RAVEN vs. SABU in TNA: The Stuff of Legend

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Hey, thanks for taking the interest in reading this. I've written a lot of different wrestling articles ranging on tons of different topics, but this is one of them I'm most proud of. It takes a very indepth look at the Raven vs. Sabu program that TNA has booked and examines virtually every aspect of it, from why a singles match between them never transpired to what TNA has to gain to the ramifications that booking this rivalry wrong could have for the promotion. I started it about two months ago. So, anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I'd love any feedback you have - good or bad, as long as it's polite). Thanks!

 

EDIT: The main topic should say "The Stuff of Legends." Sorry about that.

 

 

 

 

 

RAVEN vs. SABU in TNA: The Stuff of Legends

 

Originally printed by Jonathan on Tuesday, August 3, 2004

 

Shane Douglas, Taz, Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, and The Sandman. Every single one of the 15 possible one-on-one match combinations between these six wrestling icons occurred in ECW at least one time.

 

All but one, that is…

 

ECW gave its fans more than they could have ever wished for – from technical wrestling precision and dramatic tag team showdowns to barbaric death matches and death-defying high-flying maneuvers, ECW showcased one of the most well-rounded products the wrestling industry has ever seen. Yet many indy promotions have – in recent years – have demonstrated their belief that there’s still more to give to the former-cult following of ECW. As a result, the ECW-spawned feuds of Sabu vs. Sandman, Shane Douglas vs. Sabu, Raven vs. Sandman, and Shane Douglas vs. Raven have been revived in various indy federations since ECW folded in early 2001.

The possibility for many of these newly-revamped rivalries emerged only when Raven (to many observers the defining character of the brash, over-the-top attitude popularized by ECW) was officially released from WWE on January 20, 2002. A mere two days later, he made a surprise appearance on a live NWA-TNA Pay-Per-View, thereby signifying that the morose legend of ECW fame was entering a new era in his career – one in which he’d be free from the political confinement that his WWE job entailed. Raven has reignited his classic ECW rivalries with The Sandman and Shane Douglas in TNA and even some less well-known indy promotions, since that memorable January night.

Since, that is…

ECW is history. So is Raven’s TNA debut.

Those were then. This is now; and again Raven finds himself coming to blows with a demon from his ECW past. However, what’s the difference between Raven’s battles with Sandman and Douglas and the one being hinted at?

 

Even though the two superstars first met one another a decade ago and co-hold the honor of participating in the first and second most brilliantly constructed feuds in ECW history, Raven and Sabu have never before wrestled each other in a one-on-one situation. Ever.

But that’s about to change tomorrow night.

 

Despite switching clothes in the same lockerroom and competing in high-profile matches and angles on the very same ECW shows (sometimes taking the stage within mere minutes of each other), Raven and Sabu never once squared off in a singles match. In recent years, the closest that fans have come to seeing the two go at it in a sanctioned singles match was actually a three-way bout that occurred on 3PW's November 22, 2003 show at Viking Hall in Philadelphia, PA. That night, Raven and Sabu went at it several times, but it was Sandman who Raven pinned to capture the 3PW Heavyweight Title, thereby retaining one of the biggest draws of a potential match between these two – neither Raven nor Sabu has been pinned by the other.

Besides that semi-exception in 3PW (seeing as how it also involved a third competitor, Sandman), Raven has consistently turned down promoters’ requests to participate in a singles match against Sabu on the independent circuit. As elucidated upon in his second RF Video shoot interview in March 2003, Raven has been hoping for TNA to draw up a program between the two, since its weekly Pay-Per-View and Fox Sports Net shows garner a significantly larger audience than any other indy organizations today.

Despite a singles match never transpiring between the two, one was evidently booked, but ended up not seeing the light of day. The WWA New England promotion in Massachusetts had been hyping a one-on-one bout between the two hardcore legends on its February 8, 2003 show. However, Sabu no-showed the event, according to ScottLevy.com (Raven’s official web site) because “of a snowstorm” and subsequently an “inability to catch a flight in to Massachusetts.” So, Aron Stevens took Sabu’s place and worked Raven for the second straight day of the promotion’s two-day tour.

It’s unclear whether or not WWA-NE had in fact confirmed with Sabu himself the appearance, or if the no-show can instead be credited to some kind of miscommunication between WWA-NE officials and possibly the failure on Raven’s part to realize that he had been booked to work the guy who he considered off limits unless it was a high-profile TNA match. What is for certain, however, is that Sabu has wrestled for WWA-NE since that date, so the possibility that the promotion was simply falsely promoting the match for some reason or another isn’t all that likely.

Whatever the case may be with their WWA-NE match and the reason that it wasn’t meant to be, TNA is finally going in the direction of a Raven vs. Sabu showdown. Raven's testimony about the subject in his RF Video interview has been verified a number of times – he and Sabu have competed on no less than 25 of the same indy shows since ECW folded, and yet have never wrestled each other mano y mano (and that 20 number doesn’t even include the plenty of other TNA events they both have worked on). Therefore, the TNA Pay-Per-View tomorrow night will in fact be the first time the two have ever gone one-on-one.

Now, granted, Raven and Sabu have worked with one another in tag team matches and also the aforementioned 3PW three-way contest. It was in January of this year that Sabu paired up with Steve Corino to take on Raven & Vampiro (who won the match) in MLW. Then, about a month later, Raven & Sabu teamed together to defeat Shane Douglas & Dyson Pryce on a Border City Wrestling/Prime Time Wrestling joint show. However, another scheduled partnership between them – this time at a November 2003 Jersey All Pro Wrestling event, on which they were booked against Dan “Mafia” Maff & Homicide – ended up being changed at the last minute to Raven and Steve Corino teaming. As he’s been known to do in the past more than most other wrestlers, Sabu had no-showed the New Jersey show due to double-booking himself and working a card in Texas.

The next scene that saw Raven and Sabu together in the same ring occurred in TNA, only – until now – it followed the course of the BCW/PTW event and featured them as allies, rather than adversaries. The angle was initiated by Sabu involving himself in Raven’s early 2004 feud against The Gathering (C.M. Punk & Julio Dinero). Sabu teamed up with his former-ECW cohort in late February to defeat the heel duo and then on the following week’s show, he saved Raven from a beating at the hands of The Naturals (Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens).

However, that was the last night that Raven and Sabu would appear to be on the same page as one another, as their companionship began having to deal with some external influences. In March and April, Vince Russo used his booking power to draw a wedge between them and on April 21, that strategy showed some signs of working. Raven’s mind was on other things when he was supposed to show up in the ring for he and Sabu’s scheduled tag team match versus Abyss & Monty Brown.

Instead, he became distracted by Chris Harris backstage and ended up leaving Sabu to get decimated by the two behemoths. To make matters worse, when Raven finally showed up in the ring (after the match had ended and the damage to Sabu had been done), he arrogantly started ordering around his supposed ally, as if he were Sabu’s boss. That was one of the earliest signs of any tension between the tandem in TNA, but it turned out to be far from the last.

On the following week’s Pay-Per-View, Raven insisted in a backstage promo that even though some problems between himself and Sabu seemed to be developing as of late, he was a man of his word – “If I tell Sabu that I got his back, then I got his back.” However, later on that same exact show, he didn’t keep his word and made no attempt to save Sabu from a beating at the hands of Abyss. That left Erik Watts to make the save and fight off the big man for the Arabian phenomenon.

By this point, Sabu had suffered enough of Raven’s broken promises and started obtaining some revenge on the May 12 show. He attacked Raven and chased him all the way into the TNA Asylum crowd. Then, on the June 9 show, the hostility between the two finally reached a boiling point. After reiterating the fact that he and Sabu had never faced off one-on-one, Raven challenged Sabu to a “Raven’s Clockwork Orange House of Horrors Match,” a challenge that he was sure Sabu would reject.

And apparently, Raven’s assessment of Sabu’s mindset towards him was correct, as later on that same show, Sonjay Dutt relayed to Raven that Sabu had turned down the challenge out of respect to his late uncle Ed “The Original Sheik” Farhat. As TNA’s storyline goes, Sabu promised The Sheik that he’d never wrestle Raven, since they trained together under The Shiek. In reality, that’s not the case – Raven began his wrestling training in the mid-‘80s at Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory in New Jersey, before making his debut in February 1988. While it’s entirely possible that he met The Sheik before and received some pointers from him, The Sheik had no greater a role in training Raven than did Jake Roberts and Roddy Piper, both of whom Raven credits as having provided him some valuable tips about the business.

Nonetheless, TNA’s intention is to apply the back-story that both superstars started their careers with the guidance of The Sheik and that Sabu vowed to his now deceased uncle that he’d never break his friendship with Raven by wrestling him. When Raven found out from Sonjay Dutt that Sabu had refused to wrestle him, he turned his fury on Sonjay, who is being used as a mouthpiece of sorts for the vocally reserved Sabu. In hopes of luring Sabu to the ring, Raven decimated Sonjay with not only his fists, but also a screwdriver.

Even when the referee made a fast three count to mercifully end the match for the sake of Sonjay’s wellbeing, Raven continued beating on his opponent until Sabu finally made his way out to the ring. However, not Raven’s arrogant slaps and kicks, nor even his assertion that The Sheik never would’ve trained Sabu had they not been relatives, was enough to provoke Sabu into snapping. Even in the midst of Raven’s tasteless attempt to get under his skin, Sabu appeared determined to remain true to what he had told his uncle.

A little bit later on that same Pay-Per-View, Raven cut a backstage promo in which he seemed to have some second thoughts about trying to provoke Sabu earlier in the night. He said that he regretted what he had done less than an hour before and that – to make up for it – he’d present a “tribute” to The Sheik on the following week’s show.

However, on the June 23 event, the booking of this tribute segment had to be changed at the last minute because – according to Dave Meltzer of WrestlingObserver.com – Raven was legitimately suffering from pneumonia and was therefore unable to make it to the show. So, as a result, TNA’s creative team went with the idea that Raven was continuing to play mind games with Sabu. A shot was aired of a scarecrow dressed as The Sheik hanging from the ceiling backstage, with a “Nevermore” (one of Raven’s catchphrases in ECW) sign attached.

Sabu saw this display and – as one would expect – was none too happy about it, promoting referee Mickey Doyle to be interjected into the storyline. TNA played up the true fact that Doyle has known Sabu for many years and even had a few battles against The Sheik back when he was a wrestler. Doyle told Sabu that because Raven’s actions were entirely disrespectful to the legacy of the late Sheik, he supported whatever Sabu believed was necessary to get back at Raven, even if it meant that he’d have to break his promise to The Sheik and battle Raven one-on-one.

Over the next four weeks, TNA built up the impending blowoff match by letting Raven stay home from the weekly Pay-Per-Views and Impact! show. Upon making his first TNA appearance in more than a month two weeks ago on Pay-Per-View, Raven not only costed Sabu his match against Abyss and put him through a table by diving off of a balcony; He challenged Sabu to a match on a future Pay-Per-View and a week later, Mike Tenay announced that Sabu had accepted Raven’s challenge and that they’d meet face-to-face for the first time on August 4. According to Tenay’s speech, Sabu had indicated that he’d only wrestle Raven once and when that match ended, he didn’t want any more of Raven.

However, waiting a week didn’t suit Raven. He wanted Sabu now, and – in order to lure him into the ring – wore what was supposedly one of The Sheik’s robes and proceeded to pour gasoline on it, as if about to light it on fire. And that wasn’t all. Raven revealed a gagged Sonjay Dutt from under the ring and threw him onto the pile, before preparing to engulf both the robes and Sonjay in flames. That was enough for Sabu, apparently. He appeared in the same manner that Raven made his return the previous week – the lights in the arena dimmed and when they were turned back up, Sabu charged Raven and they brawled before being broken up by security. And with that, the countdown was on to the first singles match ever between these two ECW icons.

Although TNA is hyping the bout as if Raven and Sabu were training partners when they really weren’t, the promotion is telling the truth about the fact that they have never wrestled each other one-on-on, not even in ECW. Raven admitted in his recent RF Video shoot interview that because both fighters were so vital to ECW's popularity in the mid and late-'90's, Paul Heyman objected to the notion of jobbing either one to the other. The idea of simply booking a No Contest between them also didn’t appeal to Heyman, since he knew that such a decision would've dissolved a substantial amount of the credibility that made both guys such draws in ECW.

To be fair, Heyman did have a point there – Raven and Sabu were either at or very near to their peaks during 1996 and 1997, and each guy was fully occupied at that time with long-term storylines. Sabu and Taz were working a rivalry that would climax at ECW’s inaugural Pay-Per-View, Barely Legal, in April 1997, and even after that match, they continued feuding for most of that year (and then resurface in 1999). When he wasn’t busy combating Taz, Sabu was teaming with Rob Van Dam against The Sandman & Tommy Dreamer. Likewise, Raven’s feud with Dreamer ended in mid-’97, but even if Heyman wished to, involving Raven in the RVD/Sabu vs. Sandman/Dreamer feud wasn’t an option because he had jumped to WCW.

Yet that wasn’t the last people saw of Raven in ECW. Heat developed between he and Eric Bischoff, resulting in Raven returning back home to ECW in 1999. Was a program with Sabu possible at that time? Probably not. At that point, Heyman was intent on wrapping up the nearly five-year long saga between Raven and Dreamer. Plus, when Raven reappeared in ECW, Sabu and Heyman were developing major problems with one another and by early 2000, their relationship had dissipated to the point that they couldn’t even work together anymore. After engaging with one another in some legal wrangling over Sabu’s ECW contract, Sabu broke away from ECW and started taking bookings on the U.S. independent circuit and also overseas. Then, mere months after Sabu departed from ECW, Raven signed with WWE. However, with that company’s management considering Sabu “too extreme” for their product, the possibility of a program between the two ECW legends disappeared until Raven left WWE in early 2002.

So now, Raven and Sabu find themselves having reunited in TNA, but the question that remains unanswered is whether there’s still any point to booking a storyline between them when each is so far past his prime. Undoubtedly, the match would’ve meant much more to the wrestling world if it happened in ECW, rather than TNA. ECW was more than the place where Raven and Sabu became wrestling superstars; it was where they were both in their primes. Now, their best years are in the past and the time until each grappler retires is gradually diminishing on a daily basis. In 2004, do Raven and Sabu still have the ability to deliver in a match with the other to the point that a program between them would be worthwhile?

Raven’s long-running feud with C.M. Punk and his matches with AJ Styles in NWA-TNA and Cleveland All Pro Wrestling have proven that he can adjust his style to work quite well with the younger talent on the independent circuit. Many fans saw in his series of matches with Punk shades of the old Raven – specifically of his emotionally-packed ECW rivalry with Tommy Dreamer. Other young talent such as Chris Hero (IWA Mid-South), Christopher Daniels (IWC and TNA), Nosawa (MLW), James Storm (TNA), Chris Harris (TNA), Joey Matthews (3PW), and Low Ki (USA Pro) have worked with Raven to produce commendable showings.

When TNA goes finally through with this grudge match tomorrow night, its bookers mustn’t put forth a lazy and unsuccessful attempt at living in the past (as it’s done before). In the past year, Raven has had some surprisingly solid matches with former-ECW rivals such as Justin Credible, Steve Corino, and Shane Douglas, which indicates that – if the situation is right – Raven can shine, even when in the ring with wrestlers his age or older.

Sabu has also proved capable of having excellent matches with talent much younger than himself. Over the past two years, Christopher Daniels, Super Dragon, Ruckus, Teddy Hart, The Messiah, and Homicide, among others, have produced unexpectedly great matches with him. Sabu, however, has tended to offer more of a mixed bag when it comes to matches against old ECW rivals.

For instance, his December 2003 match against Jerry Lynn in 3PW was very sloppy (mostly thanks to Sabu), but comparatively, just about everything seemed to go right with their EPIC match in California two years ago. Similarly, his three-way dance in NWA-TNA against New Jack and Sandman was just plain horrible, but the triangle match between the three in 3PW was multiple times more entertaining. While his 3PW match against Terry Funk was well-worked by both competitors, but their XPW match in mid-2000 was a considerable letdown.

On the other hand, most of Sabu’s MLW matches against La Parka and Mikey Whipwreck were solid and sometimes even quite good. Perhaps his best match since leaving ECW came against one of the most unlikely opponents of all – WWE superstar Al Snow. The two went all out in a January 2004 3PW match that mixed drama and high-risk spots to near perfection. Sabu is one of the least consistent wrestlers out there, and as a result, it’s become quite a challenge to tell if booking him with a particular wrestler will leave the fans going home happy or wondering why they spent their money on a 39-year old has-been.

Sabu’s bait of mailing it in on occasion hasn’t helped out his reputation and has instead lead to the laziness stereotype being applied to him more and more as his career has progressed. He far too frequently botches his signature spots and – even worse – will sometimes just go right back and repeat them with better execution, thereby detrimenting the psychology of his matches and also – to a degree – revealing the pre-determined nature of the business more than is necessary.

On the other side of the barrel is Raven. Since leaving WWE and becoming a mainstay on the indy circuit, he has been startlingly consistent in the substantial effort he puts into almost every one of his matches. Many fans have therefore came to consider the post-WWE Scott Levy to be representative of a rebirth – so to say – of Raven.

Look at the situation in this way – following his TNA debut in January 2003, Raven quickly became one of – if not the – hottest free agents on the independent wrestling circuit. Within a mere six months of his WWE release, Raven had been booked in 14 U.S. states and one foreign country (Canada), and he went out of his way to make sure everyone (both promoters and fans) got their money’s worth.

In one noteworthy instance, he worked the February 26 TNA event in Nashville, TN, then within two days was in California to wrestle “Vicious” Vic Grimes in XPW, and then immediately hightailed it to Illinois to battle Vic Capri for RCW just one night later (March 1). Since that first half-year of life on the indy circuit, Raven has expanded his bookings even more, having wrestled matches in Germany and England.

The fact that Raven was and still is traveling all over the world is a testament to his still-existent ability to entertain fans across the world. He has proved to his critics that he is still an icon in professional wrestling and can easily attract his fair share of fans to wrestling shows.

Nonetheless, considering that he’ll be turning 38 this coming September, his drawing power – and consequently the profitability of a Raven vs. Sabu feud, also – is starting to become limited. To maximize upon the program’s potential, it’s now or never for TNA, and thankfully it appears that they realize this and are going to hold the big match tomorrow evening.

How about after that, though? What’s going to happen following tomorrow’s blowoff (supposedly) match? Will Tenay’s statements prove true? Or will TNA try to milk this program for all it’s worth? And what about the other indy promotions out there that Raven and Sabu compete for? After TNA’s version of the Raven vs. Sabu feud takes a back seat, will the matchup transpire anywhere else (heck, will Raven even change his policy and allow it to?)? And even more importantly – if it does, will it mean anything after it’s already happened once? This is the difficult bind in which TNA finds itself – there are ramifications regardless of which direction it chooses to go in.

To conclude the rivalry with tomorrow night’s encounter is equivalent to in wasting (at least, in large part) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – a picture-perfect setup that the past has developed for this historic showdown. The back-story of these two superstars leading the ECW revolution, yet never facing off against one another, is enough to effectively underlie this program. TNA’s decision to further develop the storyline by pretending that The Sheik trained both Raven and Sabu lifts the already substantial intrigue of the match up to a whole new level. Yet – at the same time – further drawing out the rivalry over the next few weeks or months may only spark other problems down the road because of the limits that age and health has placed on each superstar.

While Sabu has only a few more years of wrestling left in his body, injuries are most certainly catching up to Raven, too. In fact, only about a month and a half ago, he was forced to cancel his scheduled USA Pro appearance because he reaggravated a rib injury on the June 16 TNA Pay-Per-View. Even more interestingly, though, Raven had – according to the 6/28 edition of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer newsletter – “protected himself the entire match” and didn’t even take “one bump nor [do] anything risky.” So, if “trying to do a safe match” (as Meltzer worded it) has resulted in injury for Raven, just how is he supposed to keep his body safe in a match that’s expected to radiate the old ECW stigma, which was based on high-risk spots and unruly brawling?

While both Raven and Sabu need to be sure that they stay healthy as long as this program extends, TNA also has some preparation to do in terms of maximizing the drawing power of each wrestler (and also retaining each one’s overness for the duration of the feud). Unlike several high-profile wrestlers who previously debuted for TNA as big-time players, but dropped to the lower level of the card within mere weeks (such as D’Lo Brown), Raven has maintained his spot in the upper echelon of TNA and is definitely over enough to be engaging in such a high-level feud.

Sabu’s push, on the other hand, has been on and off in TNA and the promotion desperately needs to permanently change that perception if it intends on playing out this rivalry as long as possible. This matchup shouldn’t be limited to occupying midcard status, like was the case with Sabu vs. Monty Brown and Raven vs. The Gathering earlier this year. Raven vs. Sabu is a dream match of a rare form – not only is it one of the few bouts that’s in the realm of possibility; it’s also more intriguing than just about any other one imaginable.

 

Over the past decade, Raven and Sabu have given their bodies and their souls to wrestling spectators around the world and – as a result – their names have become synonymous with the unforgettable influence that ECW left with pro wrestling. Each competitor added his own stylistic contribution to the hardcore wrestling methodology and their influence on that particular aspect of the industry led to a surge of popularity in an edgier, more violent form of wrestling, upon which promotions such as IWA-MS, CZW, XPW, and IWS were constructed.

Not only are Raven and Sabu associated with making ECW a household name in pro wrestling arguably more so than any of the other names that were cited above – Shane Douglas, Taz, Tommy Dreamer, and The Sandman. What ECW did was return the favor and raise Raven and Sabu to legendary status in the wrestling business (and especially the hardcore side of it).

It was through his ECW tenure that what was initially just a small cult following for Sabu in Japan during the early ‘90’s evolved into an entire movement for his insane, high-risk style over in the United States. Likewise, it wasn’t until he found a home in ECW in early 1995 that Raven’s inability to secure a steady gig in wrestling came to a close. No longer did he have to surf through countless promotions and countries in hopes of finding the character that was right for him. ECW was where he was meant to be.

In the years following Raven’s joining of ECW, he and Sabu worked with Tommy Dreamer and Taz, respectively, to produce what were probably ECW’s two most well-booked angles ever. Raven and Sabu were such draws to ECW fans that they were designated main and semi-main event spots on ECW’s inaugural Pay-Per-View, Barely Legal, in April 1997. While ECW was at its absolute pinnacle – when the entire “smark” wrestling world considered it to be the best thing that had hit the industry in years – Raven and Sabu were being pushed as two of the most formidable performers on its roster.

Heyman displayed his creative expertise by waiting patiently until the time would be right to develop a program between the two wrestlers (and – of course – that time never arrived during the course of ECW’s existence). He knew that to blow a feud between these two because of one or the other’s drawing power being in some type of down swing would be to spoil one of the most potentially lucrative angles that ever could’ve presented itself to the ECW creative team. The personas of these two superstars would’ve been perfect matches for a long-running series of bouts and if TNA plans it out right, this program could be the buried treasure for which it’s been searching ever since the “Bound For Glory” Sunday Pay-Per-View with Hulk Hogan fell through the cracks several months ago.

Although Raven has – as of late – opened up to his fans a bit more than previously by writing commentaries for his web site and doing interviews with various wrestling media outlets quite frequently, the fact remains that – while he was in ECW – Raven was a man of mystery. Despite commonly speaking on the air (unlike Sabu), his persona remained extremely unconventional, even in an industry that in and of itself is considered completely “different” than all other forms of entertainment.

The lines of reasoning in Raven’s ECW promos were so ambiguously and abstractly expressed that he sometimes sounded almost poetic, in a way. In fact, he borrowed ideas from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven,” and vaguely modeled his character after the work, even retaining its “Quote the Raven, Nevermore” line as his signature catchphrase. If the circumstances were right, Raven’s promos could spark shudders in the viewer because he so looked and acted the part that he was portraying. His character appeared so real that it was – to a degree – a chilling experience to watch him cut a promo. The bottom line is that the morose portrayal that the Raven character required couldn’t have fit Scott Levy more perfectly.

Yet – despite all of this – the thing that’s key to realize about Raven in comparison to Sabu is that when Raven is outside of the ring, he’s a relatively normal guy. I’ve met him before and he is quite courteous, accommodating, and – save for having made a living out of bleeding buckets in front of millions of people for a decade and a half – relatively normal.

This isn’t the case with Sabu. The total vocal reservation that the Sabu persona is marked by in the ring is not all that different compared to how the real-life Terry Brunk acts. Sabu keeps an extremely tight circle of friends in the business and is very cautious with whom he associates himself. Only a select few wrestlers – Rob Van Dam, The Sandman, Terry Funk, and New Jack among them – have broken through the wall with him, and – as a result – even other performers have ended up as the subject of his sometimes-inhospitable demeanor.

For example, one wrestler I spoke to – who credits Sabu with getting him a spot on a wrestling tour in Japan a few years back – explained to me an almost comical tendency of the 20-year veteran when he’s hanging out backstage. This wrestler explains how Sabu will often walk into a locker room and – one-by-one – shake the hand of each wrestler that he knows and has known for awhile. Then, when he gets done doing that, he’ll look around at the other workers who he doesn’t know on as personal a basis and will signal for them (only without saying anything, usually) to leave of the room and let him catch up on old times with his friends.

Another wrestler I spoke to – who originally met Sabu around 1994 and at one time was very friendly with him outside of the ring (although he hasn’t talked to him in two years, since this wrestler has retired) – tells me that Sabu is “incredibly kayfabe and old school.” According to this individual, Sabu considers wrestling fans as being obligated to respect the boundaries that were in place many years back between wrestlers and spectators, back when it wasn’t widely known that pro wrestling was staged.

In that era, most wrestlers remained in character even outside of the ring. Certainly a substantial amount of Sabu’s introversion towards fans and wrestlers alike can be traced back to the fact that he grew up under the watchful eye of his uncle, The Original Sheik. Besides being famous for gouging his opponents’ foreheads with sharp foreign objects, The Sheik was also well-known for his tendency to reject fans’ autograph requests, and – in the rare instances when he did oblige – it was often while acting excessively grouchy with the fan(s). The Sheik was one of the most hated heels in the industry and that role carried over outside of the ring.

This kayfabe-oriented mentality of The Sheik rubbed off onto young Terry Brunk, who vowed early in his career that he was going to center his wrestling character around remaining silent in public. The combined number of promos Sabu has cut and interviews he’s granted during his career can be counted on two hands, and the only other times his voice can be heard on tape is when he’s screaming in agony during one of his many gory death matches.

Over the course of his 20-year career, Sabu is one of the few wrestlers who have remained true to their roots and haven’t given into the “smark” fanbase’s pressure to modify his persona and speak more frequently. In that way, fans have come to regard him with a sense of awe.

Not surprisingly, seeing the man compete in a live setting is an experience that few other sites can come close to matching. Yes, it’s true that Sabu has suffered burns from fire matches, cuts and stab wounds from scissors, barbed-wire, thumbtacks, etc., and even a bullet that remains lodged in his throat to this very day from when he was shot years ago as a high school student. However, the aura about Sabu transcends even deeper than this. He’s suffered more agony over the span of just a few years than most people experience in their entire life, and yet he’s one of an extremely small number of wrestlers who’ve never openly discussed their career with the wrestling media.

While Raven’s persona is – as I worded it above – “unconventional,” it’s just that – a persona. With Sabu, what you see is what you get. In an industry in which detractors are always able to turn to the “it’s all fake” excuse if they run out of points of criticism, the character fans see Terry Brunk portray in the squared circle isn’t all that different than what he’s like outside of the ring. Sabu, therefore, is as real as real can be, and he possesses a mystifying demeanor that makes a feud with one of the very few wrestlers who can come even close to matching his excessively reserved persona (one of whom is Raven) all the more intriguing.

One of the ideas that TNA needs to display to its fans if it hopes for this feud to succeed to the greatest degree possible is this mystifying demeanor possessed by each wrestler. Granted, since debuting in TNA, Raven has dropped the gloomy, depressed persona that made him a legend in ECW and has instead became far more “human,” so to say (much like Kane when he first began speaking regularly). However, not even this fact can detriment the uniquely fascinating aspect of the storyline, which it may’ve ended up doing if TNA had booked the feud differently. The promotion has redeveloped at least a part of Raven’s past mystique with the mind games he’s been playing on Sabu. The fans are left in the blue as to what he’s going to pull out of his sleeve next in order to confuse his arch-enemy.

Perhaps most importantly, though, TNA was intelligent enough to realize that Raven needed to be a heel for this feud to fully succeed. If he had remained a face (as he had been ever since his first TNA appearance) during this program, it wouldn’t have been possible for him to readopt some of the slyness that so marked his ECW persona. WCW, the WWF, and even ECW made attempts to endear him to fans, but – besides for TNA – he never was a major draw while in a face role. That helps show that in his best form, Raven is a heel, and in order to capture the nostalgic mystique of a Raven vs. Sabu feud, TNA needed to convert him to a bad guy and were right in doing so.

Raven and Sabu weren’t just two of ECW’s top superstars. They were two ECW mainstays who the fans watched the every move of in hopes of learning just a little bit more about than what was displayed on-screen. However, the reason for this primarily sub-conscious desire on the part of the fans entirely depended on the wrestler. Sabu straight out refused to speak in public, which caused many fans to wonder what the man under the gimmick was like. Comparatively, Raven had little problem with cutting public promos, but even when he did, he was able to convey a devious – in some ways even psychotic – mindset. Together, that combination of personalities has made for one of the most intriguing feuds that pro wrestling has been able to offer in recent years.

 

Now, the stage is set. TNA needs to take the initiative from this point on. Of course, both Raven and Sabu must be at their bests – both wrestlers health-wise and Sabu execution-wise – but from a creative perspective, the ball is in TNA’s court from this point on. The creative team must make the right booking decisions if it intends to capture the former-ECW spirit and nostalgia. In fact, part of that task has been done for the promotion already. TNA has under contract two wrestlers whose names are indelibly etched in the annals of ECW notoriety, and these two competitors are willing to do whatever TNA management specifies to intensify this program each Wednesday and Thursday night.

The rest of the task relies on TNA conveying to its audience the nostalgia-based intrigue of the inaugural singles match between these two mysterious beings. Once the match has happened once, that “first time” appeal is gone forever. So, tomorrow night the promotion must avoid the erroneous booking that has led to it previously botching other main event storylines. Either the aura of each superstar and of the matchup itself is reflected by TNA’s booking decisions in the near future, or Raven vs. Sabu will drop down to the drawing power of just another Raven vs. Douglas or Sabu vs. Sandman match.

Natural history has developed the ideal buildup for this rivalry, but buildup alone means nothing unless TNA can deliver, and tomorrow night is when everything is on the line for the organization. At one point in their careers, Raven and Sabu could put on a match with drama that religiously glued fans to their TV sets. Are they still up to the task? In less than 24 hours, we’ll find out.

 

Tune in tomorrow night (Wednesday, August 24) to your local cable or satellite provider as TNA Wrestling broadcasts one of its most highly-anticipated Pay-Per-Views in its two-year history at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Check out TNAWrestling.com for more info.

 

 

 

 

Also, someone let me know the link to the TNA message board because I want to post this there. What's the link? Thanks in advance.

[Guest jacurutu3]

Good job.i always enjoy your articles on here and the extreme detail you put into them........