ECW Legend Sabu To Retire In 2024

The Homicidal, Suicide, Genocidal Death-Defying Maniac plans to hang up his boots.

by Andrew Pollard
Sabu ECW
WWE.com

In a career that dates back 40 years, ECW icon Sabu has announced plans to call time on his career later this year.

Speaking on the latest episode of Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw (via WrestlingNews.co), Sabu laid out plans to have his retirement match against Rob Van Dam at some point in 2024.

As the two-time former ECW World Champion explained:

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"I’m hopefully setting up for my final match. I want to do a final match maybe in July or later. It’s probably going to be against Van Dam. I heard Van Dam say something that he wanted to have a barbed wire match for my last match. I said I would rather have a regular match. I want to have one of my better matches. The barbed wire match is a gimmick. The gimmick is my final match. That’s the gimmick."

Sabu's career began way back in 1984, with him trained by this legendary uncle, Ed "The Sheik" Farhat.

Having cut his teeth with Big Time Wrestling, USWA, and FMW, Sabu of course gained more mainstream attention in ECW, first landing in the then-Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1993 and soon striking up what would become a major rivalry with Taz. Away from the Human Suplex Machine, another of Sabu's more notable rivalries was against the aforementioned RVD.

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The Homicidal, Suicide, Genocidal Death-Defying Maniac would also have short stints with NJPW, WCW, AJPW, and TNA, plus would be a part of WWE's much-maligned ECW relaunch and even appear for AEW.

If 2024 is indeed it for the career of Sabu, the real-life Terry Brunk leaves behind quite the legacy, with the nowadays 59-year-old having brought to the fore a hardcore style that fit like a glove in ECW.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.