The Secret History Of ECW | Wrestling Timelines
April 8, 1995 - “F*ck Sabu!”
Sabu, so dangerous that he is paraded to the ring like the muzzled Hannibal Lecter, is a revelation.
He did not break the first table in pro wrestling - this is attributed to Randy Savage in Memphis in 1984, and probably happened several years before that - but Sabu popularises what will become the easiest and most ever-present spot in the game.
“We want tables” is a love letter to Sabu, even if those modern fans have never seen him work.
He isn’t tall or ripped, but he’s still the biggest star in the company. His size doesn’t matter; nor will Daniel Bryan’s. Heyman, again, is first - at least in the States.
Sabu is a mute enigma, marketed as the “homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, death-defying maniac”. The first two adjectives would have sufficed; Sabu is incredible at blasting his opponents with cutting-edge chair-assisted dives and careening through tables, having missed his target. “High risk” was a staple of the lighter wrestler well before Sabu announced himself on the scene; in the brutal context of ECW, however, his work feels more like life or death. He is a man who will sellotape his bicep back onto the bone, if it means getting on with a match. He is the purveyor of the coolest spots and moves in all of wrestling. He is a demigod.
He is fired by ECW for a time, when he double books himself and opts to take the New Japan date, since it affords him the opportunity to make more money down the line.
If Sabu is a demigod, Heyman is the Supreme Being.
Heyman opens Three Way Dance by announcing the Sabu no-show, but pleads with the crowd to wait until the intermission before requesting a refund. His defiant, tribalistic promo is so rousing and hypnotic that the fans turn not on the promotion, but Sabu himself. “F*ck Sabu,” they chant.
Heyman develops a reputation as a cult leader. The wrestlers bump for him for little money and delayed payments. The fans see him as a creative genius; if there’s no Sabu, it doesn’t matter. Heyman can take any slob working an armory and get him over. ECW will be fine.
The rate at which the promotion loses talent is as brutal as any spot in the barbaric confines of the ECW Arena - but Heyman’s hot streak is so molten that “let it play out” all but originates in Philadelphia. The idea that the brand is bigger than any star - which Vince McMahon is delighted to get away with in his worst years decades on - is another ECW device.