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AFTERNOON THOUGHTS: THE SAD DEMISE OF SABU'S CAREER

"Sabu is going to end up in a wheelchair.  I hope one day when all of you who love his work see his end, you take care of him the way he took care of you by performing." -  Steven (William) Regal, Philadelphia, May 1994 to a group of fans in a hotel while talking about the wrestling business.

The news that former ECW World champion Sabu needs major back surgery to have rods inserted, which could very well lead to, at the least, the end of Sabu the performer as we know him, or at the worst, the end of Sabu the performer, doesn't come as much of a shock, but it's still sad.

Let's call a spade a spade.  Sabu has been one of the worst case scenarios when it comes to a professional wrestler seemingly blowing every major chance he's had.  Whether it be double booking himself on dates, personal issues, massive injuries,  blowing national deals with WWE and WCW on numerous occasions and even having a massive blow-up with the company that he helped make into a national force, ECW, there is a long list of moments where Sabu's career could have been sent into a completely different trajectory, had he compromised or made a different decision.

Indeed, What If?  What might have happened if Sabu had agreed to let Vince McMahon change his name in 1993 and signed with WWF after his pair of tryout matches in Upstate New York? What if he remained with WCW in 1995 and didn't return to ECW?  What if he and Paul Heyman didn't end up on the outs in 2000?  What if Sabu had remained with WWE last year?  What if he ended up full-time with New Japan during his stint there and stayed there?  What if he hadn't no-showed the last time TNA looked at booking him?

Perhaps Sabu would be in the same place he is now, looking at the likely end of his career.  Perhaps he'd be the millionaire every hardcore wrestling fan knows he deserves to be based on what he's given the business.  Perhaps he'd be World champion somewhere or perhaps he'd still be some outsider independent maverick working small indies on the fringe of the wrestling world.  

There's no way to know.  That's sad.

In 1993, Sabu was the man.  It seems like a generation ago, but there was a time when the name Sabu on an indy marquee guaranteed that if you were willing to go to the show, you were going to walk out of the event a Sabu fan.  There was nothing like him on the independent scene at the time.  He was Rey Mysterio Jr.'s flying meshed with Bruiser Brody's brawling with the dual street credibility of being the Original Sheik's nephew, which spoke as loudly an endorsement to wrestling fans as the barbed wire-borne scars that screamed as they zigzagged Sabu's body.  

Sabu was the type of star that doesn't exist today - without any national TV exposure, he had created an aura of a star simply by being creative, hard working and different.  He was savage yet fluid, at the same time.  Experiencing Sabu at his peak is something that was never truly captured on video, not on underground camcorder tapes that were traded around the country at the time.  When he charged the ring and pointed to the lights, you knew what was about to be delivered and you were never let down.  It was always exhilarating and different.  At times, it was orgasmic.

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. Matches against Al Snow, Chris Benoit, Devon "Crowbar" Storm and others proved that point.  Sabu was the real deal in a way that no one else was during that time period.

To see the fruit of his efforts not resulting in a happy life and millions of dollars in the bank, is sad.

Sabu was on fire by the time he was booked into ECW.  His debut match against the Tasmanic still holds up today, featuring two hungry stars beating the living hell out of each other as they brawl and fly through a crowd standing dangerously close to the carnage, destroying vendor tables and causing such a stir that it would be impossible for anyone to recreate it today.   Matches against Terry Funk, Shane Douglas, Public Enemy, Rob Van Dam, the Eliminators, Chris Candido and so many more followed, adding to the legend of this performer that came to epitomize what ECW was.  He was the living, breathing embodiment of why ECW was special.

Sabu and ECW parted ways a number of times and both sides were often at fault.  Still, when it came time for the first ECW PPV, Sabu was one half of the main event.  When planned booking was thrown out the window and a barbed wire match against Terry Funk was booked in its place, Sabu helped create a match that will never, ever be touched for its violence and brutality.  When ECW moved to TNN, they booked a storyline that Sabu was "banned", so when he appeared on PPV the first time before a (hoped-for) brand new audience, his aura and performance would be enough to draw new fans to spend their money.

When ECW was revived in 2005 and 2006, Sabu had to be a piece of that puzzle.  As much as Tommy Dreamer is pushed as the heart and soul of ECW, it was Sabu first and foremost who will be forever intertwined with that company's glory days.  

For Sabu to not share in the riches that comes with the legacy of the ECW name is sad.

Sabu got himself fired from WWE during his last stint.  He didn't want to be there.  His closest friend in the business, RVD, was leaving the company shortly.  ECW wasn't ECW.  The WWE policies were putting a stricter regimen on his outside issues and something had to give.  Sabu had always been an independent and had given his life and body for the business.  Even though fans who detest what the ECW letters had evolved into under WWE ownership would have advised Sabu, for once, to just make the money and be a worker bee like everyone else - he, above all, deserved to coast - he still forced the company to fire him and send him back out to the indy scene.

Sabu's last true chance at national glory, started strong against John Cena and Big Show, featured what will likely be his only appearance ever at Wrestlemania and ended with a whimper via a one sentence announcement on the WWE website.  Sad.

Sabu was back where he started, on the indy scene.  Double booking himself.  Getting hurt.  Working for the paydays he could get while the injuries mounted and the self-abuse continued.  Something had to give.  This time, it was his own body, finally screaming "Enough!"

Make no doubt about it, the Sabu we once knew, the one we admired as a performer and the one we rolled our eyes at for blowing his chances, is most likely gone forever.  He may wrestle again, but it won't be that Sabu.  One can envision Sabu wielding a spike as he re-molds himself into a modern equivalent of the Sheik or Abdullah the Butcher, but the almighty Sabu, Lord of the Hardcores, appears to be a thing of the past.

When it comes to the history books of this business, Sabu will likely be remembered as this generation's Dynamite Kid.  Tom Billington was considered one of the best in-ring workers ever and influenced the next generation, but didn't heed the warnings and in the end, his body rebelled against the physical abuse of the ring and the substance abuse Billington forced upon it.  Wheelchair bound and looking downright pathetic in his last appearances before a wrestling audience, Billington lives a life of poverty, a virtual hermit.  

"I'll be honest," Billington closes his 1999 autobiography Pure Dynamite writing. "When I started out wrestling as the Dynamite Kid all those years ago, I had no idea things would end up the way they did.  But I'd do it all again.  And, in spite of everything, I wouldn't change a thing.   Which I know sounds strange coming from a guy whose wrestling put him in a wheelchair, but it's true.  Wrestling was my life, and I loved it.  No regrets.  I had a blast."

Perhaps Billington has no regrets.  Perhaps Sabu will have none. The reality is, both gave of themselves at levels the wrestling business has never seen and both influenced the generations that followed.  Both were Hall of Fame caliber performers, but most likely will never be recognized as such by the masses.  Both were trail blazers who both destroyed their bodies, inside the ring and out, in a massive blaze of glory/train wreck that will see others profit far more from it than either of them ever did or will.

Sabu, like Billington, did it to himself, as did Ray Stevens before them, and others before Stevens.  Like Stevens and Billington, Sabu likely won't have much to show for himself when he is indeed finished forever.  That's sad because he deserves to have it for all he's done for those in the business and for the fans who cared to follow his career.

Unfortunately, it's not the least bit surprising, either.  The only hope we really have is that the next generation learns from the sins of Sabu, who worked himself half to death and abused his body in and out of the ring to the point he's lucky to be alive, much less walking around in the sheer level of pain he's in.  The history of the business doesn't make that likely.  After all, Sabu didn't learn from those who came before him and in all likelihood, the vicious cycle will continue.

That is perhaps, the saddest fact of all.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

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