SABU R.I.P.

In a box in the corner of my laboratory, sequestered from many of the other oddities I’ve acquired over the years, sits a strange memento. It’s a jagged, roughly triangular piece of wood, about an inch thick, and with a smooth dark hickory pattern on one side. It’s a piece of a table.  Why would anybody want to hang on to a broken hunk of table for over 10 years? 

The answer is simple. The table was broken by the suicidal, genocidal, homicidal maniac and icon of hardcore professional wrestling SABU during a match he was in on Halloween night, 2014 in my hometown of Rockford, IL. When you have the chance to get something touched by a legend, you don’t pass it up. After the matches that night, I managed to score that hunk of table, the one Sabu put his opponent Ruff Crossing through using one of his patented suicide dives. I’ll keep that violent bit of memorabilia as long as I can.

Sabu has left us now. He departed on May 11, 2025, just a few weeks after his last match with Joey Janela at GCW’s Spring Break event. That last match, true to form, was a “No Rope Barbed Wire” match, the sort of gory, insane contest that typified Sabu’s entire career. He was 60 years old when he  competed in it. Did the match contribute to his death? I’d be surprised if it didn’t, but I have a feeling that Sabu himself would have been happy with that being his last contest. Especially since he won. Controversy swirled around that match, but I won’t be delving into that.

Instead, I want to pay tribute to one of the very few pro wrestlers who can rightfully be called a “game changer” and a man who ushered in a sea change in the pro wrestling world. Making Sabu’s impact even more amazing is the fact that he achieved much of it outside of the world of the big corporate wrestling leagues like WWF and WCW. He paved a trail that those two entities imitated to make themselves relevant. But Sabu himself was too untamed and outside the norm to conform to their rules and regulations.

I don’t intend to painstakingly cover every move in Sabu’s career here, although I will touch on the various stages of it. Instead, I just want to pay tribute to the man who brought blood and insanity back to wrestling when it needed those things the most.

You can really say that mayhem was in the man’s blood. He was born Terry Michael Brunk in Staten Island, NY in the early 60’s. His uncle was one of the most notorious and violent wrestlers of all time, Ed “The Sheik” Farhat. The Sheik was billed as the “Madman From Syria” and for many years was the most hated man in wrestling. Showing little in the way of actual skill, The Sheik instead turned virtually every match into a bloodbath. Along with Gorgeous George and The Undertaker, he had perhaps the greatest gimmick of all time, coming to the ring with a sword, praying to Allah on a prayer rug and throwing fire in the face of his enemies. Although he was not the first “madman” in wrestling, he was the most infamous and blazed a trail.

Terry Brunk grew up in the heart of Big Time Wrestling, the Detroit promotion The Sheik ran for many years. Chaos was a way of life for him and there wasn’t much doubt that he would grow up to be a wrestler, although he was small in stature. After Big Time Wrestling folded in the very early 80’s, The Sheik continued to cause mayhem throughout the world, particularly in Japan.

Terry was bitten by the wrestling bug and wanted to continue The Sheik’s legacy into a new generation. He officially started wrestling in 1985, working for small time Michigan promotions and learning the ropes. He got a brief look at stardom in 1991, when he wrestled in Memphis for the USWA, where he was billed as “Samu”. He couldn’t use the “Sabu” name because that had previously been taken by another wrestler in the area. As Samu, he had matches with a young Jeff Jarrett as well as Robert Fuller (aka Colonel Parker) and Billy Travis.

It was good experience but for the young wrestler, it wasn’t enough. He really wanted to make a mark. So he decided to take an “excursion” to Japan. Now “excursion” is something many young Japanese wrestlers do, traveling to America, Mexico or Europe to immerse themselves in the sport and gain real experience. After the “excursion”, the young athlete would return home and develop their own persona. Terry Brunk decided to do this in “reverse”, traveling to Japan to learn and then coming back to the US.

Already Sabu considered himself an “outlaw” and “outsider” in the wrestling world, so when he went to Japan, he did not sign with the two established federations there, New Japan and All Japan, but chose a federation that mirrored his own mindset: Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, or FMW. This rogue operation was run by the notorious Mr. Atsushi Onita, a man known for engaging in extremely bloody and dangerous matches. Onita at one time held the record for the most stitches in a human body. He was a huge influence on Sabu and the ECW explosion he was such a vital part of.

From 1991 to 1994, Sabu competed almost exclusively for FMW and threw himself into the extreme lifestyle with a vengeance. Anybody who has ever looked at Sabu’s body sees a roadmap of scars and burn marks there; it was FMW where he acquired most of these, going up against the craziest and most reckless wrestlers there. He was determined to follow in the footsteps of his uncle The Sheik, but to that brawling style, he added an almost lucha libre high flying component, engaging in death-defying leaps and acrobatics years before that became popular in America.

Sabu’s most notorious match in FMW involved himself teaming with The Sheik, who was into his 70’s by this point, and facing Mr. Onita and Tarzan Goto in an insane barbed wire fire match where the barbed wire was doused in kerosene and set on fire. You can find footage of this madness on Youtube. All the participants received burn scars which they carried for the rest of their lives. Even for Sabu, this was the height of craziness.

After his excursion in Japan, Sabu returned to the US, ready to make himself into the updated version of The Sheik. He spent most of his time in the East Coast independent scene, establishing himself as a devil-may-care maniac who risked his own well-being. This came during a lull in the pro wrestling business in America. Vince McMahon’s WWF was still the dominating force in wrestling, but it’s popularity was rapidly declining at that time. Hulkamania was a shadow of itself and the WWF was consumed by dull booking and bland matches with no sense of danger. Their only competition was WCW, who at this time was still trying to get off life support. It would be another year or two before they changed into the powerhouse that reinvigorated wrestling.

Sabu finally made his home in the upstart Eastern Championship Wrestling, which was based out of Philadelphia. At this time, ECW was a strange mixture of former WWF stars like Don Muraco and Jimmy Snuka with young, hungry wrestlers like Sabu, The Tazmaniac, The Sandman, Johnny Hotbody and more. Late in 1994, manager Paul E. Dangerously, today known as Paul Heyman, became the booker of ECW and decided to turn the federation into “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre of wrestling”...a place of wrestling rebellion.

Sabu had his persona established with his very first match in ECW, where he came to the ring in a strait jacket and tied to a gurney, with a Hannibal Lecter style facemask on. When he was released from his restraints by his handlers, he hit the ring like a maniac and threw himself wildly at his opponent, the wild and brutal Tazmaniac. This match set the pattern for what Heyman wanted the Federation to become.

Soon ECW changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling and settled in an old bingo hall at the corner of Swanson and Rittner in Philly. This seedy locale, the opposite of the sanitized arenas the WWF was competing in, would become one of the most legendary venues in wrestling history. A rowdy and vocal crowd of Philly fans, most of whom would probably boo the Pope if he showed up, watched each month as Sabu got more and more reckless. His specialty was using tables and chairs to assault his opponents. No table was safe if Sabu was in the house! He became the soul of ECW. Other stars would arise...Tazmaniac would drop his animal act and become a “human suplex machine”. His feuds...and teams...with Sabu would become historical. The chain-smoking Sandman could take almost as much punishment as Sabu himself. He would come to the ring to the sounds of METALLICA’s “Enter: Sandman”, drinking beer and  bringing a bamboo cane that he would hit everybody in sight with. Tommy Dreamer evolved from a typical babyface to a fearless hard guy that would take 10 hits to deliver twice the damage. 

I could easily write a book about the craziness of ECW and its other infamous characters like brooding cult leader Raven, conniving heel Shane Douglas, goofball tagteam daredevils The Public Enemy and veteran Terry Funk, ending his career in a blaze of glory. These and many others made ECW one of the most talked about wrestling federations of all times...the one that saved blood, grit and unpredictability from a tidal wave of corporate blandness. At the heart of it all was Sabu. He started as a heel but the ECW fans loved him so much, it was impossible for him to be hated. He never really acknowledged the fans, but that didn’t matter.

One very notable characteristic of Sabu was the fact that he never spoke. There were a few very isolated times when he said a word or two, mostly during his brief sojourns in WWF and WCW, but he probably never said a hundred words on the mic in his whole career. This was an admirable part of his mystique, something else he learned from The Sheik, and although he would do “shoot” interviews in the 2000’s, he almost never spoke in connection with an actual match.

The growing popularity of ECW did not go unnoticed by the big leagues of wrestling. WCW, in particular, was notorious for stealing wrestlers from ECW. At one time, almost every ECW mainstay had a run in WCW, including Sabu. But the funny thing was, those characters rarely ever translated to other federations. Sabu, The Sandman, The Public Enemy and The Eliminators never really caught on in WCW. Although, to be fair, the likes of Taz, The Dudley Boys and Rob Van Dam did find success outside the bingo hall.

Sabu’s fling in WCW didn’t amount to much. He competed there in late 1995, fighting the likes of Alex Wright and “Mr. JL” (a masked and horribly misued Jerry Lynn). Sabu didn’t like the corporate feel of WCW and Eric Bischoff, the head of the company, just didn’t get Sabu’s character. In November of 1995, Sabu made a riotous return to ECW at the “November To Remember” card. When his theme music hit and the spotlight hit on him making his trademark “pointing to the sky” pose, the crowd at ECW Arena let out a roar that a 20,000 strong arena couldn’t match.

Sabu spent the next five years in ECW, engaging in more legendary matches with the likes of Rob Van Dam, his nemesis Taz and the grizzled maniac Terry Funk, who he fought in an infamous no-rope barbed wire match.

In 1997, ECW entered into a shocking partnership with the corporate colossus WWF, who were desperate to reclaim their #1 position from the surging WCW. The wrestlers of ECW “invaded” the WWF and Sabu got major exposure competing on Monday Night Raw and other WWF programming. The once wholesome and kid-focused WWF decided to go “hardcore” with blood, sex and profanity to regain their dominance. Basically, they ripped off the ECW formula. And it worked. By 1998, the WWF was back on top again and it was WCW trying to keep up.

By 2000, both ECW and WCW were financially on the ropes. Heyman, one of the greatest booking minds in history, was a lousy money handler. The ground-breaking promotion was going broke and big names in the company...including Sabu...left the sinking ship, leaving an inferior lineup of talent. In one of the darkest periods in wrestling history, both WCW and ECW were bought out by the rapacious Vince McMahon Jr. 

Sabu spent the next few years working the growing independent wrestling scene. He spent time in the outlaw promotion XPW, run by porn mogul Rob Black, which tried to be even more offensive than ECW. He also wrestling in All Japan. But his reckless style, which he never toned down, was starting to catch up to his aging body. He spent 10 months on the shelf due to an excruciating back injury. Always in pain, he kept fighting through it, but also admitted to drug use to manage the pain, which caused further debilitation.

Sabu’s name still meant a lot in the early 2000’s. The new upstart TNA promotion made use of him and Sabu had a real bloodbath “Monster’s Ball” match with the beastly Abyss there. The feud between these two was very intense and for the most part, Abyss was the winner.

In 2006, Vince McMahon made the decision to revive ECW. Some people believe he did this so he could control the constant chants of “ECW, ECW” that marred many of the WWE’s live shows. Sabu was signed to the “new” ECW along with Tommy Dreamer and WWE mainstays like Kurt Angle, Kane and Bobby Lashley. Very few people accepted this new version of ECW, which was mockingly called ECWWE. It just didn’t work and mercifully, it closed up after a couple of years.

Sabu just could not get the wrestling fever out of his blood. When the new ECW collapsed, he threw himself back into the indy scene with vengeance. And for the most part, this is where he stayed for the next 14 years, minus a couple of brief stays in TNA. New wrestling local organizations were popping up like crazy all over the place and a grappler on the move could make good money if he wanted to. Honestly, by 2010, Sabu should have hung up his boots and retired. But just like his uncle The Sheik, he kept going, crashing through more tables, getting hit with more chairs and bleeding buckets.

I saw Sabu in person at a card promoted by the now defunct Frontier Championship Wrestling in Freeport, Illinois. The location was essentially the back yard of the beloved Rock Hollow Gun Club, the site of many a NYDM metal bash. Sabu was on a card with many of the mainstays of FCW. I have trouble recalling exactly who his opponent was, but Sabu wound up putting his opponent through a table...big surprise there. The crowd was not what it should have been, but I enjoyed seeing the madman do his thing. After the match, I got a close up look at just how scarred up the man’s body was. They say you have to be crazy to be a wrestler, but Sabu was on a level beyond that typical level of “crazy”.

Sabu wrestled many of these kind of “mud shows” in between runs in Japan and appearances in TNA and Juggalo Championship Wrestling. In many cases, he would “put over” a local guy in order to pick up his check. Although some of the shows were poorly attended, the wrestling public in general never forgot the “Beast of Bombay”; he was the measuring stick used for all hardcore wrestlers.

I saw him again at a Halloween show in 2014, held in Loves Park, IL and promoted by the ill-fated Stateline Championship wrestling. You can read about the card HERE. This is the one where he put Ruff Crossing through the table. I grabbed a piece of the broken table...the same one sitting in a corner of the room I’m writing in now. This match was more memorable than the FCW one and this card in general was quite good, featuring other stars like ECW alumnus Rhyno, the hulking Kongo Kong, a fast-rising Tommaso Ciampa who is now a WWE regular and homegrown standout Vic Capri. Despite the quality of the card, attendance was once again mediocre and Stateline only held one more card before folding.

That was 11 years ago and Sabu, now in his 50’s, kept going. There was just no “stop” button on this guy. Time was definitely catching up to him and he was not the wrestler he once was. But he still kept going through tables and getting whacked with chairs because that was what the fans expected from him. He made another appearance at TNA’s Bound For Glory in October, 2020 and even showed up in AEW to back up Adam Cole against Chris Jericho at Double Or Nothing in 2023.

That brought us full circle to that final match in GCW, the underground promotion that considers itself the modern heir to classic ECW. That comparison is not warranted by a long shot, in this writer’s opinion. At age 60, he fought Joey Janela in a no rope barbed wire match. Old habits (and addictions) are hard to break. Word had it that Sabu was in no fit condition to wrestle when he showed up for the match and had to be pumped full of kratom to participate. This match was harder to watch more than many other Sabu matches because it was clear this was his last gasp. He managed to win but on May 11,2025, Sabu was found dead at his home. 

The manner of his death could have been avoided, yet it made perfect sense given his career as the “suicidal, genocidal, homicidal death machine”. Only dying during an actual match would have been more fitting. With his passing, the greatest icon of the hardcore revolution of the 90’s was gone. Certainly the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno are still around, but nobody typified the grit and grime of ECW and indy wrestling in general more than Sabu. He was a living link to the likes of The Sheik, Ox Baker and Wild Bull Curry...a legacy which Vince McMahon tried in vain to eradicate.

I am glad to say I saw him in person. His career, warts and all, was one for the ages and Sabu broke as many barriers as a wrestler could break. There will never be another like him, even though there are a lot of people trying to duplicate that impact.