ECW Legend Sabu Passes Away

Sabu, one of the core members of ECW and an innovator in the ring, has passed away. PWInsider reports that Sabu, real name Terry Brunk, has passed. No word on the details at this time. He worked what turned out to be his final match against Joey Janela at the latter’s Spring Break event on April 18th and appeared at the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance reunion show at the 2300 Arena last weekend. Sabu was 60 years old.

The man who became Sabu began his pro wrestling career in 1985 after being trained by The Sheik, debuting in Sheik’s Big Time Wrestling. He would work for a number of independent promotions in the 1980s before making his first Japanese tour in 1991 for FMW. He worked three dark matches for WWE in October of 1993 and that same month he signed with Eastern Championship Wrestling, the company that would become Extreme Championship Wrestling. There he quickly rose to main event status and won the ECW Heavyweight Championship in his second match there. He would go on to win the ECW TV Championship from Terry Funk a month later and become a double champion.

Sabu had a number of memorable feuds and storylines in his first ECW run, including with Funk and his alliance with Taz (then the Tazmaniac). The two won the ECW World Tag Team Championships from The Pitbulls in 1995 but dropped them three weeks later. Sabu was then fired by Paul Heyman after he no-showed ECW Three Way Dance in April of 1995 to work an NJPW show. He would be brought back at November to Remember and had his most memorable run of his career, feuding with and then allying with Rob Van Dam and feuding with Taz, Terry Funk, Justin Credible and many others. During his ECW run he held the World Heavyweight Championship twice, the FTW Heavyweight Championship once, the World Television Championship once, the Tag Team Championships three times, and was the second ECW Triple Crown Champion.

Sabu worked the independent circuit after leaving ECW in 1999 and returned to FMW periodically until it closed in 2002. He joined TNA for a run that lasted from 2002 until 2006, which saw him have a memorable Barbed Wire Massacre match with Abyss and feuded with (and allied with) Raven.

After his TNA exit, Sabu signed with WWE and competed at ECW One Night Stand against Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship. He joined the WWE ECW brand and won a shot at John Cena, but his WWE run was derailed a bit when he and RVD were arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and more after a house show. He continued to work in ECW until he was released in May of 2007.

Sabu would continue to work the indies after that and initially retired in November of 2021, though he unretired eventually. He had an appearance in AEW in 2023.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends and many fans of Sabu. Wrestling would not be the same without him.