Terry Brunk is a now heavily-scarred and oft-injured professional wrestler from Detroit, Michigan, and his uncle and trainer was The Sheik - one of the most groundbreaking and violent professional wrestlers of all time. If there was any one may ideally equipped to make Brunk - as Sabu, the superstar from "Bombay, India" - a cult-icon status pro wrestler in 1993, it was Paul Heyman. Though initially discovered by ECW promoter Tod Gordon, Sabu was a part of Paul E.'s "New Dangerous Alliance" stable, and was also being booked by Heyman, too. The greatest thing that Heyman ever did for Sabu (a non speaking character), was say these lines in a November 16, 1993 promo about a forthcoming Sabu/Terry Funk tilt: "'s not even a monster, he's a living, breathing, homicidal, suicidal, genocidal animal that is without question the most awesome human machine of destruction on the face of God's green Earth. A man who will sacrifice his own body to do physical harm unto his given opponent. A man who goes further than any kamikaze has ever gone. A man who does not mind breaking bones within his own system just to make sure that he breaks bones within yours. A man who does not mind having to spend the rest of his life with scars from head to toe as long as he wins the match. Because the only thing Sabu understands is getting his hand raised up in the air. That's the way he was raised. From the day that he was born it was bred into Sabu that he will not have breakfast, he will not have lunch, he will not have dinner, he will not be fed, he will not get water, he will not have any of the acoutrements that go along with a luxurious lifestyle unless his hand go up in the air. And god forbid if Sabu ever loses a match..." For the better part of 20-plus years, Sabu has been able to make a career in pro wrestling based off of the strength of living up to and exceeding the standard set by a promo that he didn't even cut himself. In being able to walk in line with (and often exceed) the demand of another man's words about your career, you are truly a great protegee of the man who was promoting your talents. In Sabu excelling by the definition given by Heyman's extolling of his virtues as a wrestler, he is one of Heyman's best protegees ever.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
