Japan tried to make flight
<v Speaker 8>arrangements for him to make both shows, and he found
<v Speaker 8>out April three that the logistics made that impossible. Sabu
<v Speaker 8>said Tuesday, he told Hayman he couldn't make it, but
<v Speaker 8>Hayman wouldn't listen to him, so he just told Hayman.
<v Speaker 2>What he wanted to hear. That's a good one. I
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't listen to me anyway. I was telling him I
<v Speaker 2>couldn't make it, and I could believe Paul would do
<v Speaker 2>that because he wants to retain his innocence, you know,
<v Speaker 2>he wants to retain his plausible deniability so he can
<v Speaker 2>do this promo. Sabu says he offered to pay all
<v Speaker 2>expenses for a replacement for him, and Hayman said it
<v Speaker 2>wasn't about money and they weren't interested. Sabu then lashed
<v Speaker 2>out against DCW. This is supposed to be a sport,
<v Speaker 2>he told the Torch.
<v Speaker 3>Everything he is.
<v Speaker 2>You know, everything ECW does is an angle to get
<v Speaker 2>somebody over to make money. Everything is an angle. Polly
<v Speaker 2>dangerously lies to people all the time. He says, we're friends,
<v Speaker 2>fuck friends. Friendship doesn't have anything to do with business.
<v Speaker 2>What's there to be proud of an ECW anyway? I
<v Speaker 2>want to repeat what Sabo says in the Torch here.
<v Speaker 2>What's there to be proud of in ECW anyway? Agreed?
<v Speaker 8>Can you fold that into your narrative of what Sabu
<v Speaker 8>meant that he would that quickly just shit on everything
<v Speaker 8>EACW was about.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, totally makes sense, he says.
<v Speaker 8>Quote it's all tables, chairs, brawling in blood. It's not
<v Speaker 8>a sport in Japan, it's a sport. I worked too
<v Speaker 8>long and too hard to get fired. Now I just
<v Speaker 8>changed Japanese promotions.
<v Speaker 2>I've to find sport though, when you're fucking you know,
<v Speaker 2>doing all the shit that he's doing there.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, and he's doing a tame down version of it
<v Speaker 8>in Japan. But you know, that kind of fits more
<v Speaker 8>into the traditional boundaries of a match. But in ECW,
<v Speaker 8>of course he's not. And I don't know why he
<v Speaker 8>pretends it's not in his control. Maybe it is, maybe
<v Speaker 8>it isn't to the extent I would think, But he
<v Speaker 8>could make his matches look like sport in ECW if
<v Speaker 8>he wanted to. I just changed Japanese promotions. I've turned
<v Speaker 8>down both WCW and WWF for those guys ECW, he says,
<v Speaker 8>Japan is the real deal. ECW cut into that. That's
<v Speaker 8>a lot of money out of my pocket. My love
<v Speaker 8>for Japan is more than my love for Ecwwwfor WCW.
<v Speaker 8>Philly is one town that draws fifteen hundred people that
<v Speaker 8>won't last long. Sabu did want to stress, though, that
<v Speaker 8>this wasn't personal. There wasn't nothing personal against anyone. It
<v Speaker 8>was strictly business. Hayman says, it's about honor. I never
<v Speaker 8>told him he would or wouldn't be fired if he
<v Speaker 8>missed the show. I said it wasn't a question of
<v Speaker 8>what he stood to lose. It was about honor. It's
<v Speaker 8>about the biggest match in this company's history. An honorable
<v Speaker 8>man will honor that commitment at all costs. Because he
<v Speaker 8>gave us his word, I took him on his word.
<v Speaker 8>I told him I won't entice you or threaten you.
<v Speaker 8>I won't cover your ass either though. I won't lie
<v Speaker 8>for you. I won't defend you against criticism, and most
<v Speaker 8>of all, I will not lie to the audience. Some
<v Speaker 8>have suggested Hayman should have known Saboo would choose New Japan,
<v Speaker 8>and the twenty months I've worked with Saboo, we've butted heads.
<v Speaker 8>He was very vocal, but we had disagreements like two
<v Speaker 8>rational people, and those twenty months, he never broke his word.
<v Speaker 8>Despite all the people who advised me to cover my
<v Speaker 8>ass hame and said I had no reason to assume
<v Speaker 8>one of my top stars, my friend, was a liar.
<v Speaker 8>Sa Saboo reads this highly amused because there's other wrestlers
<v Speaker 8>too quoted talking about how you don't miss shows. You
<v Speaker 8>don't do that, including Saboo. Claps back in the next
<v Speaker 8>week's torch, pointing out as far as Taz goes and
<v Speaker 8>this is the beginning of deep seated distrust and dislike
<v Speaker 8>between Saboo and Ten that culminates in the red hot
<v Speaker 8>barely Legal match between the two. You remember we covered
<v Speaker 8>ECW's first pay per view Barely Legal years.
<v Speaker 2>And years Oh yes, oh yes, that was year one man.
<v Speaker 8>Big match on the poster, even though it didn't close
<v Speaker 8>the show is Taz vers Sabu finally won on one.
<v Speaker 8>This is after their history is a tag team which
<v Speaker 8>ends abruptly on this no show for the most part,
<v Speaker 8>and so when Sabu comes back and hits his stride
<v Speaker 8>again as a singles wrestler, it becomes this long slow
<v Speaker 8>burn where Taz is still pissed at Saboo and calling
<v Speaker 8>him out in promo after promo, but Sabu is saying
<v Speaker 8>and doing nothing in response for like a straight year
<v Speaker 8>and a half, and it is boiling boiling on the
<v Speaker 8>ECW stovetop. Once they get to barely Legal, it's it's
<v Speaker 8>a red hot match. And it all starts from and
<v Speaker 8>stems in a lot of ways from this real life
<v Speaker 8>heat and the fuck Saboo movement. So Sabo says in
<v Speaker 8>the Torch, Taz No showed for Dennis Corluzzo twice and
<v Speaker 8>Shane Douglas no showed for Mark Body and Gary Warren
<v Speaker 8>chak to other promoters before so where are these guys
<v Speaker 8>coming off actor holier than me? Yeah, Aska, Dennis Gorluzzo
<v Speaker 8>and the NWA guys how they feel about uh Shane
<v Speaker 8>before he no show that dropped the belt in the trash.
<v Speaker 8>Sabu also says Paul called me a liar. He's the
<v Speaker 8>biggest liar in this fucking business, tremendous in every way.
<v Speaker 8>He lies to everybody. He cannot have a regular conversation
<v Speaker 8>without telling a lie. And that was said about aiming forever.
<v Speaker 8>So I think I think Sabu's right on that one.
<v Speaker 8>The truth isn't interesting enough to him. It's I'm serious.
<v Speaker 8>Two of the six guys out of that main event
<v Speaker 8>told me I should go to Japan. They helped me
<v Speaker 8>make my decision. I never swore to God to Paul
<v Speaker 8>that I'd be there. That's below the belt. If I
<v Speaker 8>had sworn to God, I would have been there.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that sounds almost like Eric Brishoff type.
<v Speaker 8>Sabu told the Observer. He said yes when PAULI asked
<v Speaker 8>him if he swore to God. So I didn't say
<v Speaker 8>I swear to God. But I said yes when he
<v Speaker 8>said I didn't refuse to do a job to ben
<v Speaker 8>Wa that was part of the conversation too, whether that
<v Speaker 8>that was part of it. You heard ben Wah throw
<v Speaker 8>tons of shade at Sabu on the microphone and the
<v Speaker 8>arena on that one. They didn't work that way there
<v Speaker 8>in New Japan. Imagine doing that to Sabou's neck and
<v Speaker 8>then you know, months later talking all kinds of shit
<v Speaker 8>about him for not showing up to this event. Uh yeah,
<v Speaker 8>I mean every one I ever watched wrestling before, Allan
<v Speaker 8>Taz told me. They both told me I wouldn't be fired.
<v Speaker 8>Paul told Taz that I wouldn't be fired. Taz told
<v Speaker 8>me I wouldn't be fired. Paul told me I wouldn't
<v Speaker 8>be fired. Todd told me I wouldn't be fired. They
<v Speaker 8>told me that the whole time. I asked, and what
<v Speaker 8>happens if I don't make it to ECW Saturday. He goes,
<v Speaker 8>there's nothing I can do. I said, well find me,
<v Speaker 8>suspend me, do whatever you got to do. But are
<v Speaker 8>you going to fire me? He said, no, we can't
<v Speaker 8>fire you. He said, would it help you make your
<v Speaker 8>decision if I told you I was going to fire you.
<v Speaker 8>I said, yeah, it would help. Then he goes, okay,
<v Speaker 8>well then I'll fire you. I said, but that doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>Carry any weight.
<v Speaker 8>Now you already said you're not gonna The dilemma I
<v Speaker 8>was faced with was if I went to ECW, I
<v Speaker 8>get fired from New Japan. If I go to Japan,
<v Speaker 8>nothing happens. That's the way I looked at it. I
<v Speaker 8>didn't want to let the people down, but I've never
<v Speaker 8>let them down before, and if I did, it wasn't intentional.
<v Speaker 8>I don't know where these other guys are saying, when
<v Speaker 8>you make a commitment, you stick to it. I know
<v Speaker 8>that I know that better than them. I don't know
<v Speaker 8>show No matter what this time I did and I
<v Speaker 8>fucked up, they acted like they've never fucked up, and
<v Speaker 8>they have. They didn't make me a star. FMW did.
<v Speaker 8>FMW gave me my break first. If it wasn't for FMW,
<v Speaker 8>they never would have known who I was. Dennis Corluzzo
<v Speaker 8>is the one who gave me a break in the
<v Speaker 8>States first. He let me work in New Jersey in Minneapolis.
<v Speaker 8>It wasn't them then, being ECW other guys who worked
<v Speaker 8>for Dennis when ECW called they turned their back on Dennis.
<v Speaker 8>They totally turned their back. I'm not going to mention
<v Speaker 8>who one of the guys was in the main event.
<v Speaker 8>He totally turned his back on Dennis and never gave
<v Speaker 8>him a callback. I didn't turn my back. I said
<v Speaker 8>to Dennis, ECW can get more money and it's more
<v Speaker 8>secure than what you're doing. He goes, well, then take
<v Speaker 8>the money. I've always been friends with him. I'd never
<v Speaker 8>turned my back. What they did to Dennis was pretty underhanded.
<v Speaker 8>Also with that with the NBA tournament built thing. I'm
<v Speaker 8>not going to say never regarding a possible return to
<v Speaker 8>ECW because never it's a very long time. Right now,
<v Speaker 8>it don't look like it. I don't see nothing that
<v Speaker 8>could bring me back there. I don't even like the people.
<v Speaker 11>Now.
<v Speaker 8>If they turned on me that quick, I can turn
<v Speaker 8>on them even quicker. The boys think I let them down.
<v Speaker 8>Somebody was there last night at the show in jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania,
<v Speaker 8>and they told them they would have done the same thing.
<v Speaker 8>I know they're just being two faced because when they're
<v Speaker 8>around Paul, they'd probably saying, oh fuck Sabou, But when
<v Speaker 8>they're not around him, they say they would have done
<v Speaker 8>the same thing, and I believe them. They would have
<v Speaker 8>done the same thing. They would have done it without
<v Speaker 8>a conscience. At least I had a conscience about it.
<v Speaker 8>I guess that's it. Sabu would go on to say
<v Speaker 8>he unintentionally double booked himself in this circumstance and talked
<v Speaker 8>about the six thousand dollars pay day for a match
<v Speaker 8>in New Japan versus the one thousand dollars he would
<v Speaker 8>have made for the ECW shows. He says, ben Wan Malenko,
<v Speaker 8>he goes to name the names agreed that he should
<v Speaker 8>go to New Japan. Imagine that Ben Wall going on
<v Speaker 8>the mic and talking shit and encouraging Sabu to do
<v Speaker 8>the international date. Tell them telling him. According to Sabu
<v Speaker 8>in his book, the decision was a no brainer because
<v Speaker 8>turning down an entire tour with New Japan instead of
<v Speaker 8>working a spot show was crazy. Wasn't even just about
<v Speaker 8>the money difference. It was really, you know, the quality
<v Speaker 8>of the promotion, and ECW was still small, even though
<v Speaker 8>it was catching on. He said, Yeah, I was pissed
<v Speaker 8>about how Hayman handled it. Instead of changing something around,
<v Speaker 8>he took it personally and decided to bury me on TV.
<v Speaker 8>He could have easily said I was out on injury,
<v Speaker 8>or even just said there was a change in the card,
<v Speaker 8>but he decided to take the low road. He got
<v Speaker 8>in the ring and told the fans that I chose
<v Speaker 8>somewhere else to go and basically ditch them. Only months
<v Speaker 8>after getting fired from ECW, back in the State to
<v Speaker 8>ninety five, I heard the ECW fans were being brainwashed
<v Speaker 8>by Paul to cover his ass for not being able
<v Speaker 8>to produce me at one event. He continued to trash
<v Speaker 8>talk me in commentary for weeks. He said I was
<v Speaker 8>a total sellout and disloyaled the American fans. The fans
<v Speaker 8>ate it up for time. The weird thing was just
<v Speaker 8>before that big event I missed, we already had it
<v Speaker 8>all figured out. I had worked things out with him
<v Speaker 8>so I could keep my commitment to New Japan and
<v Speaker 8>still come back to the States and fix everything up
<v Speaker 8>on TV. However, I think PAULI got jealous that he
<v Speaker 8>was not my first priority and just decided to bury me.
<v Speaker 8>He would later say, according to David Bixon's band who
<v Speaker 8>interviewed him once, that Paul was basically in homosexual love
<v Speaker 8>with him, and that's pretty you know, with his tongue
<v Speaker 8>in cheek nature. But how about that he says, not
<v Speaker 8>only was this all, you know, a clusterfuck, but he
<v Speaker 8>had reached an understanding before the event with Paul about
<v Speaker 8>how he would come back to ECW. And then Paul
<v Speaker 8>goes out there and does that promo, So just tremendous,
<v Speaker 8>just as newslettery and nineties as it gets as Paul
<v Speaker 8>e as it gets tremendous stuff. And you need to
<v Speaker 8>keep that in mind before you romanticize Sabu and ECW
<v Speaker 8>to the hilt, because half the time he was there,
<v Speaker 8>he was pissed about it and not happy right and
<v Speaker 8>not getting anything near the level of payback for the
<v Speaker 8>sacrifices he put in. And this might not have a
<v Speaker 8>small part to do with it, because we're talking about
<v Speaker 8>in April ninety five, by October ninety five, is Sabou
<v Speaker 8>on nitro?
<v Speaker 2>Is he on nitro? Yes? In ninety five.
<v Speaker 8>Second episodes far of the second episode Sabo's there, does
<v Speaker 8>Matthew Alex Wright puts him through a table. I'm pretty
<v Speaker 8>sure we've done that Nitro before.
<v Speaker 2>I know we've watched something we've done that before. The
<v Speaker 2>Second Nitro. Yeah, I know, I feel like, yeah I did.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think we've done the Second Nitro though, but
<v Speaker 2>it's uh, you.
<v Speaker 8>Know, it's also a time when offers are being made.
<v Speaker 8>Kevin Sullivan in particular, who had great admiration for the
<v Speaker 8>chic and worked for him, would be kind of the
<v Speaker 8>key catalyst.
<v Speaker 2>Well.
<v Speaker 8>At the same time, it seemed like in the Kevin
<v Speaker 8>Sullivan Terry Taylor power struggle underneath Bischoff at WCW, that
<v Speaker 8>Terry Taylor was working at cross purposes with Kevin Sullivan
<v Speaker 8>visa v. Saboo and would stand in the way whenever
<v Speaker 8>WCW came close to inking Saboo to a contract. We
<v Speaker 8>covered it when we did World War Three nineteen ninety five,
<v Speaker 8>the pay per view Saboho appears on with his uncle,
<v Speaker 8>the Sheikh, and we talked that part in the book. Yeah,
<v Speaker 8>we probably watched that Nitro match or talked about it
<v Speaker 8>in the context of World War three nineteen ninety five,
<v Speaker 8>and he basically says, you know, to the point about
<v Speaker 8>him being sort of bashful about asking for pay, that'll
<v Speaker 8>come in for five hundred bucks. It sits there and
<v Speaker 8>he never gets to sign the actual contract. Thus, by
<v Speaker 8>the time the ink is ready, you know, he goes
<v Speaker 8>and does a shot on an independent show after that,
<v Speaker 8>thinking it's just a one off appearance because that's all
<v Speaker 8>they had agreed on verbally. And then Bischoff gets pissed
<v Speaker 8>off and gets on Sabou's case for going to work
<v Speaker 8>indies when Bischoff had the understanding that Saboo is coming
<v Speaker 8>to work for him. If you go back and listen
<v Speaker 8>to our Slambury nineteen ninety five episode, I'm pretty sure
<v Speaker 8>it was the RF video crew. Rob Finstein and company
<v Speaker 8>are in the lobby of the hotel because it was
<v Speaker 8>in Philly, well those big Legends reunion shows, and they
<v Speaker 8>put the video out years later of them walking around
<v Speaker 8>interviewing wrestlers from WW in the hotel room, including Stephen
<v Speaker 8>Regal and others. We excerpted a lot of that audio
<v Speaker 8>on that episode. But they catch up Eric Bischoff himself
<v Speaker 8>at one point and ask him about Saboo, and Bischoff
<v Speaker 8>basically says, yeah, give him, give him my number, like
<v Speaker 8>I know, you know the guy, So let's let's get
<v Speaker 8>this going. He wanted Sabu, And so when Sabu comes in,
<v Speaker 8>does the shot or two and then still does indies
<v Speaker 8>because he thought he was just he had no further
<v Speaker 8>contract lobby. They were like, what are you doing, and
<v Speaker 8>they get so pissed at him that they never offer
<v Speaker 8>him the contract. Years later, He's about to resign like
<v Speaker 8>two thirds, and Sullivan's like, rushing Saboo to sign the contract.
<v Speaker 3>You've got to do it now.
<v Speaker 8>You got to sign it now. So let me just
<v Speaker 8>look it over a couple days ago to tell my lawyer,
<v Speaker 8>you got to sign it now. And by the time
<v Speaker 8>he's ready to sign it, the contract had been pulled
<v Speaker 8>back because, well he tells the story, Kevin Sullivan was
<v Speaker 8>literally trying to physically hide Saboo from Terry Taylor so
<v Speaker 8>that Terry Taylor couldn't see that they were about to
<v Speaker 8>sign him and put the kaibosh on it. What Terry
<v Speaker 8>Taylor's problem with was Saboo. I'm not entirely sure. I
<v Speaker 8>do know through all those rumors that Todd Gordon later
<v Speaker 8>became a mole for WCW at ECW, and there was
<v Speaker 8>a huge philosophical clash between Todd Gordon and Paul Hayman
<v Speaker 8>that it was thought to be Terry Taylor on the
<v Speaker 8>WCW side puppeteering the whole deal and trying to basically
<v Speaker 8>raid ECW talent, take the heart out of the company,
<v Speaker 8>and do an ECW invasion of WCW essentially, all while,
<v Speaker 8>of course Vince McMahon was working behind the scenes, no
<v Speaker 8>one knew it at the time, to help finance Paul
<v Speaker 8>Hayman and help keep him out of a deep jeopardy
<v Speaker 8>and be able to send talent like Al Snow and
<v Speaker 8>other guys like Brachus guy he didn't know what to
<v Speaker 8>do with, send them down to ECW for some polishing
<v Speaker 8>just incredible would be another one el to Montoya. So
<v Speaker 8>there was that going on too, where it was kind
<v Speaker 8>of like to be against Paul was also to be
<v Speaker 8>against WWF. So it's just Saba was caught in that
<v Speaker 8>whole whirlwind. But I think it's very significant that in
<v Speaker 8>the same year as this huge falling out with Paul,
<v Speaker 8>Sabu tests the waters at WCW. But it doesn't work out.
<v Speaker 8>It doesn't work out as for the reasons mentioned in
<v Speaker 8>prior episodes, which you don't necessarily have to rehash here,
<v Speaker 8>and come November to remember nineteen ninety five, just a
<v Speaker 8>year after Sabu was dumped on his head at that
<v Speaker 8>event and had his neck broken by Chris ben Wah.
<v Speaker 8>Benoa is not pretty much leaving, and it's time for
<v Speaker 8>a big return. It's time for a big return, and
<v Speaker 8>you can guess who it is. Mom, No more fuck
<v Speaker 8>before Sabu anymore. His opponent hack buyers.
<v Speaker 14>Eight hundred pounds big free, the shop easy, I use.
<v Speaker 7>No popular wrestlers, the shot silk, the hell, I don't
<v Speaker 7>take fanny. How you doing?
<v Speaker 20>You're kinda turn back the clock. Let's turn back the
<v Speaker 20>clock very fiddly. I got one fucking word for your.
<v Speaker 10>Shop.
<v Speaker 21>Hold it agishly promised as surprise here.
<v Speaker 7>At the Phodagle, I ever turn that way, and here
<v Speaker 7>he comes, Sam return.
<v Speaker 15>To the East.
<v Speaker 7>And I've been reading were people Pauli in the porter
<v Speaker 7>of Sabu as well.
<v Speaker 21>Sabu in a very elite pub with Mikey.
<v Speaker 2>Whitpwreck, and that they have both held all three titles
<v Speaker 2>here in the Easy W.
<v Speaker 21>In fact, Sabu help the world and television titles simultaneously
<v Speaker 21>and helping tag team title with tax.
<v Speaker 8>So Sabu is back in ECW. The fuck is off
<v Speaker 8>the beginning of it nineteen ninety five is coming to
<v Speaker 8>an end and coming along at a rapid pace at
<v Speaker 8>this exact same time as Rob van Dam, who's becoming
<v Speaker 8>an increasingly prominent featured player on the ECW roster, at
<v Speaker 8>least showing the promise to become one. And pretty soon
<v Speaker 8>it's going to be back to those days in the
<v Speaker 8>Sheik's backyard and that Mechanics garage in Michigan and the
<v Speaker 8>USWA soundstage. It's going to be Saboo, and it's going
<v Speaker 8>to be RVD on a bigger stage at ECW, and
<v Speaker 8>they're about to have a series that will define nineteen
<v Speaker 8>ninety six for Sabu and for Rob van Dam. That's
<v Speaker 8>next time on our TLF Tribute to Sabu