Jul 11
PRO WRESTLING CARDS ・SF 6「西村修 ［新日本プロレス］」（1998 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ・SF 10「金本浩二 ［新日本プロレス］」（1997 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ・SF 12「大谷晋二郎 ［新日本プロレス］」（1997 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ・SF 120「奥村茂雄 ［新東京プロレス］」（1998 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ※SF＝SPARKLING FIGHTERS
seen from Canada
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seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Philippines
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from Spain
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from Spain
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from Israel
seen from Philippines
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
PRO WRESTLING CARDS ・SF 6「西村修 ［新日本プロレス］」（1998 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ・SF 10「金本浩二 ［新日本プロレス］」（1997 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ・SF 12「大谷晋二郎 ［新日本プロレス］」（1997 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ・SF 120「奥村茂雄 ［新東京プロレス］」（1998 BASEBALL MAGAZINE） ※SF＝SPARKLING FIGHTERS
The Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal...and Influential Sabu
When you have a career that spans 40 years and the transformation of your industry, your CV can look pretty eclectic. I wanted to celebrate Sabu's career by picking some of the gems far from the beaten path.
People who are familiar with Sabu would probably cite his tag match with Rob Van Dam against Chris Candido & Taz, Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki, John Kronus & Perry Saturn, or maybe even Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat. Maybe they would cite his three way dances in ECW with Shane Douglas and Terry Funk or New Jack and The Sandman. Or they might point to his feud with Taz in ECW. Perhaps they might cite his deathmatches in Japan with or without The Sheik, especially if they’re against Cactus Jack. Or they might even cite his matches in TNA against Abyss and Samoa Joe.
Phil Schneider had the same idea and dug up some of Sabu's highlight matches outside of ECW, directing readers to check out Sabu's match against Lightning Kid from NWA Grandslam (April 17, 1993), which I had intended to include in my own list. That only presented a challenge to dig just a little deeper to find the matches that might surprise you, the ones that might make you go "Huh," or the ones that just have a good story attached to them.
So, thank you, Terry Brunks, aka Sabu.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title / UWA World Welterweight Title: Sabu (c) [IWGP] vs. Koji Kanemoto (c) [UWA], NJPW Fighting Spirit Legend Night 16: Super Power Group Declaration VI, June 14, 1995
What in the world? Sabu, famous in Japan for his deathmatches, was the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion in New Japan Pro Wrestling? Sabu made his debut in NJPW in December 1994, and he had continued to wrestle there while appearing in ECW. However, Sabu committed to a NJPW show that was on the same day as ECW Three Way Dance, and Paul Heyman fired Sabu from ECW because Sabu could not fly back from Japan to Philadelphia in time for the show. Sabu made the best of a bad situation by traveling the world. He'd primarily wrestle in NJPW for the rest of 1995, though he would also have a short stint in WCW (see below) that year as well.
After Heyman fired Sabu from ECW in April 1995, Sabu defeated Koji Kanemoto (aka Tiger Mask III) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title in May 1995 at NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 1995. (NJPW actually made their match at Dontaku 1995 free to view for a limited time to commemorate Sabu’s life.) He defended the title once against Black Tiger before he would meet Kanemoto again in this title for title match where the UWA World Welterweight title was also on the line. So, how did a classic junior heavyweight wrestler like Kanemoto (before injuries forced him to adapt a worked shoot style) match fare against the chaotic Sabu?
Kanemoto starts with a classic lock-up, but it doesn't take long before Sabu hits a flipping legdrop from the apron to the prone Kanemoto in the ring. (It look less than five minutes into the match for this to happen.) In response, Kanemoto tries to ground Sabu, but Sabu pays it no mind and hits Kanemoto with an Arabian Press. Kanemoto tries to lock Sabu down with an armbar, and then Sabu trips Kanemoto and proceeds to grapplefuck Kanemoto.
Sabu gives up trying to impress viewers with his mat wrestling not long after and focuses instead on pretending that his butt hurts after the flipping legdrop from earlier in the match. Kanemoto helps by kicking Sabu's butt. Kanemoto grounds Sabu, and the sight of Sabu spending so much time on the mat in a match and focusing on telling fans how much a body part hurts (even if it's his butt) are strange sights.
The crowd is clearly into Sabu. They chant his name after Kanemoto spits at Sabu and murmur with concern after Sabu lands awkwardly on his neck from Kanemoto's avalanche electric chair.
The mystique of Sabu comes into play later in the match. We know that he's tried to impress on the audience that his butt and/or back is hurt. So, is it possible that this messy fall from an attempted headscissors was intentional to continue the story of his injury? After all, Sabu has said that he would intentionally mess up a move on occasion. And the fall does play into the match, since Sabu doesn't have much snap on his Frankensteiner later. On the other hand, Sabu is able to pull off another Arabian Press and a slam without too much difficulty.
Kanemoto misses a moonsault of his own, which gives Sabu the space to fly with a suicide dive to the outside. Sabu gives the crowd a taste of the extreme when he sets up Kanemoto on an inclined table and learns a bitter lesson about tables at Japanese wrestling shows.
The crowd chants for Sabu after taking that fall, which proves that some things are just universally appreciated.
Kanemoto tries to finish Sabu off with a couple of dives of his own, but Sabu gives the crowd a great two count kickout. Kanemoto kicks out at two after a spurt of offense from Sabu, and the crowd is delighted when Sabu flops his legs to the ropes to break up the former Tiger Mask II's pin after a tiger suplex. Sabu crashes after a failed headscissors, and Kanemoto's top rope dropkick to Sabu's back and a moonsault finish Sabu off.
I'm not sure what I had expected from a Sabu vs. Koji Kanemoto match. I can say that this was a delight because Sabu's trademark recklessness mixed well with Kanemoto’s character. Kanemoto, as the no-nonsense jerk in plain black tights and black boots, made a great foil to the out of control Sabu. It's why the early segment where Sabu tried to ground Kanemoto is so comically out of place. It should be noted that Sabu has a really good looking right punch. Nonetheless, this was surprisingly good and well worth a watch if only to see something that you wouldn't expect from Sabu.
You can find the match pretty easily if you search for "Koji Kanemoto vs. Sabu."
Mr. JL vs. Sabu, WCW Monday Nitro #6, October 9, 1995
After Heyman fired Sabu from ECW, Sabu somehow was able to find his way to World Championship Wrestling as Monday Nitro started. Positioned as a cruiserweight, Sabu faced the likes of Alex Wright, Mr. JL aka Jerry Lynn, and Disco Inferno in his brief stint in WCW. Sabu faced Mr. JL twice: once at Monday Nitro and once at Halloween Havoc 1995. Somehow, the Nitro match was longer than the PPV match.
Sabu would go on to face Lynn in ECW and other companies in longer matches. The curiosity here is whetted by the prospect of containing Sabu to a match less than five minutes long.
We get right to business with Sabu hitting his flipping leg drop and a springboard kick and then the odd sight of Sabu grabbing Mr. JL in a headlock on the mat. It's just a collection of high spots: Mr. JL hits a fun jumping kick to Sabu's back, a suicide dive, a German suplex, and a middle turnbuckle DDT and Sabu answers with a spinning wheel kick, a flip dive over the top rope, and a leaping leg lariat, the Arabian press, and a big lariat. Sabu fails an elevated headscissors here as well, which tempts Mr. JL to try a dive from the top rope. Sabu outsmarts him and plants him with a powerbomb and gets the win with the Arabian Clutch.
Obviously, this is a much slighter match than the match against Kanemoto. As a result, it's a much less successful one because there isn't time for it to be much more than a collection of athletic feats. What stood out here is that Sabu actually outsmarts (or at least outmaneuver) Mr. JL, which is not what you'd expect from Sabu.
You can also find this match fairly easily if you search for "Mr. JL vs. Sabu Nitro."
Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Kenta Kobashi & Patriot, AJPW Real World Tag League 1996, Night 11, November 26, 1996
By 1996, Sabu was back in ECW, but he was still traveling to Japan regularly to wrestle in tours in Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, Tokyo Pro Wrestling, and All Japan Pro Wrestling. In this case, Gary Albright and Sabu teamed up for the 1996 Real World Tag League, and they faced Kenta Kobashi and Patriot twice during the tournament. This combination feels like a Mad Libs match, but including it also means that I can squeeze in a Kenta Kobashi match from 1996 into this Sabu retrospective, so everything is coming up Milhouse here.
The matches opens with Albright and Kobashi, but Sabu plays the wild man here by tagging himself in and leaping at Kobashi's feet.
Sabu is the smallest man in the match by far, so he takes the majority of the punishment from Kobashi and the Patriot. When Sabu gets in trouble after a few loud Kobashi chops, he pushes Kobashi into his corner so Albright can tag in. Albright fires up the crowd with a belly to belly suplex, which allows Sabu to return to the match and...twist into a leglock on Kobashi?! Again, we see Sabu's bursts of surprisingly competent matwork in his non-deathmatch matches in Japan. Sabu also reminds us of his explosive agility with his flip over the Patriot and dropkick.
Because Sabu is the smallest man in the match, he isn't able to prevent Kobashi from saving the Patriot and tagging back into the match after Albright planted the Patriot with a suplex. However, Sabu and Albright can coordinate with each other just fine.
Sabu was often the victim of the Patriot's and Kobashi's offense in this match. He isn't asked to writhe about in pain, but he is the recipient of their kicks, lariats, and slams while Albright waits to return to the match and throw guys around. Some might criticize the way Sabu doesn't seem too fazed by the supposed beating that the Patriot and Kobashi put on him, but I don't think we need every wrestler in every match to try to win an acting award for how they portray the damage their bodies have received.
Since Sabu was on the defensive for most of the match, they also made sure they gave him opportunities to showcase his spectactular offense. Sabu successfully landed an elevated headscissors on Kobashi. He and Albright teamed up again for an attempted triple jump dive on to Kobashi, though it failed miserably. And Sabu was able to break up a Kobashi pin on Albright with a leg drop off of the top rope.
Recently, there's been a strain of criticism about how modern wrestlers don't engage the viewers when they're in the ring. The focus is on chaining moves together in the most exciting sequence they can create, but the art of inviting the crowd to engage at a level beyond exhilaration seems to be lost. There's a small moment in this match where the Patriot pumps his arm in celebration after kicking Sabu down and knocking Albright off the apron that epitomizes this criticism.
Sabu got to showcase his athleticism one more time at the end of the match when his leaping offense was instrumental in knocking the Patriot out of the ring and Kobashi into Albright's disgustingly meaty suplexes that won their team the match. For a completely randomly selected tag match, this was a lot of fun. I suppose that you wouldn't expect any less of a match that featured Kobashi and Albright at the peak of their powers in AJPW, but I was surprised by how well they incorporated the smaller Sabu in this match.
You can also find this match fairly easily if you search for "Sabu & Gary Albright vs. Kenta Kobashi & The Patriot."
Devon Storm vs. Sabu, WWA The Eruption , April 12, 2002
Devon Storm, aka Crowbar, paid tribute to Sabu by highlighting a couple of their matches. I had considered including their match in NWA New Jersey from October 29, 1995 in this series since Storm named it as the match that allowed him to break through.
However, Storm also claimed that he and Sabu would boast that viewers would rank his cage match with Sabu from World Wrestling All-Stars' April 12, 2002 show, The Eruption if only they would just watch the match. I suppose we'll just have to put that claim to the test here.
(I have no idea what's going on with the aspect ratio of that video, but it's also probably the only taped version of that match. So, this also stands as a tribute to Sabu's status as the tape trading community's icon.)
By 2002, ECW had closed, and Sabu became a wandering veteran wrestler, appearing in TNA, MLW, and yet smaller promotions. He would wrestle most of his matches that year for WWA.
There's no feeling out period between the two; by this point in the WWA tour, they had already wrestled three other times, including in a disqualification match in February 2002. Sabu is noticeably slower than he was in the 1996 tag match, which is no surprise given the physical toll that his physically demand style imposed on him. Nonetheless, Sabu pulls off a good springboard DDT on Storm and some clean springboard leg drops. On his part, Storm shows off his power with a German suplex early and powerbombing Sabu into the cage walls later in the match. He shows off his agility too with a crisp dropkick to Sabu's back, bouncing Sabu off of the cage, and a splash from the top rope.
In his diminished physical state, Sabu has to draw from his deathmatch bag of tricks to keep the crowd going. He bleeds from the forehead early in the match and from the back not long after. To juice the crowd even further, he produces a spike and stabs Storm's head multiple times. Storm responds to this escalation by asking for a chair, bashing Sabu with it, and then using it as a damage multiplier in his Northern Lights suplex.
And then Sabu misses a moonsault from the top of the cage. The lead-up is the first time that I could hear the crowd really react in this match, and it's a spectacular crash and burn.
From there, Storm and Sabu try to one-up that missed moonsault with a Death Valley Driver on the chair, a flip over the top rope to the floor through the open cage door, and a suplex onto a metal ringside barricade that Storm had placed between the ring and apron and the corner barricade by the ring entrance. They actually manage to surpass Sabu's missed moonsault when Storm jumps from the top of the cage on to Sabu, who is lying on top of two tables stacked on each other. And Sabu caps off the stunt show that is this match with a fireball and a moonsault and a legdrop from the top of the cage onto Storm, who is lying on a table in the ring.
Can I endorse Storm and Sabu's claim that his cage match is an underseen and underappreciated classic? Not really, but I can sign on to a declaration that this was a hell of a stunt show. It's an odd cage match in that the cage is meant to serve as a weapon, not a deterrent against outside interference, but Storm and Sabu make tremendous use of the cage as a tool for violence. Sabu showed his commitment to creating spectacle in this match as much as he did in the other matches. You can see Sabu's legacy in the escalation in spectacle that continues to this day in professional wrestling.
Most Beloved NJPW Wrestler Tournament
Round 2 - Matchup #69
Koji Kanemoto
HIKULEO
Most Beloved NJPW Wrestler Tournament
Round 1 - Matchup #147
Koji Kanemoto
Shinjiro Otani