Sabu is an ECW legend and is considered a pioneer of wrestling in the 1990s. His death-defying style with no disregard for his own safety led to him becoming one of the most popular wrestlers in ECW and is a former ECW World Heavyweight Champion. His extreme style mixing hardcore and high flying earned Sabu to nickname “The Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal, Death–Defying Maniac”, something he carried with him until his retirement earlier this year.
However, en route to his ECW and NWA World Championship reigns, Sabu also became infamous for his “botches” in matches. A botch in wrestling refers to when a wrestler executes a move incorrectly by mistake, usually hurting themselves or their opponents in the process.
Due to his high-flying style that no-one had seen before, Sabu was also prone to missing a jump or slipping on the rope. His signature move, where he would jump from a chair to the top rope and then onto an opponent, was incredibly risky and also had the risk of him slipping and falling at any stage of the move.
However, a number of ECW legends have come out on social media to comment on Sabu’s botches. Former WWE and ECW Champion Rob Van Dam spoke on Twitter about this after Sabu admitted to performing botches to fool the smart fans.
Sabu tweeted “some of them “botches” was a work” in response to a fan talking about him messing up in the ring, to which Rob Van Dam replied, stating he did so to fool journalists like Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
“True story. Sabu would “slip” on the top rope, trip and fall, and @davemeltzerWON would write about him missing spots. Sabu liked working the smart”
Fellow ECW Alumni Lance Storm then joined in on the thread, adding that Sabu and he planned a spot during an ECW show to trick the fans and to make their matches seem more real. Mistakes are a common part of real fights so it makes sense that wrestlers wouldn’t be perfect inside the ring every time.
He also added that he and Sabu laughed after the fact, say “We got ’em”
“True story. I worked Sabu in the Arena and he wanted me to do a spot that “made sense” but would look like a botch to smart fans, to work them. We did the spot, they chanted “You Fucked Up” and while selling Sabu laughed “We got ‘em”
Sabu is an ECW legend, and even had a short run in WWE in the mid 2000s during the revival of ECW. However, he never won the ECW Championship in WWE and was released by the company in 2007 and went to work on the independent scene.
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