Terry Michael Brunk (born December 12, 1963) better known by his ring name Sabu , is an American professional wrestler. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion (two ECW Championships, one NWA Championship), and is best known for his appearances with the original Extreme Championship Wrestling and other independents throughout the 1990s, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2002 until 2006, and his recent tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment on its ECW brand, which lasted from April 2006 until May 2007. He is most well-known for his extreme wrestling style.
Professional wrestling career
Training and Frontier Martial–Arts Wrestling (1991–1993)
Brunk was trained by his uncle, Ed Farhat (The Sheik), and was initially trained to be a technical wrestler. He began his wrestling career in the Sheik's promotion, Big Time Wrestling, and was billed as being from Saudi Arabia under the ring name "Sabu the Elephant Boy" (use of "The Elephant Boy" was dropped in his later days). He was not billed as Terry Brunk, since it could confuse him with ECW's Terry Funk.
He soon traveled with his uncle to Frontier Martial–Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he received many of the cuts and bruises on his arms and torso for which he became famous. Brunk cleared all rumors that the cuts and bruises were self-induced in a shoot interview with RF Video, confirming that they were a result of numerous hardcore matches he was involved in, including participating in over two dozen no-rope barbed wire death matches. Sabu often competed in Japanese hardcore matches, where he teamed with the Sheik, Tiger Jeet Singh and Horace Boulder. Sabu feuded with the likes of Tarzan Goto and Atsushi Onita in FMW.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–1995)
Brunk revealed in a shoot promo and in the documentary film Forever Hardcore that in fact it was not Paul Heyman that brought him into Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) but that he was at the right place at the right time. He was referred by a friend to Tod Gordon. According to the storyline, Sabu, who at that time often arrived to the ring by his handler 911, was an uncontrollable madman strapped to a gurney and with a Hannibal Lecter-style face mask while trying to break free (he claimed to hate this part of his gimmick as he was normally tired before he started his match). Sabu could only be released from his bonds to wrestle his matches. Sabu also quickly became synonymous with table-breaking at this time; if a table was not broken during the match, Sabu would break a table with his own body after the bell had sounded. Sometimes leading to 911 having to restrain Sabu during backstage interviews if a table was present.
One of the most notable aspects of Sabu's early career was his refusal to speak, a gimmick that he inherited from The Sheik (who never spoke English in public to protect kayfabe). In his early career, Sabu was billed as being from Saudi Arabia, or Bombay, India (in real life he is a second generation Lebanese American from Detroit). In ECW, however, he was clearly heard to speak in the ring on several occasions and it was fairly common knowledge that Brunk was an American citizen from birth. This led to a joke at kayfabe's expense when Sabu began to be billed as hailing from "Bombay, Michigan".
The most significant matches during the early part of Sabu's career in ECW were his three way dance for the ECW Championship at The Night the Line Was Crossed , against Terry Funk and Shane Douglas, which went to a 1 hour time limit draw and his tag team feud with The Public Enemy in which Sabu and his partner The Tazmaniac capture the ECW Tag Team Championship in a double tables match. Another notable event occurred when, after being scheduled for a 3-way dance for the ECW Tag Team title, Sabu no–showed the event to accept a booking in Japan, which led Paul Heyman to publicly and legitimately fire Sabu at the event. Sabu stated in the Forever Hardcore documentary that he had a career wrestling in Japan yet only wrestled once every so often for ECW; thus, he chose Japan over ECW.
World Championship Wrestling (1995)
Sabu made his WCW debut on September 11, 1995 on an edition of WCW Monday Nitro against Alex Wright. Sabu won the match, but the decision was reversed when after the match he put Wright through a table. Sabu continued to wrestle some of the cruiserweights in WCW in the early days of the division, including a match against Mr. J.L. at Halloween Havoc. Sabu came out victorious against J.L., and following the match Sabu's uncle Shiek hit J.L. in the face with his trademark fireball. His last match in WCW was against Disco Inferno, which Sabu won. Following his victory, he put Disco on a table on the outside and attempted to flip onto Disco but Disco moved. Sabu hit the table back first, but the table did not break. In response, Sabu began no selling the table spot and started throwing the table as well as the ring stairs.
Return to ECW (1996–2001)
He eventually returned to ECW the next year, and engaged in matches and feuds with the likes of Rob Van Dam, with whom he later teamed up with and won the ECW Tag Team Championship twice. In the meantime, former tag team partner Tazmaniac (who had shortened his name to "Taz") began to publicly challenge Sabu at every given opportunity, but got no response. After a year of call-outs and insults from Taz, Heyman revealed that he had asked Sabu, as a friend, to ignore Taz's challenge. This standoff culminated in a grudge match at ECW's first pay-per-view, Barely Legal, which Taz won. The two continued to feud on and off for the remainder of Taz's ECW career. Sabu mentioned in a shoot interview with RF Video that he didn't want to work with Taz for this match because he had already wrestled him before and wanted to work with other talent. He also mentioned that Taz calling him out for a year was not planned. Paul Heyman convinced Sabu to wrestle Taz at Barely Legal.
Sabu was later included in the WWF invasion angle, in which ECW wrestlers invaded WWF's Monday Night Raw program and held ECW-style matches and angles on the show. One memorable moment occurred at this show when Sabu appeared during Tazz's match with Mikey Whipwreck and prepared for an aerial move off the "R" in the "RAW" lettered entryway onto Team Tazz members, but instead accidentally fell off the "R". This was not planned which led to Sabu landing on top of Team Tazz members and becoming an inside joke between him and Tazz backstage. This invasion angle also led to a heel turn for Sabu in ECW as he teamed up with Rob Van Dam and their manager Bill Alfonso to promote the virtues of the WWF product over ECW's. Sabu feuded with ECW loyalists Tommy Dreamer and Sandman during this period.
One of Sabu's most infamous matches was the No-Rope Barbed-Wire match with Terry Funk at Born to be Wired , a match which was promoted as being "too extreme even for ECW" – and with good reason: both men bled profusely. In one of the most memorable moments in ECW history, Sabu attempted the "Air Sabu" corner splash on Terry Funk. Funk moved and Sabu ended up colliding violently into the wire which tore open his biceps. He then asked his manager Bill Alfonso for some tape and after Alfonso went to get some Sabu began to tape the gash up, which was about 10 inches long. Funk has stated that, to this day, he has never seen anything like what Sabu did that night. The match ended with both men so badly tangled up together in the barbed wire that it took several ring technicians armed with wire cutters to free them from the predicament (on the DVD Bloodsport – ECW's Most Violent Matches released by World Wrestling Entertainment, Paul Heyman said that the match was "so gruesome, I never ever dared to schedule another one like it", and that they never had another Barbed-Wire match in ECW because "no one could top that one – and in good conscience, I never want anyone to try") but Sabu said during his Shoot with RF Video that Heyman wanted to do another Bared-Wire match but would on ask for more money each time.
Brunk racked up an astounding catalogue of injuries during his ECW tenure, including broken ribs, a broken jaw, and breaking his neck twice. The first time he broke his neck was during his match with Chris Benoit at 1994 November to Remember event. Benoit threw Sabu, intending that he take a flapjack bump, but Brunk attempted to turn mid-air and take a back body drop bump instead. The other was during a match against Taz in December 1998, when Brunk took a Taz–Plex through a table and landed incorrectly. Brunk was able to recover from the neck injuries and return to wrestling, and he even wore a neck brace in his return match in the United States a month following the injury at Taz's hands; by Brunk's account, however, he started actively wrestling in Japan on a short tour a little over two weeks after that injury.
Juggalo Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Allstars (2001–2003)
Sabu had a short stint in Juggalo Championship Wrestling. On July 14, 2001 in Toledo, Ohio he won a battle royal to determine the new JCW Heavyweight Champion, after the title was vacated earlier. One day later the former champion Vampiro won the championship back.
Sabu competed for the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) in a number of events during 2002 and 2003. This included four appearances on PPV and a number of memorable matches. His first appear
Terry Brunk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Terry Michael Brunk (born December 12, 1963) better known by his ring name Sabu, is an American professional wrestler. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion (two ECW ...
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john cena vs sabu (wwe vs ecw)-extreme rules match ... three guys beat eachother up more. rob just had to take a piledriver, kick sabu ...
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SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Sabu
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From Hostile City Showdown ‘96. RVD and Sabu are “vibrating” on the same level here, so this is better than a match with that smug HHH. The match is also brutal and I’m ...
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Le match entre Rey Mysterio et Sabu au ECW One night stand 2006 avec régles extreme. Laisser vo com et note Date du One night stand: 11 juin 2006
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YouTube - Sabu vs. Kane - ECW Extreme Rules - SvR 08 (PS2)
This is an ECW Extreme Rules match between Sabu and Kane, as requested from "EddieGurreo900". I played as Kane. Enjoy! *No longer taking requests (for now).
Terry Brunk
Himself (1 episode, 2006) - Episode #1.2 (2006) TV episode (as Sabu) .... Himself; ECW One Night Stand (2006) (TV) (as Sabu) .... Himself