10 Greatest ECW Champions
6. Sabu
The homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, death defying Sabu was consistently one of ECW’s most beloved wrestlers. His reckless, accident prone matches made for great car crash TV and his wild man persona made room for fun character work and angles.
A two-time ECW World Champion, Sabu’s second title win came via one of the most gruesome matches in professional wrestling history. Taking place at Born To Be Wired in August, 1997, Sabu challenged reigning champ Terry Funk in a barbed wire match.
Over the course of the bout, Sabu ripped open his biceps on the wire and simply taped his mutilated arm back together to finish the bout. The two were so buried in the wire by the end of the match that technicians were called in to free them. What a mess.
Sabu’s initial 85 day run with the belt also came at the expense of defending champ Shane Douglas in 1993. Terry Funk went on to claim it from Sabu in one of their many sadistic showdowns. From there he went on to challenge for it in an hour long triple threat match against Funk and Shane Douglas at the infamous The Night the Line was Crossed event. Regarded as one of the defining moments in ECW history, Sabu tore the house down with two of the greats.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest ECW characters, the only reason Sabu is not higher is due to the short time his reigns combine to (93 days in total).