People who really love wrestling will always have the memory that Sabu was one of the wrestlers, if not the first, who brought high-level highflying wrestling to the United States and as Heyman said, pioneers don't get rich. . For example, most fans saw highflying wrestling with Rey Mysterio Jr. and more Mexican wrestlers when they came to ECW around 94/96.
What’s your point? Rey got rich….. You really quoted a notorious liar like Paul Heyman and rode with it. Not that I wouldn’t ever but Rey got rich and Hean probably said that to Sabu as he explained why he’s making less that week 😂
Flying Fred curry was a high flyer in the 1960s & wrestled Sabu's uncle the original shield Ed Farhat from big time wrestling in Detroit when it was still territories.
Sabu was one of those risk takers where his moves looked believable. To this day, his match with Rey Mysterio at One Night Stand in 2006 is one of my favorite matches. Even though it was short and it had a crappy ending. It was a great showcase of how great Sabu was. That match was just a tip of the iceberg on how talented he was.
If u look at it..wwe didnt bury shit..they paid them n gave them spotlight..sandman was just a good gimmick,dreamer was below average and raven was great but didnt fit the wweat that moment..but yea rvd dudleys and r as venwere good,all the others were shit.
@@BacktothaBaysiccs510Raven was ahead of his time, he was like all those type of wrestlers that doesn't have more than 5 moves but those 5 moves are enough for him like for example Bray Wyatt. He was more of a story teller and WWE could have done amazing things with him, I remember Raven had a short run doing somekind of Seven Deadly Sins gimmick but it was at the time where one week he would be on SmackDown or RAW and then he would spend 3 or 4 weeks on lower shows like Heat where he was barely used
The Sandman wasn't that good I mean he was over because of the "Drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, kendo stick beating" type of gimmick (which later was mainly copied to create Stone Cold) and because of the storylines he was in were storylines that were over. Dreamer could have been a good babyface since he was over and talented. New Jack wasn't buried since he never went to WCW or WWE but he would have been buried by himself in those companies since he couldn't barely wrestle, New Jack was never talented in ring and I did saw his matches in Smoky Mountain where he wasn't just a hardcore wrestler and he did the same 2 or 3 moves over and over. About Raven, yeah IMO he was buried because WWE couldn't find any good storyline for him to shine in WWE
Man the things he could do with weapons like chairs and tables and the way he moved around the ring and how he used the ropes and so many other things. The man was way ahead of his time, arguably he was the first true extreme high flyer. He was doing stuff before RVD, Jeff hardy, and Ray mysteryo and was doing it so creatively as well. He could’ve for sure been a massive star but yeah his body was basically broken by the time a lot of people got to see him which is so sad especially when you think about everything he gave in the ring to ecw… the man wrestled with a broken jaw.
@@PitBullPlaysGames True, I was just joking, but now that I’m thinking about it just imagine if he managed to get some help? He could have been a unique star tbh
I think most people misremember ECW because they want to embrace the same ideas Heyman did back in the day.. ECW went brutally popular by giving the fans the things that other territories and promotions would not give so often like breaking furniture for example but once people got used to it and the hype was gone what was left to present..? Saving the distances it's kinda like AEW today: started hot, gave people what they wanted all over again, until the hype was gone..
I watched ECW live from Heatwave 98 until the end. It never lost its luster, and was just as exciting until the very end. The only thing was that some of your favorite wrestlers moved on, but new favorites were established. Nova, Kid Kash, Rhino, Jerry Lynn, and then some were all there at the end.
I think you’re oversimplifying quite a bit. It’s true that some of the gimmicks got overused to the point of becoming meaningless but ECW failed more due to financial mismanagement and not being advertiser friendly than anything to do with the product in the ring or “the hype wearing off.”
I can never forget in the 90s.. when my older brothers and I stumbled upon ECW late one night when we were flipping through TV eating pizza after having watched TGIF... it was a local public access philly channel that would play it. We had ZERO knowledge of it. There was no google or TV commercial or any way to know anything like that. As far as we knew, WWF and WCW were the only wrestling companies on earth lol. But ECW felt "dirty" and "illegal". It felt like you weren't supposed to be watching it. Like you would get in trouble if anyone found out 😂😂 We IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. Sandman was just a guy drinking beer and looked like a guy who worked carpentry locally lmao. Tommy Dreamer looked like a cool Italian dude who drove and Iroc and listened to freestyle dance music... Some guy is flipping around all cool and shit, and the announcers keep calling him "Arviedee" LMAO We didn't know! And then there was this insane middle eastern dude named Sabu with all these scars and he kept hurting HIMSELF to hurt his opponents. It was insanity in the mind of an 11 year old 😂😂 god those were the days.
It sucks that he didn't fall into the mold that wwf/wcw were looking for at the time - and that maybe he didn't get the recognition of a mainstream audience.. but any wrestling purist will tell you Sabu was one of the greatest talents we'd seen in a generation.
2024 hands down I will always know for a FACT if it wasn't for ECW , WWE wouldn't even be a thing right now today. If it wasn't for ECW, "WWF" would've never had the Attitude Era nor the Monday night wars. Even tho ECW was my home "local" town of Philly , they BLEW UP wrestling major
its not controversial.... its the truth.. Sabu should have been right there with RVD in the WWE main event.. he had the physique, the hardcore guts, AND the moves..
SABU was 1 of the most innovative wrestlers on the planet . The kamikaze style that he used was insane to a fault .His use of chairs and tables was ahead of its time . His paricipation in Barbed Wire Matches in Japan might have killed his chances in America because during that time it was more about creating heros for children and he was the complete opposite of that . They tried to bring him to WCW but it was short lived . His style was too violent for them . ECW was the only olace outside of Japan where his style could be appreciated . After ECW he wrestled for West Coast company XPW and a bunch of indy promotions . He was in the rebrand of ECW by WWE but that was short lived . He also worked for NWA TNA during the early years and competed in the 1st Barbed Wire Match shown on ppv against Abyss at Turning Point 2005 . His bloody ,violent legacy is respected and revered by Hardcore fans such as myself . Think if given the chance he would have done well in the WWF Attitude Era assuming that McMahon was willing to take the perverbial chains off and let him be him . Dont think that would happened though . Sabu was his own man and being the nephew of The Original Shiek he pretty much called his own shots . His Hardcore legacy is 1 to be respected by his sheer willingness to do the things he did and survive . Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal . That is the legend of Sabu .
@@handsolo1209 Why would he need to do all of that??? He was a foreign high flyer with a unique style of wrestling, with more push he'd have made it big.
lets say hall and nash don't jump to WCW, so no NWO angle instead you get an ecw invasion of wcw in 96 Sabu as the leader, 911 as the enforcer, and the eliminators as the soldiers. You bring in Paulie as the manager. Sabu vs Hulk Hogan Sabu vs Ric Flair Sabu vs Rey Mysterio (with the first ever cruiserweight title main event for a PPV) Eliminators vs The Nastys Eliminators vs Harlem Heat Eliminators vs Sting & Luger in a philly street fighter (tag titles main eventing NITRO) you have 911 and Paulie coming into random matches and 911 just chokeslamming the random jobbers wcw was full of until finally Giant has had enough and this sets up a 911 vs The Giant in a chokeslam contest (whoever hits a chokeslam first wins)
I think the problem with guys like Sabu is that they never picked their spots. You can take risks, but you should make sure when you do they matter and you get the most out of them. Lot of guys destroy their bodies when it doesn’t matter. You can also drag things out to build up anticipation. Raven in ECW was a master of it. Barely bumped and was their top guy for 2 years
Yep. That match with Funk cost more money by about $100k in hospital bills than he made for the match. All to get 130+ stitches in your biceps alone? Nah. I’m good
Sabu would have been big if Hayman hadn't squeezed everything out of him and asked him to do more. What an absolute bellend! Now I see what people like Shane Douglas, Cornette, etc. were talking about when they said he was full of bs. What a snake.
Paul is 100% right in this clip nothing controversial at all. Sabu is a menace his barbwire match are insane, that man was trying to die in the ring for our entertainment. Point up to the sky👆
Sabu is just like Dynamite. Although for different reasons of course but If I had a list of the top 10 in-ring pro wrestlers they would make it and now one of them is dead and one basically dead anyday now. Shame as he borderline created hardcore wrestling and the other created cruiserweights and elevated technical wrestling. Thank god Bret took it, meanwhile Moxley has butchered it.
no paul... WWE-Attitude Era- STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN & THE ROCK = BILLIONAIRS ECW-tommy dreamer & sandman = bankrupt... Attitude era doesn't mean shit without an incredible superstar to market...you know better than that
Brock has no personality. Heyman literally spoke for him for his first run. Undertaker when he was the deadman rarely spoke. Brett Heart had almost zero charisma. Sabu had a mystique about him that could have allowed him to be more of an in ring performer than an on mic performer. He could have been something special.
If ECW could’ve been a bigger company than it was when it first started. Big enough to the point it could’ve made it to the 2000’s before the media painted professional wrestling in such a bad light. Sabu could’ve been bigger than he was at ECW. Sabu at his peak was awesome imo.
@@undertakerfanz628 okay. But I still disagree with your take on Sabu not making it big. Most of Sabu’s moves are acrobatic-like. IMO, Sabu in his peak could’ve been something big if WWE would’ve shown it in Sabu’s peak.
People who really love wrestling will always have the memory that Sabu was one of the wrestlers, if not the first, who brought high-level highflying wrestling to the United States and as Heyman said, pioneers don't get rich. . For example, most fans saw highflying wrestling with Rey Mysterio Jr. and more Mexican wrestlers when they came to ECW around 94/96.
What’s your point? Rey got rich….. You really quoted a notorious liar like Paul Heyman and rode with it. Not that I wouldn’t ever but Rey got rich and Hean probably said that to Sabu as he explained why he’s making less that week 😂
The luchadores were smart and joined WCW. Bigger stage and more money.
Flying Fred curry was a high flyer in the 1960s & wrestled Sabu's uncle the original shield Ed Farhat from big time wrestling in Detroit when it was still territories.
I used to have cable T.V where I live in Canada and I never got to see ECW. We didn't get it on television here.
aew
Sabu was one of those risk takers where his moves looked believable. To this day, his match with Rey Mysterio at One Night Stand in 2006 is one of my favorite matches. Even though it was short and it had a crappy ending. It was a great showcase of how great Sabu was. That match was just a tip of the iceberg on how talented he was.
The thing as Heyman alluded to, how much of Sabu's offensive hurt him as much as his opponent.
Bro his barbed wire match Terry funk is honestly fucking crazy
@@Xx1996xX Especially with the biceps part
Controversial take? I would say it was spot on overall.
Yeah I was expecting him to say he was a useless wrestler or something 😂
Welcome to clickbait titles
Homicidal, suicidal, genocidal
THIS IS SABUUUUU!
i like how his chair is backwards like one of those after school tv shows
The time period Heyman is talking about is before Benoit dropped Sabu on his head. I remember when he came back, I loved his feuds with RVD and Tazz
Sabu should have stayed with WCW when he signed in 1995. Between WCW and his stint in NJPW, Sabu should have retired as a millionaire.
I don't think WCW had much of a vision for him.
@@crazyjim9380Sabu has discussed this situation a few times In Interviews and shoots...
At least he went out a legend. I get it would have been better if he made the money and got out. But he’s seen as a legend of the hardcore era.
I totally disagree, wcw never used Sabu to his total ability, Heyman did, he should have been in Wwf well before he did
Nothing controversial here. Sabu was amazing. I never saw a boring match with him during the period he’s mentioning.
The sandman, tommy dreamer, raven,and new jack. Wcw and wwe buried half of ecw with the exception of rvd and the dudley boys.
All of them nowhere near the level to be top guys in the big leagues.
If u look at it..wwe didnt bury shit..they paid them n gave them spotlight..sandman was just a good gimmick,dreamer was below average and raven was great but didnt fit the wweat that moment..but yea rvd dudleys and r as venwere good,all the others were shit.
@@BacktothaBaysiccs510Raven was ahead of his time, he was like all those type of wrestlers that doesn't have more than 5 moves but those 5 moves are enough for him like for example Bray Wyatt. He was more of a story teller and WWE could have done amazing things with him, I remember Raven had a short run doing somekind of Seven Deadly Sins gimmick but it was at the time where one week he would be on SmackDown or RAW and then he would spend 3 or 4 weeks on lower shows like Heat where he was barely used
The Sandman wasn't that good I mean he was over because of the "Drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, kendo stick beating" type of gimmick (which later was mainly copied to create Stone Cold) and because of the storylines he was in were storylines that were over.
Dreamer could have been a good babyface since he was over and talented.
New Jack wasn't buried since he never went to WCW or WWE but he would have been buried by himself in those companies since he couldn't barely wrestle, New Jack was never talented in ring and I did saw his matches in Smoky Mountain where he wasn't just a hardcore wrestler and he did the same 2 or 3 moves over and over.
About Raven, yeah IMO he was buried because WWE couldn't find any good storyline for him to shine in WWE
@@handsolo1209the big leagues suck looks what roman and John cena did to wwe
Paul almost called Sabu the Head of the *Table* 🤫
He said head of his time.
Yup Sabu is in my top 4 of all time
Agree and was honored to wrestle him twice
Sabu was a pretty big star at least from reputation
Interesting he specifies 1993-early 1995 as his best years. I’m most familiar with his stuff in the later 90s.
Benoit injured him so you can say that was a part of the beginning of his physical decline
Wth is he talking about!? Sabu was f’n great in TNA and even local house shows.. I remember Sabu as a household wrestling name for sure!
FROM BOMBAY MICHIGAN
*points to the sky*
Why is it when anybody speaks the truth, they're labeled controversial?
Is that where we're at now?
Only saying what doesn't ruffle feathers?
Man the things he could do with weapons like chairs and tables and the way he moved around the ring and how he used the ropes and so many other things. The man was way ahead of his time, arguably he was the first true extreme high flyer. He was doing stuff before RVD, Jeff hardy, and Ray mysteryo and was doing it so creatively as well. He could’ve for sure been a massive star but yeah his body was basically broken by the time a lot of people got to see him which is so sad especially when you think about everything he gave in the ring to ecw… the man wrestled with a broken jaw.
Who else from ECW do you think never reached their potential? Let us know in the comments!
New Jack
@@maylabrown4584 thats because new jack was a dangerous worker. he didnt deserve to be in the business
@@PitBullPlaysGames True, I was just joking, but now that I’m thinking about it just imagine if he managed to get some
help? He could have been a unique star tbh
911
Raven in WWE he got over without much of a push
I think most people misremember ECW because they want to embrace the same ideas Heyman did back in the day.. ECW went brutally popular by giving the fans the things that other territories and promotions would not give so often like breaking furniture for example but once people got used to it and the hype was gone what was left to present..? Saving the distances it's kinda like AEW today: started hot, gave people what they wanted all over again, until the hype was gone..
I watched ECW live from Heatwave 98 until the end. It never lost its luster, and was just as exciting until the very end. The only thing was that some of your favorite wrestlers moved on, but new favorites were established. Nova, Kid Kash, Rhino, Jerry Lynn, and then some were all there at the end.
ECW was the people we met while setting each other on fire.
I think you’re oversimplifying quite a bit. It’s true that some of the gimmicks got overused to the point of becoming meaningless but ECW failed more due to financial mismanagement and not being advertiser friendly than anything to do with the product in the ring or “the hype wearing off.”
This take is so cold Inuits are hunting seals on it.
I can never forget in the 90s.. when my older brothers and I stumbled upon ECW late one night when we were flipping through TV eating pizza after having watched TGIF... it was a local public access philly channel that would play it. We had ZERO knowledge of it. There was no google or TV commercial or any way to know anything like that. As far as we knew, WWF and WCW were the only wrestling companies on earth lol.
But ECW felt "dirty" and "illegal". It felt like you weren't supposed to be watching it. Like you would get in trouble if anyone found out 😂😂 We IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. Sandman was just a guy drinking beer and looked like a guy who worked carpentry locally lmao. Tommy Dreamer looked like a cool Italian dude who drove and Iroc and listened to freestyle dance music... Some guy is flipping around all cool and shit, and the announcers keep calling him "Arviedee" LMAO We didn't know! And then there was this insane middle eastern dude named Sabu with all these scars and he kept hurting HIMSELF to hurt his opponents. It was insanity in the mind of an 11 year old 😂😂 god those were the days.
I was expecting something negative. This was spot on.
That was spot on. Him and RVD driving around smoking so weed, good times.
Wrestling today reminds me of sabu , getting into the ring and 0 manuvers 2:13
Right but this walrus stopped him from making millions in WCW.
It sucks that he didn't fall into the mold that wwf/wcw were looking for at the time - and that maybe he didn't get the recognition of a mainstream audience.. but any wrestling purist will tell you Sabu was one of the greatest talents we'd seen in a generation.
This is high praise from that man
Jerry Lynn/Sabu was best matches I've ever seen live in the 90s. 100% on target.
2024 hands down I will always know for a FACT if it wasn't for ECW , WWE wouldn't even be a thing right now today. If it wasn't for ECW, "WWF" would've never had the Attitude Era nor the Monday night wars. Even tho ECW was my home "local" town of Philly , they BLEW UP wrestling major
Heyman never paid anyone, he was responsible for destroying a lot of these wrestlers.
You could always just pay him for all the free work he did for you before/after you fucked with his WCW contract.
Big respect to Paul Heymam. He recognizes the real ones.
its not controversial.... its the truth.. Sabu should have been right there with RVD in the WWE main event..
he had the physique, the hardcore guts, AND the moves..
SABU was 1 of the most innovative wrestlers on the planet . The kamikaze style that he used was insane to a fault .His use of chairs and tables was ahead of its time . His paricipation in Barbed Wire Matches in Japan might have killed his chances in America because during that time it was more about creating heros for children and he was the complete opposite of that . They tried to bring him to WCW but it was short lived . His style was too violent for them . ECW was the only olace outside of Japan where his style could be appreciated . After ECW he wrestled for West Coast company XPW and a bunch of indy promotions . He was in the rebrand of ECW by WWE but that was short lived . He also worked for NWA TNA during the early years and competed in the 1st Barbed Wire Match shown on ppv against Abyss at Turning Point 2005 . His bloody ,violent legacy is respected and revered by Hardcore fans such as myself . Think if given the chance he would have done well in the WWF Attitude Era assuming that McMahon was willing to take the perverbial chains off and let him be him . Dont think that would happened though . Sabu was his own man and being the nephew of The Original Shiek he pretty much called his own shots . His Hardcore legacy is 1 to be respected by his sheer willingness to do the things he did and survive . Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal . That is the legend of Sabu .
Why doesn’t anyone ask heyman why he screwed Sabu with the wcw deal
Sabu could have been Rey Mysterio before Rey Mysterio
No. Totally different.
@@Tranceplant82 Not at all.
What 😂
Yeah, he could have easily lost 7 inches in height and 100lbs in weight to be just like Rey.......................
@@handsolo1209 Why would he need to do all of that??? He was a foreign high flyer with a unique style of wrestling, with more push he'd have made it big.
He could have been if paul didnt fuck over every star on ecw
Nothing controversial about it thats a fact
Sabu was revolutionizing table spots before anyone
lets say hall and nash don't jump to WCW, so no NWO angle instead you get an ecw invasion of wcw in 96 Sabu as the leader, 911 as the enforcer, and the eliminators as the soldiers. You bring in Paulie as the manager.
Sabu vs Hulk Hogan
Sabu vs Ric Flair
Sabu vs Rey Mysterio (with the first ever cruiserweight title main event for a PPV)
Eliminators vs The Nastys
Eliminators vs Harlem Heat
Eliminators vs Sting & Luger in a philly street fighter (tag titles main eventing NITRO)
you have 911 and Paulie coming into random matches and 911 just chokeslamming the random jobbers wcw was full of until finally Giant has had enough and this sets up a
911 vs The Giant in a chokeslam contest (whoever hits a chokeslam first wins)
When I worked my top 5 were
Hitman
Rvd
Sabu
Henning
Taz
Only Paul knew Sabu wasn’t at his best we thought he was a ass kicker
I think the problem with guys like Sabu is that they never picked their spots. You can take risks, but you should make sure when you do they matter and you get the most out of them. Lot of guys destroy their bodies when it doesn’t matter. You can also drag things out to build up anticipation. Raven in ECW was a master of it. Barely bumped and was their top guy for 2 years
Yep. That match with Funk cost more money by about $100k in hospital bills than he made for the match. All to get 130+ stitches in your biceps alone? Nah. I’m good
Sabu was influencial no doubt. But to really get on top you got to adoubt your uniqueness to the mainstreamstyle to be able to work with the topstars.
Sabu would have been big if Hayman hadn't squeezed everything out of him and asked him to do more. What an absolute bellend! Now I see what people like Shane Douglas, Cornette, etc. were talking about when they said he was full of bs.
What a snake.
Paul is 100% right in this clip nothing controversial at all. Sabu is a menace his barbwire match are insane, that man was trying to die in the ring for our entertainment. Point up to the sky👆
Sabu HALL OF FAME!
Sabu is just like Dynamite. Although for different reasons of course but If I had a list of the top 10 in-ring pro wrestlers they would make it and now one of them is dead and one basically dead anyday now. Shame as he borderline created hardcore wrestling and the other created cruiserweights and elevated technical wrestling. Thank god Bret took it, meanwhile Moxley has butchered it.
This channel always clickbaits.
no paul...
WWE-Attitude Era- STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN & THE ROCK = BILLIONAIRS
ECW-tommy dreamer & sandman = bankrupt...
Attitude era doesn't mean shit without an incredible superstar to market...you know better than that
Sabu owes me $70. True story 😂
My controversial Sabu take is that he was the shits.
Sabu was the moxley of the wrestling verse back then. Didnt wanna be in wwe so wwe fans pointlessly hated on him when he went to tna.
So damn true
Maybe Heyman should have paid Sabu, and his other talent as well.
Paul Heyman broke labour laws by not paying his talent.
Sabu the goat imo
lol
The wwe network? That’s been gone lol..
I'm sorry, but no. Sabu would never have been a big star. He had zero personality.
Brock has no personality. Heyman literally spoke for him for his first run. Undertaker when he was the deadman rarely spoke. Brett Heart had almost zero charisma.
Sabu had a mystique about him that could have allowed him to be more of an in ring performer than an on mic performer. He could have been something special.
@@kdaddy9229brock is good on the mic when he wants to be he just couldn’t be bothered with it and let heyman do it, sabu has nothing
Neither did Jeff Hardy. Huge star, even to this day.
Sabu could not have been a big star that's bologna
you obviously don't know anything.
If ECW could’ve been a bigger company than it was when it first started. Big enough to the point it could’ve made it to the 2000’s before the media painted professional wrestling in such a bad light. Sabu could’ve been bigger than he was at ECW. Sabu at his peak was awesome imo.
@@SethStovallVO ✋I think too cold Scorpio could have been a Big star not Sabu
@@undertakerfanz628 okay. But I still disagree with your take on Sabu not making it big. Most of Sabu’s moves are acrobatic-like. IMO, Sabu in his peak could’ve been something big if WWE would’ve shown it in Sabu’s peak.
@@SethStovallVO Sabu is nothing but a stunt man just like Mick Foley