8 Wrestlers Who Were Nearly KILLED By Fans

8. Sabu

Most wrestling fans are familiar with the extreme path Sabu paved with broken bones in ECW (many his own, admittedly), but a run-in with a rather different 'extreme path' in the early-'90s almost precluded a decade of shiny sirwals and wince-inducing botches.

Like many Japanese promotions of the era, Atsushi Onita's blood-and-guts group FMW courted the patronage of the yakuza. Japan's tattooed toughs would frequently buy out whole sections of the floor, often with the intent of scalping, though they'd also attend events en masse themselves. Such was the case at one show featuring Sabu, before which all talent was expressly warned by Onita not to let the promotion's typically violent output spill into the area reserved by the 'chivalrous organisation'.

Sabu, in typically dependable undependable fashion, ignored the edict, not only brawling in the ninkyō dantai's domain, but diving into it. The underworld didn't appreciate the intrusion, and immediately set upon the interlopers. What can only be described as a riot ensued.

The show fell apart as the melee spread to the locker room, where things rapidly turned ugly. Just as one thug was preparing to make mincemeat out of Sabu's head with a steel chair, brave future ECW colleague Mike Awesome jumped in and fought the literal mob off. Future politician Onita's diplomacy skills were given a true test as he tried to diffuse the febrile situation afterwards.