For better or worse, Sabu was a true innovator in the wrestling business. As he returns to British shores, John Lister explores the legacy of the “suicidal, genocidal, homicidal maniac”.
Terry Brunk was once literally a backyard wrestler, but while he may have shared a reckless disregard for his own wellbeing with the derided performers who bear that label, he had a legitimate grounding in the business.
The backyard in question belonged to Ed Farhat, better known as Detroit promoter and top star the Sheik. Virtually every week the villainous Sheik prevailed in a notably short main event at Cobo Hall featuring little wrestling action and consisting largely of brawling, foreign object use and bleeding. By usual wrestling logic this product should have quickly become overexposed and failed to draw, but in fact he was among the top ticket sellers in the business for most of the 1970s.
Brunk debuted in 1985 in the dying days of the Sheik’s promotion, taking his ring name from Sabu Dastigar, a wartime era actor who starred in films including Elephant Boy, The Drum and The Thief of Baghdad. Over the next six years he largely bounced around the independent scene, including a short run in Memphis alongside future partner and rival Rob Van Dam.
It wasn’t until 1991 that Sabu really broke out, accompanying his uncle to the flourishing FMW promotion in Japan where he took part in numerous tag matches with a variety of extreme stipulations such as barbed wire in place of ropes. The most outlandish came on May 6, 1992 when Sabu and Sheik faced top babyface Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto in a fire death match.
What was meant to be little more than a visual effect with kerosene-soaked rags attached to the barbed wire got completely out of hand thanks to winds at the outdoor venue. The flames were blown down on to the ring apron where dripping kerosene ignited and quite literally burned down the ring, prompting an impromptu no contest verdict.
It was another FMW bout where Sabu debuted what would become his trademark move. After running into the crowd after a match to protect the Sheik from attacks by fans, Sabu was told by his uncle to return to the ring and “get your heat back.” He chose to do so by moonsaulting from the top rope through a table.
While breaking a table during a match was by no means a new idea (former grappler Irwin Stanton wrote of arranging such a spot in the 1930s), it was certainly a novelty for a wrestler to do so regularly, often with no opponent in sight. It sparked a several-year period in which Sabu experimented with increasingly creative ways to destroy furniture and was the clear inspiration for Bret Hart doing so at the 1995 Survivor Series and, in the long run, today’s era of TLC matches and even a dedicated pay-per-view event.
During the early 90s Sabu also began building a reputation among the tape-trading hardcore fan community, with standout performances for the NWA New Jersey group and the Minnesota PWA promotion, taking on the likes of the Lightning Kid (Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman), Jerry Lynn and Chris Candido.
When he then not only debuted in ECW on October 1, 1993, but played a major role at his first set of tapings, it seemed logical to assume new booker Paul Heyman had deliberately set out to recruit and push one of the biggest up-and-coming indy stars. In fact, as Sabu explained in the 2006 documentary Forever Hardcore, it was purely a matter of luck.
“[NWA promoter] Dennis Coraluzzo told me to call this guy named Tod Gordon because he was a sucker who’d give me $500 a night. When I showed up, Heyman actually asked what I was doing there.”
Heyman certainly capitalised, putting Sabu against fellow debutant the Tazmaniac (later Taz) in a jawdropping bout that saw Sabu wheeled to the ring restrained on a stretcher and wearing a mask in the style of Hannibal Lecter. Released from his constraints he unleashed utter destruction and became an instant star in the promotion. Just one night later he was given a win over Shane Douglas to become the ECW champion.
Mike Johnson of the Pro Wrestling Insiders website and ECW ringside regular explained that Sabu’s status was enhanced by the context of the era: “While WWF was pushing Lex Luger’s bionic forearm as a top babyface finisher, Sabu was doing Asai Moonsaults through hapless opponents prone on tables. He was doing Arabian Facebusters with chairs onto people’s faces. He was doing springboard presses one second and brawling through an arena the next. There was no comparison then or now.
“Sabu was a deity for hardcore fans. Prior to the word ‘hardcore’ describing comedic wrestling matches with props, it referred to diehard fans who lived and breathed the industry. Fans who held up professional wrestling mighty and proud as their sport of choice. A sport that while perhaps ‘fake’, was still the real deal. No one described that more feeling more than Sabu.
Just a matter of days after his ECW debut, Sabu had three tryout matches at WWE television tapings, beating Scott Taylor (the future Scotty 2 Hotty) twice but losing to Owen Hart. The two sides failed to reach an agreement, with Sabu claiming he turned down a contract offer, leaving him free to make his name in Philadelphia.
According to ECW staffer (and later ROH/Dragon Gate USA/Evolve booker) Gabe Sapolsky, that was a game-changing development. “Sabu was the most important figure in ECW history simply for the fact that I don’t think ECW would have initially been successful without him. He was the one the fans paid to see and he was the one that made ECW different in 1994 while the other characters and angles were developed like Tommy Dreamer, Taz, Shane Douglas and Public Enemy. He defined the ECW style in the early days and set the bar. I really don’t think ECW would have taken off without him in 1994.”
It may be hard for today’s fans to grasp just how unusual the style adopted by Sabu was. It wasn’t simply that he was using furniture and acrobatics at a time when both were in short supply in the major groups, but he was coming up with creative ways to combine the two. Take for example ‘Air Sabu’, a move in which he placed a dazed opponent against the turnbuckles, then ran across the ring and used a chair as a launch pad for a spinning leg lariat to the face. Or the triple jump moonsault, in which he would leap from the mat to a chair to the top rope, bouncing back into a somersault over the chair and onto his opponent — the logic being that the extra steps built momentum and in turn force for the eventual impact.
Critical opinion remains split about Sabu’s in-ring abilities. Where some dismiss him as untalented, reliant on gimmicks, and prone to spectacularly missing moves, others argue his “sloppiness” created a more realistic experience than later wrestlers who adopted a flawlessly smooth, choreographed-looking aerial style. It’s also been noted that he made a point to take the time and effort sell the impact of his moves upon his own body, though this may have been a case of genuine reactions in most cases. During his initial run he also became known for an underrated grasp of psychology in bouts with the likes of Mikey Whipwreck and Stevie Richards in which he dominated with offense against the ‘weaker’ opponent, but still gave enough to get the man over as proving his toughness by staying the distance.
Sabu was even an innovator in the world of medicine, albeit without much recognition. After suffering a serious cuts in a match, he decided he was too tired to wait for several hours for emergency room treatment. Instead he sealed the wound using the US equivalent of Superglue. Although cited at the time as another example of his recklessness, the idea was later approved by the Federal Drug Administration in the form of Dermabond, billed as offering a reliable way to protect a wound from infection.
1995 proved a momentous year for Sabu. Taking up work with New Japan Pro Wrestling he managed to double-book himself for a Japanese date the same night as ECW’s scheduled Three Way Dance, a much-hyped tag match pitting Sabu & Tazmaniac against Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko and Public Enemy. Sabu chose the Japanese date, leaving Heyman to cut a promo in which he somehow turned the ECW Arena crowd against their former hero, an early indication that the ECW brand meant more than any individual wrestler.
Sabu’s New Japan run proved a mixed success at best: although he won the IWGP junior-heavyweight title from Koji Kanemoto, he apparently angered promoters by publicly throwing down the belt and proclaiming himself a heavyweight. Perhaps unsurprisingly he quickly lost the title back to Kanemoto. He had a similarly undistinguished run in WCW, debuting on the second edition of Monday Nitro.
He received a warmer reception in the UK where he was brought in by local grappler Jason ‘Dirt Bike Kid’ Harrison. Although the match at Walthamstow drew a small crowd of around 100-150, it was a truly unique evening where almost everyone on hand knew one another from the tape trading and fanzine scene. Sabu was the only name mentioned on adverts for the show and it was the first time that an American independent grappler was brought over as a draw in his own right to appeal to a hardcore audience travelling from around the country — something that is commonplace today.
Dean Ayass, who was ring announcer on the show, told FSM the appeal of the event. “Sabu was the personification of the underground/counter-culture that was growing within a hardcore of UK fans. Here was this crazy guy doing moonsaults through tables, which was totally unheard of. Teenage wrestling fans who were finding their rebellious side were rejecting traditional TV wrestling from WWF and WCW in favour of the hardcore Japanese and US indie shows that could mainly be seen via fourth or fifth generation camcorder footage eagerly traded between fans on VHS videotape.
“The only tourists to come over to the UK were either unknown American indie wrestlers, some of whom found fame after they returned home, like Val Venis, The Equaliser/Dave Sullivan etc or former WWF stars cashing in on their TV fame. Sabu’s visit was unique at the time. Nobody had dared to dream that he’d ever grace our shores.”
It proved a hugely influential event for what became the ‘new school’ independent wrestling circuit in the UK. A teenage Alex Shane acted as referee for the event, while the star of an eight-man tournament that made up the undercard was a then little-known Hammerlock wrestler by the name of Doug Williams. Among the audience were future FWA stars Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch.
Sabu returned to ECW in November 1995, ironically as a ‘make-good’ surprise, after the previous show at the Arena had ended in chaos when a fire stunt went wrong (albeit on a lesser scale than the near-death experience for the Sheik in FMW.) He was immediately set up for a feud with former partner Tazmaniac — now rebranded as the shooter Taz — who turned heel the same evening but vowed revenge for Sabu having abandoned him. Despite their rivalry, the pair would not touch for another full year, and it wasn’t until ECW’s first pay-per-view event in April 1997 that they had a match.
In the meantime, Sabu spent much of 1996 feuding with Rob Van Dam in a series of bouts with a surprising level of psychology and storytelling given the pair’s reputation. Each match built on its predecessor, with the wrestlers finding counters and reversals to moves that had previously worked for their opponent, a format more associated with Japan.
That said, by the end of the year the pair began teaming against the likes of the Eliminators in a series of matches that were as sloppy as they were spectacular. It’s arguable this was a less favorable example of Sabu’s influence on wrestling, particularly the independent scene, as these bouts were first sign that for some fans a blown spot or clumsily set-up sequence was now considered less important than acrobatic ambition.
Although Sabu gave memorable performances on major shows in 1997, including a brutal no-rope barbed-wired bout against Terry Funk, things started to decline at the end of the year. At the November to Remember pay-per-view he had a disastrous bout with Sandman. It was so bad that a rematch had to be taped before airing on ‘live’ pay-per-view for fear that similar botches might have to be edited out.
Another performance memorable for all the wrong reasons came in a 1998 PPV bout against Van Dam before which an under-the-weather Sabu had ingested a mixture of painkillers, marijuana and high-caffeine drink, leading to him vomiting on multiple occasions just after the opening bell — a particularly unfortunate affliction given the match was booked as a 30 minute draw.
He was gradually moved down the card for the rest of his ECW run, eventually quitting after refusing to lose to Super Crazy. It appears Heyman knew his departure was inevitable as he took the unprecedented step of writing out a script for the match with the planned finish, making it possible to then argue Sabu had breached his contract. That created a legal dispute that stopped him taking up an offer to join WCW in its dying days.
With TLC matches hitting WWE pay-per-views and a new generation of high-flyers on their scene, it might have seemed Sabu was yesterday’s news at this point. However, he remained active, working for the likes of the World Wrestling All-Stars group, TNA, and the WWE relaunch of ECW, allowing him to make an appearance at WrestleMania 23.
Perhaps the most memorable appearance of his recent runs came in 2010 when he was brought in as a late replacement for Jerry Lynn on TNA’s ECW reunion themed show Hardcore Justice. Although losing to Van Dam in the main event, the then-45-year-old Sabu helped put together a credible bout that — unlike much of the undercard — delivered as much athleticism as nostalgia.
Since then Sabu has made unwanted, being rushed to hospital before the debut of the Extreme Reunion promotion, but continues working the independent circuit and generally satisfying audiences despite the seeming incompatibility between his trademark ring style and his age and health.
According to Sapolsky, the fact that Sabu made his name in what is now another generation should not undermine his legacy. “I think he deserves more credit than he gets for innovating, creating and popularizing a style that brought wrestling into its greatest boom period. He might be the most ripped off wrestler of all time. However, he was the originator and I hope people never forget that.”
