Notable/Celebrity Deaths | Sabu (60)

[Maniakkid25]

ECW was Extreme Championship Wrestling, and it was a true "anything goes" format. Barbed wire ropes, dives onto straight up concrete, weapons, it had it all. Some of the old clips are absolutely terrifying to watch, given the horrendous things those wrestlers would do to themselves. Almost all of the injuries were "Hard Way", too, meaning they weren't planned.

Sabu, in particular, I had to look up, because I remember a rather legendary injury and, yep, it was him! He tore his arm so deeply that his bicep was basically coming out of the wound, and he just taped it up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RING, and kept going! I haven't seen the offending clip, but I don't really want to, to be honest. It's probably sickening.

I can't really say I'm surprised by his passing, but it doesn't mean it's not a tragedy. Here's hoping that people are right about the bout not being a contributing factor.

[Moonface]

The only clips I think I've seen from ECW is one involving Hardcore Holly in a table spot where the table sliced his back open really, really badly, and the iconic clip of who knows how many chairs being thrown into the ring by the crowd.

I decided to go looking for the match you mentioned to see that lunacy for myself, and it took me a while to find the specific moment the bicep cut occurs but with what I was seeing everywhere else in the video while looking I really expected that injury to look a whole lot worse than it was. I actually think the ending of the match where both competitors have to be cut out of the barbed wire to be far more stomach churning to try and watch.

It doesn't look like any updates about his passing have come out, but while I was checking for any I did find this image someone took of Sabu after his last match. Even without knowing much about him I feel this photo really conveys a lot about Sabu's life in a singular moment.

[Moonface]

Oof, well this certainly wasn't the update to Sabu's passing I wanted to read: Yahoo | Sabu was Sabu until the very end

“We are an hour into the show and I said, ‘Just get Sabu here,’" Janela continued. "So they gave him something called kratom. You can buy it at a smoke shop or something; it’s like a legal opiate or something. They said, ‘He's hopping on the bed, he's hopping off the bed, and we're going to get him to the show.’ So he shows up two hours into the show. Sabu was on a different f***ing planet. Everyone in the backstage was like, ‘What the f***? Is this match going to happen?’ And my God, did it happen.”

Moments into the match, Sabu went for a signature Air Sabu dive off of a chair, missed Janela and went chest-first into the barbed wire strands, with his head landing and sticking in a giant crate of barbed wire. It was an immediate sign to the audience that this wasn’t going to be a nostalgia match — that Sabu was going to go out on his own terms. Then, minutes later, Sabu got whipped into a barbed-wire board, which was resting on the barbed-wire ropes, and flipped backward out of the ring, landing in a heap.

“He was definitely out cold. He was done," Janela said. "They were telling me there was no way. The refs were communicating to me that there's no way he's continuing this match.

“Like holy s***, that is the one time you want the barbed wire to stop you. He just blew right through it.

“And then [old ECW rival] The Sandman came out and that was all Sabu needed, then the resurrection happened. Jesus resurrected two days later, the anniversary … couldn't f***ing believe it, dude. He was ready to go again. I guess that concussion knocked him back into 1996 or something, I don't know.”

Like, holy shit maybe don't try to glorify what could have very likely been what put this man in the grave, especially when it isn't just a case of an unfortunate accident happening but giving the guy drugs so he can bring his broken body to the show and have seemingly zero self preservation because of it.

[Mr EliteL]

RIP to that crazy dude, I luckily haven't seen those really bad injury ECW clips and don't want to. I know ECW did so much extreme stunts hence their name, and Sabu being one of the main wrestlers willing or should I say "willing" to do them. Knowing he did drugs (and yes of course I know loads of wrestlers do drugs to some extent, at least painkillers) before his last match and did all that at 60, freaking heck. He gave it all really and then some, think his body finally had enough unfortunately.