Speaker 1: It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn
Speaker 1: s e O and JP Sorrow.
Speaker 2: He's a lapsed fan and all my years and wrestling.
Speaker 1: I never seen anything.
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Speaker 2: the ring.
Speaker 3: Forget about Sado.
Speaker 2: He the real king of swing.
Speaker 3: When the bell.
Speaker 2: Goes in the kick like me throwing in the corner,
Speaker 2: but gets rash like stick. Even Jerry King gets take
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Speaker 4: His head like it.
Speaker 2: Steve low Brown would get low down.
Speaker 3: We go even high up, flipp you on your head.
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Speaker 2: Con of sniper.
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Speaker 7: So we have acquainted ourselves, Boss with the thing Saboo
Speaker 7: did to become an independent wrestling sensation when the lights
Speaker 7: wort necessarily brightest and tape trading was in its most fervent.
Speaker 7: And that's how you found out about the suicidal and homicidal.
Speaker 1: Exploits and one half of the Headshrinkers, right, and we started,
Speaker 1: and we started with the proposition from you that he
Speaker 1: is a fucking idiot.
Speaker 3: Yes, I stand by that, Okay.
Speaker 7: I was going to ask after digesting a lot of
Speaker 7: his early ECW work and its FMW stuff and the
Speaker 7: stuff he did on that Raw Dark match.
Speaker 1: Still U, that's still where we're at. It's gonna take
Speaker 1: a lot, I think for him to not be an idiot,
Speaker 1: because I think anyone who's who who, because here's here's
Speaker 1: the thing, this is, this is where it really comes down.
Speaker 3: I've been thinking a lot about this.
Speaker 1: Actually, this this has gone through my mind because because
Speaker 1: I do understand and there there is there is respect. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want people to think that there's not respect
Speaker 1: for what he did.
Speaker 3: It's a matter of perspect According to the RVD program, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's very true. That's very true.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have shaken his hand,
Speaker 1: but because because I can respect the idea that you're
Speaker 1: trying to change the game, you're trying to do something different.
Speaker 1: He's trying to do something that is never been done before.
Speaker 1: But where he's an idiot. And where I don't think
Speaker 1: he'll ever come. I don't think he can never not
Speaker 1: be an idiot in my mind is the fact that
Speaker 1: much like Terry Funk, it's like he's doing these things
Speaker 1: and for what, you know, I feel like he could
Speaker 1: have changed the game in ways, but without having to
Speaker 1: literally potentially kill himself. Yeah you know, I mean one slip,
Speaker 1: one slip on the rope and his neck, you know,
Speaker 1: crashes against the guardrail and he's dead. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: dead anyway now, but earlier, you know, Like that's that's
Speaker 1: where I just I can't, I can't fathom and what
Speaker 1: makes him.
Speaker 3: What makes him an idiot?
Speaker 1: I know the question is, well, if if I criticize
Speaker 1: Saboo and I put him and Terry Funk in the
Speaker 1: same position, in the same category here, what makes him
Speaker 1: an idiot and not Terry Funk or a Mick Foley
Speaker 1: for that matter. Because I'll say this, Terry Funk didn't
Speaker 1: do this all the time. This wasn't his thing, as
Speaker 1: we've seen. The evidence is there that he didn't do
Speaker 1: this kind of shit or this the extreme, the violent,
Speaker 1: the ECW type stuff his entire career. He did it
Speaker 1: as a necessity. And if I'm being honest, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure maybe not so many words, but I felt he
Speaker 1: was an idiot Terry Funk at the end of his career, yeah,
Speaker 1: for feeling the need to do this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And Mick Foley same thing. I think he's an idiot
Speaker 1: at times for doing shit that like throwing yourself off
Speaker 1: a hell in a cell. Yes it's a moment, it's
Speaker 1: a moment, but at what cost? At what cost for
Speaker 1: a fake sport? And and we've said it's because it's
Speaker 1: fake that they do this to themselves exactly. That's the
Speaker 1: supreme irony of wrestling, exactly, And I belie like to me,
Speaker 1: I feel like someone like Saboo who has who we've seen,
Speaker 1: has fundamentals, he knows what to do in the ring,
Speaker 1: And I just always go back to the same fucking thing,
Speaker 1: the thing that has stuck with me time and time
Speaker 1: and time again, Jake Robert saying, you don't need to
Speaker 1: do this kind of stuff, Like you know, just because
Speaker 1: you follow someone who has this outstanding match doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you have to have a bad match. You just have
Speaker 1: to bring the crowd back to down to one and
Speaker 1: then build them back up again. Yep, you know, you
Speaker 1: know in that mentality, there there is a card out
Speaker 1: there with the potential of you know, eight five star
Speaker 1: matches in the Jake Roberts, within the Jake Roberts theory.
Speaker 1: And I stand by that. I think that that's a great,
Speaker 1: great point. And then it brings up the fact like, yes,
Speaker 1: this made him stand out, this brought him a significant,
Speaker 1: significant amount of attention. But isn't there a way he
Speaker 1: could have done a little bit of both, a little
Speaker 1: bit of this this extreme stuff not necessarily as life threatening,
Speaker 1: and used his fundamentals and used simple wrestling psychology to
Speaker 1: get back to do this to do a similar thing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's it's interesting because while we've seen that he
Speaker 7: has fundamentals, I don't think anybody talks about Saboo. If
Speaker 7: he tries to do what you said he might consider doing,
Speaker 7: he would have never he would have never been a
Speaker 7: wrestler anybody talked about.
Speaker 1: That's a choice of me.
Speaker 3: He chose being talked about.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's true, Maybe that is true, But how
Speaker 1: many people have you know, in a weird way, suffered
Speaker 1: because of his desire to be memorable.
Speaker 7: That's true, that that is something apparently that you can't
Speaker 7: even if you do think about it, it's not going
Speaker 7: to stop you. Not these type we're talking about. And
Speaker 7: the difference with him and Terry Funk and Cactus Jack
Speaker 7: said he didn't do promos, so the only way he
Speaker 7: was ever going to get over anywhere is by bringing
Speaker 7: this to the table. For whoever inked him.
Speaker 1: I just think, I mean, and listen, you know what
Speaker 1: the stuff in the it's really the stuff that goes
Speaker 1: outside the ring. That is what the end, the barbered
Speaker 1: wire shit, that is what's alarming. The stuff in like
Speaker 1: climbing the chair and doing the stuff inside the ring
Speaker 1: and whatever. It's great and I think, especially at that time.
Speaker 7: Watching the show was last time on part one of
Speaker 7: our tribute to Saboo, like that triple jump Moonsalt was
Speaker 7: legitimately impressive, like the distance he covered and he almost
Speaker 7: never fucked it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was cool.
Speaker 7: It was a cool ass move made only possible by
Speaker 7: bringing a chair into the ring, you know, Yes, yes,
Speaker 7: And I think that there's a lot to be set
Speaker 7: for that, and I think in a weird way that that,
Speaker 7: to me is more interesting than jumping from the top
Speaker 7: rope over the guard rail to the floor. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 7: like using the chair not as necessarily a weapon, but
Speaker 7: as a device.
Speaker 1: To execute a high impact move. You could otherwise exactly that.
Speaker 1: That to me is what I think to be fascinating.
Speaker 1: And I I question, I don't know, maybe would would
Speaker 1: I look at him differently if he did not do
Speaker 1: the stuff on to the.
Speaker 7: Floor the floor, And yeah, that's an interesting point of delineation.
Speaker 7: The think about Saboo is he innovated so many things
Speaker 7: that everyone can pick their own and say like that
Speaker 7: was good, but this was shit and this was shit
Speaker 7: and that was good, and it's like, yeah, you've got
Speaker 7: a full grab bag. I mean, there's probably I don't know,
Speaker 7: if I sat down and thought about it, it's probably
Speaker 7: fifteen things that he was the first to do in
Speaker 7: a wrestling ring that we still see echoes of today.
Speaker 3: Take your pick.
Speaker 7: You know, he doesn't have to have a chair, but
Speaker 7: the Arabian press, where you know you do the split
Speaker 7: leg in moon salt off the ropes, the jumping you know,
Speaker 7: to the top and into the floor with like a
Speaker 7: summrsault or coming off the top with just a moon salt.
Speaker 7: We saw how that influenced Terry Funk. We talked on
Speaker 7: the Laps of Funk about him moonsalting ont A no Way,
Speaker 7: and Smoky Mountain giving Jim Cornett a fucking heart attack.
Speaker 7: He asked Terry Funk, as we talked a lot about
Speaker 7: during the Terry Funk series where he got the saboo,
Speaker 7: because Sabo was the one who was captivating the attention
Speaker 7: to the fans such that it resonated at a time
Speaker 7: when there just wasn't you know, you didn't have internet distribution.
Speaker 7: It was just amazing the level of attention Sabo was
Speaker 7: able to command in the media, wrestling media such as
Speaker 7: it was in nineteen ninety four, to the point where
Speaker 7: he was like, you know, a reader's second favorite wrestler
Speaker 7: in the Wrestling Observer, despite never being on any kind
Speaker 7: of national television. He was on promatent positions in Japan
Speaker 7: and things, but he was he was He was the
Speaker 7: one sort of doing the things where it's like, okay,
Speaker 7: if I if I'm going to do what it takes
Speaker 7: to keep getting booked in pro wrestling without kissing WWF
Speaker 7: for ww's ass, this is kind of where I have
Speaker 7: to go. Apparently, this is this is the direction we're going,
Speaker 7: and yeah, for better or for worse, Sabu made it
Speaker 7: extremely part of the pun clear what it was you
Speaker 7: had to do to matter in the mid nineties if
Speaker 7: you weren't working for one of the Big two. And
Speaker 7: we're here living with the consequences of that. And he,
Speaker 7: you know, as we're about to learn, lived with the
Speaker 7: consequences of that until the age of sixty one.
Speaker 3: And I and I and again I say there is respect.
Speaker 3: There is respect.
Speaker 1: I can definitely say, even watching from you know, learning
Speaker 1: more about him last week than I ever have in
Speaker 1: my entire history as a wrestling fan, a lot of respect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: without a doubt, he's still a fucking idiot. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can respect people who are self destructive. It's it's yes,
Speaker 1: it's extremely possible, Yeah, Saboo, it's It's an interesting legacy,
Speaker 1: and it's one that I think people until he was gone,
Speaker 1: didn't really stop to catalog the things that didn't exist
Speaker 1: in wrestling until he started doing them. And there's now
Speaker 1: talk again about maybe, you know, reintroducing him as a
Speaker 1: candidate for the Observer Hall of Fame, as as a
Speaker 1: lot of his was he he never was, No, I
Speaker 1: think he was on and off the ballot and never
Speaker 1: really garnered that much support. But there's nothing like that
Speaker 1: death at me too. Oh yeah, yeah, me too, there's
Speaker 1: nothing like that. I figured he would have been. He
Speaker 1: would have been like a shoe in in like two
Speaker 1: thousand or something. Yeah, yeah, he was still going in
Speaker 1: two thousand. That it would have It would have felt
Speaker 1: a little premature, wasn't It wasn't Austin in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame in like ninety nine or something like that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, that's that's true. It's just sometimes, I mean, God,
Speaker 7: if you're the number one business attraction in the industry
Speaker 7: for sures running, you're in the Hall of Fame. You know,
Speaker 7: sure something Sabo could never put in his in his category.
Speaker 7: But we're about to get into speaking of Austin kind
Speaker 7: of what Sabu was doing during the Attitude era. Up
Speaker 7: to this point in our TLF Tribute to Sabu, we've
Speaker 7: been getting acquainted with the raw material that built the buzz.
Speaker 7: The things he was doing in FMW and ECW now
Speaker 7: WWFNWW are on fire. We talked last time about how
Speaker 7: Sebu was on one Nitro. He was on the nineteen
Speaker 7: ninety five World War three for WCW. But other than that,
Speaker 7: you know, the Big Two didn't really have a lot
Speaker 7: of time for him save for these one off appearances.
Speaker 7: He's doing the stuff that a lot of people remember
Speaker 7: about him in nineteen ninety seven, In nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 7: and nineteen ninety nine, when the Mind and Night Wars
Speaker 7: were hot and so people were so into pro wrestling
Speaker 7: that they were drinking of anything that was going on,
Speaker 7: including in ascendent ECW from the perspective of getting on
Speaker 7: pay per view in the spring of nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 7: so being available of that many more homes, to say
Speaker 7: nothing of the TNN deal that's about to come and
Speaker 7: put them on national television. It's not often talked about,
Speaker 7: but I think it's very clear that as much as
Speaker 7: the Attitude era did for WWFNWW, it did quite a
Speaker 7: bit for ECW and those wrestlers exposure level as well.
Speaker 7: There was just a lot more interest in wrestling and
Speaker 7: a lot more people that had the attention of.
Speaker 1: It is one of those times you know we've heard
Speaker 1: you know, I remember we've heard Pritchard say, how how
Speaker 1: you know when they were when? When when ww was
Speaker 1: in the dol drums, he would still say, well, it
Speaker 1: was great for everybody. You know, nWo was great for everybody,
Speaker 1: But I think I wouldn't. I I agree that the
Speaker 1: attitude era when everybody was hot and everybody was fucking
Speaker 1: like wrestling was on a whole different level.
Speaker 3: I agree. I can, I can.
Speaker 1: I can see how everyone is just trying to soak
Speaker 1: in so much wrestling at the same time that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was in a way, honestly, like I've said a
Speaker 1: million times, if I was if I had been able
Speaker 1: to find where E. CW was, I would be a fan. Yep,
Speaker 1: I would be a fan, I can guarantee you, because
Speaker 1: because it was that kind of violence that I was
Speaker 1: hungering for.
Speaker 7: Yes, you know, I agree. I agree. It's just old age,
Speaker 7: I absolutely no. I mean, if you didn't see it,
Speaker 7: you didn't ride the wave. And so when you know
Speaker 7: Sabu passes and everybody remember so fondly, you know, staying
Speaker 7: up to two in the morning watching ECW television. If
Speaker 7: you weren't doing that, it doesn't resonate in the same way.
Speaker 7: And that's why it's always fun for us to embark
Speaker 7: on a tribute like this, because you're getting first impression
Speaker 7: stuff from the Boss h and a lot of these
Speaker 7: matches that you think everyone is seen if you were
Speaker 7: a super fan in the Attitude era, But that wasn't
Speaker 7: necessarily the case. I've talked a lot about over the
Speaker 7: years on TLF that I didn't get the first to
Speaker 7: ECW pay per views, that they weren't availble to me
Speaker 7: in my cable system. I couldn't access them, and so
Speaker 7: I was like boxed out. I mean, I was trying
Speaker 7: my best view of the Internet and stuff and photos
Speaker 7: to follow what was going on. I probably even got
Speaker 7: my hands on a tape, but it wasn't until the
Speaker 7: November to remember, November nineteen ninety seven that I was
Speaker 7: able to order an ECW pay per view. And on
Speaker 7: that show was Saboo and Taz pardon me, Saboo and
Speaker 7: the Sandman. I think that was the Stairway to Hell
Speaker 7: match wherever it was, it was full of ladders and
Speaker 7: tables and hyper violence and crazy shit. And I've talked
Speaker 7: a lot about how that was the show that I
Speaker 7: recorded and brought to the to the houses of my
Speaker 7: friends who weren't into wrestling, thinking if I showed them
Speaker 7: ECWEP then they would understand. Well, I understand so obsessive
Speaker 7: about pro wrestling, and it just had the exact opposite effect.
Speaker 7: I sat there trying to get excited when someone broke
Speaker 7: a table or smashed a chair, and I was looked
Speaker 7: at as even more strange than if I were to
Speaker 7: show them a Hulk Cogan or Steve Austin match. And
Speaker 7: I deserved that, and every ECW fan deserved that.
Speaker 1: Because because then it becomes more like, what is wrong
Speaker 1: with you? Why do you enjoy watching people kill themselves
Speaker 1: like this?
Speaker 7: Because the thing is those people still look at it
Speaker 7: and go, that's phony anyway, right, And that's even more
Speaker 7: phony almost in a way, like these guys are just
Speaker 7: like purposely doing this to themselves. They're not even trying
Speaker 7: to make it look like an actual contest, So they're idiots,
Speaker 7: right again, goes back to idiots, And I think that
Speaker 7: was so funny that And we've talked so much about
Speaker 7: what is the psychology at the root of deathmatch wrestling,
Speaker 7: what is the psychology at the root of the fan
Speaker 7: of that stuff? Over the years, we've talked about it.
Speaker 7: We talked about it looking at CZW matches during the
Speaker 7: Art of War Games, all the ECW matches we've done
Speaker 7: over the years and shows always for me comes back
Speaker 7: to this kind of idea that the wrestling fan is
Speaker 7: insecure about liking something that's phony and all of the
Speaker 7: social judgment that comes with that, and so they lean
Speaker 7: into if they're very uncomfortable with that, they don't know
Speaker 7: how to deal with that, they lean into something where
Speaker 7: the actual impact and the actual violence is unquestionably it's
Speaker 7: more punishing, it's more visceral, it's more violent, and these
Speaker 7: guys are taking risks that nobody can call into question.
Speaker 7: But at the same time, it doesn't mean anybody is
Speaker 7: going to see the value in pro wrestling. It probably
Speaker 7: means the opposite. You know, people can kind of get
Speaker 7: into the idea that it's some kind of like passion
Speaker 7: play and not get into it but understand it. But
Speaker 7: when you start saying like, well, these guys are different
Speaker 7: because they actually bust their asses through fucking furniture, people like,
Speaker 7: what are you talking about.
Speaker 1: With No, it's it's it's in a way, it's worse.
Speaker 1: It's definitely it's worse. You know, like people are actually
Speaker 1: gonna think even you know, it's it's funny, it's a
Speaker 1: wrestling thing. You want to prove to people that it's real.
Speaker 1: But then when you get to show them, show them
Speaker 1: something that that is in many ways has more realism
Speaker 1: than than w B or WCW, you're even more of
Speaker 1: a fool for watching people harm themselves for fraudulents.
Speaker 7: Right, and like pretending that there's honor in that, you know, right,
Speaker 7: what all there is in that is just a way
Speaker 7: to stand out if the big two don't want to
Speaker 7: employ you, right.
Speaker 1: When, and and and and nobody cares. None of your
Speaker 1: friends care about that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, e CW kind of tricked you and I thinking
Speaker 7: your friends could care. But I had some friends that
Speaker 7: were sort of like borderline wrestling fans, but I got
Speaker 7: them involved in e c dub and they kind of
Speaker 7: they got the whole like, you know, almost like a
Speaker 7: screaming at a heavy metal concert live show experience that was.
Speaker 7: That was pretty differentiated going to an ECW live show
Speaker 7: versus a WWF W CW live show, no comparison, it was.
Speaker 7: It was much more of like a mosh pit atmosphere
Speaker 7: and it was just.
Speaker 3: Oh, for God's sake, Yeah, everyone was more.
Speaker 7: Everyone was a smart ass scream and shit trying to
Speaker 7: you know, a lot of swearing going on, which was
Speaker 7: of course hyper cool if you were in your teens,
Speaker 7: like we were doing the Attitude era, that you could
Speaker 7: go somewhere and your parents would drop you off and
Speaker 7: you could scream fuck at the top of your lungs
Speaker 7: and people would laugh at you instead of seek to
Speaker 7: have you ejected because their kid is here, right, right,
Speaker 7: right exactly all of that. It was almost like, yeah,
Speaker 7: it was like being dropped off at some like secret
Speaker 7: underground fight club, you know, Oh definitely and accounted for
Speaker 7: a lot. Shout out to the homie Jacob who wrote,
Speaker 7: you know, we were talking about that match where Saboo
Speaker 7: broke his jaw Moon Salt to an upside down table.
Speaker 7: He was He's a Boston guy, and he's like, is
Speaker 7: that the show I was at? All I can tell
Speaker 7: you is that? And we'll get to it a bit
Speaker 7: more later that Sabo and his book does recall that
Speaker 7: injury happening on a show in Boston, but the way
Speaker 7: he describes it, it may have very well been the
Speaker 7: house show I was at in nineteen ninety seven in Revere,
Speaker 7: mass not Waltham, mass which I think is the one
Speaker 7: Jacob went to. But they often went to those two
Speaker 7: towns back to back when they heard in Massachusetts swing
Speaker 7: and because he described in his book this moment where
Speaker 7: Tammy Sitch, who of course was Chris Candido's girlfriend wife
Speaker 7: at the time, was there but not there as a character,
Speaker 7: just there with him and peeked her head over like
Speaker 7: a wall in the back that they had around the racetrack.
Speaker 7: He described it as the racetrack facility. And that was
Speaker 7: definitely the Revere Wonderland Greyhound Park shows. And I remember
Speaker 7: standing on my chair trying to see the ring and
Speaker 7: turning around and be like, oh shit, that's Sounny looking
Speaker 7: out over that wall, and no one even notices she's there,
Speaker 7: being really stupid and dumb at the time or ignorant
Speaker 7: to the fact that they were actually together. I mean,
Speaker 7: I knew they were together, but the idea that she
Speaker 7: traveled with him on the road when she as far
Speaker 7: as I knew, and ninety eight it was, it was
Speaker 7: eight ninety seven, ninety.
Speaker 1: Eight, ninety eight. She's managing the illegion exactly to me.
Speaker 1: She's like, not, I'm supposed to be here. It's like
Speaker 1: a right, it's inappropriate, it's against WWA protocol. She probably
Speaker 1: was already on the outside. I just didn't know it
Speaker 1: yet because I think it was the summer of ninety eight.
Speaker 1: But that's how I found out about that show. They
Speaker 1: were flying wrestleman Yua fourteen. They were handing out ECW
Speaker 1: flyers outside of the Fleet Center. But oh shit, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I don't know precisely what match it is. You know,
Speaker 1: our video used to do handicams of all the ECW
Speaker 1: house shows. I found it really strange that it's so
Speaker 1: hard to find the match. You would think the match
Speaker 1: where Saboo both broke his jaw on an upside down
Speaker 1: table would be one that would survive and clip form
Speaker 1: like the mass transit thing or any of those other
Speaker 1: ECW flash points over the years. But I had a
Speaker 1: hell of a time coming to an actual date as
Speaker 1: to when this happened. But it did have a long
Speaker 1: ranging consequences, more than we've been talked about in Part one.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that in Part two, which is really
Speaker 1: going to be focused again on Sabu's ECW work during
Speaker 1: the Attitude era. What was Saboo doing while Stone Cold
Speaker 1: and the NWL were lighting the wrestling world on fire?
Speaker 1: What was he doing to keep the flame burning at
Speaker 1: Extreme Championship Wrestling, and that has everything to do with TAZ.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: Mmm, it's an interesting position for us because having done
Speaker 7: Barely Legal in the archives, having done Born to Be Wired,
Speaker 7: the barb Wire match against Cherry Funk, Yes, a lot
Speaker 7: of the real key flash point like matches you could
Speaker 7: say were Sabu truly main evented and carried the ship
Speaker 7: on a big show that everybody remembers, we've already done
Speaker 7: per happenstance, So right right, it's kind of true we're
Speaker 7: in this position of having to revisit without fully revisiting.
Speaker 7: But at the time, I mean GEZCW Barely Legal was
Speaker 7: probably about our fifth or sixth episode.
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't that far back, but it was definitely
Speaker 1: it was one of the uh, I'm gonna say it
Speaker 1: was like maybe a twelve somewhere around it because it
Speaker 1: was one of the four shows that we did. We
Speaker 1: did the first Chairman's Choice where we did you picked
Speaker 1: that as one of your two shows we picked. We
Speaker 1: each picked two shows, so four total before we started
Speaker 1: the Wrestling Your Journey.
Speaker 7: Amazing, So we certainly weren't on the mode of you know,
Speaker 7: doing the full all points, research and everything in terms
Speaker 7: of background and context. So there's a little bit more
Speaker 7: to say here. I think we've already established though, this
Speaker 7: idea that Taz versus Saboo was really like this thing
Speaker 7: simmering under the surface for over a year in ECW.
Speaker 7: That clearly was a big match because while they had
Speaker 7: team together when he was the Taz Maniac, they really
Speaker 7: never had much of a of a one on one feud.
Speaker 7: They had wrestled each other before, as we'll get to,
Speaker 7: but in ECW, but it was one of the two
Speaker 7: kind of shining main event stars that had never crossed paths,
Speaker 7: and that was that was the money direction if they
Speaker 7: could go there. And what they start doing, as mentioned,
Speaker 7: is having Taz call out Sabou all the time on
Speaker 7: promos because he certainly was promoing all the time. He
Speaker 7: wasn't a silent character like Sabu was, and Sabu would
Speaker 7: never respond, he would never answer. And then when Sabu
Speaker 7: picked New Japan over ECW, when the Fuck Sabou episode happened,
Speaker 7: Taz was one of the main voices saying, you know,
Speaker 7: eat in the sheets and stuff, even saying that Sabu
Speaker 7: made the wrong choice.
Speaker 3: When you give you word.
Speaker 7: It just further added to the feud, even if it
Speaker 7: was shoot comments, it continued this idea that Sabo that
Speaker 7: Taz was was taking pot shots at Sabu, and Sabu
Speaker 7: really wasn't in a position to respond. Although he did
Speaker 7: respond in the sheets and stuff, he didn't go on
Speaker 7: television and just throw his whole character away, you know,
Speaker 7: to start answering in English. You know, he wanted people,
Speaker 7: he wanted the wrestling fans to believe he didn't speak
Speaker 7: English basically, like like the icy right, So that really
Speaker 7: was a tough position for him to be in. But
Speaker 7: you know, it continued, and it continued, and it was like,
Speaker 7: is Saboo ever going to do anything? Is sab who
Speaker 7: ever going to confront this guy? Is Sabu even going
Speaker 7: to acknowledge that he's being cat called by this big
Speaker 7: tough guy on the sidelines who's suplexing everyone in their
Speaker 7: head and running roughshot the RECW and wants to basically
Speaker 7: claim the mantle on the flag of ECW's face, ECW's
Speaker 7: flag bearer. And it's like that's Saboo Pale, Like I
Speaker 7: hate to tell you, he's the heart and soul of
Speaker 7: the whole operation. He's the guy we think of when
Speaker 7: we think of ECW as Taz is on the ascent
Speaker 7: as a single star. So Taz is choking everybody out
Speaker 7: and doing the shoot gimmick, and it's simmering and it's
Speaker 7: simmering and it's simmering, and eventually it pops off and
Speaker 7: that becomes really the key drawing card I would say
Speaker 7: of Barely Legal was Taz and Saboo. That was the
Speaker 7: match on the poster, that was the most anticipated thing
Speaker 7: that had all to build. Part of the reason it
Speaker 7: went so long. The build was really because while ECW
Speaker 7: was working on a pay per view and it came
Speaker 7: to fruition in April nineteen ninety seven, they had several
Speaker 7: false starts and stops as far as when their first
Speaker 7: pay per view would have been before that. Pression I
Speaker 7: always got was that Paul Hayman wanted to hang on
Speaker 7: to the Task Saboo match for that first show whenever
Speaker 7: it would have been. So you want to give him
Speaker 7: a lot of credit for a big, long build, And
Speaker 7: I guess he does get credit because he didn't prematurely
Speaker 7: just throw it on a show before this. But I
Speaker 7: think if the first ECW pay per view would have
Speaker 7: happened in the middle of nineteen ninety six. We would
Speaker 7: have gotten it then with half the build. Interesting, it
Speaker 7: was just a matter of when they could finally get
Speaker 7: the cable systems cleared and put aside the concerns they
Speaker 7: had that this was some kind of you know, blood
Speaker 7: sport thing or even we've talked about this before, even
Speaker 7: something that was tantamount to no hole's barred UFC at
Speaker 7: the time, you know, they didn't really understand some cable systems.
Speaker 7: This was an ultimate fighting which was a huge, huge
Speaker 7: lightning lot of controversy for the pay per view industry
Speaker 7: back in oh god, the mid nineties when ECW was
Speaker 7: looking to get on.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember that, you know, there were people
Speaker 1: who were you know, I remember feeling that that wrestling
Speaker 1: fantom was already this brief wrestling fandom, like people acknowledging
Speaker 1: in high school that they were wrestling fans was about
Speaker 1: was almost so short lived because of UFC. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: people were like suddenly like the same people who were
Speaker 1: And again keep in mind, I still kept my fandoms
Speaker 1: as close to the chest as.
Speaker 3: I possibly could.
Speaker 1: I never really let that out in high school, even
Speaker 1: when there were people who were who were going nuts
Speaker 1: for it, and but I remember thinking, Wow, God, that
Speaker 1: was fast. They're already onto this other thing. Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: what's going on?
Speaker 7: Absolutely yeah, and that that ended up coming to Fruition
Speaker 7: in two thousand and five, taking so many racing fans away.
Speaker 7: But you know, the thing was UFC's competitor, main competitor
Speaker 7: at the time was Extreme Fighting. It was called Extreme
Speaker 7: something or other. So you could see where a lot
Speaker 7: of that confusion came from. It wasn't just h it
Speaker 7: wasn't just you know, blindly assuming that it had something
Speaker 7: to do with with with you know, UFC, but that
Speaker 7: there was another extreme brand name out there that also
Speaker 7: created some some loveless confusion.
Speaker 8: So we.
Speaker 7: Were getting there and we're getting to barely legal, and
Speaker 7: we'll talk about it, of course, But if you're on
Speaker 7: talk about the history of Taz and Saboo, you of
Speaker 7: course have to go back to the beginning of Extreme
Speaker 7: Championship Wrestling, because Taz was really one of the first
Speaker 7: guys that Paul Hayman brought over there, one of the
Speaker 7: New York guys along with Dreamer and stuff. Whereas Sandman
Speaker 7: and and Saboo to some degree were more like the
Speaker 7: Todd Gordon Philly guys. And you know, they came together
Speaker 7: at a time, but it was still the Eastern Championship Wrestling.
Speaker 7: Remember that clip we saw last time where Sabou eat
Speaker 7: Shane Douglass for his first ECW world title and he
Speaker 7: had the Hannibal Elector mask and he was strapped to
Speaker 7: the gurney and remember all that. Yes, it was like
Speaker 7: he was like a psych word patient. Basically was the
Speaker 7: original vision and Paul Hayman was his manager. That was
Speaker 7: the very first time that Taz and Saboo went one
Speaker 7: on one INECW. It was in nineteen ninety three, the
Speaker 7: fall of nineteen ninety three. ECW had just started as
Speaker 7: a promotion and it's the first time that their their
Speaker 7: paths crossed when Sabu is in that character. Recently, I
Speaker 7: think it was a couple of years ago now, Conrad
Speaker 7: Thompson had had Abo and Taz both on a joint
Speaker 7: and zoom to look over their barely legal match again
Speaker 7: and talk about their history and do kind of a
Speaker 7: watch along and tak yeah yep, and Taz offered this
Speaker 7: color here about how he first became acquainted with Saboo
Speaker 7: and how intertwined from the beginning his career was with Saboo.
Speaker 9: And I comment, I'll have to go back to time
Speaker 9: a little bit, and I want to I want to
Speaker 9: put Saboo over Big Gear because you talk about that.
Speaker 9: He was like an internet dolling kind of before there
Speaker 9: was internet. Uh, I'm telling you right now, bro. In
Speaker 9: the early nine is Shaboo was red hot and Hayment,
Speaker 9: Paul Hayman called me. I didn't really know Paul that well.
Speaker 9: I might have met him one one time before and
Speaker 9: he called me up and he said, have you ever
Speaker 9: heard this guy Saboo? Because I I knew Paul started
Speaker 9: helping book with Eddie Gilbert of some ship this this
Speaker 9: Eastern Championship Wrestling of Philadelphia, and I was trying to
Speaker 9: get in there because I was looking for dates. I
Speaker 9: had no money, I was fucking born. I needed work,
Speaker 9: and I knew that this was a hot thing. So
Speaker 9: Paul kind of said and touch. We stayed in touch
Speaker 9: with each other a little bit, and like I said,
Speaker 9: I met him maybe one time for IWCCW he was booking.
Speaker 9: This was probably like nineteen ninety one. He got fired
Speaker 9: after two weeks he told Mary Samalda to go fuck
Speaker 9: himself and that's to shoot. So yeah, So what happens
Speaker 9: is all calls me and says, hey, look, I can
Speaker 9: guarantee you one date. And it was like early October
Speaker 9: nineteen ninety three against this guy Saboe.
Speaker 3: Do you know who he is?
Speaker 9: I go, I don't know him personally, I said, but
Speaker 9: I was recently on a show at him in Minneapolis. Uh,
Speaker 9: and I met him and I said, the guy's fucking fantastic.
Speaker 9: He goes, well, I need to put him over and
Speaker 9: I can guarantee you one date that date and if
Speaker 9: it goes well, we'll see what happens. I said, I
Speaker 9: don't give a fuck. I'll put him over, no problem.
Speaker 9: That guy's great. And then you know, Shabou was like
Speaker 9: he was like throughout the independent circuit before it was
Speaker 9: even called independence. He was the fucking guy, you know,
Speaker 9: like he's a man. You know, he was the fucking man.
Speaker 9: So you know, he gave me a he let me
Speaker 9: do so much in that match, and I was like
Speaker 9: so humble about it, and he helped me get a
Speaker 9: job because he let me get so much heat on him.
Speaker 9: Because the fucking guy's a genius because he sells his asshole,
Speaker 9: you know, and even on his high spots, he selves,
Speaker 9: he out sells the guys he's hitting. So Shabu has
Speaker 9: been way ahead of his time for many, many years.
Speaker 9: And so I I I'll publicly thank you, I mean
Speaker 9: close to you. I got hired man because you let
Speaker 9: me fucking stick out there.
Speaker 7: A lot of people saying similar things about sab But
Speaker 7: he sounds so weird. Really, yeah, you don't think he
Speaker 7: sounded like that. He doesn't sound like Taz it sounds.
Speaker 3: He sounds. I don't know, he sounds.
Speaker 7: That's Taz at home, you know, I guess I guess
Speaker 7: that's what it is. Tazit home in his in his skin,
Speaker 7: not trying to do that, Taz in Red Hook. He
Speaker 7: probably lives in Westchester County now, I'm sure he does.
Speaker 7: Like his son plays lacrosse and lives up on a
Speaker 7: fucking hill. You know that, you know, fucking you know,
Speaker 7: gated community. Can you imagine the vest in the fall,
Speaker 7: the Patagonia vests.
Speaker 1: I mean, I imagine every fucking function that he wears.
Speaker 1: He's got a vest, all right. He kind of remember
Speaker 1: one time he wore.
Speaker 7: A Polo vest On Dynamite because they were outside during
Speaker 7: COVID and Jacksonville and I was like, that's that's definitely Taz.
Speaker 7: On the weekend going to the sports fields.
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean, that's like he decided that that was
Speaker 1: gonna be his things, the vest and so he everywhere
Speaker 1: he goes, if he's out of the house, he's got
Speaker 1: some sort of vest on. Even if it's a fucking
Speaker 1: you know, like hoodie vest whatever, he's got the vest.
Speaker 1: He's got a vested interest in himself.
Speaker 7: It is pretty funny the New York parents that don't
Speaker 7: know he was a wrestler. You know, Oh the is
Speaker 7: no Miss Pete, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you know that there are that there
Speaker 1: are a slew of neighbors that he has who really
Speaker 1: have no fucking clue that he that he was a wrestler.
Speaker 3: They have no idea. They just think he's some nice
Speaker 3: guy you.
Speaker 7: Know who you know, or a little television it's a
Speaker 7: little loud when you know, something happens on the on
Speaker 7: the on the soccer field or something. You know, like,
Speaker 7: I don't want my kid yelling at the umps. That's
Speaker 7: the last thing I want to teach him to do.
Speaker 7: But there comes a point where you know, you got
Speaker 7: to call balls that strikes correctly, not for nothing, not
Speaker 7: for anything. It's exactly correct. Real think Taz talks shit
Speaker 7: about youth sports referees. Give me God, I cost you
Speaker 7: the game.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine after the game, like he's out having
Speaker 1: like he invites some of the parents over, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the families over to have like a you know,
Speaker 1: a little cookout. After some of the games, he is
Speaker 1: just fucking going all the whole time. Yeah, yep, standing
Speaker 1: by the grill, like fucking Tony soprano, you know, just
Speaker 1: standing by the grill and just just fucking you know,
Speaker 1: talking about what they would do if they had that
Speaker 1: that referee here right now, like the like reforms that
Speaker 1: the program should Yeah, yep, with his with his pals
Speaker 1: wearing their uh you know, open collar blue button down
Speaker 1: shirts and their khakis, be tucked in khakis.
Speaker 3: Be careful or Tas might join the board.
Speaker 1: Okay. Can you imagine just imagine imagine Taz like on
Speaker 1: on any kind of of of you know, youth athletic boards.
Speaker 7: Oh, recite him on the agenda? Are the minutes? Are
Speaker 7: there any any suggestions before we finalize some minutes.
Speaker 1: Also just also picture him. Okay again, he's wearing a
Speaker 1: vest with a with a with a with a closed
Speaker 1: collared shirt with no neck. All right, his head goes
Speaker 1: directly to shirt and then vest. Okay, it's like a
Speaker 1: fucking it's like a uh, we love it. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like, what do you call you know, some kind
Speaker 1: of god. I can't I can't think of what you
Speaker 1: call the thing. I don't know what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: Like some kind of like a a platform you rest
Speaker 1: something on. You know, it's like just perfectly made. That's
Speaker 1: what his head just kind of like, Yeah, his head
Speaker 1: just plops down on on on the collar of the shirt.
Speaker 1: What what what tas?
Speaker 7: What tas show were they talking about? They talked about
Speaker 7: him being on the Youth Sports Board. Oh yeah, SAB
Speaker 7: Tribute Part two.
Speaker 1: So you know, he he comes in he you know,
Speaker 1: whenever he had whenever he has a meeting, he like
Speaker 1: he like brings a bunch of fucking sandwiches, you know,
Speaker 1: cold cut sandwiches to everybody. You know, brings a whole
Speaker 1: fucking platter from some some Italian deli.
Speaker 7: Because that's the thing. You know, he's kind of a
Speaker 7: nice guy, right, exactly what I mean. It's there, It's
Speaker 7: definitely there. He don't fuck with him. But he's very
Speaker 7: happy to be a bad guy. But like he's kind
Speaker 7: of a nice guy. He's almost he doesn't like that
Speaker 7: he's a nice guy. It makes him uncomfortable, but he
Speaker 7: can't help himself. But he but he knows, he knows,
Speaker 7: he knows that he needs to hide as much as
Speaker 7: he can. He's resting background. Okay, so if that means
Speaker 7: being a nice guy, he'll do it. But listen, all right,
Speaker 7: if if, if if an umpire or a referee crosses him,
Speaker 7: it's tas mission City City just fucking cranks it. Not
Speaker 7: for something the task story.
Speaker 1: Just imagine, you know, like you know, like in in
Speaker 1: No Mercy, how you lock in the TAS mission and
Speaker 1: U and one of the arms is like flailing. Let's
Speaker 1: imagine you know, a youth a youth sports league referee
Speaker 1: just getting TAS missions.
Speaker 3: Hey, Blue, bad call Blue.
Speaker 7: Speaking of Blue, Let's go to Eastern Championship Wrestling from
Speaker 7: October fifth, nineteen ninety three. You have that link there,
Speaker 7: boss uh, I probably will here in a moment the
Speaker 7: chat as the kids say, there we go. So this
Speaker 7: is going to be a Milaune of the different video sources. Unfortunately,
Speaker 7: everything can't just be in one convenient place, So this
Speaker 7: one's available on YouTube if you'd like to check it out,
Speaker 7: refer to here in the the YouTube titling is Sabo
Speaker 7: with nine one e W and ring debuts this. I
Speaker 7: don't know if this is supposed to be Taz is
Speaker 7: in ring debut. The way you talked about it in
Speaker 7: that click we just listened to made it seemed like that.
Speaker 7: I don't think it's Saboo's in ring debut. But anyway,
Speaker 7: here we go. This is the very first time Taz
Speaker 7: and Saboo collided, and what would go to be you know,
Speaker 7: a central uh canonical e c W food three two
Speaker 7: one in play.
Speaker 1: I'm next d CW. Saboo screaming, Oh he has a
Speaker 1: fucking hannibal.
Speaker 3: He doesn't a handle left. Look your mask.
Speaker 1: There's tasmaniac looking like friend Minstone. Look he really is,
Speaker 1: look at look at that? Look at the stands he
Speaker 1: has like this the space between his legs. Taz is
Speaker 1: backing up the ring announcer. Okay, they just unchained Saboo
Speaker 1: and he's hit the ring and he it's a spinning
Speaker 1: heel kick to the back of Kazi. You know that
Speaker 1: could have been a little more impactful after coming in
Speaker 1: like that. I mean he like Bailey barely tapped him
Speaker 1: on the back of the head outside him with the
Speaker 1: leg drop. So yeah, this is when Saba's gimmick was.
Speaker 1: He was, you know, chained up, a chained up pit
Speaker 1: bull and would strike. No. Wait, is that Tazz or
Speaker 1: is that man tarw Jesus let her rope to the
Speaker 1: floor way before we were accustomed to that, and wrest that.
Speaker 7: If you're keeping score at home, we have self sacrifice here.
Speaker 7: From commercial break, here we go in the crowd. He
Speaker 7: talked on that that Conrad show about how he remembers
Speaker 7: this so much because they just had no no, no,
Speaker 7: no restrictions and they just started using the whole building
Speaker 7: and everything they'd get their hands on.
Speaker 1: I can't see him.
Speaker 7: They weren't quite said a camera shoot perspective to follow
Speaker 7: these guys.
Speaker 1: It's not for everyone.
Speaker 10: It's not even.
Speaker 1: It's not for everyone. It's not for the camera men.
Speaker 7: Say that again, Paul. Wow, they're battling back to ringside
Speaker 7: with tables in their hands. Sabo jumps in the ring.
Speaker 7: Taz follows after him that hair is inappropriate, Huntaz, Yeah,
Speaker 7: oh yeah, that was quite a look for him. Then
Speaker 7: it's supposed to be some like jungle creature, you know,
Speaker 7: and like the road warrior animal face painting there spinning
Speaker 7: heelkick puts Tas on the floor. Saboo goes to suicide dives,
Speaker 7: but tas Maniac ducks out of the way, so Sabu
Speaker 7: follows up with the slingshot somersalt.
Speaker 1: Jesus, he covered ground. Oh Jesus, look at look at
Speaker 1: look at all the ship on the floor. Taz his
Speaker 1: bare feet on the floor. Oh, glass metal just south phillies, refuse,
Speaker 1: We've been there. What he knows that you know that
Speaker 1: smell like you know, the smell of beer, soda and
Speaker 1: other sugar, Huggies beverages, Oh, and Huggies. Taz is stored
Speaker 1: chair after chair on a Sablue's head.
Speaker 3: What what what? I never understood what the tasmaniac gimmick like?
Speaker 1: Where? Obviously I assume it came from the Tasmanian devil,
Speaker 1: that's right, But I don't understand why.
Speaker 7: Oh ship with an Arabian press to the floor almost
Speaker 7: came up short see.
Speaker 1: See it's that it's that kind of stuff like there
Speaker 1: was no there was no thought beforehand, which I I
Speaker 1: I want to appreciate in some level. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, you could kill like you're gonna kill yourself.
Speaker 1: Obviously he didn't. But you know, that's the thing that's
Speaker 1: Sablu story. You're gonna kill yourself And then he never did, right,
Speaker 1: I know, And there so there's something to be said
Speaker 1: for that. But but I guess the question is was
Speaker 1: it was it luck or was it a technique that
Speaker 1: kept him surviving, that kept him alive?
Speaker 7: I do think tomorrow I watch of him back in
Speaker 7: the ring high German holy almost style.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, when I watched off Sabo, the more I think
Speaker 7: he was actually good at making it look like he
Speaker 7: was out of control more than he was in terms
Speaker 7: of flying. Yeah, Elta belly overhead by the Tasmania float
Speaker 7: over lateral prescotts too. It is still superlexing. Film composer
Speaker 7: Hans Zimmer is your referee tonight.
Speaker 3: That's John Finnegan.
Speaker 1: I believe.
Speaker 7: He was the inhuman suplex machine back then.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
Speaker 7: Driving from the tough streets of Red Hook, those bright,
Speaker 7: those bright red scars still on Sabo's arm on the
Speaker 7: fm W days as we talked about last time back
Speaker 7: up in the Irish Whip.
Speaker 1: Now Tasmaniac shoots off Sabo, Taz bring me that stout offense.
Speaker 1: This is stout dude.
Speaker 7: As we talk about the event, he later on would
Speaker 7: actually bust Saboo's jaw with one of those clothes lines
Speaker 7: to the height of their feud.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is a little teapot that Taz short and
Speaker 1: Stout down on the concrete writhing. Now is Saboo.
Speaker 7: So clutching that ankle from the wave impress to the
Speaker 7: floor that came up a bit short. The shin bone
Speaker 7: appeared to be smacked across the top of Taz's head.
Speaker 7: Now Taz is loading a table into the ring. I
Speaker 7: can't forget the contact. Sabo was the only guy in
Speaker 7: the business using tables this way at the time. That's
Speaker 7: that came to see this. It's funny to b c W.
Speaker 7: This is before every match was no DQ. They keep
Speaker 7: talking about how there's been a decision to make this
Speaker 7: one no count out. So in a lot of ways,
Speaker 7: we're seeing these w style come into focus here because
Speaker 7: they haven't made it. The whole idea of the company.
Speaker 1: Yet, honestly, I would imagine that that's kind of what
Speaker 1: we're looking at here in a way, because it's you know,
Speaker 1: because uh Sab was in the company from such an
Speaker 1: early before you.
Speaker 7: Taz pops sella Delli overhead and they fall down on
Speaker 7: the crumpled table. Has just going off trying to take
Speaker 7: the table apart. That's what you gotta do, man, when
Speaker 7: something doesn't go right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, the drop taz Is thighs are just.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, the outside and the lakedrop and landed on the
Speaker 1: bust of tables moving out of the way. The short,
Speaker 1: massive thighs of Taz. You know, he's like a king
Speaker 1: of squats. Look at the feet, Look at his feet,
Speaker 1: his feeling they're dirty. Yeah, I have no problem with it. Sure, Psycho,
Speaker 1: Taz is biting, sapping now back flips and clips him
Speaker 1: in the corner with a hard clothesline. I don't know what.
Speaker 1: Why is he back flipping? I don't know. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: almost doing a back handspring, but not completely planting on
Speaker 1: his feet on his face and laying on his face.
Speaker 1: That bucklane makes a hell of a sound.
Speaker 7: Back then, still in red, white and blue ropes, and
Speaker 7: e c W by the way, Yeah, it's sounds like
Speaker 7: he hit like a bunch of plastic bins. Seated on
Speaker 7: the top of his Taz saboo up after room for
Speaker 7: the superhero Kinana another move that he was, oh, didn't
Speaker 7: want to launch.
Speaker 3: He don't know what to think about that.
Speaker 1: He's acting like he countered it.
Speaker 7: Maybe Sabo was just supposed to Yeah, crash and burn
Speaker 7: was supposed to stay seated, Taz back up top doing
Speaker 7: this forward roll splash.
Speaker 1: Nobody home the way Taz is like when he has
Speaker 1: his his feet like his knees bent and his like
Speaker 1: legs are spread wide open.
Speaker 3: It's just it's very uncomfortable.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's he's quite a he's quite a sight when
Speaker 7: he splayed out like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's. It's it's very weird. Knee on the face
Speaker 3: cover to win.
Speaker 1: Wow, again, that's the sab that's the moon saw the
Speaker 1: Terry Funk's watching. Yeah, that's like he fucking would he
Speaker 1: stern championship like before the Well, I guess it wasn't him.
Speaker 1: The last n was r VD last time, but he
Speaker 1: he landed with his knee on the face that looked
Speaker 1: like yeah, so this was the debut. Listen to how Polly,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna rewind on your hair. You can stop your sounds.
Speaker 3: A new force.
Speaker 11: He stern Championship, Rusty, we have met the most animalistic
Speaker 11: wrestler in the history.
Speaker 2: Of this sport.
Speaker 1: We have met.
Speaker 7: That's Polly and full salesman right there.
Speaker 3: He sounds weird too. Everyone sounds weird?
Speaker 1: Is it me?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 7: An the probably oh yes. And then after the match
Speaker 7: he gets the table in the ring, no opponent and
Speaker 7: just moon salts through it.
Speaker 3: Wow, idiot.
Speaker 1: Speech. I cannot believe this chat pool was.
Speaker 7: I wonder if he started if he did that because
Speaker 7: the table spot failed, because later he would just do
Speaker 7: that all the time. But if this is his e
Speaker 7: c W debut, maybe it's just he did that because
Speaker 7: in the first match the table spot didn't work out.
Speaker 7: And so I'll make this my signature the case, I
Speaker 7: put myself to a table after my match because you
Speaker 7: used to do that all the time. That plays intending
Speaker 7: a psychopath.
Speaker 1: Do it again? The table he said he was climbing
Speaker 1: again with people pleading with him about an idiot to
Speaker 1: your point, Yeah, it's just not necessary, pal, And he goes,
Speaker 1: here's noise to Listen to his noise at the end. Listen, Well, uh, Doc,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll surprise you to learn that the broken leg
Speaker 1: did not come from something I did to my opponent.
Speaker 1: You see, after my matches are done, what I tend
Speaker 1: to do his throw myself with no opponent onto furniture.
Speaker 1: I figure this is the best way to Uh, this
Speaker 1: is just like a nice little a nice little exclamation
Speaker 1: point on my matches is to just damage myself for fun?
Speaker 3: Is that okay with you?
Speaker 1: But he did?
Speaker 7: You know, you've got a crowd there that still doesn't
Speaker 7: know what ECW is. You've got people watching on tape,
Speaker 7: and you know, if they were able to find this
Speaker 7: on syndicated television and the limited RECCW had in nineteen
Speaker 7: ninety three, mostly in Sports Channel Philadelphia, that didn't really
Speaker 7: know what ECW is going to become. And this guy
Speaker 7: is like he's he's there's nwe NWAECW and then there's Sabu.
Speaker 7: It's not like Sabu has come to represent what the
Speaker 7: company is yet you know, right, it's not what Sabu
Speaker 7: does is what the whole company does. That evolved, particularly
Speaker 7: as we talked about last time, as Sabu missed some shots,
Speaker 7: and then they still wanted to have tables on the
Speaker 7: show because Sabu had raised this expectation for ACW ticket
Speaker 7: buyers and fans such as they were at the time,
Speaker 7: that they were going to see busted tables if they
Speaker 7: came at the show. So they let other guys like
Speaker 7: Public Enemy start breaking tables and that, Like, really, Sabo
Speaker 7: really didn't like that because that was really his thing,
Speaker 7: and I don't think he necessarily considered it fair use,
Speaker 7: you know, intellectual property in a business where you know, Paul,
Speaker 7: what off about my ip on the table break? Can
Speaker 7: we talk about my IP? My patent in the table breaking?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: Innovative?
Speaker 7: Sabo was nothing if not a patent lawyer. Certainly did
Speaker 7: a lot of patented things. So true, that is true,
Speaker 7: But so yeah, it's almost like Saboo is like this
Speaker 7: part of the show where this crazy shit happens, and
Speaker 7: the rest of the show was like fucking you know,
Speaker 7: Jimmy Snooker and Don Morocco and fucking road Warrior Hawk
Speaker 7: and all these randos.
Speaker 1: I know that was the weird, right, I remember, it
Speaker 1: was like this weird, this this weird concoction of of
Speaker 1: old timers and newbies.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, one of the big breakthrough matches for Saboo was
Speaker 7: when he teamed it was with it was him and
Speaker 7: Terry Funk versus Arn Anderson and Bobby Eden. When Arn
Speaker 7: and Bobby were coming through very quickly in the early
Speaker 7: days of that ECW WCW cooperation that brought Terry Funk
Speaker 7: to w CW in nineteen ninety four to a team
Speaker 7: with Bunk house Buck and that whole thing. There was
Speaker 7: that kind of short lived bit of cooperation going on
Speaker 7: ben WAH kind of being shared across the transom a bit,
Speaker 7: and and Kevin Sullivan, you know, was front office at
Speaker 7: WW and going to ECW all the time, and according
Speaker 7: to like you know, Terry Funk's book and some other sources,
Speaker 7: kind of kind of angling to almost make ECW something
Speaker 7: that he could capture to Kevin Sulia somehow have the
Speaker 7: sway over ECW that, come to find out, Vince mcmahonrually
Speaker 7: ended up having in a lot of ways, and to
Speaker 7: some degree also Terry Taylor. But it's it's a fascinating
Speaker 7: deal where you know, all these chess pieces are moving
Speaker 7: around and yeah, SABO is is just the SABO experience
Speaker 7: on the ECW card. It's not the whole idea of
Speaker 7: the of the promotion yet, and Taz is apparently the
Speaker 7: guy to welcome him, uh Saboo that is, to the
Speaker 7: table for the first time. I did not realize that
Speaker 7: that was the absolute first Sabu match in ECW, But
Speaker 7: what a what a story. I don't think they even
Speaker 7: leaned into that much when they did the big Saboo
Speaker 7: Taz barely legal feud.
Speaker 1: Was that?
Speaker 12: Oh?
Speaker 1: Really yeah?
Speaker 7: That Tabo's very first TCW match came came at the
Speaker 7: at the hands of the Taz Maniac. Tasmaniac and Sabo
Speaker 7: would go on to be ECW Tag Team champions and
Speaker 7: one of the bigger star attractions on on on the
Speaker 7: on the show between that that tag team, as well
Speaker 7: as his future tag team with Brob Van Dam. As
Speaker 7: much success as Sabu had as a singles wrestler in ECW,
Speaker 7: in a lot of ways, some of this highest profile
Speaker 7: stuff was in the two tag teams that he was
Speaker 7: a part of because, for whatever reason, really yeah, when
Speaker 7: he was on those tag teams, the tag team title
Speaker 7: program rose way up the card in terms of prominence
Speaker 7: because he was able to do so much more crazy
Speaker 7: shit with six bodies in a three way dance for example,
Speaker 7: you know, with a Public Enemy and uh and and
Speaker 7: and a risben Wan, Dean Malenko, or the Eliminators when
Speaker 7: he was teaming with Rob van Dam to say nothing
Speaker 7: of Ginsa, Shinsaki, the Hibusa, Hi Busa and Hakushi at
Speaker 7: the Heat Wave of nineteen ninety eighth show. One of
Speaker 7: the landmark ECW matches is that tag match, and they
Speaker 7: could just you know, they could just do so much
Speaker 7: more with that many more bodies in there and create
Speaker 7: that much more chaos. So it was him and Taz
Speaker 7: really that was the first time, and that was the source,
Speaker 7: according to Sabu's book, of a bit of the uneasiness
Speaker 7: that he and Taz ended up having between each other
Speaker 7: because Sabu didn't necessarily want to be a tag team wrestler,
Speaker 7: even though it took like crazy, he didn't necessarily want to,
Speaker 7: you know, bring Taz along for the ride in every
Speaker 7: conceivable way, and that there was some distance. You know,
Speaker 7: these two had plenty of disagreements backstage over the years.
Speaker 7: There was plenty of distance between the two, and that
Speaker 7: may have played no small part in why this feud, didn't,
Speaker 7: you know, kick off with all due haste. Why it
Speaker 7: took so long to get these two in the ring
Speaker 7: finally was that there was there was a bit of
Speaker 7: that awkwardness and a bit of that competitive intensity, but
Speaker 7: it it took shape, it bubbled beneath the surface. Sabu
Speaker 7: did the nineteen ninety five you know, several month departure
Speaker 7: and then his return as we talked about last time
Speaker 7: at the nineteen ninety five November to Remember, but still
Speaker 7: Taz while facing off with while calling out Saboo and
Speaker 7: showing up when he's in the ring and stuff, Sabu
Speaker 7: had yet to do anything toward Taz, and Taz is
Speaker 7: reaching the point of desperation in terms of getting Sabou
Speaker 7: to acknowledge him and acknowledge his challenge, because to Taz
Speaker 7: it's almost like existential, like until I can beat Sabu,
Speaker 7: I can't be the man I claim to be in ECW.
Speaker 1: You know, I can't be.
Speaker 7: I can't be this absolute forced to be reckoned with.
Speaker 7: So what ends up happening is there's a match where
Speaker 7: flash Funk the Future flash Funk Kka two Cold Scorpio
Speaker 7: is having his his final match. If you can pull
Speaker 7: up Boss via Pecock okay, and you at home can
Speaker 7: do this as well. The nineteen ninety six ECW November
Speaker 7: to remember, So this is a year after Saboo returned
Speaker 7: to the company after having that her fluffle with Paul
Speaker 7: In over choosing FMW in a bigger payday and a
Speaker 7: bigger bit of exposure. That's a whole other part of
Speaker 7: Sabu's career that we're not going to really spend any
Speaker 7: time on here in the tribute because this is going
Speaker 7: to be so much more focused on his US impact.
Speaker 7: But the stuff he was doing in All Japan Pro
Speaker 7: Wrestling in an FMW was also equally as significant to
Speaker 7: the legacy he left behind and why he was so
Speaker 7: fondly remembered in Japan upon his passing as well as
Speaker 7: in the United States, not just because of the legacy
Speaker 7: of his uncle the Shig, but because of what he
Speaker 7: did as a junior heavyweight wrestler in New Japan and
Speaker 7: All Japan and in FMW. So he was involved in
Speaker 7: some very high profile feuds in that country, kind of
Speaker 7: like a foreign invading stable and wo almost asque stable
Speaker 7: that he played a key part in as one of
Speaker 7: the invading American wrestling stars that was rampaging through Japan
Speaker 7: and had to be stopped in some great matches over
Speaker 7: there as well, And as we talked about last week,
Speaker 7: discovered a lot of his innovations in Japan first, including
Speaker 7: breaking his first table in FMW, hitting barbed wire and
Speaker 7: fire for the first time over there. So a lot
Speaker 7: of the things he's doing and American rings to get
Speaker 7: noticed he's testing out Japan.
Speaker 3: What's the show again?
Speaker 7: This is the November to Remember nineteen ninety six, which
Speaker 7: I believe in peacock language makes it season three as
Speaker 7: goofy as that is November to Remember, And we're about
Speaker 7: to watch the conclusion of a match between two Cold
Speaker 7: Scorpio and Louis Paccoli, who was somebody that Sabu shared
Speaker 7: a tour tour swith in Japan, and there was some
Speaker 7: deal where Taboo did something wrong and Louis Piccoli took
Speaker 7: the blame for it and got fired, and Sabu felt
Speaker 7: so bad for him that he made sure to get
Speaker 7: him a job in ECW. So Louise Pecoli is another
Speaker 7: one of those guys. Had he survived the drug culture
Speaker 7: such as it was in the business at the time,
Speaker 7: which of course he did not having died in nineteen
Speaker 7: ninety seven of an overdose due to Soma's would be
Speaker 7: among the cacophony of voices tributing Saboo and toasting Sabo
Speaker 7: for helping make them just as we heard from from
Speaker 7: Tas moments ago. So, if you can navigate over, three
Speaker 7: is the time code, I'm gonna work with you.
Speaker 3: Fifty seven.
Speaker 7: So for those who don't know this show, it might
Speaker 7: seem a bit odd that on a Saboo tribute talking
Speaker 7: about the Taz feud that we would que up a
Speaker 7: two cold Scorpio versus Louis Piccoli match, but you'll see
Speaker 7: quite soon why it not only makes sense but actually
Speaker 7: leads to essentially one of the most iconic moments ever
Speaker 7: in ECW. Because, as we've been trying to delay the
Speaker 7: foundation here, this Taz Saboo slow burn is really starting
Speaker 7: to peak, and these fans are really itching to see
Speaker 7: what it, what it looks like, and what it means
Speaker 7: when these two go face to face.
Speaker 3: That's fascinating.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it worked beautifully, absolutely beautifully, And if you're ready
Speaker 7: to breastplay I am I am ready all right, folks,
Speaker 7: three two one play? Well, yeah, So both guys are
Speaker 7: leaving the company. I was making an ECW all. The
Speaker 7: fans knew someone was leaving, so they just leaned into
Speaker 7: it and made it the story.
Speaker 3: You know, they didn't.
Speaker 7: Guys who get booed and they chant you sold out
Speaker 7: at guys, oh big clothesline. They've probably learned that from
Speaker 7: Paul Haymen screaming about Saboo, you know, not choosing you.
Speaker 7: It's not like the head of the company I discouraged
Speaker 7: that kind of a ogie band thinking approp clothesline by Scorpio,
Speaker 7: who also had some great matches with Saboo and ECW
Speaker 7: as well. You can imagine how the aerial styles complimented
Speaker 7: each other.
Speaker 1: Now correct me if I'm wrong. Is that referee Dana
Speaker 1: Ashbrook who played uh Bobby Briggs and Twin Peaks. That's him? Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty good, eye perfect, excellent. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Spacola the death valley driver, innovator it Spacoli driver, it
Speaker 7: was called later after he died, and he hits.
Speaker 1: It on Scorpio and pins him.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 7: Scorpio does the honors for Spacoli. On his way out,
Speaker 7: he flashed.
Speaker 1: Forward Piccoli looking like porky pig, and here goes that
Speaker 1: you sold out. Shit. Wow, Oh they're chanting on a nauh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the fuck out?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, come to find out they're working so
Speaker 7: closely together at this point, Yeah, get the fuck out exactly.
Speaker 7: They almost don't mind making a production out of a
Speaker 7: guy leaving to w w F, but they would never
Speaker 7: do that if a guy.
Speaker 3: Was leaving for w c W.
Speaker 7: If they would just disappear, someone can run me off.
Speaker 7: I'm fucking staying. And we know two colds are bad, motherfucker.
Speaker 7: So who's gonna Who's gonna make too cold leave the
Speaker 7: ECW arena Because, of course, the bastardized peacock version of
Speaker 7: Kisses or Machine Taz's signature ECW entrance, which is a
Speaker 7: great song for him, just perfect. How belle Fonso came
Speaker 7: in ECW is the one referee that insisted on calling
Speaker 7: it by the rules, even when he's w want to
Speaker 7: throw out the rule book.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 7: So he became kind of like the coach ref that
Speaker 7: would officiate matters on behalf of Taz who wanted to
Speaker 7: go by the book as well in terms of straight wrestling.
Speaker 7: When he had the towel over his head looking all menacing,
Speaker 7: looking like that shooter off of nothing on paths shoot.
Speaker 1: Puck low drop grip hips rip hop the hips low
Speaker 1: rip pop rip hips over the top.
Speaker 12: Man.
Speaker 7: Back then, if you had if someone had to get
Speaker 7: some business done, you know, some dirty work, it was
Speaker 7: Taz for the company. His Taz with a tap out singlet.
Speaker 7: This is the height of his powers right here. Face
Speaker 7: to face, he goes with Scorpio.
Speaker 2: I don't settle my soul with you, not the way
Speaker 2: I see it. You got two choices, brother.
Speaker 13: You can't get you good, he said, Fuck yeah, I
Speaker 13: get your fuck you see you got that big shirt
Speaker 13: to show up in New York.
Speaker 2: You're going the right.
Speaker 4: I need to go do that.
Speaker 6: Let me tell you something, task, I'm going two bigger houses.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they get the money side.
Speaker 2: You all.
Speaker 1: They can go palace really think welfare office, Welfare office
Speaker 1: and called ECW.
Speaker 6: So Tash, let me tell you something, Yeah, bigger passes.
Speaker 1: Yes, someone screams, bigger assholes. Yeah, big money now for
Speaker 1: you though, scorp Yeah right, Alfonso talking.
Speaker 7: Ship look at him, know they already know there He
Speaker 7: goes two cold. Scorpio, exiting n c W Ring for
Speaker 7: the last time, has left alone holding the.
Speaker 1: Sticks he'd show up. He showed up at S series
Speaker 1: a matter of weeks. Get the fuck out of these
Speaker 1: they love that ship, man w fans, just I love
Speaker 1: that ship.
Speaker 2: Now all some more important things.
Speaker 1: Oh god, i've never seen tas so skinny. I want
Speaker 1: that shot up right now, Start up, motherfucker right now.
Speaker 1: That would beats Saboo once again. He's calling bo, let's
Speaker 1: get you on enough can just for a year prigging?
Speaker 3: That's cool too. He reminds people to spend.
Speaker 13: He gets the sands out here, Come on, Saboo, help
Speaker 13: me Sa boo, sa boo, sa boom.
Speaker 1: I ain't Oh my god, Billa Fonzo with that fucking whistle.
Speaker 2: I ain't leaving until he gets his ass out here.
Speaker 6: Wait a minute, Bob.
Speaker 3: They're announswer Bob Artis Bob, you got somebody say.
Speaker 1: Had to move the show along task to a very
Speaker 1: dangerous area.
Speaker 2: I know you for three and a half years.
Speaker 1: I have some sort of respect for.
Speaker 2: You, so you need to know what you're about to
Speaker 2: get into.
Speaker 3: So what you're about to say, I'll talk.
Speaker 2: We have another match we have to start. You're telling
Speaker 2: me to get out of the ring. That's okay, Bob.
Speaker 1: They're good Bob shoved him on his ass. Wown to
Speaker 1: fucking move.
Speaker 5: Take my hostage, bossage.
Speaker 7: And shut some mouth.
Speaker 2: This's just getting out of an bob.
Speaker 6: I'm telling him a muscle.
Speaker 7: Wait, be comes Todd Gordon. You see you, Founder Todd Gordon.
Speaker 7: Oh it's getting real serious here, bubbare Dudley's out as well.
Speaker 7: Apparently some of the boys are ready to help get
Speaker 7: Taz out of this ring. But fred Otman, Yeah, it
Speaker 7: looked like her.
Speaker 2: You know the time to go, but this is the
Speaker 2: time Commissioner Gordon.
Speaker 3: Commissioner Gordon. That's funny.
Speaker 1: Oh Bell Alfonzo clips it Todd Gordon in the back
Speaker 1: of the head. Todd goes for Belle. Look at that.
Speaker 1: Look at the crimp in the night I look look
Speaker 1: at the grip. Mark's able to escape, but Taz puts
Speaker 1: the commission to sleep.
Speaker 3: We got a tongue out when the goofball.
Speaker 1: Alfonso puts the mic and Gordon's face like he's gonna
Speaker 1: say anything. Yeah, he's none coming.
Speaker 2: He is a man of his words, is a man
Speaker 2: of his ward.
Speaker 3: This man I didn't know they edited out all the
Speaker 3: f bones. Yeah, I didn't know either.
Speaker 1: I don't think they did in the network.
Speaker 3: I don't know why they would carry on Peacock.
Speaker 7: Right, there's plenty of movies with f BOMs all over.
Speaker 3: There wearing what is he wearing? Some of the early
Speaker 3: E c W gear. Look at that the jet black hair.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Paul now bringing rose dyed hair, Paul bringing.
Speaker 7: Bubba Ray Dudley into the ring. Joey Styles talking about
Speaker 7: the history between Paul Hayman and.
Speaker 2: He's never gonna let it happen.
Speaker 4: I've heard him say it in the studio.
Speaker 7: Joey's tast saying, Paul Haymen said in the studio He's
Speaker 7: never going to let Saboo versus Tas happens. Let go,
Speaker 7: Oh PAULI grabs off by the neck, and then Taz
Speaker 7: sneaks up behind him, and.
Speaker 2: As goes for the ride.
Speaker 1: Three bone test plex on home. Oh god, no one
Speaker 1: had attacked Paul before Taz with the test mission on him.
Speaker 3: Way, oh, my undertaker, Undertaker, where's.
Speaker 1: The gong ready?
Speaker 3: Here's the pop?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Wow, that's so legendary. Tas rubbing his hands together
Speaker 7: like that. I still remember that cutaway. There's the legacy.
Speaker 1: And they circle.
Speaker 3: Look at this.
Speaker 1: Savoo points to the ceiling steps forward to the lights
Speaker 1: go out again. Wow, just as they're about to lock
Speaker 1: up and touch for the first time, light stay out,
Speaker 1: He's gone, he'll be gone. You're the lighting lighters trying
Speaker 1: to see you have no phone cameras now, bullshit, they
Speaker 1: wanted it so bad for you right there, God, and
Speaker 1: the ring is empty. And that's that. Wow, what a
Speaker 1: piece of business that was back then. Man, That's that's it.
Speaker 1: That's that's pretty wild. Honestly, that's it. That's I I
Speaker 1: I do. I do say. My one complaint is, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I consider the one of the things
Speaker 1: that I do like about E c W is that
Speaker 1: even with stupid gimmicks and characters, there was still a
Speaker 1: very grounded realism within the production. Yeah, and so the
Speaker 1: light suddenly going out, did they ever explain that.
Speaker 7: Oh, that was just an ECW trick that they would
Speaker 7: pull sometimes.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 7: I guess you're supposed to think that Sabu found a
Speaker 7: way to have the lights killed. Yeah, they did it
Speaker 7: all the time.
Speaker 3: Then, but then why do it?
Speaker 1: Like? But again, then I ask who did it? When
Speaker 1: they were about to attack each other. I get the
Speaker 1: idea that you are trying to hold off or you're
Speaker 1: trying to build suspense and and to make everyone want
Speaker 1: that even more. But I just it's like, well, I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened, right, there's a big boss man
Speaker 1: there too, like lifting up the belt or whatever, lifting
Speaker 1: up the briefcase and the king of the ring is
Speaker 1: is he turning off the lights for everybody too? Well?
Speaker 7: That was one of the things I don't know when
Speaker 7: Saba was on the outs with Paul over the Japan
Speaker 7: thing that he went out in the sheets talking about, like,
Speaker 7: you know, ECW doesn't treat this thing like a sport,
Speaker 7: Like everything's an angle, Like there's no match that's about
Speaker 7: a winter loser. Every match is just an angle to
Speaker 7: get to the next thing. And you know, and they
Speaker 7: wouldn't bother with those logic holes, you know, And it's fine,
Speaker 7: but it's kind of funny. I just I just always
Speaker 7: considered ECW to be rather logical in the stuff that
Speaker 7: we've seen. More or less, it just feels logical.
Speaker 1: I get. I'm not even talking about the the the
Speaker 1: athletic part of it as much as it just I
Speaker 1: don't know, lights going out. To me, it doesn't work
Speaker 1: unless you're unless you're, you know, undertaker. Yeah, well that's
Speaker 1: that's another thing. He gets away with it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's super natural, right exactly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, now, man, he's If you watch enough, you'll you'll
Speaker 7: disabuse yourself quickly of that. Ideo logical. No, I mean,
Speaker 7: they would just they would do shit that didn't make
Speaker 7: sense all the time, just if it created an epic moment.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: Sure they would backdoor into stuff and force things in
Speaker 7: a way.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was that was it.
Speaker 7: The first time they were in the ring together since
Speaker 7: Taz started calling him out. And you can just tell
Speaker 7: that's money. You can just feel it.
Speaker 3: You can tell God you built that up. And so
Speaker 3: that's gonna be the first ECW pay per view main event.
Speaker 14: Now.
Speaker 7: One of the things that Sabo has talked about, including
Speaker 7: the aforementioned conversation he had with Conrad and Taz about
Speaker 7: the beaver Le legal program, was that while those lights
Speaker 7: were out, Sabo was making a bee line for the
Speaker 7: ring and ran into the post in the darkness, knocking
Speaker 7: the turbine he used to wear off his head and
Speaker 7: creating a situation where he almost missed the queue by
Speaker 7: a second, where he wouldn't even have been on the
Speaker 7: ring when the lights went on, he almost he basically
Speaker 7: knocked himself on his ass trying to find his way
Speaker 7: around in the dark, according to the story he was telling.
Speaker 7: And that's another little side note into a moment that
Speaker 7: perhaps wouldn't have been quite so epic had that had
Speaker 7: he not recovered from that. But that's what we got
Speaker 7: in the second they touched, the lights go out again,
Speaker 7: and they aren't to touch really again until the barely
Speaker 7: legal main event. Now we got to get word out
Speaker 7: and is mentioned. You know, there wasn't exactly an arm's
Speaker 7: length relationship with Vince at the time. They're leaning into
Speaker 7: the fact that, you know, two colds going to go
Speaker 7: over to become flash Funk in just a matter of weeks,
Speaker 7: for example, not trying to ignore it or pretend it's
Speaker 7: not happening. What else did they do to try to
Speaker 7: point wwfiballs to the very first ECW pay per view
Speaker 7: Who could forget Boss the February nineteen ninety seven Manhattan Ross. Oh, yes,
Speaker 7: it's all part of this, this loose relationship that the
Speaker 7: two had at the time, and we mentioned it already
Speaker 7: last time. This is as part of the promotion for
Speaker 7: the Sabu main event, the moment where Sabou was to
Speaker 7: bring some of his death defying jumps and leaps to
Speaker 7: Monday Nights for the first time, or not for the
Speaker 7: first time, but the first time since he'd been on
Speaker 7: a nitro two years prior. And this is available on YouTube.
Speaker 7: This is from that episode of Raw that that.
Speaker 3: We all remember.
Speaker 7: I mean, I'm trying to remember for you. Did you
Speaker 7: watch this one as it happened where you like trying to.
Speaker 1: Understand isn't isn't this the one too where.
Speaker 3: The Road Warriors came back, came back, they returned on
Speaker 3: the show. Yes, they did that. I remember.
Speaker 1: I don't remember much of the ECW stuff, but I
Speaker 1: do remember the Road Warriors coming back and being fucking
Speaker 1: thrilled me too.
Speaker 7: Yep, I remember that too. I remember being really into
Speaker 7: the ECW thing because I was really just becoming familiar
Speaker 7: with what they were about and really being intrigued to
Speaker 7: see them. So this was a show where I watched
Speaker 7: excited to see and there's T shirts and ECW hats
Speaker 7: all over the place, and also Ken Shamrock shows up
Speaker 7: for the first time. Oh yeah, that's right, audience, that's right,
Speaker 7: building too. What would be his role as guest ref
Speaker 7: in the Austin Brightheart match at WrestleMania that year. But
Speaker 7: here is a clip if you have it there, I've
Speaker 7: just shared it with you.
Speaker 3: I'm ready.
Speaker 7: Paul e is in full black leather on on your
Speaker 7: WWF television s get out of here, and he's, you know,
Speaker 7: basically worked out a deal for what what amount to
Speaker 7: free advertising slash angle to promote barely legal on WWF
Speaker 7: television at a time when WWF is absolutely on its
Speaker 7: back foot trying to counter the nWo. That's the key
Speaker 7: thing here. You've got to remember Vince's willing to try anything,
Speaker 7: yep to stop the momentum of what WCW had with
Speaker 7: the nWo, including these copycat angles which ECWKND was.
Speaker 1: I forget now. Was was there an intention to actually
Speaker 1: have them do like a full on invasion or was
Speaker 1: it just these kind of this little like one off thing.
Speaker 7: We'll get to it. But yes, it was supposed to
Speaker 7: build to much more. It's more than it was, and
Speaker 7: the reason it didn't happen is so symptomatic of why Sabu,
Speaker 7: no matter what, would never have been able to fit
Speaker 7: into one of the Big two for very long at
Speaker 7: any given time. It's not Sabou's fault in particular, but
Speaker 7: it's the mentality that these ECW guys had to have
Speaker 7: to be ECW guys that just would not allow them
Speaker 7: to play ball in the way WWF did business in
Speaker 7: WCW for that matter. But it's really it's really fascinating
Speaker 7: how the values start to clash, because now they make
Speaker 7: strange bedfellows all of a sudden, WWF and ECW, And
Speaker 7: it's not all it's not all copacetic the way they
Speaker 7: think they should be treated and viewed to maximize the
Speaker 7: angle versus the way WWF wants to treat them and
Speaker 7: view them and slat them. But this is before all
Speaker 7: that disharmony. This is the first shot out of the gate.
Speaker 7: They had done the appearance at the Mind Games September
Speaker 7: nineteen ninety six in Your House, where Sandman and Dreamer
Speaker 7: were front row causing disturbances, with JR. Not even referencing
Speaker 7: them really by name, just saying some local wrestlers are
Speaker 7: here trying to start trouble that. I believe it was
Speaker 7: the next night on Raw that there was another thing
Speaker 7: involving Taz during an Owen Heart Davy Boy attack ting
Speaker 7: title defense, and then they dropped the angle for months
Speaker 7: because I think what happened was they realized they weren't
Speaker 7: going to get their first pay per view done by
Speaker 7: the end of ninety six, but they were starting thinking
Speaker 7: that it's time to start at the CCW angle because we're.
Speaker 1: Going to get our first pay per view here. And
Speaker 1: then it took a pause.
Speaker 7: You didn't hear from them through the end of ninety
Speaker 7: six CCW and then come February, all of a sudden,
Speaker 7: Jerry Lawler's cutting a promo and extremely crappy wrestling and
Speaker 7: we're doing this all over again.
Speaker 3: Yes, so here it is. This is Sabo.
Speaker 7: We talked about it, trying to jump off the r
Speaker 7: on the Raw logo in the isleway and there goes
Speaker 7: the There goes the plan to get Taz Sabo over
Speaker 7: to the Monday night Raw audience.
Speaker 3: There has this so sucked without a c one. Paul
Speaker 3: right now, New York.
Speaker 1: Wow, I don't remember this at all. I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1: There's the original task song. This this version on YouTube
Speaker 1: retain the original audio.
Speaker 3: There he is.
Speaker 7: I remember him coming out of Romby Like this feels different.
Speaker 7: So what are these guys allowed in here for you
Speaker 7: know what I mean, it's dangerous.
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like I might have missed
Speaker 1: most of this show for some reason, and I only
Speaker 1: caught the very end left to do this one day.
Speaker 1: See the big ad right there?
Speaker 15: Ye?
Speaker 3: Did they even do these graphics?
Speaker 1: Like? Yeah? They put those on ya?
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Paul had a lot of leverage to negotiate little
Speaker 1: touches like that. I mean, the fact that they're at
Speaker 1: the fucking Manhattan Center is beautiful.
Speaker 9: It is Monday night, wall and.
Speaker 3: Put on Cherry Lawler. He was the one that invited them. Remember, Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're on their best behavior tonight.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: I passed with it. Hey, all sudden the snap there
Speaker 3: on Blakey rip Wreck Drop Down.
Speaker 2: Championship roughly right here? Huh, this is what you're gonna
Speaker 2: try to sell out a pay per view. This is
Speaker 2: exactly what we're gonna sell on.
Speaker 1: Hey, maybe you'd like to get in the ring.
Speaker 11: I'd show him your fine amateur credentials.
Speaker 2: So slow he probably buys an ant farm for a
Speaker 2: second round.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, some colleague guy that he does
Speaker 1: have some amateur credentials, but it's not necessarily with wrestling.
Speaker 2: That is the most her is that right? That go,
Speaker 2: That is exactly right. The most ridiculous thing I've.
Speaker 1: Ever I mean, was the thing they fit the raw
Speaker 1: logo there, like the raw stand up thing is so stupid.
Speaker 2: Why don't you send some of the bands on fire.
Speaker 3: Rich Erry Law with the fans on fire with.
Speaker 11: A bet repped in barbed wire, because we rather do
Speaker 11: that enter operage my task, Ima, you don't have called that.
Speaker 1: He calls him, mister McMahon. He calls him, mister McMahon.
Speaker 1: You can come on my TV show if you want,
Speaker 1: but you have to call me mister McMahon. That's the
Speaker 1: only he worries about. Only deal point he cares about.
Speaker 1: Exactly light the building on fire. Here we go, Tiger
Speaker 1: released task plas, fuck my life. Look at you folded
Speaker 1: him Undertaker. Let's bring in the fucking oh they really
Speaker 1: believe the d c W guys right holding the right attention.
Speaker 1: We do have to push our own storylines and programming,
Speaker 1: you know, Paul, we have our own prerogatives. Mister Haymond.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not sure if you're aware, but we
Speaker 1: have our own storylines going on in the w E
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we do have to give ample
Speaker 1: time to our own full time, equal time, ample time
Speaker 1: to our you know, our own creations.
Speaker 3: Was Undertaker fuk was the main event of the show.
Speaker 1: Mister, can you please take as much time as you need.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us on Taker.
Speaker 3: Mister.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 7: Everyone's standing, they see Saboo is looking around like, what
Speaker 7: the hell is going on?
Speaker 2: We have seen a lot.
Speaker 7: Remember they head to have wrestlers hold the R in place.
Speaker 7: Look there he is watching. Oh my god, tree down
Speaker 7: and you can't.
Speaker 2: Suicidal?
Speaker 1: What an embarrassment and can't even over the top. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you fucking.
Speaker 3: That's some uh.
Speaker 1: What do you call it? Some goosebumps there, some uh
Speaker 1: some national TV uh uh.
Speaker 3: Nervousness.
Speaker 4: Jesus.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, can you explained to me what kind of
Speaker 1: maneuver that is? Thank you? Provide me with a dictionary
Speaker 1: of the E c W maneuvers.
Speaker 2: Fantastic. It's carrying a cocky.
Speaker 14: Cheeriter Mickey, Sorry, beg your party read on your death.
Speaker 1: Oh that guy, Oh my god, that guy. You're in
Speaker 1: the world direction.
Speaker 9: I beg dad, take an accept.
Speaker 1: It says you need to watch the tape Scruce Ptria,
Speaker 1: I got a bottle.
Speaker 2: Going to be a prize.
Speaker 16: I got socks hatter than coming up next arise huge.
Speaker 1: That was the legend of doom. Yeah wow, task bounces.
Speaker 7: Having thoroughly underwhelmed on a national television That was a disaster.
Speaker 4: What a what a?
Speaker 1: I mean the moment, like everything was going great until
Speaker 1: Sabu fucked up and then it's just a disaster.
Speaker 3: Hits the nightmare straight down.
Speaker 7: And you know, there were a lot of things like
Speaker 7: when he'd get to raw even in six, like he
Speaker 7: fuck up like dives and I don't know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I remember that for that, I remember that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's it was.
Speaker 3: It's weird.
Speaker 1: I feel like it seems like I don't or note,
Speaker 1: but it seems like having that much of an audience
Speaker 1: got to his head. Yeah, and he wasn't able to
Speaker 1: do what he like, he just couldn't. He couldn't get
Speaker 1: past it, like his nerves, his nerves took over and
Speaker 1: he couldn't handle it.
Speaker 17: Well.
Speaker 7: Something we'll talk about later even is like he was
Speaker 7: very quick to say I can do it like Sight
Speaker 7: Unseen without actually gaming it out like he was just
Speaker 7: so eager to please in a way like that if
Speaker 7: they came up with the dives, he totally can reach that,
Speaker 7: I can make that. And then when he gets there,
Speaker 7: he realizes it's not as easy as he told himself
Speaker 7: because he was so comfortable being able to deliver on
Speaker 7: anything he would conceptualize in the ECW setting. But here,
Speaker 7: you know, the key issue is we're going to get
Speaker 7: to was that that R was just not steady to
Speaker 7: launch off of. Fortunately for him, they didn't have the
Speaker 7: best angle on it. But it's interesting the way he
Speaker 7: tells the story to his book Saboo, that is, he
Speaker 7: kind of makes it seem like there were supposed to
Speaker 7: be a lot more that was supposed to happen there,
Speaker 7: which I don't know now that I just watched it.
Speaker 7: It doesn't seem like it went anything but according to plan.
Speaker 7: After he crashes out, he makes it seem like because
Speaker 7: he fell that what would have been a more intense
Speaker 7: angle to build a pay per view never took place.
Speaker 7: But he gets up and entangles himself with.
Speaker 1: My you know, to take my.
Speaker 3: I mean, but but but but Taz fucks that up.
Speaker 7: He yes, the suplex fails to launch my key onto Sabu.
Speaker 7: But here is a Sabou in his book. I was
Speaker 7: booked for a run in during the Taz versus Mikey
Speaker 7: Ripbreck match where I fucking fell. People still bust my
Speaker 7: balls about that slip as being a major botch to
Speaker 7: this very day. During the match, I prepared for my
Speaker 7: aerial jump off the r and the raw logo, three
Speaker 7: painted wooden letters positioned above the entry away. The plan
Speaker 7: was just at the right time. I would climb up
Speaker 7: on the top of the logo and jump down off
Speaker 7: of the letters onto some Team TAZ members who were
Speaker 7: a bunch of extras wearing Tas colors. That's another thing
Speaker 7: they didn't get over in commentary at all that Taz's boy,
Speaker 7: so to speak, his training, his trainees were there in
Speaker 7: the aisleway. It just seemed like, why is Sabo jumping
Speaker 7: off this letter? It's well right if he's trying to
Speaker 7: get to task.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what the hell was going on. I
Speaker 1: was like, who are these clowns? I mean, are they
Speaker 1: supposed to be there. I didn't know that that Taz
Speaker 1: had cronies. Things didn't go quite as planned. Sabou writes.
Speaker 7: What happened was before the show, I checked out the
Speaker 7: letters by eyeballing where they were positioned. I told the
Speaker 7: production crew that I would just need a ladder behind
Speaker 7: the letter R and everything would be just fine. So
Speaker 7: when that time of the night came for the spot,
Speaker 7: the ladder was right there waiting for me. Little did
Speaker 7: I know that it was a cheaply made piece of shit.
Speaker 7: As I test climbed up the ladder behind the R
Speaker 7: a little early, I rested my hands on the prop
Speaker 7: and the whole thing fucking moved. I figured i'd leap
Speaker 7: frog over the letter. That was a possibility, but only
Speaker 7: not only would it look les impressive than jumping off
Speaker 7: of it, but it was possible that I wouldn't even
Speaker 7: clear the aisle. I quickly enlisted the help of the
Speaker 7: Dudleys backstage to both hold the ladder and stabilize the
Speaker 7: letter for my jump. When my Q finally came, I
Speaker 7: raced to the top of the logo without a problem,
Speaker 7: but it just wouldn't stay stable no matter how hard
Speaker 7: they held it in place. When I got to the
Speaker 7: top and sprung off of it, it moved under my
Speaker 7: feet and fell behind me. Didn't fall but I get
Speaker 7: your point. It went straight down off the R. I
Speaker 7: went straight down off the r, barely touching anyone. My
Speaker 7: positioning was all off, and the people below who were
Speaker 7: there to break my fall were not in the right place.
Speaker 7: I barely brushed one or two members of Team Taz.
Speaker 7: On one camera it looked good for a second, but
Speaker 7: on the other one it looked even worse than the
Speaker 7: Sandman trying to wrestle. It was obvious I barely hit
Speaker 7: one guy, and the rest of them didn't know what
Speaker 7: to do, so they all fell like dominos with nobody
Speaker 7: there for me. The drop also knocked the fucking wind
Speaker 7: out of me. I was supposed to run to the
Speaker 7: ring for a face off to tease our pay per view. See,
Speaker 7: I don't believe that because he went he went right
Speaker 7: into position for that spot to take the pump. I
Speaker 7: don't I don't know where that face off would have happened.
Speaker 7: Maybe Mikey falling on him hurt him and not the
Speaker 7: fall because he got right up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 7: I don't doubt the wind was knocked out of him,
Speaker 7: but it didn't stop him from It's like he laid
Speaker 7: in the aisle way.
Speaker 1: Right useless, right he didn't. I mean, yeah, he he
Speaker 1: dove and it looked awful, but he got right up
Speaker 1: and moved to position like I don't know what. I
Speaker 1: don't know what else he could have wanted.
Speaker 7: So it's so tough about these wrestling books and such
Speaker 7: a rich thing for Rich Vaine, for us doing the
Speaker 7: show the way we do it is it's like, fifty
Speaker 7: percent of the time you read this the way they
Speaker 7: characterized things, you go watch the tape and it's like,
Speaker 7: no fucking way, no way, is that what happened?
Speaker 1: Think about I mean, you know, Steve Austin is the
Speaker 1: fucking worst culport of them all, totally, you know, absolutely
Speaker 1: it's weird, Yes, but I couldn't even breathe, he says.
Speaker 1: I jogged to jump into the ring, but I was
Speaker 1: all blowing up and it was a big mess. Taz
Speaker 1: thought it was the funniest shit in the world. It
Speaker 1: was shitty, I know, but I tried. So that's that.
Speaker 7: So, uh, we get to barely legal now. Of course,
Speaker 7: having done this already in the archives, what we're gonna
Speaker 7: do is just look at a highlight portion because it
Speaker 7: is such a big match in tass career and sure,
Speaker 7: it does get you know it is about Taz. Yeah,
Speaker 7: that's true to Uh did I say tax his career?
Speaker 4: Sorry?
Speaker 7: Fine, But what we'll do is, in addition to watching
Speaker 7: just a quick highlight of their match to get reacquainted
Speaker 7: with how it actually played out, We're going to resurface
Speaker 7: in the form of relapsed, our Barely Legal and our
Speaker 7: Born to Be Wired coverage as part of the saboot
Speaker 7: tribute bring it to the top of the feet because
Speaker 7: we did the especially Barely Legal. We did that show
Speaker 7: so long ago. I'm sure there are people that just
Speaker 7: don't have that the tolerance to go that far down
Speaker 7: into the catalog to find the shows.
Speaker 3: Yea.
Speaker 7: And for whatever reason, Google is not always our friend
Speaker 7: in terms of like, if you just google Lapsed fan
Speaker 7: Barely Legal, you won't always get the right episode.
Speaker 3: It won't always come up. It's very true, very true.
Speaker 7: Someone will post on x like, hey, you guys should
Speaker 7: do the show. We've already done it. I'm like, oh shit,
Speaker 7: I'll just find it.
Speaker 1: Takes forever when someone when someone tried it's funny because
Speaker 1: someone said to do the Born to Be Wired and
Speaker 1: I said, okay, right, and so I went to go
Speaker 1: Google I said, well, I want to give them the
Speaker 1: links so they know that we did it and they
Speaker 1: can go listen to it. And it's like I went
Speaker 1: Born to be White and and it doesn't come up
Speaker 1: right well, part two comes up, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what a part I do? I do laps fan Born
Speaker 1: to be Wired? You see, To'll be Born be Wired?
Speaker 1: Part one doesn't. Part two comes up again, It's like
Speaker 1: I can't get part one, Like what the fuck? So
Speaker 1: I understand the frustration my own fucking show.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't get it. I don't get white. So
Speaker 7: even you know, it didn't used to be. Google used
Speaker 7: to be a lot better about it.
Speaker 1: But now so we'll do that. And you know what,
Speaker 1: and I don't have even necessarily blame Google because I
Speaker 1: I eventually said, okay, well I'll just go to Spreaker
Speaker 1: and I'll do the same thing.
Speaker 3: It would not come up right away.
Speaker 1: I had to go. I had to go and sift
Speaker 1: through oh you mean surging. Searching within speaker was no better,
Speaker 1: very bizarre. We have just done too many episodes, you know.
Speaker 3: Well, that's that's true.
Speaker 1: So this is available on YouTube again, you know, listen,
Speaker 1: it's our fault. I understand we we were just not
Speaker 1: good enough. This is what happens when you're a college
Speaker 1: podcast and you're not a professional one.
Speaker 7: The spirit of TLFX let me let me yeah, full disclosure.
Speaker 7: We understand that everything we've ever, we ever have and
Speaker 7: ever will complain about is our fault. Okay, we absolutely
Speaker 7: and we move forward from there. And that's and we
Speaker 7: begin pointing fingers just like every other person walking the
Speaker 7: face of the earth, those about saying it's our fault. Okay, yes, yes, anyway,
Speaker 7: so we're gonna watch a quick compendium of the matches.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: Did you get the link? I have a two one play?
Speaker 1: What what the hell are you doing?
Speaker 3: This is?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It says nothing to do.
Speaker 7: With the match, It's it's like, wow, wow, there it
Speaker 7: is the big face off Taz in Saboo mid ring,
Speaker 7: barely legal.
Speaker 1: This is in highlight. Film is aired on the future,
Speaker 1: I think towards the end of the day before I
Speaker 1: turned sixteen.
Speaker 7: Really yeah, They stand there till the crowd reaches the fever.
Speaker 7: Pitch yep, Taz, motionless, Saboo pacing, Wow, slap across the
Speaker 7: face of Saboo. The fires back with the right Taz
Speaker 7: barely budgets smacks him right and here we go like
Speaker 7: underneath Taz runs, I'm over the close. Did say that
Speaker 7: fucked him up? Said he was out in his feet
Speaker 7: for a little while or a little match. Taz would
Speaker 7: throw that clothes line with.
Speaker 3: Little regard.
Speaker 1: Sadly with the dropkick kicks out the leg that a
Speaker 1: work springboard lake Larry had in a seated Taz. What's
Speaker 1: his arms all taped up?
Speaker 3: What's up with that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 7: It's covering some of the old F MW scars, but
Speaker 7: I don't think it's Wow. Whoa I supposed kick what's
Speaker 7: Tazz out of.
Speaker 1: The front row? Fucking dump dumped them over the great
Speaker 1: like it was a fucking royal rumble.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you can see the bloody nose where sadly got
Speaker 7: fucked up from that clothesline, sadly.
Speaker 1: Not feeding a chair under the ring. Tas is still
Speaker 1: in the front row. Mister idio, is your idiot? Look
Speaker 1: at them?
Speaker 3: Yep. Just imagine if he slipped.
Speaker 7: Lash for he's gonna do it again this during the
Speaker 7: match triple jump, I think he missed hit the hit
Speaker 7: the rail. A great job catching that one and then
Speaker 7: Taz sup like this is him another the front row
Speaker 7: belly to belly overhead, so much better lit than they
Speaker 7: did the pay.
Speaker 3: Per view from here.
Speaker 7: Yep oh, no table was bridged between the apron and
Speaker 7: the rail. Saboo tried to spin DDT Taz off the apron,
Speaker 7: throw it, Taz hold on. I remember that spot for
Speaker 7: some reason. I remember that spot. Yeah, Taz goes crack.
Speaker 7: Saboo goes crashing through the table, having failed to pull
Speaker 7: down Taz with him. Well, fonzo, what I level with?
Speaker 7: Saboo cut up, flash forwards, Taz on the top super
Speaker 7: her conorando by Sabo snaps him off cover hope see
Speaker 7: I was going for those covers.
Speaker 2: Many legs stream.
Speaker 1: They was so novel to see the arena lit like this, Yes, wow,
Speaker 1: ring with that guiotine like over half the ring.
Speaker 7: That's unbelievable. When the head and arm Taz plex dump
Speaker 7: Sabo on his fucking.
Speaker 3: Head, Jesus God Almighty.
Speaker 7: Saba tries to stand and collapses. Flash forward, Sabo throws
Speaker 7: a t bone soup lex Sabage trying to mock the
Speaker 7: arms folded and didn't wow. Taz is right behind him.
Speaker 7: They were just that clothesline ducked.
Speaker 1: There we go. Now Taz breaks free bell at the bat.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, Jesus got those.
Speaker 7: Guys, man, they did so much for Taz, taking those
Speaker 7: bumps on their head like that. They made him look
Speaker 7: like such a killer.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep.
Speaker 2: Can we just throw that out.
Speaker 1: Head t bone score Jesus God, what a mess up?
Speaker 1: Who is looking at the tagger taste scarred right, a scarred,
Speaker 1: brutalized man. It has been habited and now.
Speaker 7: The limp carcass of Saboo and trapped in the tas
Speaker 7: mission afraid eye level.
Speaker 2: He did possible.
Speaker 7: Arm drops once, arm drops twice, had a third time.
Speaker 7: That's it, that's it. WOS wins in the long awaited
Speaker 7: Showdown e c w's first pay per view, can.
Speaker 1: Home King King kid Hang wow, look at that. Let
Speaker 1: he know Saboo a schnas on Terry brunk correct.
Speaker 7: Nottical personnel hits the ring some one of the ones
Speaker 7: that came to his knocked out ass when RVD hit
Speaker 7: him with that split leg, and then after the match,
Speaker 7: respect rest has his hand.
Speaker 3: I'm like unlike r VD.
Speaker 7: Right, that's the way it should be, and an embrace
Speaker 7: barely legally was such a perfect name for this show. Yeah,
Speaker 7: Proud doesn't like the hug, though they're booing it every day.
Speaker 7: It's the ringing to Tek Taz from sab In Vandam's
Speaker 7: face for doing that. Taz holds open van dam but
Speaker 7: look at that Sabo pops Taz instead.
Speaker 1: Eben, Vandam and Sabu form an alliance to stomp Tazz's
Speaker 1: ass in. The crowd loves that shit. They're like UFC crowds.
Speaker 1: They don't want the beef to be squashed. You know,
Speaker 1: he's too good when they hated each other. And damn,
Speaker 1: look at the cheesus jump down his leg drops. I'm
Speaker 1: feeling his fucking hips.
Speaker 7: He just launched a mister Monday Night character like teasing
Speaker 7: ECW fans, and he's gonna be the next guy to jump.
Speaker 1: And there was negotiations.
Speaker 7: Part of the reason he wasn't a more important part
Speaker 7: of the first pay per view for ECWS because they
Speaker 7: thought he was leaving.
Speaker 1: My god, waunches himself through a table, the Taz on
Speaker 1: it on the floor.
Speaker 3: What the fuck?
Speaker 7: Hal fonzas in their face trying to fight him. Oh
Speaker 7: my god, look at him, takes off his shirt to
Speaker 7: reveal the Sabo T shirt and Bill Alfonso turned on
Speaker 7: taz At Barely Legal and joined up with Sabo and
Speaker 7: now I'll do it for that and now uh Sabu
Speaker 7: has a mouthpiece finally, finally something yeah to talk for
Speaker 7: him now that he's sent to the turned heel on
Speaker 7: sab pardon me on ye. That was a big show,
Speaker 7: big occasion for them.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 7: Sure coming off of that, we saw flash Funk, didn't
Speaker 7: we We saw, yes, the guy who was about to
Speaker 7: go over to New York to become flash Funk. Little
Speaker 7: did he know that he wasn't leaving ECW behind by
Speaker 7: due to an interest in continuing this whole thing through
Speaker 7: potentially Summer Slam In nineteen ninety seven, the ECW guys
Speaker 7: would return to Raw just around the time. This is
Speaker 7: after it become Raw is war so right? And I
Speaker 7: remember they the next time we saw them, we had
Speaker 7: the big metal metal stage and everything, and it was
Speaker 7: time to build their second pay per view, which was
Speaker 7: Hardcore Heaven in August. In August of ninety seven, it
Speaker 7: would come the week after the infamous Terry Funk Sabou
Speaker 7: barbed Wire match where Sabu wins the ECW Championship and
Speaker 7: then he goes to the Hardcore Heaven Show and loses
Speaker 7: it to I think Shane Douglass in a three way dance.
Speaker 7: So time to build to this again. ECW has a
Speaker 7: deal here where when it comes time to promote their
Speaker 7: own pay per views, they're apparently going to get some
Speaker 7: airtime on Raw. Now how that's going to play out
Speaker 7: and how prominently they will be featured would come to
Speaker 7: be the subject of some negotiation. It's not like every
Speaker 7: time Paul has a show to plug they're going to
Speaker 7: do a takeover Raw like they did at the Manhattan Center.
Speaker 3: Of course, you know they're going to we got a segment, Pal,
Speaker 3: we're glad to help. But we're glad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad and give you a little bit of airtime,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. But we can't just have your
Speaker 1: take over you knowing, what does that do for our talent?
Speaker 1: You know here, I'm doing you a favor, but what
Speaker 1: are you doing for me exactly?
Speaker 7: You know what, Pal, You're not gonna get anything. And
Speaker 7: that's eventually what this would come to. So this is
Speaker 7: like the second bite at this Apple where instead of
Speaker 7: it being another ECW takeover Raw, they didn't angle where
Speaker 7: like Lawler went face to face with Sanman. I remember
Speaker 7: they did like a debate and they had like a
Speaker 7: big WWF podium in the ring, and Paul Hayman and
Speaker 7: Jerry Lawler had a debate.
Speaker 1: What do we do a debate? Right? What do we
Speaker 1: have a debate?
Speaker 3: Gimmick? Just what we're missing a debate?
Speaker 1: I think we have two men in the middle of
Speaker 1: the ring, and they can they can, they can bring
Speaker 1: forth facts and things of that nature, and I believe
Speaker 1: that would be that would suffice and allow the different
Speaker 1: sides of the of the argument to allow uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a a a determining situation.
Speaker 7: Determining situation, right, not a predetermining situation that would be
Speaker 7: very against character. But now instead of you know, a
Speaker 7: takeover raw, they get one segment on raw. And you
Speaker 7: can bet that there's a ton of negotiation about who
Speaker 7: these ECW guys are going to wrestle, and God forbid
Speaker 7: if their ECW guys are going to be allowed to
Speaker 7: go over WWF talent. This is now starting to become difficult,
Speaker 7: and uh Saboo found himself caught in all this.
Speaker 3: I so remember this.
Speaker 7: I remember thinking that Saba was Actually, I don't.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that, you know, in in the
Speaker 1: realm of the w WEE, I just don't think that
Speaker 1: we can put somebody over Flash Funk.
Speaker 3: At this time.
Speaker 1: He's too important to the company. Power, he's you know,
Speaker 1: we're he's he's on his way. You know, we're we're
Speaker 1: talking a big push megapus. Flash in the Pan here world, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: Flash in the Funk Pan, all right. You know we're
Speaker 1: talking mainstream, all right. You know, I believe that we
Speaker 1: have a future world champion. We're talking about, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: Flash Funk versus Brett Hart WRESTLINGNY of Fourteen's you.
Speaker 3: Said Flash in the Funk Pan, right, I think that
Speaker 3: should be a shirt.
Speaker 1: That should be a shirt because because he was a
Speaker 1: Flash in the Pan, he was a Flash in the
Speaker 1: Funk Pan.
Speaker 7: I was so excited. This was summer of ninety seven,
Speaker 7: June twenty third. I was so excited thinking that, like
Speaker 7: the ECW guys are going to be on raw like
Speaker 7: every week, because it's only gotten more desperate as it
Speaker 7: regards trying to counter WCW. By this point in the
Speaker 7: summer of ninety seven, they were on their ass.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I was. I was already. It's funny,
Speaker 1: any I was certainly all about an invasion. I wanted
Speaker 1: them to have something, but by this point it was
Speaker 1: the Heart Foundation was already there, and I was all set.
Speaker 1: I didn't need any ECW bullshit. I was ready for that.
Speaker 1: I was ready for Steve Austin. I was.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have cared less about ECW.
Speaker 7: It's it's interesting because you know, you weren't watching. You
Speaker 7: weren't reading anything on the internet about wrestling at the.
Speaker 3: Time, were you.
Speaker 1: No, No, I just had magazines. I didn't I didn't read,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand. I don't think in I you know,
Speaker 1: in in the summer of I didn't have email. I
Speaker 1: didn't have done yeah yet a lot of people didn't.
Speaker 1: I just had gotten in ninety six. So the reason
Speaker 1: I ask is because, you know, it's fascinating to me
Speaker 1: people watching this legendary nineteen ninety seven WWF stuff without
Speaker 1: the context of them trying desperately to find something that
Speaker 1: would show signs of life vs. V Nitro's ratings dominance.
Speaker 1: I'm sure as a fan, you realize that WCW was
Speaker 1: red hot. You knew the nWo angle was hot. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: but I'll tell you it didn't have the sense before
Speaker 1: like I did. Yeah, no, because because you know what
Speaker 1: the by this point, the rings, the ring ropes were
Speaker 1: all read right.
Speaker 17: Uh.
Speaker 1: The Brett Hart thing was in full gear. Steve Austin
Speaker 1: was was just the greatest thing I'd seen absolutely in
Speaker 1: wrestling for such a long time. Things were unpredictable that
Speaker 1: I I've said it before. In my mind, WWE had
Speaker 1: was now back on top already. I would did no
Speaker 1: fucking ideas of your personal interest. Yeah, and terms my interest,
Speaker 1: I was not afraid anymore of WCW of it.
Speaker 3: I was, and I and so in my mind the.
Speaker 7: Earliest right there, you you saw the sign, you saw
Speaker 7: the raw material of what would turn the company around.
Speaker 7: I was just as I was just as entertained by
Speaker 7: this television as you were. But with this constant overhang
Speaker 7: of they just can't do anything to put a dent
Speaker 7: in ww's ratings because I was reading about it every
Speaker 7: week online. Yeah sure, Well, without that context, it's fascinating
Speaker 7: to me, like that you would see very clearly that
Speaker 7: actually this is the stuff that's going to work over time,
Speaker 7: Like this is the suggest that has the spark.
Speaker 1: The you know, the it just everything everything felt so
Speaker 1: fresh for the first time in in we that you know,
Speaker 1: between between the fall of ninety six and this point
Speaker 1: summer of ninety seven, everything just felt so fresh and
Speaker 1: in a weird way for me, even fresher than the
Speaker 1: and wo thing like it just everything just felt and
Speaker 1: maybe because it might have been because I wanted WWW
Speaker 1: to become like this, to become so much more, you know,
Speaker 1: to have moments where you know, for example, like what
Speaker 1: we did with Sid the Brett Hart would lose the
Speaker 1: championship twenty four hours after winning it.
Speaker 3: That would never have happened, but it happened. That's exciting.
Speaker 1: Then to have to not have the Royal Rumble winner
Speaker 1: be in the main event at WrestleManias for the first time,
Speaker 1: that was exciting. It was like, wait a minute, like
Speaker 1: things are just I mean, obviously I know now that
Speaker 1: it was chaos behind the scenes, but it just felt
Speaker 1: like there was an unpredictability that was driving things and
Speaker 1: it was it was it was wild and so it
Speaker 1: was I was yeah, I again, I had no idea
Speaker 1: about ratings. I had no idea about the numbers or whatever.
Speaker 1: And throwing the mentalities of the of of Bischoff or
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon. But to me, it was like the game
Speaker 1: had already changed, like WW was way better again.
Speaker 3: Fascinating, and so they must have. So they must be
Speaker 3: winning the ratings.
Speaker 1: If they're if they're better, if they have better television
Speaker 1: and television that I'm enjoying, they must be winning the ratings.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and it would be it's there.
Speaker 7: The pieces are there, they just didn't click yet until
Speaker 7: Vince got in the ring, you know, yeah, like, oh
Speaker 7: my god. But fitting squarely into this chaos you just
Speaker 7: talked about was some of these ECW guys that were
Speaker 7: invited to Raw this year is June twenty third, nineteen
Speaker 7: ninety seven. And the guy we just saw exit States
Speaker 7: left in the ECW arena in November is now in
Speaker 7: the ring with Saboo on Raw. My god, can't shake
Speaker 7: these guys.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: Three two one play.
Speaker 1: So this is called poly dangerously the most suicidal, the
Speaker 1: most hommic title athlete.
Speaker 3: Not just on I don't know if it's a good thing.
Speaker 11: Championship, say the Lord of the Hardcore and self taboo.
Speaker 3: The Lord of the Hardcore.
Speaker 1: All right, Vin says, you will do move Sabo, look
Speaker 1: at this walk in the Raw ramp. That's I don't
Speaker 1: remember this not at all. The summer was a little
Speaker 1: bit harder for me this that year, because that's what
Speaker 1: that's what's always had the enigma, the kind of the
Speaker 1: thing about the magic of the of the summer of
Speaker 1: ninety seven with WWE has always been because I couldn't
Speaker 1: watch Raw, the full episodes of Raw like I normally would,
Speaker 1: because I was so busy that summer, right, so I'd
Speaker 1: usually catch the last like twenty minutes.
Speaker 7: Half hour tops of Raw. So Paul came bearing clips.
Speaker 7: He's gonna highlight package of doing aerial assaults. Yeah, there
Speaker 7: it is.
Speaker 1: He just called out the first magic in stays and
Speaker 1: stand corrected Jesus insulting of the crowd, crowds people watching
Speaker 1: Raw back then, Like what the fuck is this guy?
Speaker 1: You know what is this ship?
Speaker 3: Oh God, that was awful that.
Speaker 1: His body's so scarred. This man has paid a price,
Speaker 1: paid the price. Wow brows channing for Saboo. Yeah, Flash Funk,
Speaker 1: Flash funk, flash funks partner.
Speaker 7: Question watch them like Lariot springboard off a mitter rope
Speaker 7: from Sabo, spin wheel Kick puts Funk on the floor.
Speaker 7: These two have worked together extensively, so it's good parents
Speaker 7: any spot slide kicks Funk in the face.
Speaker 3: Yeah, before.
Speaker 1: I know, there's the summers dive to the floor.
Speaker 7: Wow, it's so funny now knowing that he had done
Speaker 7: that on a raw dark match already Againstcott Tyler.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The grabbing a table. Here we go table into the ring.
Speaker 1: What's going on here? I don't understand tables? Public enemy.
Speaker 1: It's okay to up in the public are now because there.
Speaker 12: W W.
Speaker 18: And on.
Speaker 11: Table personally guarantee you sab.
Speaker 1: From E c W.
Speaker 6: Here we are live.
Speaker 7: Although in Michigan no less rotating top up splash by Funk.
Speaker 3: Thanks Bombay Michigan's Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right later on the Undertaker teaming up with the man
Speaker 2: they called great.
Speaker 15: Let's square off again the new Nation of Domination.
Speaker 2: Oh a great deal more coming out right now?
Speaker 3: See right there, Undertaker Invader teaming up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's that? No, I don't remember that?
Speaker 2: Top up?
Speaker 1: Who are a Superana? By Sabo? That was a good one.
Speaker 1: How's with it?
Speaker 7: Man cover by Sabo gets too. He was ready, but
Speaker 7: they weren't ready for him, No, never, because they had
Speaker 7: to earn shape like a segment of the show around
Speaker 7: him and gonna. Neither company was willing.
Speaker 1: To do that with a man that he knows will
Speaker 1: take it to the extreme.
Speaker 9: Here's another look at it.
Speaker 1: You know Bill Alfano was to referee for you.
Speaker 2: For a long time.
Speaker 1: We adopted him. Oh yes, that's hilarious. Sab missus a
Speaker 1: spring board and gets super kicked.
Speaker 2: He's very proud of it. Don't you didn't want to
Speaker 2: drop you?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: Do your do your thing there, flash.
Speaker 2: Saboo is the original six nephew man.
Speaker 1: Look at that, tries to climb, Saboo tries to climb
Speaker 1: with him, gets crouched on the top and clothes lined off.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Almost like a doomsday device using the ropes. Yeah, sad.
Speaker 7: He recovers on the apron Funk ready and Alonso and
Speaker 7: spring backflip kick, flash funk and martial arts kick and
Speaker 7: then the Pascado channing c W and Flash Funk doesn't move.
Speaker 13: Turn it off.
Speaker 2: You want to turn it up, And you're saying, man.
Speaker 1: To the extreme.
Speaker 3: You're skiing tonight, backing up fellow funds always Flash.
Speaker 1: Funk competitor, and you're welcome bringing a fire. Wow, tonight,
Speaker 1: that was a.
Speaker 9: Drop kick right to the knee, right to the by
Speaker 9: a Saboo.
Speaker 6: Good move.
Speaker 1: I'll say so far, it's a It's definitely a better
Speaker 1: performance by Saboo. He's fitting in better than you'd expect.
Speaker 7: Yes to the style that slam Funk's gonna do that
Speaker 7: that backflip leg drop I was God, yeah, just a
Speaker 7: straight moon Salt starcross the wrist.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, look at it. He's like he hit.
Speaker 1: You can see he's like shaking his wrists to count.
Speaker 1: Look at Saboo. He got he got hurt over the world.
Speaker 1: We're bringing out a whole news platform for you tonight.
Speaker 19: Do you understand what the world kid for you?
Speaker 14: Wow?
Speaker 1: Good they are. Make sure you're telling them what you
Speaker 1: can do for sitting right wh nice. Look at that
Speaker 1: sab with the sling shot rona. This is this is
Speaker 1: It's too bad he didn't perform this clean on the
Speaker 1: fucking the Manhattan Center Show. I know things. Gott the
Speaker 1: ham with ther W Performers Defense All Entertainment. Saba is
Speaker 1: on the apron. Here we go, there we go, Simon Salt,
Speaker 1: what doesn't break? Call for the bell and then he
Speaker 1: doesn't break? Oh my god, he's gonna do it again.
Speaker 1: This is Saba's life story. Man, Yeah, yeah, get it again.
Speaker 3: Oh Ship, he says, I'm gonna do it again. I
Speaker 3: can kill you.
Speaker 1: We don't have pre cut tables like elsewhere, and just
Speaker 1: climb the brokeret like drop wearing his fucking face the table.
Speaker 1: I still remember that one in his fucking face.
Speaker 3: We're too extreme for Monday nights, I heard us.
Speaker 1: But he's gotta go nuts because the table didn't break.
Speaker 1: So he's in the crowd throwing ship. Vince's pissed. All right,
Speaker 1: Well now let's let's move on.
Speaker 3: Let's move on.
Speaker 1: We had other things to worry about here. I don't
Speaker 1: know I agree to this. I don't agree with this
Speaker 1: format of entertainment. We will have a more proper entertaining
Speaker 1: facility within the next five minutes.
Speaker 7: Agree with this format of entertainment, so to the book.
Speaker 7: After the ECW Invasion show in February on Raw, a
Speaker 7: number of w B stars made appearances in ECW shows.
Speaker 7: The biggest storyline there became Hayman versus Lawler, but didn't last.
Speaker 7: Ego clashed about who would win and lose, and backstage
Speaker 7: agendas didn't drive. In the end, the arrangement between the
Speaker 7: two companies started to fall apart. Before the w W
Speaker 7: E ECW relationship dwindled altogether, Jerry Lawler decided to invade.
Speaker 7: That's right now, forget Jerry Lawler. Lights went out, they
Speaker 7: came back on. Lawler was in the arena. People went
Speaker 7: so nuts for that, and Cornette too, and he hit
Speaker 7: Tommy Dreamer say. He didn't say anything. He was just
Speaker 7: like another New York surprise in the arena, like people
Speaker 7: never expected to see him because he was he was also.
Speaker 1: Oh Cornett, I see Cornett made an appearance.
Speaker 7: So it was like a two way invasion that was
Speaker 7: going on. It wasn't just you know, Saboo and RVD
Speaker 7: showing up on Raw, but it was Jerry Lawler and
Speaker 7: Jim Cornette showing up in ECW two. He said, ECW
Speaker 7: store for extremely crappy wrestling and basically discardcore wrestling, right
Speaker 7: at their home base. Fans never expected him to show
Speaker 7: up there, and they practically rioted. They didn't riot, they
Speaker 7: loved it. That was the thing about ECW fans. They
Speaker 7: would talk shit about you when you worked for the
Speaker 7: Big two all day, but the second you grace their
Speaker 7: curtain of course they went nuts.
Speaker 1: Of course they needed that they needed and listen, listen,
Speaker 1: ECW fans needed to feel relevant.
Speaker 7: You know who we saw that with most they needed
Speaker 7: to feel seen telling Lee was Sid. Remember when we
Speaker 7: did Sid's ECW run. Yes, Yes, it was like wow.
Speaker 7: They that was like the prototypical guy they hated in
Speaker 7: the Big two And when he came to e CW man,
Speaker 7: they went fucking nuts for him and let him. They
Speaker 7: went nuts for him, squashing all their guys too, like
Speaker 7: not even giving anybody a lick of credibility along the way.
Speaker 7: Fans never expect them to show up there, and they
Speaker 7: practically rioted. Essentially, he was saying that everything to do
Speaker 7: with ECW was shitty. This building should really be built
Speaker 7: out of toilet paper, he said. Lawler was set to
Speaker 7: headline a number of main event matches, including ones with
Speaker 7: Rob and Me at ECW's heat Wave in Hardcore Heaven
Speaker 7: Wow in June twenty third, nineteenninety seven at a raw taping,
Speaker 7: I was wrestling Flash Funk two Cold Scorpio on a
Speaker 7: match that ended outside them ringing a double count out.
Speaker 7: After the match, I went to put Flashfunk through a table,
Speaker 7: but the table didn't break. I don't know why, but
Speaker 7: I knew I needed to do something to save the spot,
Speaker 7: so I default on a trick that I had done
Speaker 7: a number of times when this had happened in the past.
Speaker 7: I went crazy and jumped into the crowd. I started
Speaker 7: pushing people out of their seats and throwing chairs into
Speaker 7: the ring at too cold. The agents immediately followed my
Speaker 7: lead and sent security out to take me away. Dirt
Speaker 7: sheets like the Torch and the Observer all reported at
Speaker 7: the Monday Night Rod taping on June twenty third, ninety seven,
Speaker 7: quote Rob Dan Dam and Sabu weren't happy with what
Speaker 7: WWF Creative had booked for them. I mean, this is
Speaker 7: mostly true, but some of it was also Paul not
Speaker 7: wanting his brand to look weak yet, because once this happened,
Speaker 7: they wouldn't be considered a threat any longer. He wanted
Speaker 7: me to beat Flash Funk clean, and he also didn't
Speaker 7: like the idea of RVD putting over Jesse James Armstrong
Speaker 7: aka road Dog. I don't think this matching ended up
Speaker 7: even happening, but that was I remember that was a
Speaker 7: big one, like we'll help you promote your pay per
Speaker 7: view but RVD has to lose to fucking road Dog.
Speaker 7: Think about where road Dog was in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 7: What a joke, And that's like off my Baby tonight.
Speaker 7: That's before the New Age Outlaws. Oh it's horrible. That's
Speaker 7: clearly them trying to fuck with them. The idea behind
Speaker 7: that was our top guys shouldn't come in and lose
Speaker 7: to one of WWF's midcard guys who was mostly losing
Speaker 7: all of his matches at that time. Made tense to me.
Speaker 7: If all had worked out correctly, the plan was to
Speaker 7: have an ECW match on Raw each week that would
Speaker 7: build up to a headline ECW versus WWF match at SummerSlam.
Speaker 1: If that would have been fair, that probably would have
Speaker 1: gotten my attention totally. That's clearly what they're building here.
Speaker 3: Think about that.
Speaker 7: Think about the show where you know Brett Wressel's Taker
Speaker 7: where Austin Wressell's Owen. If they had an ECW verus
Speaker 7: WWF match the card, yep. The talk was that TMECW
Speaker 7: would be Tommy Dreamer and Sandman taking on WWF, Jerry
Speaker 7: Lawler aligning himself with the ECW turncoat Rob Van dam
Speaker 7: So in this whole thing. Boss Rob van Dam was
Speaker 7: to literally become mister Monday Night. He was to become
Speaker 7: a WWF guy Wow. In return, ECW would get plugs
Speaker 7: in for our second pay per view, Hardcore Heaven. However,
Speaker 7: politics and egos eventually broke down the relationship that Flash
Speaker 7: Funk Match was among the last of the ECW and
Speaker 7: Asian that WWF fans would see on raw. By July nineteenth,
Speaker 7: nineteen ninety seven, ECW rant an experimental eye pay per view.
Speaker 3: I remember that.
Speaker 7: I remember trying to watch it on my computer with
Speaker 7: real video player and nineteen seven dial up internet.
Speaker 3: Wow, I don't remember this at all.
Speaker 7: Dog shit was terrible. You could not, at least my
Speaker 7: internet speed was nowhere close to being able to watch
Speaker 7: anything more than the frame would change every like seventeen seconds. Okay,
Speaker 7: one still image and then you'd hear audio, very tiny,
Speaker 7: distant audio, and then it would change like once.
Speaker 3: It was fucking terrible. Yeah, but they were trying.
Speaker 7: We were pretty much off of WWF programming, but Paul
Speaker 7: was still finishing up some of the initial storylines from
Speaker 7: the invasion angle. It was RVD, myself and Jerry Lawler
Speaker 7: versus Tommy Dreamer Sandman and Rick Rudn a steel cage.
Speaker 3: No, it absolutely was not.
Speaker 7: I don't know what the fuck Rick Rudnes steel cage
Speaker 7: really maybe? I don't think so, though, I'd be a
Speaker 7: weird thing to put in the book if it didn't happen,
Speaker 7: because a lot of this is Katy Casanova just adding
Speaker 7: stuff that the wrestler doesn't even remember. I remember that,
Speaker 7: but it turned. I got turned onto it. I was
Speaker 7: like into it, probably because I was because, like I said,
Speaker 7: I didn't have access TCW weekly television back then. I
Speaker 7: couldn't buy their pay per views back then, but I
Speaker 7: knew enough to know that I could seek out this
Speaker 7: I pay per view, probably because you know, the WWF
Speaker 7: Invasion angle had caught my attention thoroughly. That was that
Speaker 7: was Yeah, there was a lot of promise there that
Speaker 7: could have went in a lot of different directions, but
Speaker 7: it was so minimal that nobody remembers it. But that
Speaker 7: could have been really big for Saboo, especially when you
Speaker 7: consider how desperate WWF was in nineteen ninety seven to
Speaker 7: put something on TV that w do you know what
Speaker 7: I mean? That would drive balls away from Nitro and
Speaker 7: seemed totally different. I mean, they had Saboo and let
Speaker 7: him go, but Nitro did. But my god, they could
Speaker 7: have done some stuff. He could have just been like
Speaker 7: a thing. Every week he just breaks a table. People
Speaker 7: were fucking nuts for that. People have gone nuts for that.
Speaker 7: I mean Woul Dudley's ended up coming to WWF and
Speaker 7: doing yep yep. It worked beautifully through throughout two thousand.
Speaker 7: It was one of the key parts of RAW was
Speaker 7: the Dudley's putting somebody through a table. I would love
Speaker 7: to have seen what to happen. Imagine him feuding with Cactus.
Speaker 7: We didn't talk about those matches, but those were so
Speaker 7: key to the early ECW buzz because before Sabu came
Speaker 7: along with this reputation, of course, Cactus Jack had built
Speaker 7: up a reputation like this on indies where he was
Speaker 7: going on doing these crazy stunts after his WCW run,
Speaker 7: trying to get noticed and of course coming into the
Speaker 7: initial version of ECW, and so the idea of Cactus
Speaker 7: versus this indie sensation, this violent indie sensation Saboo had
Speaker 7: really captivated hardcore fans imagination. So when they finally delivered
Speaker 7: on it in ECW, it was one of those matches
Speaker 7: where like, you know, it was called a classic before
Speaker 7: it was a classic.
Speaker 3: You know how that goes yep, oh, that's dangerous.
Speaker 7: So it did under deliver in that regard, even though
Speaker 7: they went all out and tried to do as many
Speaker 7: crazy things as they could think of in the match.
Speaker 7: It doesn't really go down as his matches with Sabo
Speaker 7: aren't really remembered as particularly legendary because the promise didn't
Speaker 7: quite meet the moment. They never had a match that
Speaker 7: was like, you know, beautifully built up with a crescendo.
Speaker 7: ECW was still not quite focused in terms of what
Speaker 7: it was as a company yet, sure, So so yeah,
Speaker 7: it doesn't really it doesn't really strike me that match
Speaker 7: that two had would really rise to the level of
Speaker 7: you got to watch it for tribute show. But they're
Speaker 7: out there and worth considering because they were very They
Speaker 7: were very significant in terms of what they represented about
Speaker 7: where the business was when they happened. So Born to
Speaker 7: Be Wired happens in the same summer that we're watching here,
Speaker 7: just a month after that flash Funk match on Monday
Speaker 7: Night Raw, ahead of the pay per view that they
Speaker 7: were on that edition of Monday Night Rot or promote
Speaker 7: hardcore heaven. Sabo does what it takes. Sabu does what
Speaker 7: it takes. He mutilates himself. He flies with the air
Speaker 7: Saboo into the barbed wire strands and one of the
Speaker 7: strands rips his bicep open during the course of the match,
Speaker 7: and we've talked about it and have talked about it
Speaker 7: on the Born to Be Wired episode which we will
Speaker 7: resurface for you. We talked about it during the Lapsed
Speaker 7: Funk as well, which is also an exercise in we've
Speaker 7: talked about it before, but it included a lot more
Speaker 7: color in our episode of Lapsed Funk about the Saboo
Speaker 7: stuff from Funk's perspective than we had when we first
Speaker 7: did the show, so you want to check that out
Speaker 7: as well. These two had had a match just all
Speaker 7: the way back to when God Jim Crockett Junior was
Speaker 7: trying to do something on an independent basis in nineteen
Speaker 7: ninety four. He was trying to get a group together
Speaker 7: and he did a television taping in New York and
Speaker 7: he put Terry Funk and Sabou on the television taping.
Speaker 7: We watched the match during the Lapsed Funk. It was
Speaker 7: a fucking crazy remembers like in a hotel ballroom, there's
Speaker 7: like right carpeting their fucking tearing tables up and so weird.
Speaker 7: And Funk is again always in pursuit of something that
Speaker 7: could hook the wrestling fans and keep wrestlers paid without
Speaker 7: having to kiss the Big two's ass. And this kind
Speaker 7: of style that Sabu was popularizing across the US indie
Speaker 7: scene was sure to catch Terry Funk's attention, especially considering
Speaker 7: his history with the Sheik and really how the Sheikh's
Speaker 7: first introt you know, out of Detroit territory was the
Speaker 7: Funk's territory in West Texas going all the way back
Speaker 7: to the Amarilla days they had a connection with the
Speaker 7: Chic and then of course following through when the Sheik
Speaker 7: was one of the top feign superstars in al Japan
Speaker 7: Pro Wrestling, when Terry and Dorriyfunk had the book underneath
Speaker 7: Johybaba booking American talent in Algapan during its late seventies
Speaker 7: e the eighties heyday teams like the Chikhan Abdullah, the
Speaker 7: Butcher and Brews of Brody and the Sheik and all
Speaker 7: those guys intermingling in a series of various classics often
Speaker 7: involving the Funks, so a very close kinship. Even if
Speaker 7: you watch I Like to Hurt People. I think the
Speaker 7: film you know about the Sheik's Peak, or at least
Speaker 7: taking place during the Sheik's Peak and Detroit Wrestling. The
Speaker 7: Funks are coming through. They're there in the next cutting
Speaker 7: promos and sort of repaying the favor going up to
Speaker 7: Detroit to boost houses and and honestly the dying days
Speaker 7: of the Sheik's big time wrestling outfit in Detroit. But
Speaker 7: here Terry Funk talks in one of the shoot interviews
Speaker 7: he did about getting to know Sabo and getting to
Speaker 7: work with Saboo in and around the time of Born
Speaker 7: to Be Wired.
Speaker 1: What were your initial parts of the Saboo when you
Speaker 1: first started wrestling on the first saw me He's w I.
Speaker 8: Still think he's one of the best talents in the business. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I think he's very misunderstood by people. I think he's
Speaker 8: a I think he's got a great heart. He's got
Speaker 8: a heart that again is there's a guy with compassion,
Speaker 8: great and for for the boys that he's you know
Speaker 8: that he's into business with uh for the business itself
Speaker 8: and and he's misunderstood because they think, oh, well, he's
Speaker 8: a he's a weirdo.
Speaker 17: He's this, he's that, He's an innovator.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, so.
Speaker 17: Much was innovated by Saba.
Speaker 19: You know, we never saw this stuff before.
Speaker 18: I'm not sure the Mexicans ever saw it. I don't
Speaker 18: think anybody saw the stuff that he was doing in
Speaker 18: the ring to start out with. You know, yeah, do
Speaker 18: you really loved wrestling him too? Yeah, loved to get
Speaker 18: in the ring with Saba.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 17: One of the favorite people that I like to wrestle with. Really,
Speaker 17: one of your favorite opponents, yeah, yeah, uh human cactus.
Speaker 18: Yeah uh.
Speaker 17: They have no concern for They just have concern for
Speaker 17: the match, not their bodies.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know how smart that is.
Speaker 17: You know, every match is if it's their last match.
Speaker 17: Every match is different too, Yeah, every match is.
Speaker 8: I mean, if I got officials every one, last one,
Speaker 8: that's okay, But yeah, I have a good one next.
Speaker 4: One, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So came to have a great degree of respect for Sabo,
Speaker 7: and you know, would be one of his key advocates
Speaker 7: in terms of getting the ear of some of the
Speaker 7: power brokers in WCWWWF two locker rooms. Of course, that
Speaker 7: Terry Funk would work during the Attitude era, and it
Speaker 7: actually comes to a kind of a sad end because
Speaker 7: he would be one of the key advocates to get
Speaker 7: Saboo a contract that would allow him to actually make
Speaker 7: the kind of money that at the very beginning of
Speaker 7: the Sabu Tribute we played that clip of Paul Hayman
Speaker 7: talking about Saboo being the one guy from the ECW
Speaker 7: days who deserved to be able to retire comfortably or
Speaker 7: at least be able to earn big time money based
Speaker 7: on what he had done and the contributions he had made,
Speaker 7: who never did and it came close to getting it
Speaker 7: with Terry Funk as his advocate in WCW in two thousand,
Speaker 7: but it would be another kind of sad and underwhelming
Speaker 7: and a series of unfortunate events for one Saboo that
Speaker 7: would box him out of that kind of a payday
Speaker 7: as well, So we'll get to that. Of course, another
Speaker 7: opponent that really characterized Saboo's run in the Attitude era
Speaker 7: over in the CW side was the Sandman. These two
Speaker 7: had some fucking incredibly wild, violent and high risk high
Speaker 7: wire affairs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was.
Speaker 7: Look when I when I brought that tape of November
Speaker 7: to Remember ninety seven in my friend's house, it was
Speaker 7: Sabo versus Sandman on that show that I thought, okay,
Speaker 7: would would make them understand why wrestling what's exciting? Nope,
Speaker 7: And here's Sandman on the Busted Open radio show talking
Speaker 7: about the loss of Saboo and just another person saying
Speaker 7: how much you meant to his career.
Speaker 1: You guys know how it is.
Speaker 15: It's like you can be friends with somebody in the
Speaker 15: locker room, but once you start having a program with them,
Speaker 15: then things change a little bit, and they should change.
Speaker 15: Either it's gonna go bad. Most of the time it
Speaker 15: goes really really good. So the more you work with
Speaker 15: somebody to me, especially, you know, we're not doing like
Speaker 15: rest and stuff like that. Dude, we're doing Triple Joe
Speaker 15: mod salts your tables and stuff. You're doing shit that
Speaker 15: you can get really hurt out there.
Speaker 1: Doing sam to me, when when I know I could
Speaker 1: try to do with.
Speaker 15: Anything that we're doing out there that will obviously make
Speaker 15: me gravitate towards your soul. And I knew that Saboo
Speaker 15: cared about like he's doing like this this crazy stuff
Speaker 15: that nobody else is doing, but he certainly knew what
Speaker 15: he was doing every second out there. The dude never
Speaker 15: hurt me ever except the first bunchet in any match,
Speaker 15: I was just a call or nobody was dictating to me.
Speaker 15: But with me and Saboo, we never had to go
Speaker 15: out there like you know, like an AW match. How
Speaker 15: many things is an AW six man remembering right now
Speaker 15: one hundred and fifty things that go on in the
Speaker 15: ring in a twenty minute match said, we went out
Speaker 15: there with like three four ideas of what we want
Speaker 15: to do, you know.
Speaker 1: What I mean.
Speaker 15: It didn't have to be tackle, dropped down, hip toss,
Speaker 15: you know what I'm saying. Just go out there and
Speaker 15: your flow and you feel it. I've only had the
Speaker 15: same other thing with a Cactus was the only other
Speaker 15: guy that I felt like that.
Speaker 1: I just went to the ring with it.
Speaker 20: It was just poetry that it was. It could be
Speaker 20: that great and that easy. It could be that great
Speaker 20: and just that freaking easy.
Speaker 15: It's it's so much different of going to the ring
Speaker 15: and knowing that whatever happens, nothing can turn out bad
Speaker 15: of it. Besides the injuries, you're not getting lost nobody's
Speaker 15: gonna end up looking stupid. Hey, you guys might know
Speaker 15: you screwed up, but nobody in that damn morning it's
Speaker 15: just gonna know you screwed up, and that just gives
Speaker 15: you more. You're just so confident when you go out
Speaker 15: there with somebody, Sabo, you just do. I used to
Speaker 15: tell him all the time, I'm like, dude, let's go
Speaker 15: steal this fucking show. And he could so easy with
Speaker 15: that guy Magic and that dude. Oh and I al
Speaker 15: still texted him last night too. I texted his phone
Speaker 15: because I don't know, I feel like I wanted it
Speaker 15: just to talk to him, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's stupid, you know what I mean? But I
Speaker 1: wanted to say.
Speaker 15: Goodbye on text him on his phone because I believe
Speaker 15: there's an after life after this guys. I really believed
Speaker 15: they were all going to see each other again in
Speaker 15: a big steel cage match in the freaking.
Speaker 1: Sky, you know, thought Staboo.
Speaker 15: I love you, dude, I had so much fun to
Speaker 15: ring with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being my friend.
Speaker 7: November to remember ninety seven, it is let's revisit the
Speaker 7: match I thought would make people respect my wrestling fandom.
Speaker 3: And did he opposite a lot of November remembers Man,
Speaker 3: that was a key event for sa.
Speaker 1: That was that was the big show, wasn't that I remember?
Speaker 1: I feel like I remember November, remember Stember whatever the
Speaker 1: fuck was?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, it was big.
Speaker 7: It ended up being, you know, the day Sabu came
Speaker 7: back after the fuck Saboo thing. It was the a
Speaker 7: year later, the night that the lights went out when
Speaker 7: they came back on. Sabo and Tazz are in the ring,
Speaker 7: and here it's the night that he has one of
Speaker 7: his signature matches against the Sandman. Now part of the
Speaker 7: reason that Sandman might remember, uh and just when you
Speaker 7: pull it up, boss, it's one thirty forty five on
Speaker 7: Peacock for those that want to watch along five. Part
Speaker 7: of the reason Sandman remembered going so smoothly and so
Speaker 7: effortlessly and felt like they could do no wrong against
Speaker 7: Sabou because I'll have to disagree with them while we
Speaker 7: watched these matches that people didn't know when they screwed up,
Speaker 7: because it was the risks they took in their matches.
Speaker 7: There was plenty of miscues and the fucking catastrophes, no question,
Speaker 7: but the reason Sandman might not have been able to appreciate.
Speaker 7: That is because apparently some of the things Sabo was
Speaker 7: said in interviews over the years was that Sandman was
Speaker 7: at least in one match that they had in ECW
Speaker 7: on acid. Okay, oh my god, really, so that's fine.
Speaker 7: Sabu once told Sean Oliver quote, of course, there was
Speaker 7: acid floating around the dressing room. He took a double dose.
Speaker 7: He thought he was seeing gods z in the ring.
Speaker 7: Oh my god, kept going here, lizard, lizard, lizard. He
Speaker 7: was talking to me. He thought he was fighting a
Speaker 7: monster and I was just trying to stay alive. He
Speaker 7: was tripping big time. So this is something to keep
Speaker 7: in mind. It's hard to nail down exactly what match
Speaker 7: Sabu may have been talking about, and there probably is
Speaker 7: more than one. Sandman has been asked about this and
Speaker 7: kind of doesn't really remember it.
Speaker 3: Laughs it off.
Speaker 7: Doesn't deny that he was high all the time during matches,
Speaker 7: but or at least often enough during matches that it
Speaker 7: could be any number of ones. But the lizard thing
Speaker 7: is he told this to James from Niro recently on
Speaker 7: the Wrestling Shot Interviews YouTube channel. The lizard thing is
Speaker 7: not him thinking he sees a lizard. Although that's a
Speaker 7: funny interpretation of what Sabu said it was. Do you
Speaker 7: remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua commercials from the nineties, of course,
Speaker 7: remember that one where they were trying to promote the
Speaker 7: Godzilla movie and he was going here, lizard, lizard, and
Speaker 7: he was trying to he was trying to coax he
Speaker 7: was trying to coax Godzilla out of the Tokyo Skyline
Speaker 7: to come to a free taco trying to get vaguely
Speaker 7: remember that, that's what it was. It was just like,
Speaker 7: just like you know, when commercials take off like that
Speaker 7: in pop culture, people just reference them in conversation and
Speaker 7: apparently have something Sandman would do during the course of
Speaker 7: his program with Saboo and ECW in this thing. So
Speaker 7: I don't think he thought he was a lizard, but
Speaker 7: he was probably acting extra goofy if he was feeling
Speaker 7: all loose. But yeah, just it just you know, you
Speaker 7: can imagine. You just have to hear that once that
Speaker 7: Sandman was on acid during a Sabo match, and then
Speaker 7: it just you're never gonna forget. Yes, you tell me
Speaker 7: if you can detect if this is indeed the one
Speaker 7: one of two Sandman versus Saboo matches. We're gonna watch
Speaker 7: here and again with that particular significance to me. This
Speaker 7: is the first ECW pay per view I was able
Speaker 7: to order and order it I did enthusiastically.
Speaker 1: You're to go.
Speaker 7: It's time for some real violence here three two one play,
Speaker 7: So come Sandman to the dubbed over Peacock music. Rob
Speaker 7: Van Dam was already in the ring talking shit. He
Speaker 7: looks like he's tripping a little bit. Yeah, And Stevie
Speaker 7: Richards and Saboo in the ring as well with RVD.
Speaker 7: That was a cool said Man shirt, kind of like
Speaker 7: a Budweiser. Yeah right, Yeah, he looks like he's seeing things.
Speaker 7: He looks like he's hallucinating that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think he knows where he is.
Speaker 1: I think he's a little confused.
Speaker 7: One of the guy in the history of the business
Speaker 7: who's been celebrated for being fucked up while performing. Yeah,
Speaker 7: because they always said he was. If he wasn't drunk,
Speaker 7: he just wasn't as good in the ring. That's insane.
Speaker 7: But when Steve Austin taking close notes when he came
Speaker 7: from vc W to the beer jogging routine, that's for
Speaker 7: damn short Saboo high fiving RVD in the ring, waiting
Speaker 7: patient play of these two still thick as thieves after
Speaker 7: the barely legal angle that you saw where they joined
Speaker 7: forces behind Bill Alfonso.
Speaker 3: I remember that.
Speaker 7: Line from Joey Styles. It's encouraged. It's ladder use isn't banned,
Speaker 7: It's encouraged. The most violent matchup in the history of
Speaker 7: professional wrestling. Joey Styles just promised.
Speaker 1: Visa. Yeah, he's fucked up. Yeah, he doesn't listen. I agree,
Speaker 1: he's he's wondering what he's doing right now breathing. His
Speaker 1: breathing is like labored, you know, yes, yes, I think
Speaker 1: he's about to fall asleep almost, Yes, cigarette hanging out
Speaker 1: of his mouth, already busted open from the beer cannons.
Speaker 1: Did you ever hear about this guy back in the day.
Speaker 4: The name.
Speaker 1: I definitely heard the name. I didn't know much about him.
Speaker 1: There he's taking his hand, I imagine because of magazines. Again,
Speaker 1: I was still I wasn't I wasn't buying after mags
Speaker 1: or even WW magazines, but I was reading them in
Speaker 1: news stands.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I say this every time he watch NCW showing
Speaker 7: Peacock his entrance just hits totally different if it's not
Speaker 7: playing METALLICUS ent or Sandman, because everything he's doing is
Speaker 7: to the rhythms of this song.
Speaker 1: He's not doing much, but he's like waiting. He's standing
Speaker 1: around waiting for the song. He hit an exit light. Whoa,
Speaker 1: He climbed the ladder at ringside, lifted a beer. Sabo
Speaker 1: came flying with a suicide dive, knocking him off the ladder,
Speaker 1: and we're underway. Saba wearing his finest saran wrap. Seriously,
Speaker 1: you'd think you'd think, though, you know, they would know
Speaker 1: that enough to like say, all right, let's fucking pay
Speaker 1: for the music. Yeah, seriously, I mean, I know it's
Speaker 1: not cheap, but come on, it can't be that old man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's not good.
Speaker 7: He tried to load him into the ring. Yeah, sam
Speaker 7: Man hit his face in the bottom rope.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: If all the things that are harmed by losing the
Speaker 7: licensed music, he CW shows are the number one trouble
Speaker 7: Trump Moon salt Oh establishing the land on.
Speaker 3: Something landed on his knee. He landed on on Sandman's knee.
Speaker 7: That's something Test said. And the clip he played he
Speaker 7: would sell someone else's offenses. He sell his own offense,
Speaker 7: his impact on himself, Yeah, as hard as he would
Speaker 7: sell his oppinion's offense on it. If he's selling the offense, great,
Speaker 7: because I mean, I'll tell you if if you actually
Speaker 7: feel like he actually got hurt, and people do I do,
Speaker 7: which I guess is a testament if he's not actually
Speaker 7: getting hurt, Right, that's something I can say that he
Speaker 7: is h Hell, you know, I'll go out and say
Speaker 7: it if if he actually is not getting hurt, I'll
Speaker 7: say of the time, and that he's selling ninety percent
Speaker 7: of the time. He's a better salesman than Savage. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: he's convincing you. Yeah, But the thing is with him,
Speaker 7: he probably is kind of getting hurt, Like, yeah, he's
Speaker 7: got something to lean into, like a sensation. It's not
Speaker 7: like he's inventing the pain entirely, but it's not quite
Speaker 7: as bad. But again, he was he had that instinct
Speaker 7: like if he's going to be taking these risks with
Speaker 7: such a low probability of success, such low percentage things,
Speaker 7: he's got that thing in his back pocket where he
Speaker 7: can just make it seem like the match called for
Speaker 7: him to miss a spot and get hurt. Right here,
Speaker 7: you know, or to lose his mind.
Speaker 2: Sandman lands an elbow.
Speaker 7: Sandman is a He's just like errantly throwing ladders around
Speaker 7: without any anames while stepping up to Sabo, throwing him
Speaker 7: out of the ring because they covered the fucking concrete
Speaker 7: floor this time. Oh used to be covered in brown
Speaker 7: paper bag.
Speaker 1: But I'll take it.
Speaker 3: This little tiny ladder he's got. Oh watch this, I
Speaker 3: remember this.
Speaker 12: Ah.
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 7: Salmon, with a running start in the ring, leaps over
Speaker 7: the ropes and launches the ladder like he's spiking a
Speaker 7: football in the end zone. Almost ends up in the
Speaker 7: front row, getting Sabo right in the back of the head.
Speaker 7: Sabo is not even facing him to anticipate them the impact.
Speaker 7: There are a couple of times, man, like one time
Speaker 7: in the arena, Sandman cane Saboo so hard across the
Speaker 7: face it was like it wasn't even on the top
Speaker 7: of the head, you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 7: swinging a big s ball bat across someone's mouth. It
Speaker 7: was vicious. Sandman could be very loose out there there,
Speaker 7: Saboo out of the guardrail to go, Jesus fucking done
Speaker 7: looking at him. It's like someone you find on the
Speaker 7: lawn outside of party, oh yeah, or outside the bus
Speaker 7: stop in Philly, you know, ye, tweaking on the cement.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of people like that on the
Speaker 1: streets at like two in the morning. Well, especially when
Speaker 1: we went to Philly Romania. Oh god. Yeah. Well the
Speaker 1: only difference is that normally they would have a steak
Speaker 1: and cheese in their hand. Yeah, that's one thing. They
Speaker 1: never went hungry out there. Tables and play. There's one
Speaker 1: bridge across the apron in the rail one down your
Speaker 1: Saboo's carcass. It's some of the Arena faithful from the
Speaker 1: Howard Stern lookalike guy yep, super fan Chris whatever his
Speaker 1: name is from New York. It's slam.
Speaker 7: Us on the floor by the sand Man. I was
Speaker 7: gonna sup plex this table. I remember this down onto
Speaker 7: Sabo's carcass.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, he's insane.
Speaker 1: Oh table supplex, Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 3: It's so funny.
Speaker 1: Table supplex. Yeah.
Speaker 7: I watched this one over and over and over again.
Speaker 7: It's coming back to me as I watch it. I
Speaker 7: know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: Oh don't you love those matches?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you forget how much of it, you remember, yep,
Speaker 1: But I taped the ship out of this one.
Speaker 18: Man.
Speaker 3: I was so psyched to be able to order an
Speaker 3: ECW pay per view.
Speaker 21: This is a war between two extreme athletes who exemplify ECW.
Speaker 7: Okay, Joey, the audio is not really When Samon hit
Speaker 7: those back elbows, yeah on that table, oh well, Jesus,
Speaker 7: so that was strange. Sandman put Sabo on a bridge
Speaker 7: table across the guard grail in Apron, slammed the back
Speaker 7: of his head on the table so hard the table
Speaker 7: gave right after Hayman was on ros saying we don't
Speaker 7: pre cut our tables.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I mean it. That is a clean fucking break.
Speaker 7: There, fu fuck him up, Sandman him there's another one
Speaker 7: that's good. On the bridge table at Sandman is put
Speaker 7: Sabo on top of I know he's gonna do this
Speaker 7: front flip from the top.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, oh drop, Oh my god. He didn't
Speaker 1: even fucking I mean he didn't even the table gave
Speaker 1: no give whatsoever. It might not have even been there,
Speaker 1: you know, like he just fell right there, tail bone
Speaker 1: hitting the fucking floor. Jesus Christ, idiot.
Speaker 7: And Sabo was draped so far towards the rail that
Speaker 7: he barely touched his head. He's put himself at the
Speaker 7: table and he's back up, leaning the busted table against
Speaker 7: the guardbrail. Somebody brought a bull's eye revert Sandman head
Speaker 7: over heels into the table.
Speaker 2: Who gets thrown upside down into the table.
Speaker 7: In the steel, calling over to Phonsie, who's of course
Speaker 7: accompanying Savou to side. And the show is in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 7: The main event was Bigelow and uh Shane Douglas. Oh
Speaker 7: my god, set the fuck down.
Speaker 1: It's the chat.
Speaker 7: Let's not have good uh slope seating in the building. Also,
Speaker 7: now the bridge table. Sandman's on top of this one.
Speaker 7: Look at that table, Hang on for dear life. It
Speaker 7: is bent like nothing. This is going to be a
Speaker 7: triple jump splash. I think share fed to Saboo the
Speaker 7: nineteen ninety seven brown chair.
Speaker 1: Oh double jump, leg drop to the table, Oh and
Speaker 1: hard and with the leg drop.
Speaker 3: E c W.
Speaker 1: E c W got it all right, fucking Alfonso, stop it.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that.
Speaker 7: Oh e c W.
Speaker 2: May not be big enough for both the Sandman and Saboo.
Speaker 1: It may not be. My god, it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: he's he is like getting me home. He's so fucked up,
Speaker 1: I gotta go home. What a mess, I know, what
Speaker 1: a sloppy mess. Sandman is.
Speaker 19: Back in the ring now, brawling style, brawling style injury,
Speaker 19: especially to his rip.
Speaker 1: Listen, he's all about the ribs. I can guarantee you
Speaker 1: that it would appear that way. Oh my god, he's done.
Speaker 2: Stand up.
Speaker 7: Saboo tried to Irish whip Sandman in the ropes and
Speaker 7: he just flailed about.
Speaker 3: Up.
Speaker 1: What's this thing? Is not fucked up? He's a complete mess,
Speaker 1: and he's a complete ship show stand up correctly.
Speaker 2: He never takes any time off.
Speaker 1: Takes the buckle, Saboo to kick the way he fell,
Speaker 1: he just he fell with no control whatsoever, like you
Speaker 1: fell out of a building. Yea over by Sabo. Oh,
Speaker 1: this Sandman was goa left the shoulder still. I bet
Speaker 1: Sabo was like yelling in his ear, lift your fucking shoulder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sad Man's fucking yeah. He looks like someone just took
Speaker 1: like oxycon. Yeah, he's leaning, he's leaning. Just he's slow,
Speaker 1: you know, lethargic almost ye. Now, Sabo walks across a
Speaker 1: table bridge to grab an extra tall ladder. Oh, Sandman's head.
Speaker 1: Oh my not good. Salmon comes up in lunges. What
Speaker 1: a fucking idiot. Fucking he just.
Speaker 7: Missed, hung upside down on the ropes and then just
Speaker 7: fell on the floor. Now its Sabbo is another table
Speaker 7: set up on the outside in the aisleway. Basically Sandman's
Speaker 7: on top of it. Sabo's getting in the ring. He's
Speaker 7: grabbing the ladder and he's gonna what's he gonna do
Speaker 7: with this thing? Leaned against the ropes on the floor,
Speaker 7: He's climbing the top. I don't remember this at all.
Speaker 1: What does he do?
Speaker 3: Oh my god?
Speaker 4: What the fuck that was?
Speaker 1: So that's him trying to figure out what to do. Well,
Speaker 1: the plane is in the air, you know what I mean? Yep,
Speaker 1: he climbed over the ropes, just jumped and pushed the
Speaker 1: ladder down onto Sandman's Body's just a fucking idiot ride.
Speaker 3: Before they certainly, yeah, I'll look at him.
Speaker 1: Honestly, he's like more like, put my head in the
Speaker 1: sand man. Yeah, adding the sandman. That's what he fucking
Speaker 1: seems like.
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 7: Saboo is being put on top of the table. Look
Speaker 7: at the legs under that table. So dangerous.
Speaker 1: Send that front flips where the industry and why at
Speaker 1: this point, he has no idea what the he just did.
Speaker 3: He's just like.
Speaker 1: Perfect, he has no idea what the fuck he just did.
Speaker 1: It's so true. He's on the ground, like, how did
Speaker 1: I end up here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly. It's like, you know, he thinks he's at home.
Speaker 1: Only they go there, rolled back into the ring, the
Speaker 1: lifeless corpse Sandman trying to figure out how to work
Speaker 1: with this fucking dead man, this fucking I mean lawn orner.
Speaker 3: I never thought I'd ever feel bad for Sabage.
Speaker 1: Triple John Moon saw crush the Sandman on the ladder
Speaker 1: triple jump Moon so covered by Sabo. Just kidd why dude,
Speaker 1: just don't kick out? I know, christ, Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: the match I thought about when Sandman said on the
Speaker 1: interview that you know, even when we messed up, you
Speaker 1: didn't know it. It's like, oh, I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: match job. Look at san Man, look at him. Try
Speaker 1: to passive breathalyz. Listen.
Speaker 3: That is so fucking legit.
Speaker 2: Like Sandman takes out one of the lights of Saboo.
Speaker 7: A nice of security to set up another table there ringsay,
Speaker 7: oh no, there's.
Speaker 1: A ladder on the mat. It's gonna super fox him
Speaker 1: onto it. See this is oh fuck my life, idiot, idiot,
Speaker 1: all of them hang his elbow. I think.
Speaker 7: I believe boss it's the TLF tribute to Sabu Or
Speaker 7: Am I mistaken?
Speaker 3: Yeah no, you're not mistaken.
Speaker 22: But man, oh, this matchup may wind up being simply
Speaker 22: a war of attrition, right.
Speaker 1: Might it might? I think it is there pal the
Speaker 1: Joey Joseph Well.
Speaker 7: Sandman started the match in a less than conscious state. Yeah,
Speaker 7: now he's about the jumble ladder in the ring. I
Speaker 7: remember this one too, Bridge table. Sand Man's trying to
Speaker 7: figure out what to do with this huge ladder. Turns around,
Speaker 7: Sabbath throws a mini ladder.
Speaker 2: Took the smaller one right in the face.
Speaker 7: I should get the styles does radio style commentary, So
Speaker 7: I'm like going out of my way to describe what's happening,
Speaker 7: and that's exactly how he used to do it.
Speaker 3: Oh no, yeah, oh no, oh no oh no oh no.
Speaker 1: Oh no. I don't know what that was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: My life. I can't even describe that. I can't. Sandman
Speaker 1: was supposed to do something. He just he just fell
Speaker 1: like he just kind of toppled over like a child
Speaker 1: to the bridge ladder that Sad was supposed to use
Speaker 1: like a seesaw. Look at the cotton Sandman's hand too,
Speaker 1: That right hand is bleeding, big cover. Sandman is a
Speaker 1: fucking mess. Okay, he's a mess, just a completely can't
Speaker 1: even stand up like just a just an idiotic child.
Speaker 1: And this is the stuff he remembers so fondly, you know, Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: look at him. Oh, Alfonso, knock it off. Oh Sad
Speaker 1: was gonna spike just like his old uncle. Oh he's
Speaker 1: stabbing Sandman.
Speaker 3: Oh Jesus christis my god?
Speaker 4: Why why? Oh?
Speaker 1: Sadman grabs Sabo throws him. He can't stand. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't emphasize enough how limited Sandman's time on his
Speaker 1: feet is. Oh when he throws a ladder to the
Speaker 1: floor in a Sabo's head again, Oh my god, get
Speaker 1: out of the way. People, Get out of the way.
Speaker 9: This guy.
Speaker 1: You guys need to get out of there for your
Speaker 1: own safety. He's putting a ladder in the crowd. This guy,
Speaker 1: this guy will kill you and he won't even know. Okay,
Speaker 1: put the ladder leaning against the rail in the crowd.
Speaker 1: Sabu's standing in front of it. He doesn't know what
Speaker 1: Sandman's gonna do with this thing. Salman runs lap.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, what a idiot, What a fucking idiot. Oh,
Speaker 3: he's like, what happened?
Speaker 1: What happened?
Speaker 4: I don't know?
Speaker 1: You tell me you did it? Crowd's kind. He leaped
Speaker 1: over the ropes. It tried to gag the ladder down
Speaker 1: so it would flip over the rail and hit in
Speaker 1: the head, but it traveled snail's pace. No idea, what
Speaker 1: a ship show. Absolutely, he's bleeding from the head to
Speaker 1: he busts his head everywhere.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's just a.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at him, like how he's gonna go
Speaker 1: up again? The ladder's on Sabo's stomach. Oh, he just
Speaker 1: fucking I mean, I guess that was a Swan tong bomb,
Speaker 1: but it looks like he passed out and he just fell.
Speaker 1: And you didn't take that Pittsburgh Pirates fan that's got
Speaker 1: paralyzed falling out of the seats exactly.
Speaker 3: Look at him.
Speaker 1: Oh he's how was he the one alive? And Sabo's dad,
Speaker 1: I know, because he lost all that weight outside in
Speaker 1: ladder is a tire body way Oh my god, on
Speaker 1: that ladder. He's just one spot at a time, trying
Speaker 1: to get through this thing, you know, just sitting there
Speaker 1: thinking about what am I do next? He does it,
Speaker 1: and then he sits there and what am I next?
Speaker 1: He's like, I gotta think about what's next. Hold on,
Speaker 1: I gotta think about the next spot. He's fucked up already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Bently standing in the corner.
Speaker 1: And what what is this? The verse whip?
Speaker 7: Sandman hits a buckle, here's their saboo landing on his
Speaker 7: shoulder and turned into an electric chair drop.
Speaker 1: Whatever the fuck that was? I really want to know,
Speaker 1: Like what Hayman was thinking during this? She just thought
Speaker 1: that someone tell Sandman to go home.
Speaker 3: What's he doing now? With the blood in his shirt
Speaker 3: and the hip there of his shirt? That table is
Speaker 3: gonna give buddy, Oh my.
Speaker 2: God, look at it.
Speaker 1: It's folded like a prinkle. It looks like a brindle.
Speaker 1: What's he doing? Why is he doing this? This is
Speaker 1: gonna be bad. He's climbing the mini Ladder's bad. He
Speaker 1: doesn't know where he is. Oh my god, he's an idiot.
Speaker 1: He thinks he's in bed right now. He's going to
Speaker 1: be in the hospital. Bed pretty soon. So he climbed
Speaker 1: this mini ladder front, flipped off, barely cleared the ropes,
Speaker 1: banged his head on the Ape Britain on the way down,
Speaker 1: and put Sabo through the table.
Speaker 3: He's so fucking do good do good boo.
Speaker 1: Give me the eggy boot, give me the eggy if
Speaker 1: you're okay, you would. We're providing the soundtrack The Sadman,
Speaker 1: by the way, I got it, I got it. Ponzi's
Speaker 1: on the part of the Kendow Stick.
Speaker 2: Alfonso has got the Sandman Singapore King.
Speaker 1: Yeah great, it's before w W named it, renamed it
Speaker 1: the Kendow Stick. That's right, it was Singapore game. Remember
Speaker 1: that American canna.
Speaker 7: Say yeah the kid fire throws fire. Wow, nod to
Speaker 7: his uncle. Didn't hit anybody though. Phonsie in the ring
Speaker 7: tries to hit Samman with a cane. Sandman cuts him off,
Speaker 7: grabs him by the hair. Hey you wanted Fonzie to
Speaker 7: get his There you go, Yeah, there we go. That's fine.
Speaker 3: Sab is on top missile drop kick. Did you see that.
Speaker 1: Face after hitting the drops not like a real I mean,
Speaker 1: you know that was a real kick. I think the
Speaker 1: way is his head jerked to the right when he
Speaker 1: when he got hit, Oh Man.
Speaker 7: Now Sandman's on a bridged table and Sabo's climbing the
Speaker 7: ropes with the small ladder. Is he gonna do the
Speaker 7: Arabian face?
Speaker 1: Bust Ah.
Speaker 7: Just rains down with the ladder, pushing it down on
Speaker 7: the Sandman through the table. These guys are just throwing
Speaker 7: themselves at objects.
Speaker 2: At this point, the Sandman and Saboo.
Speaker 7: This is Sabo without an opponent who can do athletic things,
Speaker 7: you know, like rob the damn or flash fun or
Speaker 7: tast some degree.
Speaker 3: He's gotta just it's just gonna be destruction.
Speaker 7: Essentially Sandman's chest. How many more times are you gonna
Speaker 7: get up from this position of barely conscious?
Speaker 21: I mean, they're not only trying to win this mad Joe,
Speaker 21: They're trying to one up each other.
Speaker 2: They're trying to say who can pull out the craziest stunt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, stunt is right.
Speaker 7: That sounds like wrestling in nineteen ninety seven to me.
Speaker 7: All right, Now Sandman's back in the rain, essentially motionless
Speaker 7: on the canvas. Sabo's climbing with the mini ladder a different.
Speaker 4: One this time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is where he does the Arabian facebuster with
Speaker 7: the ladder where he tucks it behind his legs.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: See, oh.
Speaker 23: Cover like Arabian faithbufter with the ladder.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: What a fucking shit show.
Speaker 1: Oh let Lanning hang say.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: It is the tribute to Savo.
Speaker 3: It is Oh my god, what a fucking nightmare.
Speaker 4: Please so.
Speaker 14: Done.
Speaker 1: I've never seen someone so high be so low. It's
Speaker 1: a tribute, bitch.
Speaker 3: Look at hell.
Speaker 1: He's like, I can finally rest.
Speaker 3: It looks like it looks like you got ejected from
Speaker 3: a car crash. He's laying on this side. It's like
Speaker 3: you get ejected from a club.
Speaker 16: Get some replaceable, Yeah, we'll get some replaced Yeah, get
Speaker 16: what's what we want for?
Speaker 3: To look so much?
Speaker 1: Last thing I want to do is replay this ship.
Speaker 1: Let's do the next one. I just sent it to you.
Speaker 7: If you got that, this is a little bit more,
Speaker 7: but that one's legendary, I think for the Acid Trip
Speaker 7: and how how fucking crazy that some of that ship
Speaker 7: ended up being because of how disjointed Sandman was. This
Speaker 7: is really the one between Saboo and Sandman. This is
Speaker 7: Stairway to Hell. House Party ninety eight, was the name
Speaker 7: of the show not available on Peacock as far as
Speaker 7: I can tell, because it was kind of like an
Speaker 7: arena special event in the pay per view age, and
Speaker 7: once they went pay per view, the arena events weren't
Speaker 7: as like highly sought after, they weren't considered supercards. But
Speaker 7: this was I think the one with the craziest ship
Speaker 7: between the two, if you can believe it.
Speaker 3: After what, oh my god, after that was he high
Speaker 3: as fuck?
Speaker 1: Again?
Speaker 7: We're gonna have to pay our closest attention because I've
Speaker 7: seen people suggest that he was high in either one
Speaker 7: of these. So whatever Acid Trip match it is, I
Speaker 7: think it was that one because with this Sandman, having
Speaker 7: watched a ton of his matches, I've never seen him
Speaker 7: that lethargic and out to lunch like that.
Speaker 1: Physically, it's just a complete like he's a He's just
Speaker 1: a gargantuan goof. It's like a lost soul, you know,
Speaker 1: looking for some tethering.
Speaker 3: We've totally lost, is exactly it.
Speaker 7: It is out there if you can find its Sabuber
Speaker 7: Sandman Stairway to Hell three to one play.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm ready now.
Speaker 7: This apparently was on an ECW home video release because
Speaker 7: they have Joey Stowers doing stand ups in front of
Speaker 7: the green screen. Three two one play one of the most.
Speaker 21: Violent wars we have ever had here an extreme Chippion
Speaker 21: Chip wrestling was that, pitting the peer swilling, cigarette smoking,
Speaker 21: cane swinging san man against the suicidal, homicidal geni sidyl
Speaker 21: Depth divine maniac Saboo. The problem was coming up with
Speaker 21: a match up violent enough to satisfy both of these men.
Speaker 2: They had used everything to destroy one enough ye ladders
Speaker 2: still wasn't enough.
Speaker 21: But then we devised the stairway to him, a ladder
Speaker 21: in the center of the ring led to a barbed wire.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Why so they put hardcore red letters on the apron.
Speaker 4: I remember that.
Speaker 1: He looks a little better already, a little bit better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like you can actually see like he's not seeing gas.
Speaker 1: It looks like he's not in like a metal tube,
Speaker 1: big asked ladder in the middle of the ring. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a big fucking I. The thing is, you know,
Speaker 1: that's not a WE ladder. It's like a real ladder. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: there's a big difference.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The world bell sounds stars, the battles Sunman wielding the cane.
Speaker 2: He wears them like a bag of bottom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're in the arena now, not this uh a
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh a venue man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, couldn't agree more.
Speaker 7: I think it was Harry Slash is the name of
Speaker 7: the guy who did a lot of these doub music,
Speaker 7: including that one, and I think when Saba passed he
Speaker 7: tweeted some of the effect of it.
Speaker 3: I think I've already mentioned this.
Speaker 1: Cringing at the thought of all these like highlight packages
Speaker 1: that are going to be done with the bastardized version
Speaker 1: of my song. I'm thinking, Yeah, you don't know nothing
Speaker 1: about the a cappella version, Harry, Yeah, exactly. Welcome tolf experience,
Speaker 1: welcome both grabbing the latter of kicks out the legs
Speaker 1: of some men.
Speaker 7: Oh and immediately Crowns. See already these guys have it together.
Speaker 7: They're already striking with more you know, precision.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they Sabo.
Speaker 7: Picks up the ladder and throws it in Sandman's faces,
Speaker 7: wearing it across his back.
Speaker 3: And again, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 22: He's too made it clear at hardcore at ninety seven,
Speaker 22: they're out to match up, They're out to eliminade one another.
Speaker 2: From the support of professional wrestling. That may just happen tonight.
Speaker 22: We may just be witnessing the end of the crib
Speaker 22: one of these great eastsh up your start.
Speaker 1: God willing that aren its side.
Speaker 7: A finds a holding a chair. Oh over sand Man's head,
Speaker 7: saboo of the apron climbs the ropes. No no, no, no,
Speaker 7: sandwich in Sandman between the ladder and with the legoard.
Speaker 7: Oh no, I didn go put the ladder on Sandman's face.
Speaker 7: Climbing the ropes with a chair, sabs gonna do the
Speaker 7: Rabian facebuster onto the the ladder.
Speaker 1: So much deal clanging together, right, there's some that's kind
Speaker 1: of it, like that's that's the sound of c W.
Speaker 7: Right clang yep, and like chipped elbow bones, you know. Oh,
Speaker 7: like they have like particulate matter floating around in their
Speaker 7: arms on the hop now to the floor. Sandman kicking
Speaker 7: on the front row. They got the ol snow heads,
Speaker 7: they havennekin heads see him everywhere. Yep, yep, got at
Speaker 7: that game that can already come out. Triple jump saboo
Speaker 7: chair top rope, front row. Motherfucker, he's dub They're all
Speaker 7: swinging the heads.
Speaker 3: Yeah, both been very swell to.
Speaker 10: Get up because wonder the.
Speaker 2: Sand Man is even canting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, e c fn W.
Speaker 1: Black shirt tucked into jeans, black sneakers and a sweatshirt tied.
Speaker 3: Around your waist.
Speaker 7: Just a classy look. Ninety seven if I've ever seen it.
Speaker 7: Ninety eight.
Speaker 1: Nineties, Just nineties.
Speaker 7: Nineties, there's late nineties. Look at this cluckly fucking freaks.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, pumping their fists at their bodies, gonna
Speaker 1: be ec dove at the guys. Yeah, they're like, there's
Speaker 1: such a hunger, the hunger in the asleway now and
Speaker 1: over the rail again to get another tour of the
Speaker 1: arena the risers. Surprise, those risers never collapsed. That would
Speaker 1: be such a see. It doesn't look anything like this now.
Speaker 7: It's all like the walls are so like finished, this
Speaker 7: floor shiny like yep, there's comfortable.
Speaker 3: Seating, completely renovated. You know, it looks like.
Speaker 7: Wall Definitely something I didn't know I wished i'd have
Speaker 7: done at the time that now I realized I wish
Speaker 7: I had done. At the time, I had no desire,
Speaker 7: never thought about it, because when you look at the building,
Speaker 7: it looks like the last place in the world you
Speaker 7: want to go to on purpose. Imagine with no air
Speaker 7: conditioning in August.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, I'm probably miserable. Saba jumping off the
Speaker 1: stage the bird's nest thing. Just imagine, because like, it's
Speaker 1: not just the heat, it's not just the heat, it's
Speaker 1: the smell of a few hundred sweaty men.
Speaker 7: Oh all right, and they don't, you know, they're they're
Speaker 7: young enough that they don't have the hygiene locked in yet,
Speaker 7: the bo they're not actually not totally on top of
Speaker 7: it yet, right, Sadman was just put through a table.
Speaker 7: Saboo jumping off the staging area at the arena with
Speaker 7: a leg drop. This style match works better than the
Speaker 7: arena too, because they have a lot more settings to
Speaker 7: work with, you know. Yeah, yeah, this is definitely not.
Speaker 3: The match where he's tripping. No way, he's got his
Speaker 3: feet under it. Yeah, no question.
Speaker 7: Sendan comes back, slam Saboo on the stage, drops an elbow, send.
Speaker 22: Me and dragging table around by its hair, sends a
Speaker 22: pace first and they're still doing rab.
Speaker 3: All the heads.
Speaker 1: Wow, that thing was a phenomenon for for a little while. Yep,
Speaker 1: I had one.
Speaker 7: There was one of my house. Yeah, I grabbed that
Speaker 7: I wrote, helped me backwards across the forehead.
Speaker 2: Yeah here, I'm here.
Speaker 3: You kidding me?
Speaker 1: You don't think I've been humbling that to myself. Ever
Speaker 1: since we decided to do the Saba tribute. All I
Speaker 1: do is walking around humming that song. It's just like
Speaker 1: I hummed the TNA held Cogan song in DNA and
Speaker 1: funk I hummed the w sew thing.
Speaker 3: Oh now yep, oh taboo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, caught on the arms Sandman as much if he did,
Speaker 1: it was on the apron the ladder, so fucking bizarre
Speaker 1: down on a Saboo.
Speaker 7: Oh no, now he's got the teeter totter, he's got.
Speaker 1: The Oh that time it right in the face. That's
Speaker 1: what he was trying to do it November to remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, It's just too high to pull it off.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, Well, because the problem was Sabu wasn't in
Speaker 7: the audience with the ladder under his face. He was
Speaker 7: on the other side of the rail, so Sandman had
Speaker 7: to topple the ladder over and above salmon Sabu's head.
Speaker 1: It wasn't under his chin. That's because he was all fucked.
Speaker 3: Up the position. He's all fucked up my suplex Sandman,
Speaker 3: What the fuck is he doing?
Speaker 22: The sad man mustling sable the steel guardrail shop places
Speaker 22: along those turbles.
Speaker 1: Here he comes. Oh what a fucking terrible in the concrete.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I fucking can't.
Speaker 2: I fine, so keeping a safe pistan from the Sandman.
Speaker 2: Sandman now bridging the guard rail in the ring.
Speaker 9: With that table.
Speaker 7: Another table bridge. Sabu catching up the Sandman with some
Speaker 7: right hands. Say, man, Sabu fucked his arm up when
Speaker 7: that ladder got thrown from the ring into the crowd
Speaker 7: onto him.
Speaker 2: Where are the eyes at.
Speaker 7: Just think about it, Think about like your hand, your
Speaker 7: arm when you hate a funny bone, you know, and
Speaker 7: you go n and just think about it if there's
Speaker 7: a crack in your elbow bone because it lands on
Speaker 7: metal or metal.
Speaker 1: Lands on it. Okay, now he's got a bridge with
Speaker 1: the ladder.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is before people went through ladders, by the way,
Speaker 7: right before they found a way to make the ladder
Speaker 7: something you fell through too. Sos across the ladder bridge.
Speaker 7: Here comes sand Man.
Speaker 3: Oh Jesus fucking Christy.
Speaker 1: Slingshot leg drop down on a sabo in the ladder.
Speaker 1: Thing did not budge, No not at all.
Speaker 2: This matchup has become a paddle of attrition.
Speaker 3: Got much like the last one.
Speaker 1: Huh?
Speaker 2: I believe the coming back new.
Speaker 10: Remains conscious will win the match up.
Speaker 1: Well, this one's a little more fair in that regard.
Speaker 3: What if you came into it unconscious?
Speaker 7: Back in the ring at long last, Sabo have been
Speaker 7: taking that vicious crushing blow on top of the ladder.
Speaker 7: Sandman's now brought the jumbo ladder into the ring.
Speaker 1: That thing is tall. Think about how many Think about
Speaker 1: how many cigarettes? Yes, Sandman smokes every time he has
Speaker 1: a greasy steak. I saw he was hitting the vape
Speaker 1: vape pen and that busted open thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah. The barber is hanging from the ceiling.
Speaker 3: Pull that down live why why?
Speaker 9: Why?
Speaker 4: Why?
Speaker 17: Oh?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's the spot I remember, I've never
Speaker 1: seen that before. The guy's on the ladder, he gets
Speaker 1: shoved off the ladder, front flips all the.
Speaker 7: Way to the floor through tables. I couldn't believe my
Speaker 7: eyes when that happened. Sandman goes for the ride. Because
Speaker 7: the industry is about trying to kill yourself. I mean,
Speaker 7: you tell me who's suicidal, that's correct. Yeah, that's one
Speaker 7: thing about the Saboo Sandman series. Sandman was the one
Speaker 7: who took the crazy risks.
Speaker 1: Oh grabbed me because because he's so fucking fat, you know, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the they just fucking threw barbed wire into the crowd.
Speaker 3: They did, okay, and they were kind enough to hand
Speaker 3: it back. Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's like a roll of barbed wire, like a almost
Speaker 1: like a perverse door wreath of barbed wire. Sab you
Speaker 1: sell him the jaw big time. And I'm one of
Speaker 1: those Is he hurt or is he not? Yep? Yep?
Speaker 13: Man?
Speaker 7: That was that was insane. I can't believe Sandman got up.
Speaker 7: I remember that being the finish. That was a crazy bump.
Speaker 1: That's that. That was probably one of the sickest bumps
Speaker 1: because you think he's gonna land of the ropes, you know,
Speaker 1: right right, wrote first and said he front flips all
Speaker 1: the way under the righting the tables falls like eight
Speaker 1: feet more than you expected, I mean, and even and
Speaker 1: the thing is like you don't see the tables right
Speaker 1: from the camera angle like he for all you know,
Speaker 1: he fell up on his back to the floor.
Speaker 7: And I was lacing up wire in the corner corner.
Speaker 7: This is after the Terry funk match.
Speaker 1: So this is like extra impass. The worst fucking elbow
Speaker 1: of ever is going to my life.
Speaker 2: Still blutching at his chin and.
Speaker 1: Jaw, the sad Man continue on stringing him up like
Speaker 1: Christmas lights.
Speaker 7: Arbire in the corner. Sad was bleeding from the mouth
Speaker 7: like crazy. Oh, he already had that the story job.
Speaker 7: Plus he got shot in the face when he was
Speaker 7: a teenager. Board wore Sabo now catching up, the Sadman
Speaker 7: crowns him with a chair, that board wire. Before anyone
Speaker 7: thought about the brain drama, a brain trauma, he's raking
Speaker 7: the wire he's got on his forehead. Saman just unzipped
Speaker 7: his head for the industry scissors.
Speaker 1: Salmon's come on, get him right, that blade at grids
Speaker 1: his forehead.
Speaker 16: Come on, shakes book digging into Jesus has been ricked
Speaker 16: one up that wire.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 7: It's the wire on his neck, on his neck like
Speaker 7: a necklace, stomping away a saboo. When body slam him, Yep,
Speaker 7: tree of woe with the wire on his face.
Speaker 1: He picked it up, but his own face of course.
Speaker 1: Chair in front. Here we go, drop kick coming up
Speaker 1: off the off another chair seat here we.
Speaker 3: Go, Oh, fuck my life.
Speaker 1: Why look it's it man. Oh it is Belly hanging
Speaker 1: out upside down, fucking Abyss.
Speaker 3: And I never know when.
Speaker 1: When Abyss was hanging up there at that random episode
Speaker 1: of TNA that I remember, And it's just Belly completely
Speaker 1: ruined the image of Abyss combat chest first into that
Speaker 1: barber I heard that had been strung up in the corner. Like,
Speaker 1: what do you think you know that that's gonna happen?
Speaker 1: Less you do when you throw yourself into it? Oh
Speaker 1: can oh, it crowns him, your barbed wire hanging off
Speaker 1: Sandman's body, off his body, his legs, his chest.
Speaker 2: Boos pulled out on the canvas, pour out of his break.
Speaker 4: Mess.
Speaker 1: The Sandman is held on his feet, his elbow drops
Speaker 1: look like someone just falling off a curb.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh, it's just they're just absolute disgrace.
Speaker 1: Oh you already did fuck him up. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 1: That box is checked. The desk now finds I was
Speaker 1: taping the jaw of jaw and that is just wrapping
Speaker 1: the athletic tape. He's gonna cut his mouth off.
Speaker 4: It was right here at the.
Speaker 2: It was right here at the creas now.
Speaker 7: They're yeah, playing up the taping himself midnight. She's it's
Speaker 7: kind of like how he played into the getting knocked
Speaker 7: out by every d verse wit.
Speaker 1: Sandman goes upside down into the corner with the wire
Speaker 1: on it, just jaw bone sad. He's got tape hanging
Speaker 1: from his face. Look at him go springboard scars run
Speaker 1: on his fucking knees, on his knees, he totally missed.
Speaker 1: Look at the Sandman, Oh my god, look at his head.
Speaker 1: Look at the state of the shredded like some Romano cheese.
Speaker 1: What barbire in the neck, top rope, drop of the wires? Sick?
Speaker 3: What a business?
Speaker 1: Watch this guy's this is real. This guy's really fucking each.
Speaker 3: Other up, Like what are you? What are you trying
Speaker 3: to prove?
Speaker 14: I know.
Speaker 2: The mutilation they are witnessing.
Speaker 3: Now. Sabo is climbing with a chair, just like at
Speaker 3: November to remember.
Speaker 2: Taboo, going up top with the chair.
Speaker 7: Arabian facebuster yep across the head, ah the neck of
Speaker 7: the Serban chefs feels like they're just throwing themselves into
Speaker 7: war moves.
Speaker 1: And look a bit of the barbire hanging off his head.
Speaker 3: He looks like a fucking oh Christ Like.
Speaker 1: Looks like he's from like in the movie Saw or
Speaker 1: something crowded with the cane shot. Sandman stumbles down cover
Speaker 1: Sabo one two three, and that's it, mercifully.
Speaker 2: One first ever stir away a helmet.
Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure this brought their few to a name
Speaker 7: with the Singapore I can't even see what the bar
Speaker 7: line in his head. Look at this guy. Look what
Speaker 7: a psychopath? Such a mass it's just a psychopath.
Speaker 1: Where do they find this fucking guys?
Speaker 3: I know, seriously, like what fucking dive bar do they
Speaker 3: find this clown.
Speaker 1: Ship man?
Speaker 2: How much hatred much these two?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the question.
Speaker 2: Get themselves to that.
Speaker 7: We're getting Sandman's blood on their mannequin heads for.
Speaker 1: They all want to there's somebody who has that fucking thing.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I still got it. I still got it.
Speaker 3: Man Saboo writhing on the canvas.
Speaker 2: What have we witnessed here?
Speaker 3: Take another look?
Speaker 1: Take a look at the Oh yeah yeah, what.
Speaker 2: A lake drop by Sabo.
Speaker 22: Sabo, the diving off the top stage, putting the Sandman
Speaker 22: through a table, the Sandman through the d at Saboo.
Speaker 3: And they're showing everything.
Speaker 2: Huh a Teeter Ttter, and then what do.
Speaker 3: You think of Sandman Verusabo Bus?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just grotesque, It's grotesquely violent. There is
Speaker 1: se Lucky to tell himself the concrete. They all are like,
Speaker 1: They're like, all it's gonna take is is a piece
Speaker 1: of barbed wire to slash their jugular and they're dune.
Speaker 1: It's so true, you know, I don't know if by
Speaker 1: then they figured out gimmicks wire and stairway, the helmet story,
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 7: No, there it is fucking hell Sandman and Sabu.
Speaker 3: You know, as my mom would say, if I never
Speaker 3: see that one of those again, I'm okay.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, Sabba wouldn't be okay. We're just beginning, I know,
Speaker 1: I know, I know we'll get a long way to go.
Speaker 1: In regards to that, it's fitting that we saw him
Speaker 1: tape his jaw in the body of the match. Sabu's
Speaker 1: selling a broken jaw or a busted jaw would be
Speaker 1: a motif for him over the course of his career.
Speaker 1: Here in his book he touches on the jaw break
Speaker 1: that we've already touched on and we're asked about. So
Speaker 1: here's the full suite of detail. When this life tanging
Speaker 1: injury occurred, I think I was in Boston. It was
Speaker 1: me and rv D versus Tommy Dreamer and one of
Speaker 1: the very best hands in the business, the Sandman, which,
Speaker 1: of course he's saying tongue in cheek. He joked several
Speaker 1: times in the book about that as I came out
Speaker 1: of the sky, but he had a land on my opponent.
Speaker 1: The leg of that broken table came up fast before
Speaker 1: I hit the mat. It hit me square right under
Speaker 1: my chin. Yeah, I never saw it gunning smash.
Speaker 7: I actually saw the leg for a split second before
Speaker 7: it hit me, when it was only about three or
Speaker 7: four inches from my face. It was just a blur,
Speaker 7: just like a spike coming at me in the lower
Speaker 7: corner of my eye. Oh, I think my brain registered
Speaker 7: as a threat. It targeted to hit me in the eye,
Speaker 7: and somehow, in the middle of a fucking moon salt,
Speaker 7: I had enough time to jerk my face away just
Speaker 7: enough so that I didn't skewer a cornea. Both rows
Speaker 7: of my teeth slammed together hard. I had dagged an
Speaker 7: enormous hole into my inside lower lip. That miscalculation took
Speaker 7: me out it was pretty bad and the pain was horrible.
Speaker 7: It was almost like getting shot all over again. I've
Speaker 7: broken about thirty or forty bones in my life. An
Speaker 7: next ray of my skeleton would probably look like a
Speaker 7: fucking human jigsaw puzzle. I've broken my neck, I've broken
Speaker 7: my arm, I've broken both wrists. I've broken both of
Speaker 7: my hands. I've broken I think all my fingers, I think,
Speaker 7: at some point or another, and at least three or
Speaker 7: four of my toes. I broke my ankle in my foot.
Speaker 7: I've broken my nose, and I think I even't broken
Speaker 7: both my balls and cock once. But shattering my jaw
Speaker 7: was That's what he wrote. That's what he wrote. But
Speaker 7: he would always do stuff for comedic effect too. Okay,
Speaker 7: maybe he just I don't know, maybe it came out
Speaker 7: one time. He tried to shove it back in and broll.
Speaker 7: But shattering my jaw was by far the most painful
Speaker 7: bone breaking shit I've ever endured. I was on the
Speaker 7: mat with my mouth full of dark blood. Boss dark blood,
Speaker 7: take a second, Take a second and consider what that
Speaker 7: what that means. I know what that means, and that's
Speaker 7: just that's just that's that's bad. When I came to
Speaker 7: I felt like somebody was standing on my face mashing
Speaker 7: it down with their boot. I tried to swallow. Something
Speaker 7: wasn't quite right. I knew it was definitely more than
Speaker 7: a flesh wound. I went to bite down and realize
Speaker 7: that my teeth didn't line up. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 7: it's like a shower off a shower door, off the track.
Speaker 7: I moved my tongue around to take inventory. Wow, one
Speaker 7: row of my back molars was facing inward toward my
Speaker 7: lower gums. The pain was excruciating. If you have never
Speaker 7: experienced it, there are no words. It was instantly incomparable.
Speaker 7: The only thing I can think of is take a
Speaker 7: hand to the side of a vase. That is what
Speaker 7: it felt like. When I got up, the ECW fans
Speaker 7: gave me a standing ovation. I saved that match from
Speaker 7: stinking up the place and created a moment. All right, Yes,
Speaker 7: I was a hero, but not for wrestling. I unwillingly
Speaker 7: saved the match by appealing to the bloodthirsty bastards by
Speaker 7: sacrificing my ability to chew. After I got up, I
Speaker 7: walked back to the curtain. I was holding my jaw
Speaker 7: in place, but with every step I felt it move.
Speaker 4: Um.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine taking a step and feeling your jaw move?
Speaker 14: No?
Speaker 7: No, it was like marbles. There were all shards of
Speaker 7: cartilage and bone pieces moving around in there.
Speaker 3: I don't want to know what that feels like.
Speaker 7: I almost passed out. It was broken into jigsaw pieces
Speaker 7: on one side under the skin. It hurt so much
Speaker 7: that a weird self preservation numbness kicked in, and then
Speaker 7: it didn't hurt anymore. I was not a stranger to
Speaker 7: that survival numbness. He had been a good friend to
Speaker 7: me many times in the past. I grabbed a handful
Speaker 7: of ice out of a beer cooler and took a
Speaker 7: blood shower. The swelling was down, and after I spat
Speaker 7: out as much blood as I possibly could without needing
Speaker 7: a transfusion, I took to the mirror. I turned my
Speaker 7: lower lip inside out and saw the jagged line where
Speaker 7: my teeth went through the puffy flesh. Rob came by
Speaker 7: just in time to see me super gluing the gash
Speaker 7: closed in my mouth. Ough, gnarley, he said, and you're
Speaker 7: still here. I figured you would have left. I took
Speaker 7: some toilet paper and draped it across the top of
Speaker 7: my head ear to ear. RVD watched in awe and
Speaker 7: shook his head as proceeded to tape my jaw closed.
Speaker 7: After some frustration, he came over and helped leave enough
Speaker 7: room so I can get a straw in there for
Speaker 7: protein drinks, I said to the whole Effen nurse. At
Speaker 7: this point, RVD knew the deal. We had been up
Speaker 7: and down the road together. He had seen it all.
Speaker 7: Nothing bothered him anymore when it came to me. He
Speaker 7: made good and sure to keep the hair out of
Speaker 7: the tape. My hair was part of the money. Good
Speaker 7: thinking with the toilet paper, he said, wrapping a layer
Speaker 7: around my chin. Nice forethought. In a voice that sounded
Speaker 7: like Rocky After a championship fight, I asked him medic
Speaker 7: how long I should wait before wrestling again. I think
Speaker 7: the bare minimum on a jaw injury would be like
Speaker 7: six weeks. At that point, you bones are probably healed
Speaker 7: up enough to where it could withstand getting hit again
Speaker 7: at least a little. How do you feel, Hayman asked
Speaker 7: me as I made my way to the door, obviously
Speaker 7: wondering how long one of his key players was going
Speaker 7: to be out on intry.
Speaker 1: This guy doesn'tely give a shit out how you're doing,
Speaker 1: wants to know how long you're gonna be out. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you how How long? Did they say it
Speaker 1: would be? Not that I'm counting the weeks or anything,
Speaker 1: but I just wondered, i'll be here tomorrow. You are
Speaker 1: a sick fuck, he said, smiling. That sounds good to me.
Speaker 3: Na, You're not a sick fuck to him, You're just
Speaker 3: you're doing your job. If I had to guess, I
Speaker 3: probably severed a nerve in my jaw. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: that's just gross.
Speaker 7: My whole chin and all my teeth are always slightly numb. Now,
Speaker 7: even today, I really don't have too much feeling anywhere
Speaker 7: in there anymore, which sucks. But this was also a
Speaker 7: good thing.
Speaker 18: Then.
Speaker 7: It allowed me not to feel as much pain throughout
Speaker 7: the healing process. The next time it happened, yes, a
Speaker 7: few months later, after most of my jaw had healed
Speaker 7: up on its own, my mouth came down hard on
Speaker 7: a guardrail in a match. After the show, I knew
Speaker 7: something wasn't right. I couldn't bite down. Even closing my
Speaker 7: mouth after a sip of water bothered me. I had
Speaker 7: no choice but to break my normal rules on healthcare,
Speaker 7: I had to go to the hospital to get it
Speaker 7: fixed professionally. As we talked about in the last episode,
Speaker 7: Savo would avoid going at all costs to the emergency
Speaker 7: room at all costs. When I got there, the oral
Speaker 7: surgeon knew right away it was broken, but he insisted
Speaker 7: on an X ray anyhow, This is exactly why I'd
Speaker 7: never go to the hospital, I said. He explained to
Speaker 7: me that if he was going to reset it, he
Speaker 7: had to see what he was dealing with, so I agreed.
Speaker 7: When he came back with the X rays, he put
Speaker 7: the pictures up on a light box frame built into
Speaker 7: the wall. You could clearly see that the jaw was dislocated,
Speaker 7: but you could also see a bunch of black stuff
Speaker 7: up around the upper level.
Speaker 3: Of my mouth.
Speaker 7: Oh fuck me, it looks like there is something in
Speaker 7: there still. He said, did you remove any table parts
Speaker 7: when you were playing doctor the first time it broke?
Speaker 7: I don't think so, I said it that's stupid, Kenny
Speaker 7: casnoa dialogue. That's of course not doctor. Didn't say that.
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 7: I said it was the leg, not wood. He then
Speaker 7: started prodding around to the roof of my mouth with
Speaker 7: a stick and then some kind of metal poker thing.
Speaker 7: Then we finally figured out it was not a piece
Speaker 7: of the table or anything from the match. The X
Speaker 7: rays detected bullet shard. Oh fuck mile, I still had
Speaker 7: deep embedded shrapnel in there from being shot in the
Speaker 7: face as a kid from way back in the day.
Speaker 7: With a needle and thread, he stitched all the pieces
Speaker 7: of my jaw back together.
Speaker 3: After the oral.
Speaker 1: Surgeon did everything he could, he grabbed a little piece
Speaker 1: of paper and read me a prescription for fight fight
Speaker 1: gon m And with that, huh, give me, give me
Speaker 1: what this is?
Speaker 7: Seven sab in the had an elector mask going to
Speaker 7: the pharmacy. Apparently, well, look, we talked about it with
Speaker 7: the ben Wan neck break, in the subsequent warm embrace
Speaker 7: of prescription pain medicine, and now upon the jaw breaks
Speaker 7: and all the other things that Sabu was so deeply
Speaker 7: celebrated for gutting through for saying I'll be back next
Speaker 7: week for super gluing things cut. We once again have
Speaker 7: a very unfortunate fork in the road. Is it regards
Speaker 7: to Terry brunk Oh the bottle, however, just like the
Speaker 7: other pills ben Wa gave me when I broke my neck.
Speaker 7: The new pills didn't seem to help me either.
Speaker 1: How many milligrams one of the boys asked when I
Speaker 1: showed up back in the ECW locker room a few
Speaker 1: days later. Shoot, I don't know, I said, never being
Speaker 1: one for pills. Do you get a bulls when you
Speaker 1: take the no off pools? I asked, never hearing that before.
Speaker 1: Axel Rotten looked at the bottle and said they were
Speaker 1: pretty weak. Rest in peace Axel Rotten, By the way,
Speaker 1: he suggested I'd take two instead of one.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: That night the pain was unbearable, so I took doctor
Speaker 1: Rotten's new recommended allocation of a double dose, and it
Speaker 1: didn't help. The next day, the boys asked me in
Speaker 1: the locker room how my jaw was feeling, since two
Speaker 1: pills didn't seem to do anything.
Speaker 3: I said, not very well.
Speaker 1: Why don't you cry.
Speaker 4: Two? And the health.
Speaker 3: Axel asked that I did, and that.
Speaker 1: Was the magic number. You wouldn't think that half a
Speaker 1: pill would matter so much. However, after I tried that
Speaker 1: particular specific dose of pills, I never stopped.
Speaker 3: Taking them.
Speaker 1: I started taking to the house anytime they started to
Speaker 1: wear off, and.
Speaker 3: Pain was never an issue after that? To me, that
Speaker 3: pick thumbs up. Hell, it really was fucking magical.
Speaker 1: However, after that, I was instantly hooked thoughts am I
Speaker 1: supposed to be surprised as a price to be paid?
Speaker 3: Listen?
Speaker 7: Do you think he just bounced back? Did you think
Speaker 7: he found some potion that allowed him to be this
Speaker 7: way all these years?
Speaker 1: Do you think do you think he took the time
Speaker 1: to actually get himself put back together properly? No?
Speaker 3: Never? What did you do instead? What do you do instead? Listen?
Speaker 1: What what's perhaps is to be learned here? This is
Speaker 1: the wrestling business, and there's only one way to go,
Speaker 1: and that is the easy way. Okay, gotta keep working well.
Speaker 1: The easy way is the only way.
Speaker 7: By you, boss in your peacock, to please pull up
Speaker 7: ECW Living Dangerously nineteen and ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Living Dangerously Think ninety nine.
Speaker 7: Circle back to the feud. We started this episode with
Speaker 7: our TLF tribute to Taz to Taboo. I'll tell you
Speaker 7: where we're going, the Taz feud.
Speaker 1: There he goes.
Speaker 7: After their barely legal collision, they had a series of
Speaker 7: cross ups, but as we just documented, Sabu kind of
Speaker 7: bridged off into a multi month feud with Sandman and
Speaker 7: the series of matches culminating in what we just watched,
Speaker 7: the Stairway to Hell. By the time nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 7: rolls around, Taz is already it's now kind of headed
Speaker 7: towards the championship more than anything else. He's kind of
Speaker 7: graduating to the very top of the card to be
Speaker 7: the headliner and the top guy in ECW.
Speaker 3: What was Saboo ever the champion?
Speaker 7: Well, he won from Shane Douglas. We watched that match
Speaker 7: last week, way back in ninety three. Everyone forgot about
Speaker 7: that run because it was kind of truncated exactly. In fact,
Speaker 7: one of the things Sandman said in the Busted Open
Speaker 7: interview was, you know, we never our work together was
Speaker 7: limited because he didn't want to lose the belt. To me,
Speaker 7: Saba didn't want to lose the belt the Sandman back
Speaker 7: in those early days. But yes, and then he won
Speaker 7: it in the Barber match against Terry Funk that was
Speaker 7: for the championship. Terry Funk was still holding it from Barly,
Speaker 7: That's right. He closed barely legal winning the belt, and
Speaker 7: then they switched it to Douglas at the next pay
Speaker 7: per view. So here is what I consider. I think
Speaker 7: it's the best Taz Sabo match, just in terms of
Speaker 7: like completeness and what they did in the match. I
Speaker 7: remember this one very well, another one I bought because
Speaker 7: I had access by this point, and Taz is you know,
Speaker 7: he's pretty much wrapping up at ECW. We didn't know
Speaker 7: it at the time, but by September nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 7: he's gone back to over to the WWF and somebody
Speaker 7: else that's Sabou set up for a payday up in
Speaker 7: New York, from Van Dam to him to many others.
Speaker 7: We're gonna watch one more time Sabu went Taz at
Speaker 7: the height of their powers pay per view nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 7: And yes, two eighteen twenty one is the timecode.
Speaker 3: For those of you. Eighteen twenty one.
Speaker 1: You can follow along. Just let me know, okay, okay
Speaker 1: and play in three two.
Speaker 3: One play.
Speaker 1: And yes that jaw is teamed World break Out into
Speaker 1: muhammad a San song pretty sooner. Yeah right. He was
Speaker 1: the ft W.
Speaker 7: Champion at the time of Sabbo of course has introducing
Speaker 7: that championship. Ft W was his Fuck the World clothing line.
Speaker 7: I can let you know that I owned it. Orange
Speaker 7: there we go t shirt.
Speaker 1: That's funny. There we go and uh Concord, North Carolina. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're gonna see a clip Concord.
Speaker 7: This is where he broke his jaws with a closed
Speaker 7: This was a legit jaw injury, unlike the one we
Speaker 7: just saw against sand Man.
Speaker 3: Watch this breaks his jaw with this duck. Oh fuck
Speaker 3: my life, Sabo.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, idiot fucking Taz. Taz even
Speaker 1: uh tours bicep. That's right, he tours on bicep. That's
Speaker 1: how hard he landed.
Speaker 3: What a fucking bunch of morons.
Speaker 7: They were working all around the horn. That was like
Speaker 7: a handcam house show. You could see a fucking basketball
Speaker 7: hoop in the high school gym. Wow, we're wrestling in
Speaker 7: So that's why the tape job Sabu wrote f U
Speaker 7: on the tape were unifying the ft W and world titles.
Speaker 7: Here Tony Khan would bring back the FTW title when
Speaker 7: Taz would introduce his on stable in a W That's
Speaker 7: how much of a fan he was of what Taz
Speaker 7: was doing back then, and Taz of course still works
Speaker 7: for them to this day. We saw Tony Khan in
Speaker 7: the crowd during one of the Saboo Rob Van Damn
Speaker 7: matches last time at THECW Arena. This is the remixed
Speaker 7: War Machine with Taz doing little voiceover work, and he
Speaker 7: is the belt holder.
Speaker 1: He is the man. Yep.
Speaker 7: Just think how hot the business was in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3: I mean, geez oh god.
Speaker 7: I remember this is when ECW came out with or
Speaker 7: A magazine. They had the Wow World of Wrestling magazine
Speaker 7: and they had the W magazine, same publisher, same format,
Speaker 7: same staff, action figures from San Francisco, toy makers, yep,
Speaker 7: video game coming from Acclaim. All these revenue streams that
Speaker 7: would not come along fast enough for them to stay
Speaker 7: above water financially.
Speaker 3: That's the truth.
Speaker 1: This was the only other time Taz and Sadly met
Speaker 1: on pay per views. Time for the world title.
Speaker 12: Who calls it right down the middle? The manager champions
Speaker 12: Bill Alfonso Wagon at two hundred and twenty pounds from
Speaker 12: Bombay Michigan.
Speaker 2: He is the current.
Speaker 3: That's Bombay Michigan w.
Speaker 12: World Heavyweight Champion. He is suicidal. He is homicidal.
Speaker 3: He is.
Speaker 1: He is you know all these things that the police
Speaker 1: are never in the in attendance.
Speaker 7: What what race was seeking to extinguish. What makes him
Speaker 7: genocidal as that know, it's.
Speaker 12: Weighing at two hundred and forty eight pounds the red
Speaker 12: Hook section.
Speaker 3: Of Brooklyn, New York, the red Hook section.
Speaker 2: He is the human sup flex machine.
Speaker 12: He is also the current ec W World Heavyweight Champion.
Speaker 1: This is.
Speaker 3: Okay, calm down.
Speaker 2: Whenever these two are in the same ring, it gives
Speaker 2: me goose boots.
Speaker 1: Me too.
Speaker 2: That's an extensive amateur restling.
Speaker 3: Back to feel that way, and a second case in tutum.
Speaker 23: Saboo is absolutely out of his mind and will do
Speaker 23: anything to destroy Tas and to once again you the
Speaker 23: heavyweight shamdion of the world.
Speaker 1: Has a mic Oh boy, that's gonna be all you see.
Speaker 1: Your lally waited out in the raid for three hours,
Speaker 1: three hours.
Speaker 2: So I got an idea.
Speaker 3: I said, okay, we make this.
Speaker 12: Not only are you to five belt match, but an
Speaker 12: extreme death match falls down and.
Speaker 7: The builder right, and they got to finish that requires
Speaker 7: them to do it on the floor. It's a huge
Speaker 7: building for them, so much bigger than we're used to.
Speaker 3: Saying, yeah, you can tell remember where this was.
Speaker 7: Alfonso telling Sabo, don't forget you're only seventy percent sabos
Speaker 7: in English, get out of.
Speaker 3: The way, sab diving on the ankle, Yes, that was
Speaker 3: that was the key.
Speaker 7: Iarity is just as ECW started to figure out bigger buildings,
Speaker 7: you know, doing actual decent pay per view numbers and stuff.
Speaker 7: Although they they did exceptionally well considering what could be
Speaker 7: expected from the beginning on pay per view, Yeah, it
Speaker 7: started on unravel as soon as they started to click
Speaker 7: into place the things that are supposed to make you
Speaker 7: the real money.
Speaker 1: Of course, that's how would I expect anything less?
Speaker 7: I'd go and talking to this book a lot about
Speaker 7: how Gunshot Paul always was about straying too far from
Speaker 7: the East Coast and how he went into you know,
Speaker 7: other markets like Florida and other states with a lot
Speaker 7: of apprehension because the costs they had that introduced.
Speaker 3: Really what stress on the business model.
Speaker 7: It's like these guys feel like they should be expanding,
Speaker 7: but it's like, no, the the numbers only make sense
Speaker 7: if we don't leave Philadelphia, you know. Yeah, big right
Speaker 7: hand Taz now gonna go with the cross faces and
Speaker 7: that damage jaw Oh nice block by Sabo.
Speaker 3: Though, Wow psychology here like that.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 7: I appreciate that pulls over it with kind of an
Speaker 7: arm drag deal Taz with head scissors. Sabu back flips
Speaker 7: under the ropes looking for the break letter. Prescotts won
Speaker 7: Tas just said to the crowd, I'm gonna fucking shoot
Speaker 7: on him. Huh okay, Coler Nobunkas to the waistline, We
Speaker 7: go up. Okay, I see a different side of Sabo here. Yeah,
Speaker 7: they crossed faces by Taz. Come on, motherfucker, he says, yes,
Speaker 7: come on, Motherfucker's.
Speaker 2: Nothing fancy about test.
Speaker 3: Back up in the.
Speaker 1: Irishis for sure, nothing fancy about Taz running boot to
Speaker 1: the side of the head, the Brooklyn boot as he
Speaker 1: used to call it.
Speaker 14: Task.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, he's one of those guys who's
Speaker 1: just body is so stiff all the time.
Speaker 8: I know.
Speaker 1: His disposition was too unloading. There's a loaner on the road,
Speaker 1: you know he was.
Speaker 7: He kind of lived that gimmick. There's the yeah, the
Speaker 7: slingshot like larriot by Sabou catches Tak coming out of
Speaker 7: the corner for two.
Speaker 1: Out to the april. Now front flip leg dry out
Speaker 1: those two. Sabo was perfectly happy to land a leg
Speaker 1: drop cover him for three and get out of here.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna work. Here comes a chair, No love it.
Speaker 7: Jesus has his head setting up the seat. Now he's
Speaker 7: gonna take off their sab.
Speaker 1: There we go. Oh my god, it's like he delayed himself.
Speaker 7: It was an aerialist to the floor, goes Taz. Sabu
Speaker 7: kicks him into the ring. I clipped him, loading him
Speaker 7: over the rail end of the front row.
Speaker 3: I can only mean one thing this is. This isn't
Speaker 3: gonna be pretty.
Speaker 1: Sab in the ring, chair set up triple jump one,
Speaker 1: two and three. Oh but Jesus Chaz lifted a chair
Speaker 1: in the audience, catching Sabo on the way down.
Speaker 7: Okay, but okay, kid, more of me and that kid
Speaker 7: than I care to admit. Back in nineteen in the extreme,
Speaker 7: I mean every single match they brawl in the crowd.
Speaker 7: I don't know why they had to make the false
Speaker 7: cunt anywhere stip for this one. I don't remember the
Speaker 7: finish here, but it must. It must be a pin
Speaker 7: on the outside, A cameraman holding the camera way above
Speaker 7: his head, trying to catch anything he can.
Speaker 3: Desperation.
Speaker 7: Funny see cameraman on camera. Usually I won't see that.
Speaker 7: I remember going a handful of ECW shows when they
Speaker 7: spilled over the rail man, it was like it was
Speaker 7: fucking chaos.
Speaker 3: Sure, sure, everything's fucking.
Speaker 7: Everyone's pushing, all the cheers are sliding, you know, and
Speaker 7: here in a pay per view setting, they've got the
Speaker 7: Atlas security guys carving out like a a save space
Speaker 7: for him. But when I remember crawl crowd brawls that
Speaker 7: lie these de W shows, house shows that there was
Speaker 7: nothing between the.
Speaker 3: Fans and the wrestlers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I still remember from an ECW show. That's
Speaker 1: when Just Incredible would come to the ring with Jazz.
Speaker 1: Remembered Jazz from WWF. Oh yes, and she was at
Speaker 1: the apron.
Speaker 7: He was in the ring and someone was, oh, Sado
Speaker 7: came up with that chair and just cracked Has on
Speaker 7: the head with it. Uh they were I remember what
Speaker 7: they were saying. It was like disrespectful towards Jazz. It
Speaker 7: must have been like a sexor moark or something.
Speaker 1: And she had the Singapore cane, which Just Incredible used
Speaker 1: to being to the ring back there.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And this guy was in the front row with.
Speaker 7: His hands on the on the steel rail, like gripping
Speaker 7: the rails. She turned around and smacked his hands with
Speaker 7: the with the the Singapore cane.
Speaker 3: Right, she'd nail it. It's like, oh my god, this
Speaker 3: she's not fucking around at all. Something pissed her off
Speaker 3: that he said.
Speaker 1: The verse two.
Speaker 7: They're up on the rampway, which ECWS to employ for
Speaker 7: pay per views passing Bigelow once went through the ramp
Speaker 7: one time, off the chair into the crowd, go saboo
Speaker 7: off the ramp. So they did pronounce the W. It
Speaker 7: wasn't just dub yeah, yeah, get a pitfall attempts in
Speaker 7: the crowd here in the false cut anywhere environment. All
Speaker 7: of ECW match you should have been false cut anywhere.
Speaker 7: They all allowed crowd brawling and no countouts ever said
Speaker 7: they just should have allowed pinfalls anywhere.
Speaker 1: From every match too.
Speaker 3: I mean, well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I got back up in the ring.
Speaker 3: Army agrees with that. Part of me thinks maybe not.
Speaker 1: You like the requirement to get the guy back in
Speaker 1: the ring. Yeah, I mean there's something to be said
Speaker 1: for that. To have every match the falls kind of anywhere.
Speaker 1: I feel like that would lose.
Speaker 3: Something. You're probably right.
Speaker 7: I think I'm just commenting on how absurd the idea
Speaker 7: is that they have to add any kind of rule.
Speaker 3: There's no rules. Yeah right, I know, I know.
Speaker 2: Kicks the knee, the left knee of.
Speaker 7: Tax back in the ring. Now Saboo has a table.
Speaker 7: He's making a bridge with it. That's going to come
Speaker 7: into play later in a big way. Paz catches up
Speaker 7: to Saboo on the floor before he can do anything
Speaker 7: with the table, loads him back.
Speaker 3: In a boot right in the face of Tags, calling
Speaker 3: off with the right hand in the center of the
Speaker 3: ring of Saboo backing up the champ.
Speaker 1: Tazus underneath belly to belly, oh ship half yikes, even
Speaker 1: killed a camera did you know where near the camera feed?
Speaker 1: But it fucking killed it.
Speaker 7: I remember that being the sickest thing. So Taz did
Speaker 7: a belly to belly overhead release suplex over the ropes
Speaker 7: onto a bridge table. The way Saboo landed, he just
Speaker 7: totally folded in half.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the legs.
Speaker 7: The legs kind of hit the railing and like bounced backwards.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 7: He says, yeah, let's see a replay that I forgot
Speaker 7: the whole busted out. The camera feed like that went
Speaker 7: totally black.
Speaker 1: Him. He flair, Oh my god, shout call out w
Speaker 1: W guys. Never WWF guys though, Yeah right, because.
Speaker 7: It's back when Shane Douglas, his whole personality was calling
Speaker 7: out Rick Flair, calling him Dick Flair and stuff. Actually, no,
Speaker 7: he's already gone over there.
Speaker 4: This is.
Speaker 3: No no, I take that back. He didn't go to
Speaker 3: two thousand. Al fucking Taz.
Speaker 1: Was on his way to New York anyway, Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: fucking ship back home where he belongs.
Speaker 7: And getting his hands on Alfonso turned on him. Alfonso
Speaker 7: is gonna throw in the towel like Arnold skolen Zach
Speaker 7: counting a falls kind of anywhere match.
Speaker 3: I don't know that's a good question ever.
Speaker 7: Whatever Alfonso added nine. Sabo prevented Alfonso from throwing in
Speaker 7: the towel from the ramps. Sabo on show one of
Speaker 7: the rail. Oh geez, really wide angle shot right here
Speaker 7: fighting between the rail and the ramp. Or Sabo and Taz.
Speaker 1: Oh PHONSI just threw her chair and Taz is after it.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, they.
Speaker 1: Bleeped that one.
Speaker 3: He just had fuck ten seconds ago.
Speaker 1: I know he did.
Speaker 3: He really did, Like I didn't.
Speaker 1: Bother guys, Seriously, someone someone's uh, someone's not on their
Speaker 1: fucking job here, Taz.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, he pronounced that perfectly. Back to mid ring, Saboo
Speaker 7: drops a leg across the back of Taz's head cover,
Speaker 7: gets too.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of funny. Do you think about
Speaker 1: I don't know how oh Jesus fucking blood coming from
Speaker 1: under Sabo's lower let. Oh so much instability? How much
Speaker 1: money was the company?
Speaker 14: Like?
Speaker 1: Were they doing? Okay?
Speaker 17: Now?
Speaker 1: Were they sure? Was he paying?
Speaker 15: Uh?
Speaker 3: Is paying people their salaries?
Speaker 7: He's signing the Yeah, he's signing them a big contract
Speaker 7: to keep them from jumping. Okay, eventually they all miss
Speaker 7: a payday, they miss a check and get pissed. But
Speaker 7: it's a cash flow issue. Vince's healthy.
Speaker 1: I just always wonder, like, if you've got all these
Speaker 1: money issues, why are you fucking spending money putting a
Speaker 1: lettering on the fucking man?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Super Karna by Das gets by, Saboo gets too. Yeah,
Speaker 7: those things were like, I'm pretty cheap. They would they
Speaker 7: would always.
Speaker 4: Oh wow.
Speaker 7: The run attempt in the ring, Taz caught him and
Speaker 7: sat out with a big power.
Speaker 3: Bomb that's called the Brijole bombs.
Speaker 7: The thing about pay per view back then is you
Speaker 7: would have a budget and you would know how many
Speaker 7: buys you did, but it would take you like six
Speaker 7: months to get all the money. So it's like you're
Speaker 7: doing these things like, Okay, we did a prop fitable program,
Speaker 7: we did a profitable series of angles. This is great,
Speaker 7: but like the money wouldn't hit the books in a
Speaker 7: predictable way at all, and sometimes the numbers would change.
Speaker 7: You know, you'd book thinking this worked and didn't based
Speaker 7: on the preliminary buy rate estimates, and then they would change.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, actually that didn't work. It's too late
Speaker 1: now we already proceeded to say as if it did.
Speaker 3: Hyena.
Speaker 1: I just heard.
Speaker 7: That was a big part of the deal with the
Speaker 7: the ben want Jericho going over Triple H and Steve
Speaker 7: Austin in two thousand and one. I remember that whole thing,
Speaker 7: that there was a by rate that had come in
Speaker 7: for a Austin and Triple H headline pay per view,
Speaker 7: probably the innertake of Cane one after WrestleMania. Yes, and
Speaker 7: it was preliminary, but Vin saw the number. It said,
Speaker 7: this isn't working. We got to do something different. We
Speaker 7: got to make new baby face stars, building around Austin
Speaker 7: and Triple H is this heel tech super tac taste,
Speaker 7: And so they immediately launched the plan to have Jericho
Speaker 7: and ben Wan go over in that incredible match or
Speaker 7: Triple H towards Squad or Rock Yeah, and then I
Speaker 7: went hi minute Saboo outside in close for oh Jesus
Speaker 7: for the slingshot power bomb overshot. There's not enough room
Speaker 7: between the rail and the and the apron for seven
Speaker 7: to get his feet over. The row just sits down
Speaker 7: and lets himself crashed down because the script called for
Speaker 7: a near fall on the floor at this juncture. So anyway,
Speaker 7: by the time the new adjusted numbers come in, they
Speaker 7: weren't nearly as bad as Vince thought they were. They
Speaker 7: were so that's why he abandoned the Jericho ben Wah
Speaker 7: push no kidding, and why Austin is beating both of
Speaker 7: them in a triple threat at King of the Ring.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 7: Big move there, table bridge in the corner of the rail.
Speaker 7: Saboo jumps from the top with a splash, putting tags
Speaker 7: through the table and gets two on the cement. Here
Speaker 7: Saboo here living dangerously. They're living, dang boss coming soon.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry what the year of Living Dangerously coming coming soon.
Speaker 7: Maybe maybe that's it. That's definitely where poly dangerously got
Speaker 7: his name from.
Speaker 3: That's where from the movie. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, are
Speaker 3: you serious?
Speaker 1: I am?
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, then yes, is there a character
Speaker 1: in that movie with a brick cell phone.
Speaker 7: Back in Saboo with an Arabian facebuster using a chair
Speaker 7: on Tessa's face covered by Saboo gets to dope.
Speaker 2: Outside the ring.
Speaker 1: I mean that's the one, right, Okay, Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: the one that movie is known for. Uh, a woman
Speaker 1: playing a man like legitimately Tasplex driving It's yeah, Plex
Speaker 1: gets I mean, that's a weird I guess that makes
Speaker 1: sense living dangerously and all, but that's it's a weird
Speaker 1: movie to fucking fancy about that inspire an.
Speaker 3: E c W pay per view triple Jump Loon Salt by.
Speaker 1: Sabo hit his head on the chair, Holy ship the
Speaker 1: triple Yump Moon Salt. What are you thinking of this
Speaker 1: one so far? Head?
Speaker 3: Non Tasplex. Look, I'll say this is probably one of the.
Speaker 1: The better matches overall that we've seen, not just in
Speaker 1: not just with Saboo, but in terms of v c
Speaker 1: W altogether.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's just different. It's it's not a it's not
Speaker 7: a match you'd replay often. But they had these kind
Speaker 7: of matches as often as they had the crazy you
Speaker 7: know weapons bests, triple jump, leg drop by Sabo with
Speaker 7: a rotation covers, task gets too, not enough, sab on
Speaker 7: cork and all kinds of aerial offense. Here the DCW
Speaker 7: title on the line. One more time, Taz and Sabu
Speaker 7: one on one and.
Speaker 1: But you know again, idiot, you're doing this with a
Speaker 1: fucking broken jaw, dude, and he took.
Speaker 7: It's almost like he relished when he got hurt, because
Speaker 7: that was a chance to create another legendary story about
Speaker 7: how quickly he came back or how he taped it
Speaker 7: shut or whatever the fuck he did.
Speaker 1: The right hands.
Speaker 7: Taz steps up release supplex, I was gonna perch Sabo
Speaker 7: and launch him from there.
Speaker 1: Tazplex right when that one TASPLEXI. He called them all taskboxes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: metal rope had an arm overhead and the jaw Jesus
Speaker 1: holding it in place for the industry. Yeah, Caz crawls
Speaker 1: over ladder press still only gets two.
Speaker 24: God Saboo now wrestling on instinct cladding through what must
Speaker 24: be excruciating pain, shooting through his face, prestling with a
Speaker 24: fractured jaw, my toy from his mouth.
Speaker 2: Indeed just keeps coming. He refuses to be He's got
Speaker 2: a clucks up from the table.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, right hands table set up in the corner,
Speaker 1: full dousand, No dragon suplex, Oh my god, fold Saboo
Speaker 1: on his head, no chance to protect his neck. Table
Speaker 1: bridge from the corner snapped in half. Whine that was
Speaker 1: a huge Taz Sabo spot. Sabu's dead, He's splayed out
Speaker 1: one two still kicks out. That's wild.
Speaker 7: I think they had done that at the top of
Speaker 7: the year at the Arena two in it reinjured Sabu's
Speaker 7: neck when they did that. There's a more famous dragon
Speaker 7: suplex in a corner table spot that you'll see from
Speaker 7: the ECW analyst.
Speaker 1: And now there it is. Taboo has the towel from
Speaker 1: Phonsie while Taz locks in the Taz mission. Sabo throws
Speaker 1: the table away, the sorry, the towel away. Ta's trying
Speaker 1: to sink the hooks. Sabo's trapped hands up once twice
Speaker 1: replay barely legal perhaps now this time Sabo keeps the
Speaker 1: arm up. Taz is leg entwined in the loose fabric
Speaker 1: of Sabu's pants. But it looks like Sabo's passed out
Speaker 1: with the bad jaw too, right, Yeah, hand twice, hand
Speaker 1: three times there it is.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 7: Sabu falls to tag in their last big one on
Speaker 7: one collision in the A C W ring.
Speaker 3: But Taz was leaving, wasn't me?
Speaker 7: Several months later? I think this was the spring he
Speaker 7: would leave them in September.
Speaker 1: He lost it.
Speaker 3: He didn't know yet then, not really. No, I'm sure
Speaker 3: the gears were somewhat in motion, but.
Speaker 10: Sabu did not have to be choked out. Bill Alphonse,
Speaker 10: who had thrown in the towel, he could have told
Speaker 10: jimbala O, yes, go ahead, stop.
Speaker 2: The match, but he didn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah. If I were fucking Bill Alfons, I'll beat the
Speaker 1: ship out of Sabo for that.
Speaker 13: U give me a.
Speaker 2: File by life. Look at me, man, look at me.
Speaker 2: I ain't told you, m.
Speaker 13: I didn't.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 15: I want to shake your hand.
Speaker 7: To his jaws broke, Alfonso says, very reminiscent of Sabou
Speaker 7: forcing himself up to shake fandamn soon after the talk out.
Speaker 6: Shake my hand, shake my hand, Sabu.
Speaker 7: With a fork in his hand, both men on their
Speaker 7: knees and the handshake.
Speaker 1: Again. Crowd, you c W, crowd didn't want to see
Speaker 1: them get along, but for the moment, respect on full display.
Speaker 14: Anyway, shame me.
Speaker 4: Of the world.
Speaker 2: If the human supplex machine Taz.
Speaker 7: Can wrap it there, for Taz and Saboo, and for
Speaker 7: the reasons we outlined and that you heard and felt
Speaker 7: here between Taz and Sabu, a real landmarked feud for
Speaker 7: the heights CCW was able to reach, even just for
Speaker 7: fleeting moments in time. Taz, all these years later, of course,
Speaker 7: now leveraging the success and the impact that Sabu helped
Speaker 7: him reach in the ECW ring to a WWF contract
Speaker 7: and a run in the big leagues that helped him
Speaker 7: translation transition from the ring to the announced position where
Speaker 7: he's probably by this point made more money announcing and
Speaker 7: wrestling than he ever did wrestling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the truth. That's a good point.
Speaker 7: From WWF and then to TNA and then uh to
Speaker 7: ae W, where the same Tony Kahan who witnessed Saboo
Speaker 7: show out against Rob van Dam at the Arena as
Speaker 7: a teenager now runs the entire second biggest wrestling company
Speaker 7: in the in the world and was more than happy
Speaker 7: to enlist Taz as part of his announced squad. And
Speaker 7: it was in that seat Taz was sitting the week
Speaker 7: that the news hit that Saboo had passed away at
Speaker 7: the age of sixty one, and the cameras at appointed
Speaker 7: moment during the course of the aw Dynamite broadcast that week,
Speaker 7: panned over to Taz for these.
Speaker 3: Words speaking of amazing.
Speaker 19: Earlier this week, we lost one of the most amazing
Speaker 19: professional wrestlers of his generation, Terry Brunk, known around the
Speaker 19: world as Saboo, Tenay's competitor inside the ring, A true
Speaker 19: pioneer of this sport. Saboo turned wrestling on its head,
Speaker 19: and he did everything on his own term, and in
Speaker 19: doing so, he influenced generations of professional wrestlers even yet
Speaker 19: to come, and the legacy that he leaves is never
Speaker 19: impossible to articulate. However, I am fortunate enough to work
Speaker 19: with a man who had an unforgettable rivalry with Samoo,
Speaker 19: a man whose career was intertwined.
Speaker 2: With Saboo, none other than Taz.
Speaker 25: I'm gonna try and do this the past yet, but uh,
Speaker 25: this guy, he was a machine, you know, he was
Speaker 25: a machine. His work ethic was off the chalks, his
Speaker 25: presence was always amazing, his energy was friggin infectious, and
Speaker 25: when I wrestled him, every time he brought the best
Speaker 25: out of me.
Speaker 2: You know, Saboo was Aura before Aura was Aura before
Speaker 2: Aura was cool.
Speaker 3: That's what this man was.
Speaker 25: And behind the curtain, I promise you he was loved
Speaker 25: by his peers worldwide.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna miss your brother, I love.
Speaker 1: You, Taz to Sabo.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and it wouldn't be much of a transition out
Speaker 7: of the moment we just watched at the top of
Speaker 7: nineteen ninety nine for Saboo as he tried to find
Speaker 7: his way in the the bicameral Wrestling Wars of the
Speaker 7: late nineties. The attitude era in full swing here, but
Speaker 7: it didn't find a place for the homicidal and the
Speaker 7: suicidal one. And it was all do really to the
Speaker 7: nature of the contracts that Paul Haymond was handing out
Speaker 7: at DCW, trying to lock up talent so that he
Speaker 7: didn't lose them all to the big two groups. And
Speaker 7: when it came time for WW to come knocking again,
Speaker 7: seeking to secure the services of Sabu at a time
Speaker 7: that they were handing out fat contracts, I mean high
Speaker 7: six figures, oh god, kind of money, Saboo. You know,
Speaker 7: it would just basically always negotiate on one off pay days,
Speaker 7: you know, five hundred here or two grand here, four
Speaker 7: grand here.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 7: Never even thought about his wrestling career as much as
Speaker 7: he was doing and contributing as something that you got, like,
Speaker 7: you know, a guaranteed annual income off of never saw
Speaker 7: anything like the pay structure that World Championship Wrestling in
Speaker 7: particular was bringing in the late nineteen nineties. Found found
Speaker 7: a little bit of opening with Kevin Sullivan kind of
Speaker 7: consolidating some control on the booking side. But Sabu had
Speaker 7: his detractors in the w W political offices as well,
Speaker 7: and just as it seemed like they were closing in
Speaker 7: on a contract, it suddenly didn't happen for him. Here's
Speaker 7: Terry Funk, a longtime advocate of course for Saboo, as
Speaker 7: we've already heard, talking about how that all went down,
Speaker 7: and how as much reverence as Terry Funk has free CW,
Speaker 7: as everybody knows, this was the one that was too
Speaker 7: far for him.
Speaker 17: Some of the things that PAULI did, I somewhat I
Speaker 17: can't say condemn him for it, but some of the
Speaker 17: things he did were.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have done.
Speaker 17: I wouldn't have The one thing that I am talking
Speaker 17: about in particular is the Samboo thing down there, because
Speaker 17: I talked to Kevin and they had him with a
Speaker 17: wonderful contract, and then Pollie stepped in. And I'll tell
Speaker 17: Polly that for his things, tell him that Tomorrow stepped
Speaker 17: in on it and stopped it, you know.
Speaker 2: And I don't.
Speaker 17: Maybe feelings were bad, and it was tough in the
Speaker 17: lawsuits going back and fourth and everything, but I think
Speaker 17: PAULI should have allowed him to make that move at that.
Speaker 3: Time, blocked by Polly.
Speaker 7: Quite the move for someone who we heard at the
Speaker 7: very top of our TLF tribute talk about how Sabu
Speaker 7: was the one guy who never got the money out
Speaker 7: of wrestling that he was owed.
Speaker 1: Huh, that he deserved? Yeah, and yeah he took pains.
Speaker 7: Did Polly in that commentary to say that a lot
Speaker 7: of that limited opportunity and lack of capitalization of opportunity
Speaker 7: was due to Sabu's own making. But one wonders if
Speaker 7: Taboo really had to be prevented from signing with World
Speaker 7: Championship Wrestling in nineteen ninety nine two thousand. We closed
Speaker 7: this chapter in our TLF tribute to Sabu with the
Speaker 7: following passage from his book. This is pretty much the extinguishing,
Speaker 7: or at least it seemed to be the extinguishing of
Speaker 7: Sabu finding a way to make the big bucks that
Speaker 7: was slashing around at the time. I mean, Raven went
Speaker 7: to ww Stevie Recharch went to ww We had sand As.
Speaker 1: Hack and w Steps. My mom went to wwkey.
Speaker 7: Ripwreck got a six figure guaranteed contract. W STY you
Speaker 7: at this time and you can't find a place for Saboo.
Speaker 7: A few years later, I was called again by WCW
Speaker 7: during the Monday Night Wars. It seemed that they had
Speaker 7: changed their minds about me and they were ready to
Speaker 7: offer me a real contract. Come nineteen ninety nine, I
Speaker 7: flew up to meet with JJ Dillon and Kevin Sullivan
Speaker 7: in Atlanta. When I got to the Ramada NN near
Speaker 7: the airport, someone showed me to the room where Kevin
Speaker 7: Sullivan was, but he wasn't with JJ. He was in
Speaker 7: there with a bunch of guys that I never saw before.
Speaker 7: When Kevin saw me at the door. He quickly ushered
Speaker 7: me out of the room, hoping that the others hadn't
Speaker 7: seen me. No, no, no, Kevin said, as we ran
Speaker 7: out of the room. Look saboo, he said, all nervously,
Speaker 7: pushing papers into my hands. I need you to wait
Speaker 7: in this other room and just sign this contract as
Speaker 7: soon as possible. Oh my god, what's going on in there?
Speaker 7: I asked, laughing a little at the top secret urgency
Speaker 7: that was going down, flipping through the pages he was
Speaker 7: pushing into my hands. I can't really say, but I
Speaker 7: just can't have them see you. It will mess everything up,
Speaker 7: Kevin said, having my back. Now, just sign that and
Speaker 7: I'll be back over a little bit now. I had
Speaker 7: looked around the room, and the only person I've been
Speaker 7: recognized in there besides Kevin Sullivan was Terry Taylor. I
Speaker 7: assumed that he was the guy Kevin was sheltering me from,
Speaker 7: but I really didn't know for sure. I figured whatever
Speaker 7: it was, Kevin was looking out for my best interests. Baby,
Speaker 7: Terry was kfabe from the contract offer and would have
Speaker 7: tried to kill it. I don't know, but I followed
Speaker 7: Kevin's lead. Thanks, I said, shaking his hand Kevin stepped
Speaker 7: back out of the room. I sat back in my seat,
Speaker 7: and whoever's hotel room it was that he sat me
Speaker 7: in for shelter, and that is when I saw the
Speaker 7: biggest numbers in my life ever meant for me. They
Speaker 7: were offering two point five million for three years.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 7: Think about that in two thousand ninety nine. On top
Speaker 7: of it, that's wild, not counting pay per views and
Speaker 7: rental cars. This was a game changer, life changing money.
Speaker 7: It was finally a dream come true deal for me.
Speaker 7: I wanted to tell my mother about it first, and
Speaker 7: then fully intended to sign in the morning.
Speaker 3: The door opened.
Speaker 7: Did you sign it yet, a frantic Kelvin Kevin Sullivan said,
Speaker 7: entering the room. Yep, I will, I said, I just
Speaker 7: want to run up by someone first, but I'll have
Speaker 7: it to you the first thing in the morning. No, no, no,
Speaker 7: he said, just sign it, sign it now. Kevin rushed
Speaker 7: back out of the room. The reason I didn't sign
Speaker 7: it was that I really wanted to read the wording
Speaker 7: over with my mom, who was good at that. I
Speaker 7: took the paperwork with me back to my hotel. I
Speaker 7: called her. I learned she had been having some serious
Speaker 7: health issues that needed addressing before going over it. I
Speaker 7: made those calls. Then we went over the paperwork. It
Speaker 7: looked good. I called WCW back. Maybe six hours later.
Speaker 7: I reached JJ Dillon and I told him, Hey, JJ,
Speaker 7: I'm signing it right now. I'm sorry, sabou. Oh it's
Speaker 7: too late, he said, what wait?
Speaker 1: Too late?
Speaker 7: We will be sued for tampering with a contract. I
Speaker 7: can't have you sign it now, he said, Paul Hayman
Speaker 7: is threatening contract tampering. He threatened us, and TBS took
Speaker 7: the offer off the table. Oh, but he breached a
Speaker 7: contract with me, I said, not believing my ears, he
Speaker 7: wasn't paying me and broke our contract. I'm sorry, Terry,
Speaker 7: JJ said, my hands are tied out of everything in
Speaker 7: my career. My one real regret is not signing that
Speaker 7: big contract with WCW the moment they put it in
Speaker 7: front of me. I should have just listened to Kevin.
Speaker 7: The following year, WCW went out of business with sixty
Speaker 7: million dollars in debt. It would have been sixty one
Speaker 7: if I had signed in time. Warner would ever paid
Speaker 7: it off in full. I don't know what happened. I
Speaker 7: don't see how Paul Hamond even knew I was talking
Speaker 7: with them. I guess I can only fathom the worst.
Speaker 7: Terry Taylor was the only guy I knew in that room,
Speaker 7: and he had to have stooged me out to ECW
Speaker 7: otherwise it just doesn't add up. You may ask why, Well,
Speaker 7: I don't exactly know, but I do know Terry was
Speaker 7: old school. He always tried to give me advice, but
Speaker 7: I never took it. Whenever Terry Taylor was around me
Speaker 7: in the past, he acted like he was above me
Speaker 7: and acted like he should be teaching me. I'd been
Speaker 7: around the business just as long as he did, and
Speaker 7: I didn't appreciate him treating me like a kid. I
Speaker 7: eventually had words with him and on that talking down
Speaker 7: to me, and I think I heard his ego because
Speaker 7: of our talk. I think he hated me and everything
Speaker 7: I stood for so much that he just wrecked my
Speaker 7: opportunity because he knew that he could. He was the
Speaker 7: only one in the room that I recognized.
Speaker 1: The rest know me.
Speaker 7: I didn't know for sure, but I really think it
Speaker 7: was him. Unfortunately, I never got another contract opportunity like
Speaker 7: that again. And now, as he wrote this book, probably
Speaker 7: won't Sabu and the contributions he made through the end
Speaker 7: of the Attitude era. But it wasn't like he wouldn't
Speaker 7: get absolutely zero chances with some of the big national
Speaker 7: wrestling offices, just not at a time when they were
Speaker 7: handing out money like candy. It would have to come
Speaker 7: later when World Wrestling Entertainment saw fit despite turning their
Speaker 7: nose up at Saboo and the whole ECW concept. Is
Speaker 7: it invaded raw in nineteen ninety seven, or has he
Speaker 7: got a dark match as mentioned in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 7: or as he made appearances on Nitro in nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 7: Come two thousand and five, two thousand and six, All
Speaker 7: of a sudden, after the release of The Rise and
Speaker 7: Fall of ECW on home video, ECW had Cachet again
Speaker 7: in the corners of Titan Towers in Stanford, Connecticut, and
Speaker 7: Sabo would get a call from the E and it
Speaker 7: would lead to the beginning of the end of his
Speaker 7: career and life story. That next time, as we conclude
Speaker 7: the t LF tribute to Sabu, will see you then,