Sabu obit

Former ECW champion and wrestling legend Sabu dead at 60, weeks after retirement fight

He was not on the list.

Just three weeks after his retirement match, wrestling legend and former ECW champion Sabu, 60, who's real name was Terry Brunk, has died, All Elite Wrestling and WWE announced Sunday.

A cause or time of Sabu's death has not been disclosed. Just weeks ago, Sabu participated in the final match of his career, defeating GCW star Joey Janela in the main event of the ninth annual Joey Janela's Spring Break.

Sabu was known as a fearless wrestler, willing to perform high-risk maneuvers regularly in order to entertain his fans. AEW mentioned that Sabu was no stranger to such performances, pointing out his familiarity with "barbed wire battles." Sabu was considered a pioneer of the hardcore wrestling style.

Sabu was a well-respected wrestler who participated in multiple organizations throughout his career including the ECW, WCW, and WWE.

Sabu's wrestling achievements

Two-time World Heavyweight Champion

FTW Heavyweight Champion

World Television Champion

Three-time World Tag Team Champion

ECW Triple Crown Champion

NWA World Heavyweight Champion

Insane Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion

XPW World Heavyweight Champion

Sabu also made an appearance during WrestleMania 23, as a part of the ECW Originals tag team that defeated The New Breed. Sabu left WWE soon after.

Under the tutelage of his uncle Ed "The Sheik" Farhat, Brunk began his career wrestling in the North American independent scene in 1985 under the name of Sabu, before traveling to Japan, competing in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), winning several championships, including the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He returned to the United States in 1995, briefly working for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), before beginning his most well-known stint in ECW, where he quickly became a fixture of the promotion. During his time in ECW, he became a two-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion and a one-time ECW World Television Champion. He would have both a feud and an alliance with The Tazmaniac, defeated him for the ECW FTW Championship and winning the ECW World Tag Team Championship with him. In 1997, Sabu began a tag team with Rob Van Dam, winning the ECW Tag Team Championship twice.

After leaving ECW, Sabu wrestled in several national promotions, winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2000. In 2006, he was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment as part of their new third brand, a rebooted version of ECW. Sabu would wrestle for WWE until he was released in 2007. He also became a regular wrestler in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling since the creation of the promotion in 2002.

Brunk was trained by his uncle, Ed "The Sheik" Farhat, and was initially trained to be a technical wrestler. He began his wrestling career in 1985 in Farhat's promotion, Big Time Wrestling, and was billed as being from Saudi Arabia under the ring names "Sabu the Elephant Boy" (use of "The Elephant Boy" was later dropped) and "Terry S.R." (the "S.R." standing for "Sheik's Revenge"). During the 1980s, Brunk wrestled for various independent promotions in Memphis, Michigan, Ohio, Canada, and Hawaii.

In 1991, Sabu made his first tour of Japan with Frontier Martial–Arts Wrestling (FMW). While wrestling for FMW, Sabu received many of the scars on his arms and torso for which he became famous. Brunk cleared rumors that the scars were self-induced in a shoot interview with RF Video, confirming that they were a result of numerous hardcore matches he was involved in, including participating in over two dozen no-rope barbed wire death matches. In May 1992, Sabu teamed with his uncle, the Sheik, in a "Ring of Fire Deathmatch" against Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto. The match was set in a ring where the ropes were replaced with barbed wire with sheets soaked in gas wrapped around it. As the match started, the ring crew lit the sheets on fire using torches. They were in the ring for about a minute before all men got out of the ring due to the intense heat.

Sabu often competed in Japanese hardcore matches, where he teamed with The Sheik, Tiger Jeet Singh and Horace Boulder. Sabu feuded with the likes of Tarzan Goto and Atsushi Onita in FMW. His final match in FMW was a loss to the debuting Hayabusa at the 1994 Summer Spectacular.