Sabu was one of the few unique wrestlers, often poorly imitated, never duplicated. With the NWA essentially being dead once WCW stopped sending the champion to tour the remaining territories, Sabu felt like the most important American touring wrestler in 1993 before he was largely just working in Japan and ECW. All the tapes I was getting were puroresu or Lucha Libre, but amidst the Jushin Thunder Liger & Ultimo Dragon compilations, the AJW Dreamslams & AJPW Kawada vs. Misawa or Kobashi matches, the one American wrestler that felt must see to me during this period was Sabu, who seemed unlike any other wrestler at this point.

Sabu was one of the innovators of hardcore wrestling, which I was never that into, but found a lot more interesting in the 90s then afterwards. While we could credit people like Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik & Atsushi Onita before him or Cactus Jack and Terry Funk with various contributions to the style around the same time, Sabu was clearly the first who blended the high flying junior heavyweight style with the plunder. Onita did what he did in FMW because he couldn't do the junior heavyweight style anymore once he wrecked his knee, and generally these bloody weapon matches were the last vestige of the old, broken, and talentless. American gimmick matches tended to be reserved for the blowoff of a lengthy feud between otherwise potentially good wrestlers, but when hardcore indies filled with 70s and 80s AJPW & NJPW rejects started in Japan, gimmick main events became the selling point of watching guys who could no longer work at the level of the major leagues. Sabu didn't fit that mold, but he helped change the perception of what could and should be done in these kind of matches. Others could weird a chair, but no one else at this point was using tables and chairs for flips, dives, and springboards.

Sabu could wrestle before 1993, but he wound up in the Japanese hardcore promotion FMW because they were there only ones who still wanted his ancient uncle The Sheik to do something that wasn't really wrestling half a lifetime ago when he was actually in his 30s. It shot Sabu from the opening match to the main event, but there were few capable opponents for him, and everything was a barbed wire, street fight, or some other match that tore his body up. Sheik nearly got burned to death in their No Rope Barbed Wire Tornado Fire Death against Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto on 5/6/92, but still managed to come out of his coma and wrestle through 3rd degree burns 2 1/2 weeks later. Sabu's table and chair routine was largely developed in FMW because guys were always looking to use weapons even in matches that weren't specifically billed as death matches. Sabu wasn't pushing hardcore wrestling in his early days, but he did it more creatively and athletically than the others. When he wrestled lesser opponents, the match was largely just Sabu jumping at them to make something happen.

Sabu was the most unique performer in the US from 1993-1994. He was doing his own brand of junior heavyweight style that incorporated aspects of hardcore wrestling, neither of which really had any sort of foothold in the country on their own, but certainly nothing like the way he was doing them. Sabu was one of the most unpredictable wrestlers. He's a wrestler who "should have been" a dastardly unskilled brawler", but changed the lexicon through his acrobatics. Though he was obtensibly trained by The Sheik, their styles were nothing alike and all his acrobatics were essentially self taught. Sabu & his best friend Rob Van Dam would try out their stunts on one another in the backyard while they thought Sheik wasn't looking.

Even though we were a decade after Tiger Mask in Japan, and high flying had long been a thing in Mexico, there were very few American matches in 1993 that showcased Sabu's level of flying even if we discounted that he added the tables and chairs. You had Jerry Lynn & Sean Waltman who were avid tape collectors and spent a lot of time touring Japan, Chris Benoit, 2 Cold Scorpio & Brian Pillman who were even trained outside the US, and Jushin Thunder Liger making occasional appearances in WCW. Meanwhile, such generic and remedial skilled wrestlers as Ricky Morton, Raven, Z-Man were still considered junior stylists by virtue of doing a dropkick and not being 300 pound roid monsters. You wouldn't be wrong to say that virtually every 21st century hardcore matches is a descendant of Sabu, but people such as Hayabusa in FMW and Tomoaki Honma in BJW were the most direct descendants of what Sabu was really doing, blending the spectacular with the deadly.

Sabu's junior heavyweight style was much more interesting than his hardcore style, and he could have just been a pioneering American junior heavyweight. He had very good straight junior style matches with Sean Waltman & Jerry Lynn in 1993, and Waltman was quickly onto the WWE. This wouldn't have been as lucrative short term because he wouldn't have headlined a major promotion with this style, but he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title in 1995, and would have faced less resistance in WCW as another of the ex New Japan guys who wanted to jump around.

Even the guys who had been exposed to international wrestling and toured Japan had a different junior style that wasn't so relient on rope work. Sabu was either slingshotting himself from outside the ring to in, or diving to the floor. He jumped around a lot, but no one else was doing was using a chair to jump off of or using a table for a combination of more theoretic damage and breaking ones fall.

Sabu actually had an amateur wrestling background, but there was no real market for that anymore since Vince McMahon promoting something he didn't actually even like resulted in the Georgeous George style of corny showmanship winning out over the Lou Thesz style of credible sporting holds and counter holds. While no one in pro wrestling used a legitimate amateur wrestling takedown, Sabu may have come the closest, as he started most of his matches off by diving at the opponent's ankle to unbalance them. Sabu wasn't what one would call an orthodox technical wrestler, but his earlier US independent matches contained a reasonable amount of technical wrestling, and might carry over an injury storyline into the faster athletic portion.

No one would ever accuse Sabu of being in full control of his body, but that worked in his favor to some extent. While he lacked the performance gymnastics abilities of a Hiromi Yagi, Natsuki Taiyo, Ikuto Hidaka type to really make what his opponent was doing to him look a lot better because of the incredible manner in which he was able to maneuver his body on the fly with precision rolls and tumbles, he was perhaps the only wrestler who succeeded in the opposite direction, where he was able to play up that he had a certain recklessness. His lack of cold technical precision made his offense come off as legitimately unpredictable and dangerous. There's no denying that some of Sabu's stuff was a complete botch-o-matic train wreck, but that was mostly in later years when he was a lot more broken down and not quite as athletic. He's always a little awkward, but during this period he's more or less as reliable as anyone else trying a high difficulty style. Sabu was one of the only wrestlers who blended purposeful high risk crashing and burning into his style, certainly guys would miss a dropkick or even a move off the top rope, but Sabu took it to a whole new level, plunging onto chairs and through tables with kamikaze style landings. The idea that things would backfire on him made it more acceptable when he actually screwed up. I won't say that his struggles to balance on loose ropes helped his matches, but in moderation, the high risk/high reward nature of his style kept you watching because you just never knew what was going to happen. Sabu was the performer the average wrestling fan would have the hardest time predicting what was supposed to happen because he lacked the slickness of the other athletic wrestlers, and didn't perform many maneuvers in a conventional and technically precise manner.

Sabu was the guy who pulled off the killing himself for our enjoyment style. He was a force of nature. His matches were very attrition based, a human battering ram so to speak where success was measured by his offense taking more out of his opponents than out of himself. He wasn't just making mayhem and creating chaos, he had a certain psychology that few have duplicated because he was always willing to fail spectacularly. His botches and recklessness were part of his gimmick. While I doubt many were actually on purpose like RVD has claimed, I think the point is he was trying to be a human projectile missile. He was Sabuicidal, so it might be accurate to say that he didn't care if both wrestlers took damage on a stunt. He's the opposite of a GSP chess player who is going to default to his programming of the highest percentage play possible. Sabu fought like he wasn't afraid to lose, and was instead about making something happen. When his opponent was down, he was going to launch himself at them, and really just hope for the best. He'd always try to fly as high to the sun as he could, and if his opponent moved and he crashed and burned, so be it. He was always more than willing to go down in a blaze of glory. His style was about asking those questions and forcing his opponent to have the answers until he won the match, or probably lost it for himself.

I'm not big on watching too many matches of the same wrestler in a short period of time because most of them are samey, and the repetition makes them even duller. The great thing about Sabu is you never knew what he would do next, and if it would work. I don't always think Sabu did either. He was a rare find out type of wrestler, a believably wild performer who sacrificed his body to wrestling. A Sabu match was an unpredictable journey where he would have amazing successes and devastating failures. Sabu often got injured during matches, but he also put a lot of effort into selling his injuries, so you weren't always sure how much was fact and how much was fiction. For a guy that largely relied upon high flying, there was a period when Sabu genuinely put a lot of effort into hobbling and limping around to sell knee injuries. I'm not a big fan of the theater of pro wrestling, but it worked for Sabu because he was reckless and dangerous enough that you could believe it wasn't just a ploy to kill time. Of course, Sabu's stunt show style isn't recommended for longevity. When you combine that with his lack of body control, it's not surprising that there were diminishing returns. There's only so many times you are going to be able to come back at the same level from these crash landings, even when they don't go awry.

Sabu's primary promotion in 1993-94 was FMW, but this is far from his more interesting work. Sabu was mostly doing barbed wire and street fight tag matches there against guys that were actually doing those kind of matches for a reason. In America, he was more than content to have junior heavyweight matches, and his best work was against Al Snow & Too Cold Scorpio, who he wrestled often, with notable matches against Chris Benoit, Sean Waltman, & Jerry Lynn. In 1994, he gets pushed into brawls more in America as well, feuding with Cactus Jack & Terry Funk.

One of the most effective parts of Sabu's early personality were his efforts to carve out his own niche within the unhinged heel routine Sheik did. Sabu had an aura of craziness, and was arguably at his most feared in the 4/17/93 NWA match where he chases the ref and ring announcer out of the ring before Lightning Kid comes out to start the match. ECW improved his presentation by having 911 wheel him out on a gurney in restraints and muzzle. Sabu was managed by Paul Heyman, and got a huge push right away, replacing an "injured" Sandman on 10/2/93 to defeat Shane Douglas for the ECW Heavyweight Title in just 1:34. Sabu also wons the TV Title from Terry Funk in a tag match on 11/13/93. In general, I'm a much bigger fan of Sabu in the US outside of ECW because that was where he had matches that were more junior heavyweight style and less gimmick oriented, but this Hannibal Lecktor (I go with the Manhunter spelling since that was the highlight of the series, where Brian Cox gives the best Hannibal performance) sort of presentation from Heyman was his best contribution to Sabu. Granted, this wildman gimmick would have worked better if the fans didn't love Sabu so much that he was a sympathetic lunatic babyface rather than a deranged heel like his uncle.

Sabu was ECW's best wrestler in 1993-94 in the sense that he was the guy who had the few recommended matches the promotion managed (obviously Benoit had the most talent, but his availability was limited to roughly one weekend per month). In 1995, Sabu mostly wrestled in Japan due to Paul Heyman publicly firing him at the ECW Three Way Dance show on 4/8/95 because Sabu chose to prioritize his primary promotion New Japan, which paid him roughly twice as much per match as ECW did and amounted to full time pay vs. a couple gigs a month, doing a special Heisei Ishingun show. The HI show paid a lot more than his average $3000 per match with New Japan because they paid per tours that were 2-3 weeks long but this was a special one off in between tours. Initially, Sabu was still going to fly halfway around the world so Heyman could gladly pay him $1500 Tuesday for a match today, but the flight scheduling didn't quite work out, perhaps he lacked the superpowers of the mighty Hulk Hogan to somehow work 400 days a year by breaking the time zone barrier. The reason Sheik was a successful draw is he was the only one in the territory, whether it be his Detroit promotion or Giant Baba's All Japan, doing the fireball throwing wildman act. Rocco Rock had put Sabu through a table with the drive by as a key part of the Public Enemy vs. Sabu & Taz fued leading up to the 3 Way Dance that Rick Steiner ultimately replaced Sabu in, but once Heyman decided he was going to make an example of Sabu, how dare he expect compensation for killing himself, he encouraged the remaining inmates to truly plunder the gimmicks Sabu had made famous so ECW theoretically wouldn't be much different without Sabu. Most of the guys who stole his gimmicks were hacks who didn't offer much beyond them, but Heyman was able to get 911 over, and he was seemingly only capable of doing one move, so mileage varied depending upon how discerning the individual fan was. This was also around the time when Sabu's junior heavyweight style was also somewhat replaced in ECW by the excellent Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko program until WCW signed them, and their replacements, Psicosis vs. Rey Misterio Jr., even added the tables & chairs to their great high flying spectacle.

Sabu was still good in 1995, but he was already broken from the spinal chord injury he suffered in his 11/5/94 match against Benoit, among other bang ups. ECW now had several high end matches that didn't involve him, and he had a hard time finding a place where he could both still be himself and cash in on the popularity of the things he'd brought to wrestling. The wall between the independent wrestling leagues such as ECW & FMW that encouraged wild, crazy, and chaotic acts and the more conservative major promotions WWF, WCW, NJPW, & AJPW that were a lot more risk averse had yet to break down. The bigger promotions he moved on to, whether it be WCW, AJPW, or WWE, tried to make him compromise who he was and never treated him as anything special to begin with, preventing him from doing his gimmick to the fullest in the early years when his ideas were less common or having someone else do table and chair spots that wouldn't have existed if not for him in the later years when his gimmicks had become widespread. The other promotions always wanted him to be something or someone he wasn't, but he understood what made him different, what made him Sabu. Sabu was one of the few wrestlers that managed to stay true to himself, but one could argue that while he did have success elsewhere, it ultimately cost him millions and he never had a true home outside of ECW. I'm not a huge fan of his 21st century work, but he's a rare wrestler who managed to maintain dignity and respect.

Now, let's look at the best matches of Sabu at the height of his talent and influence.

4/17/93 NWA: Lightning Kid vs. Sabu 14:07. The "what could have been" match for Sabu where he faced another high flyer and dared to just do a junior heavyweight style match rather than the hardcore nonsense that made him famous, but also killed his body off within a year, and led to a lengthy career of gluing himself back together and trudging forward in massive amounts of pain and disability. This was the kind of more sustainable match Sabu could have become known for if Paul Heyman didn't get a hold of him. It was a clean performance from Sabu showing that he could be a reliable junior heavyweight when he wasn't forcing all the stunts and wildness. It's not as unique in the grand scheme of things internationally, but outside of Lightning vs. Jerry Lynn and Jushin Thunder Liger vs Brian Pillman, American fans hadn't really seen this sort of all out high flying junior match before. It's not a perfect match by any means, but it's flaws are much more obvious in retrospect than they were at the time. The match was a big favorite among tape traders, and I don't recall too many people were complaining about the lack of tables. One of the most effective parts of Sabu's early personality were his efforts to carve out his own niche in the Sheik's unhinged heel routine. Here, he chased the ref and ring announcer out of the ring before Lightning Kid came out. Not wanting to get further roughed up by the madman, the introductions were conducted from the outside. Given the silly finish, Sabu really needed to insert a few more of these deranged moments. These two were both normally heels, but this introduction established Kid as the face for the night for being the sane one. Kid gave a good babyface performance here, playing the underdog role he'd soon become famous for in WWF, who he had just had his tryout match with the week before. Kid was fighting from underneath most of the match, but of course, Sabu always throws in some major backfires, in this case the featured disaster being Kid spiking him off the middle rope when Sabu tried his avalanche Frankensteiner. It was the rare Kid match where you didn't need his offense as badly because his opponent's offense was at least equally as exciting. Kid did a lot here, especially considering he was just coming back from suffering what doctors advised should be a career ending blood clot near his brain against Bill Wilcox on 11/28/92, and having his official WWF debut coming up in a week, and the New Japan Super Junior tour the next month. Sabu was theoretically trained by his uncle The Sheik, but it's debatable whether Sheik used a handful of wrestling moves across his nearly 50 year in ring career, so how much he could have actually taught Sabu seems questionable, especially given he was in his mid 60s by the time this training occurred. Sabu has one of the most unconventional looking styles where he just moves and hits differently than anyone else. Usually this is technically for the worse, though his straight right hand is excellent, but at the same time, he somewhat makes up for it because he's distinctive. I thought they were going to incorporate a few nods to Sabu's hardcore style when Kid bled, but this just wound up being unnecessary, as it was bizarrely caused by Sabu's manager Sir Oliver Humperdink posting him, and then never followed up upon directly through Sabu attacking the cut or indirectly through Sabu using his usual tables and chairs. Ultimately, this was something of the great indy spotfest formula in the sense that it's just throwing constant dives at the wall, focusing on spectacle, with some blood and chaos rather than building up the match, but this was years before that formula was created. Basically, it's a highlight reel of what both could do that stood out at the time because it was uncommon that both wrestlers actually had move sets, much less ones that fit into the New Japan Junior division. This kind of thing is mostly what we get today, but at least this was authentic, as well as obviously way ahead of it's time. Sabu randomly pulling referee Mike Diamond in front of Kid's dropkick made no sense when he could have just as easily have avoided it. Then he punched Diamond, who I thought DQ'd him, but apparently this was even more inexplicably ruled a no contest. This was such a lousy out of nowhere finish to a match that was seemingly very much on the ascendancy. It was right out of the early 80's All Japan playbook of teasing you with something good only to just throw it out on cue. Sabu & Kid were two of the first indy darlings in the restructuring landscape after Vince killed the territory system. If you were a "smart" fan in 1993, you sought out this match, and it didn't disappoint. In the end, this was still just a regular Japanese junior style match, with more dives but less fundamentals. There wasn't any payoff to anything, but it was certainly fun. It might be 4 stars at the time because Americans were sheltered from high quality international junior style wrestling, but it's not a match that has a lot going for it beyond hard work and the ooh and aah factor of the dives. ***1/2

7/10/93 NWA: Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn 14:31. This was another high level straight junior heavyweight style match from pre-ECW Sabu. There's no stalling in either of these NWA Grandslam matches, and no filler, though this one feels like there were a few matches they could have had instead of just defaulting to spectacle. Lynn is a better worker than Lightning Kid, but not as spectacular. Rather than this being fireworks back and forth, it was a lot more of a showcase for Sabu's flying, with Lynn being a strong base and getting in just enough offense to stay in the match. The work here was better, it flowed, but there was enough resistance that it doesn't feel cooperative beyond all that guys waiting around to be jumped on entails. Sabu actually injured Lynn's knee with his usual takedown and joint work, so Lynn couldn't even complete his 1st comeback after hitting his dropkick. Sabu inexplicably didn't stay with this, starting to work over the arm instead, though he would upend Lynn when he needed to. They were capable of good sequences when they wanted to. For instance, Sabu landing on his feet for a superplex attempt then Lynn landing on his feet for a German suplex out of the corner, and getting a near fall with his own German suplex. Mostly this was Sabu taking it to Lynn until a high risk move backfired though. The only gimmick spot was Lynn powerbombing Sabu on a table that refused to break. The only big miscue was Lynn stunning Sabu by connecting with his knees on what was supposed to be a moonsault attack. The ref bump worked much better here than in the Kid match, with Lynn taking a Frankensteiner then countering a second by shooting Sabu over his head, which resulted in Sabu catching the unsuspecting ref with a flying kick. Sabu's manager T.R. Shock then used his boot on Lynn, and propelled Chris Candido for a rocket launcher. The ref came to in time for Sabu to pin Lynn with his Arabian press. I didn't like this ending, but it was at least reasonably done. ***1/2

10/30/93 NWA, Steel Cage Match: Sabu vs. Chris Candido 17:54. This was much better than their WWA match from 11/14/92, largely because Candido was a lot better now. He was in his third year, and seemed to have come into his own. His work was a lot more fluid, and had developed his move set quite a bit. This match was a lot more back and forth. Sabu was actually more under control in the confines of the cage than in a normal match. He had less issues than usual, and I didn't find it detrimental that he couldn't use a table or chair. They largely did a regular wrestling match even though it took place in a cage, ramming each other into it now and again. Candido did his Avalanche superplex, and a little later tried to do another one off the top of the cage, but Sabu front suplexed him into the ring and missed a moonsault off the cage. Somehow the ref was down for minutes after Sabu landed on him, which helped Candido in the short term because Tammy sprayed Sabu in the eyes, but then there was no one to count Candido's pinfalls. Sabu kicked out of a German suplex when the referee finally recovered, and botched a shooting star press. Candido survived the Arabian press, but for some reason then lost to a small package. Tazmaniac came in and beat Sabu with a chair afterwards, and they double teamed him for quite a while. ***

12/10/93 MPW: Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn 10:22. This was a lucky meeting where Lynn was a regular in Hamada's Universal, so he was asked to participate in one of Michinoku's first tours, and this show was the 1st of two with FMW participation, so Sabu got to do something that wasn't a barbed wire match. They did a toned down version of their American junior style match, with a little more table work, largely designed to put over Sabu, who was the much bigger star in Japan from touring regularly as a sometimes main eventer with a far more popular promotion than the upstart Michinoku. They weren't taking it easy, but this was a 10 minute midcard match where they weren't trying to steal the show either. Sabu is great at using whatever tools are at his disposal, but doesn't get enough credit for the ways he uses the ring itself. For instance, he used the corner to do a rolling senton variation where his arm strength allowed him to perform the forward flip, similar to how one might utilize parallel bars in gymnastics, except he had the corner at his disposal, so he kicked off that. Both hit a tope con giro then Sabu put Lynn on a table and did a slingshot senton atomico to the floor, but the table didn't break. Lynn couldn't break the table either by powerbombing Sabu on it. The ending seemed pretty random if you are used to the wrestlers not putting over any of this damage on the outside, but I thought it was okay, even though Lynn got the better of the table spots. Lynn tried to reenter with a diving headbutt, but Sabu avoided it, and pinned him with the Arabian press. I think their 1995 WCW matches were wrestled at a higher level, with the Nitro match easily being better than the Halloween Havoc match, but they were so incredibly short and rushed they obviously didn't give them any opportunity to show the level they were capable of reaching. ***

1/5/94 FMW: Sabu vs. Dark Ranger 6:11. Dark Ranger was a brief gimmick of Hayato Nanjo from October 1993-February 1994. Nanjo jad a lot of potential as a high flyer, but his execution could be spotty, and similar to Hayabusa, his work never reached the level of the average Japanese junior due to FMW's lack of quality training. This was a pretty great performance from him given it was less than 8 months after his debut, and probably a little over 30 matches into his career. It probably helped that the match was brief, so Hayato could more reasonably get by on his motivation and youthful exhuberance. He wrestled like he fully believed he could show up Sabu, going hard and fast from the outset, including an early Hokuto style tope con giro. Sabu was never one to shy away from putting in the effort, and answered with a sunset flip powerbomb to the outside. Sabu sat Nanjo on a chair, but took it out when Hayato avoided his pescado. Ultimately, this was mostly a Sabu high flying show, but despite being really short because Nanjo went down easily, this had at least 10 times the action in less than 7 minutes than the awful unfocused meandering mess of a neverending hour 3 way Sabu had with Terry Funk and Shane Douglas on the 2/5/94 ECW shit show. The finish here didn't quite work though, as Sabu climbed up the ropes, but largely overshoot a 450 splash before winning with his Arabian press since Nanjo didn't get up after the botch. ***

2/19/94 NWA: Sabu vs. Chris Benoit 16:26. Sabu's NWA matches have been blowing away Sa bu's early ECW matches, which were often gimmicky interference ridden brawls, and revolved around a totally washed up Terry Funk. This was the 1st Sabu vs. Benoit match, so they were figuring things out together. Sabu was basically doing his thing, with Benoit picking his moments to thwart him. This was the highest impact Sabu match so far due to Benoit. Benoit did a good job of making this feel more professional without ruining the rawness of Sabu. This might have been as good as the NWA Lightning Kid and Jerry Lynn matches, but this was an amateur handheld taken by a fan in the stands, so it was often difficult to see what was actually transpiring on the floor, and overall wasn't as enjoyable an experience. Sabu was counted out after missing the senton atomico on a table that didn't break, but Benoit refused the victory. Around this point, the chair was starting to play a small role in more and more Sabu matches. Benoit demanded 5 more minutes, but it almost immediately backfired, as Sabu snuck up on him, blindsided him with a chair, and pinned him with the Arabian press. ***1/4

4/8/94 MTW: Sabu vs. Al Snow 13:15 of 14:47. I loved the effort and creativity of this match. Snow didn't impress me in their 1st match on 1/28/94 because he just punched and did the same two moves. The match was fine as a showcase for Sabu, but I expected it to be better than his standard fair. Then they wrestled twice in the GWA Bodyslammers Gym Tournament on 4/2/94 because Snow made it to the quarterfinals under his Shinobi gimmick and the final as himself, but the weren't exactly what one would call complete matches with Sabu wrestling 4 times that night, and Snow an even crazier 6. There were decided improvements in the offense Snow displayed and the way they worked together in GWA though. Tonight's contest was a huge step up because Snow didn't even seem like the same wrestler. Snow was much more solid while being far more spectacular. He was annoying in a good way, regularly prodding Sabu by using Sabu's own moves on him. Snow was all in on going for the best match they could deliver, and this was a wild spotfest where they kept trying to top one another. The match started technically with Snow using Sabu's diving tackle and leg lock on him, working over the knee. Sabu would try to come back with flying, but it kept backfiring on him. In the early portion, Snow seemed smart and Sabu seemed stubborn, as one attempt after another to leap his way into contention failed miserably. Things changed somewhat when Snow began flying as well, starting with Sabu missing his slingshot leg drop, but then Snow missing one as well. Sabu catapulted off a chair twice, but Snow avoided the body attack and used the chair for a forward flip. Snow avoided the sunset flip powerbomb to the outside and hit a pescado. Sabu tried for a revenge pescado, but missed. Sabu used a slingshot huracarrana to the floor, which I hadn't seen from him before. Unfortunately, the camera shut off as Sabu was poised for a dive onto a table. Snow tried an avalanche powerbomb, but Sabu countered with a Frankensteiner for the win. They fought for another minute and a half until Snow got his revenge powerbombing Sabu on a small table that didn't break. Sabu eventually got a bigger table to break with a moonsault, which he'd done before but wasn't yet his official post match ritual. This match felt really ahead of it's time. In a sense it was wild and chaotic, but while they were experimenting, they worked well with one another, and it didn't just feel like they were taking turns randomly doing their moves largely because so many attempts failed. There was a good amount of determination here. Sabu relied on willpower, while Snow was a dick letting him misfire because Snow was too fresh, then showing him how it's done when the opponent is actually hurt. ****

5/28/94 GWA: Sabu vs. Al Snow 16:07. A straight junior style match where Sabu tested himself as a worker. This was one of the best Sabu vs. Snow matches, and very different from what Sabu was doing in FMW or ECW. Sabu focused on working over Snow's left knee early because it was in a brace, and would sporadically bring it back in between high spots. Snow did his best to hobble around and put over the knee in a match that was very athletic and high flying. His selling wasn't perfect, but he was serious enough about acting like he was hampered, and for the most part, this didn't slow the match down. Snow could do just about everything Sabu did, plus a few of his own suplexes and bombs. He focused on mirroring Sabu's flying spots, and they took turns, with one avoiding and the other usually landing the same spot. They were unpredictable enough though that you never knew what would or wouldn't hit. They kept it in the ring other than a couple dives and Snow powerbombing Sabu on the floor. Sabu held off using any weapons or foreign objects until the finish, where he put Snow through a table with a quebrada. ***1/2

6/3/94 ECW: Sabu vs. Too Cold Scorpio 13:39. Sabu had been killing it on the indies for the last year, having mostly junior heavyweight style matches when he was in the States, but had yet to do anything of note in ECW because they didn't do anything of note yet. His TV matches against Pat Tanaka and Mike Awesome had potential, but the Tanaka match was a brief enhancement match, and the Awesome match was edited into 2 guys jumping at each other plus Awesome throwing Sabu around a few times. ECW didn't have much talent or any opponents for him. This meeting against one of the world's best flyers was a huge step up for ECW moreso than Sabu, their first good match. It was Scorpio's first match in ECW, and his first match against Sabu, so they were feeling each other out. A lot of these ideas are used again the next week in MWCW, but they were done a lot more emphatically then. This was one of the most technical ECW matches up until this point in time, although that doesn't say much given the Eastern roster was mostly has beens and sloppy brawlers, with Terry Funk among others qualifying as both, and Paul Heyman just making the promotion about creating chaos to try to distract from the lack of skill and technique. The 2nd half of Sabu vs. Scorpio was a lot different than next weeks match. This had more of the Heyman hardcore influence, featuring more use of the chair, including Sabu trying to avalanche piledrive Scorpio on to it, but Scorpio knocking him off and hitting a diving body attack. Also 911 and Heyman interfering was just taking away from the momentum of the performers, who would have done much more interesting things on their own. The MWCW match certainly had more junior style action. Scorpio was pushing since they had to do something for him given he was losing his debut in front of a whole 250 fans in a much smaller league then he'd been wrestling in to a guy who wasn't nearly as well known in America. After some interference, Sabu put Scorpio through a table with a 2nd rope moonsault to the floor. The finish was kind of lame, as any finish involving Heyman or 911 around this time tended to be, with 911 just throwing Scorpio back in to be pinned. This had moments, but they never really found their flow or found the next level. ***

6/10/94 MWCW: Sabu vs. 2 Cold Scorpio 14:40. . This match had a much higher level of urgency than any of Sabu's previous matches, and I think in a different world where promoters didn't just want him to be leaping off chairs and through tables, he might have gone in this direction and had both better matches and far greater longevity as a good performer. They ran and jumped like they actually meant it, rather than expecting the opponent to make effortless concessions to their every whim. The extra effort, resistance, and impact they put into everything made it feel so much less phony, which was important because this was a very athletic match that would normally feel far more cooperative. The opening was really about the best manner a junior style match can be wrestled in. Unfortunately, the ring broke during the 2nd half of the match where most of the high flying was scheduled, so for their own safety they had to slow down to avoid falling off ropes that no longer had tension. They did the usual Sabu start, but this sort of matador vs. bull variation was the best one ever, with Scorpio leaping over 2 of Sabu's diving tackles until Sabu caught his right leg enough on the 3rd to actually drag him down with some force, then really put the boots to him like he was frustrated for being initially thwarted. We'd seen this previously in Sabu vs. Mike Awesome 3/5/94 and 6/3/94 Sabu vs. Scorpio, but not as convincingly, with this level of urgency. Scorpio escaped to the outside, and was running away from the wildman. The rope running sequence stayed in the same vein. Scorpio had to worry about clearing Sabu with his leap so Sabu didn't upend him and reel him in. There was a real sense of danger to this opening, and this is what Sabu should have kept going for, playing into the whole idea that he was a homicidal wildman being unleashed onto his opponent. Scorpio wasn't avoiding because it was nicer to be on the offensive, he was avoiding like it was the difference in the fight, like he was the kickboxer in early MMA that automatically lost if the wrestler or BJJ guy got him down. Their answer to each other's attempts to do bad things was a definitive "no!", rather than the usual "yes, master". The tone of this match was very different than maybe anything else they've done. Even Scorpio's shoulderblock felt emphatic. It wasn't much, but that was his 1st chance to do something to Sabu, so he was going to make the most of it, do it with actual conviction. They didn't stray that far from a typical junior opening in conception, they just did it like there were consequences to their actions, rather than like hollow, meaningless practiced forms. The great thing about Sabu is you never knew what was going to happen, and that kept you wanting to watch. The same input had multiple outputs that didn't necessarily revolve around his opponent. Sabu was willing to miss anything and everything as well as get countered however the opponent was capable. He didn't just do his thing until it was time for whatever his opponent did that would most reasonably counter the move he's prescribed to miss like Will Ospreay with the Oscutter. Scorpio did his best to break free of Sabu's headlock, countering with a backdrop, but Sabu had it applied snuggly, and while he couldn't defend the suplex, once he was in the air what he could do was prepare for impact so he wouldn't lose his grasp. Sabu won a struggle against the ropes, but when he tried a sunset flip powerbomb to the outside, Scorpio held on to the ropes and did a moonsault attack off the apron. This was well on it's way to being the best match of either wrestlers career when the ring broke on Scorpio's top rope superplex. The ropes were loose and sagging, but Scorpio was able to follow with a moonsault, even though it took longer to set up than the way they had been working. The problem here is they had seemingly saved most of the high flying for the 2nd half. They finished as best they could, seemingly without really backing off what they'd intended. I don't think the conditions actually hurt the match or slowed them down that much. They were in the flow, and just pushed through. Sabu probably did more damage to himself than to Scorpio with his Arabian press because there was no spring from these ropes now. Sabu avoided a pescado because it took Scorpio too long to manage the conditions. Scorpio followed with a slingshot leg drop onto a table, but you couldn't really see the result due to the crowd being in the way of the handheld angle. The finish was pretty lame, as Scorpio appeared to hit a moonsault, but Sabu small packaged him for the anticlimactic win. This didn't wind up being as good as it would have, but I think they navigated the adversity well, especially for this style of match. ****1/4

6/19/94 CCW Heavyweight Title Decision Ladder Match: Chris Candido vs. Sabu. This wasn't the cleanest worked ladder match, but for the most part that was to it's advantage. It was a junior style gimmick spotfest where they tried to hurt each other in different, dangerous ways, and the props cooperated or they didn't. Nothing came easy, and nothing was overdone or overdramatized. They took it seriously, and didn't make it silly and overacted like Michaels vs. Ramon, trying to win like they should without doing all the goofball phony climbing and writhing around shenanigans. The stunts were largely confined to the ladder, but the ropes were so loose that balancing and flying off them was almost as hard as the ladder, before the ladder broke. Candido showed flashes of slick work, but this was mostly showy offense back and forth. They did a better job of making this seem like a grudge match initially, but it quickly devolved into just taking bumps off the ladder. They went to the gimmick much earlier than in the last year's cage match, with Candido trying to get the ladder almost immediately, but Sabu stopping him a couple of times before it came into play. Candido missed a body press off the ladder then Sabu missed a moonsault off the ladder. Sabu tried to use the shaky ropes to climb a ladder set on the ring apron and put Candido through a table on the floor, but everything was so wobbly that he just jumped off as soon as he got to the height of the top rope. The ladder was falling apart before long. Sabu tried to grab the title belt by just standing on the first rung without actually opening it up since the spreaders broke, and also to jump off the top rope to grab the belt. Since they didn't have an extra ladder, the ref had to start holding it so it wouldn't just collapse. Eventually, Sabu was able to climb up two rungs and jump off to grab the belt before the ladder fell. I'm not sure how much the broken ladder compromised this, I kind of enjoyed them having to make due though. This wasn't quite as good as the cage match, it was mostly chaos, but it was unconventional and flashy enough to be quite interesting throughout. ***

6/24/94 ECW: Sabu vs. Cactus Jack 13:02. A lot of people want to credit that awful endless meandering 3 way between Shane Douglas, Sabu, and sloppy silly has been Terry Funk as the birth of ECW, but there's literally nothing good on the first year and a half of ECW shows. ECW finally started to finding their style here in their first match people should actually watch, ironically with a wrestler on loan from WCW, though part of the reason it worked is Foley felt much less constrained than in WCW. It contained the chaos, wildness and brawling, but with two guys that had actual move sets (moreso Sabu) rather than just using weapons, could actually do their offense well, provide excitement, and took big bumps. This was a wild spotfest. They delivered crazy action from start to finish. There was no build or psychology, but there's consistent out of control action. Sabu actually used a different opening here, with a series of enzuigiri rather than diving at the ankle to set the tone for a performance where Sabu was far more spot-oriented, jumping at Cactus from the outset. Sabu went to the weapons much quicker as well, including an early tope with Jack sitting on a chair. Cactus did a few moves he wouldn't normally use in an effort to meet Sabu halfway, for instance missing a senton atomico and having an avalanche backdrop backfire. Jack, of course, leaned much heavier into the brawling than Sabu, using a frying pan provided by a fan. Sabu did a leg drop the guard rail through a table. Sabu charged at Cactus, but Jack gave him the hot shot onto the guardrail. Sabu put Jack through a table with a moonsault over the guardrail. The finish was terrible because after all this crazy stuff, Paul E. just hit Cactus in the back of the head with his phone. Fans booed the screw job, but there was practically another match worth of mayhem to wash away some of the stench. The action continued with Jack taking on Heyman, 911, then Sabu afterwards, with a huge unprotected chair shot to knock 911 out momentarily. Mr. Hughes came out, then the locker room started to empty, and Sabu took a bunch of them out with a tope con giro. Jack piledrove Sabu on the concession stand. Sabu broke a bottle on Jack's head. Joey Styles, responding to a "Sabu vs. Cactus This is Hardcore Heaven" sign, had the classic line, "If heaven ain't a lot like the ECW Arena, I don't want to go!" Foley just chose winning the WCW Tag Titles with Kevin Sullivan from Nasty Boys at Slamboree on 5/22/94 over surgically reconstructing the ear he partially lost against Vader on 3/16/94. Jack was told to put over ECW's top star, so he did a classic interview afterwards to complete the task, spitting on and throwing the WCW Tag Title (the only title he ever won in WCW) that was very dear to him down out of frustration because he was disgusted he lost the 3 "titles" he's held for the past 5 years, "most suicidal wrestler, ugliest wrestler, and Jack Kevorkian's favorite wrestler." He was at a crossroads, but was determined to get these titles back by eliminating the competition (he lost their 9/30/94 rematch as well). This got Foley a bunch of heat when he returned to WCW, even though they probably didn't watch the full interview, or Heyman's interview about all the money Cactus was going to make for WCW, helping ensure a good Christmas for Jane Fonda. ***1/2

7/23/94 NWA Independent World Title Ladder Match: Sabu vs. Al Snow 32:12. One of the reasons I prefer Sabu's NWA matches to his ECW or FMW ones is that Sabu wasn't overly encouraged to do hardcore stuff in the NWA. Booking him in a ladder match didn't play to his best instincts, or bring out the best in Snow. They tried to wrestle somewhat, but having a big, probably 12-ft ladder set up in the ring means they were working around the thing they were "supposed to be utilzing". "Pee Wee" Moore's primary job was holding this clunky oversized ladder so it wouldn't just collapse. Snow was ready for Sabu to dive at his ankles to start the match, so he was able to matador it and drop an elbow. The match was entertaining enough for a while, but it was largely a collection of dives and gimmick spots, rather than something that built or felt cohesive. I enjoyed the first half well enough, but instead of gaining momentum, it largely got worse the more they tried to use the ladder. The ladder was long enough that, with Moore standing on the end inside the ring, Sabu was able to have a portion of it with Snow draped across hanging off the ring apron and give Snow a leg drop and a slingshot body press, the later of which propelled Moore through the air when Sabu's side of the ladder went down causing the other to go up like a seesaw, a silent movie style gag. The fans were taunting Pee Wee the entire match, but didn't react nearly as much to the actual performers. The ending was weird because Snow finally managed to get up and knock the ladder over just after Sabu had won. Moore tried to prevent Sabu from his post match table breaking ceremony, so Sabu put Moore through it off an airplane spin, then it took two tries to break a 2nd table with the moonsault. I was writing this review under the impression this was going to be better, but by the time we got to the end, I had a recommendation for a match that wasn't quite worth recommending. **3/4

8/5/94 NWA Independent World Title No DQ: Sabu vs. Chris Benoit 15:58. These two went all out to tear down the house of 25. This was considerably better than their 2/19/94 NWA match that had something vaguely resembling a crowd, as they did a lot more, and Benoit assured it was as well executed as Sabu gets. The match got off to a great intense start. Benoit really made Sabu pay for predictably diving at his ankle to open the match, savaging him with strikes and suplexing him to the floor. Sabu came back with his impressive right hands, and I didn't mind that he grabbed a chair quickly because things were already verging on getting out of control. There wasn't any down time here, there was hard hitting and big spectacular moves. Benoit may have been the most believable wrestler at cutting his opponent off because he always had impact on everything. This was the stiffest Sabu match so far. It had select weapons use, but there was still some sense of their actually being rules even in a match that legitimately didn't have any. Sabu clocked Benoit with a chair after Benoit accidentally took ref Pee Wee Moore out with a reverse diving body attack. The chair came back for the finish where Sabu used it to counter a diving headbutt then won with the Arabian facebuster. ***3/4

8/13/94 ECW: Sabu vs. Too Cold Scorpio 18:28. The best match in the history of the Eastern Championship Wrestling version of ECW. I'm not sure how well this match ages, but it was really ahead of the curve of American wrestling in terms of high flying, garbage spots, and combining the two into a sort of hardcore junior style of chaos. This is hardly my favorite style, but the offense is amazing for an American match of this time period, and for better or worse, they were creating this ECW style. Though not as cohesive as their little indy match from 6/11/94, they made up for it by doing everything they could think of. They had a lot of good ideas here, but they didn't flesh any of them out. Scorpio was new to ECW, so he was still trying to get over here, although obviously he was well known from being misused in WCW. While this was the right rivalry for both guys, Scorpio had yet to win an ECW match (he had 2 previous losses to Sabu), so it was odd to have him losing to Sabu again, even if Sabu was ECW's featured performer. The early portion did a nice job of building heat and getting over the rivalry. Once we left this, it just became a new brand of chaos, combining amazing high flying with weapons plunder. The offense was great, but they kind of lost the plot and just shifted to top this. Their moves were new and original on their own, much less adding tables and chairs, which was still a fresh concept at the time. The match had good urgency, but nonetheless felt like they were just throwing things at the wall. You had two great talents giving it their all though, even if sometimes they weren't doing themselves any favors with the layout and structuring. Scorpio would develop a much better sense of drama in the next year or 2. Sabu rushed out and dove at Scorpio's ankle before the match, then they did a different actual opening that was heated because Sabu didn't honor the clean break out of lock up, and Scorpio punched him back. They tried to make this an intense grudge match with high flying. Sabu used a chair for his tope con giro and tope'd Scorpio into a table, but missed another tope with Scorpio on a chair. Scorpio wailed on Sabu with a chair, but Sabu reversed his tombstone on a chair. Joey Styles had the classic line "he who lives by the chair, dies by the chair". Later, Sabu did an Arabian press to the floor through a table. Scorpio's regular flying moves were blowing Sabu's away, especially his slingshot 450 splash. There's such a stark contrast between their styles of flying. Scorpio was so smooth and fluid, while Sabu just threw his body at the opponent like a human missile. This became a real top this spotfest, but they had the artillery to do so. Paul E. held a chair over Scorpio from the outside and Sabu used his slingshot leg drop for the win. ****

8/28/94 FMW: Hayabusa vs. Sabu 14:15. I always liked the highly condensed version on the FMW commercial tape, but this handheld revealed a better match than I was anticipating. That being said, this was ultimately exactly what you'd expect from these two for better and worse. It was a spotfest, a very spectacular, high flying big match with a ton of dives, and not much else going on. The rest held together well enough that it didn't feel completely ridiculous, and was an enjoyable ride. Hayabusa isn't as good as the other junior heavyweights Sabu has been matched with, but he's more spectacular, and they leaned into what he could do. Hayabusa had a good day, matching if not exceeding Sabu for spectacle, while looking competent enough the rest of the time despite a couple miscues in the middle. Hayabusa was ready for Sabu's traditional diving tackle opening and was able to get his kicks going and hit a tope con giro. After Hayabusa was also ready for Sabu's slingshot leg drop, Sabu shifted to lower risk tactics, trying to soften Hayabusa up with strikes until buckling him with a kick opened up the sunset flip powerbomb to the floor. Things changed too quickly in the other direction though, with Sabu quickly hitting 2 more dives, and the rest was largely a rapid succession of high risk flying. Since Hayabusa was also just going to jump at the opponent, I thought we should have seen quicker comebacks due to the reckless flashy offense backfiring. Hayabusa used his top rope quebrada. Sabu missed a crazy 450 splash to the floor with Hayabusa on a table. Somehow Hayabusa wasn't able to regain control, and had to also avoid a tope con giro. Hayabusa then just kind of won with nothing major except a shooting star press he was a little short on that Sabu also obviously kicked out of. Sabu sold his hip like crazy afterwards, barely being able to ascendancy to the top for his ceremonial post match table break, much less jump, so it took him 2 tries to moonsault through. ***

9/7/94 FMW: Sabu vs. Damien 14:33. I've watched most of Sabu's available matches from 1993 & 1994 from every league but FMW, as they mostly wasted him in barbed wire matches against guys that, well, belonged in barbed wire matches. Damien has never been one of my favorites because he's more of an imitation based comedy wrestler, and he might be the slowest rope runner of anyone under 300 pounds, but he's a decent worker when he actually wants to be, and tonight he was trying. He started off doing a big ballerina leap over Sabu's tackle, then trying the same thing on Sabu, and following with Sabu's point to the sky. This sort of comedy from Damien actually added to the match because he was trying to rile Sabu up by trolling him. His typical Choshu Riki lariat and sasorigatame felt out of place. This was mostly an action-packed junior heavyweight style match though. Sabu did most of the best spots, as you'd expect. Damien did a couple dives, and a sort of moonsault where he stood on the apron facing the crowd and leaned back into the top rope, flipping over it into the ring like it was a gymnastics bar. Damien used a chair for a double jump avalanche. This was basically the standard good Sabu match. He didn't really do anything out of the ordinary other than a revenge scorpion, which the fans also chanted "Cho-shu" for. Damien was the one that was doing different things to suit the opponent. Sabu won with a guillotine leg drop with Damien's neck hanging off a chair. ***

9/9/94 NWA Independent World Title Lumberjack Match: Sabu vs. Al Snow 13:37. These two kept having strong matches that didn't look the same. Snow was very versatile, Sabu was at the end of the period where he was arguably the most innovative wrestler (he was starting to settle into doing the same basic things in the later part of 94), and the variety of gimmick matches kept their program interesting. Snow was doing his own thing in this match to negate Sabu rather than trying to match or mimic him. He was countering what Sabu was throwing at him and putting him in submissions early then using suplexes and power moves later. He still did some flying, but it was his flying. Sabu was showing excellent aerial offense, as usual. The lumberjacks acting as catchers allowed for some misses they wouldn't normally be able to do safely, for instance Sabu taking a few out when he missed a quebrada. Later, one of the lumberjacks tried to hold Snow, but Snow escaped just in time, so Sabu actually wound up doing a slingshot tijeras to the lumberjack. Snow tried to follow with a swandive plancha, but he also took out the lumberjacks. Snow hit a swandive kneedrop then missed a lionsault of the top rope. Sabu came back with a tijeras, then the lights inexplicably went out as the hit simultaneous lariats. All the lumberjacks were, for some reason, brawling in the ring when the lights came back on. There was no build up to this whatsoever, none of the usual lumberjacks at each other's throats stuff, and you'd think this type of match would actually have to have a real finish, but they threw it out when the Peewee couldn't restore order. This was every bit as bad as your random early 80s Baba finish, but what came before was still impressive enough to recommend it. ***1/2

9/11/94 Cal International Aftershock: Sabu vs. Al Snow 16:15. The match itself was the better Sabu style, basically a junior heavyweight match with a handful of table and chair spots, the famous post match brawl was the worst Sabu style, mostly aimless brawling with a few table and chair spots, although to a large extent Snow was responsible for the relative tightness of the match and Terry Funk was responsible for the relative looseness of the post match. Sabu & Snow were back to doing a regular match since the nonsense was reserved for afterwards, so they sped things up and leaned into their flashy junior heavyweight style. This was still ahead of it's time for America though the winds were finally starting to blow in the juniors favor, and offensively more or less as exciting as most of the junior stuff in Japan, just not as precise and well rounded. Sabu took some wild sick bumps as usual, including landing on a chair when he missed his tope then getting powerbombed on the concrete. He also splatted when he tried a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor, but Snow hung on to the top rope. Sabu seemed to get a little injured overshooting a table with a moonsault on the outside, so Snow put Damien, who was Sabu's second tonight, through the table with a powerbomb. Sabu recovered and soon won with the slingshot guillotine leg drop with Snow on a chair. Damien attacked Snow after the match, so Funk, who wasn't even booked on the show, shockingly showed up and took him out, then brawled with Sabu for several minutes, wrecking him with chairs. This was one of the longest post match fights all over the building you'll see, with Snow eventually getting involved again. I remember the VHS I had it on ran out before the end. The post match was nowhere near the quality of the actual match, it involved the washed up hasbeen Terry Funk who had been Sabu's lamest feud during this time period, with Taz quickly closing the gap, but as post-match brawls go, this was pretty cool, especially since it was after the main event, so it was basically free wrestling keeping the audience entertained for an extra 10 minutes after a match that wasn't truncated or ruined in any way with the idea that the aftermath would make up for it. This part wasn't good wrestling, but the fact that it was just guys fighting for the hell of it made that more okay than when they do this and claim it's a match. The ruckus seemed to be over when Sabu performed his ceremonial moonsault through a table, but Snow and Funk were still going at it on the outside of the ring. Somehow it spilled into the parking lot, and eventually there's a cut to Funk emerging from underneath a van in the parking lot, ranting and raving like an old fool at the downed ref and anyone else who will give him the time of day. ***3/4

9/30/94 ECW: Sabu vs. Cactus Jack 15:04. This wasn't nearly as good as their 1st match from 6/24/94. It was mostly hardcore chaos, with a lot of chair and table work from Sabu. There were some really big bumps and extra punishing shots, but for the most part they walked around hitting each other with objects, and sometimes upped that to jumping around with the objects. It didn't take long for Sabu to land on the guardrail missing a quebrada, and he was selling his ribs big time, but for some reason, he came right back with his chair assisted moves. Cactus suplexed Sabu on a table and piledrove him on a stage. Sabu answered with a dive off a chair on the stage. Cactus took a couple concussion inducing blows, getting his head bounced off the guardrail by 911 then taking 7 thudding shots with a beer bottle before it finally broke and Sabu pinned him with the Arabian press. ***

10/25/94 NWC Desert Death Falls Count Anywhere: Cactus Jack vs. Sabu 14:22. As much as I'm not impressed by much ECW pre 1995, the 6/24/94 Sabu vs. Cactus is the best of their '94 matches by a wide margin. That match still feels like a wrestling match despite it being the first "ECW style brawl", these later ones all feel more like they belong in a death match league, even if they aren't particularly blood and guts matches. Their 10/14/94 match that Sabu promoted in Sheik's old Michigan NWA territory was surprisingly lifeless. They seemingly decided it wasn't worth killing themselves for 75 fans, and just did a passable match that wasn't too crazy. This as also a very small show, and was probably a dry run for the "bigger" NWC show on 10/29, but it's about equally as good. Both are chaos, and with risks and big bumps as you'd expect. There were just some folding chairs set up for the dozens of fans on a school basketball court, so there was plenty of room to utilize outside the ring. They kept moving, and it was pretty action packed, but there's too little conventional wrestling given these guys can actually have a real match rather than just clobbering each other with objects (that's more the 1/13/95 match, but still). Sabu was nearly pinned after landing on a chair missing a tope. Cactus had Sabu in a headlock and tried to run his head into the wall, but Sabu pushed him off into it, then schoolboyed him on the rebound. Cactus got his 1st singles win over Sabu with the underhook DDT, I didn't realize how one-sided this series actually was, 10-3 Sabu. ***

10/29/94 NWC Desert Death Falls Count Anywhere: Sabu vs. Cactus Jack 18:37. This was energetic, motivated, and dangerous action. It was mostly a chaotic brawl though, these October matches all felt more like Jack's match with some Sabu signatures thrown in, whereas mostly everything Sabu had done in the US up until this point felt like his match. There were few non gimmick spots, and a lot of fighting on the outside. Sabu nearly beat himself again because of the falls count anywhere rules when Jack immediately covered after Sabu broke a table missing a quebrada to the floor. Cactus then hit the hipbuster for another near fall. Sabu finally dropped Jack with a chair shot on the middle rope then hit the Arabian facebuster for the win. This was definitely ECW style chaos, minus the overbooking. They had a 3rd match on 1/13/95 that was a Steel Cage With Weapons, as this match apparently endangered too many fans and popcorn machines, so they locked them up this time and had them just bash each other with objects for 12 minutes. Lets just say freedom is definitely preferable. ***

11/19/94 ECW: Sabu & The Tazmaniac vs. Dean Malenko & Joe Malenko 4:10. This was shockingly fun for a 4-minute match that had Sabu two weeks after a massive spinal cord injury, Tazmaniac who was bad and clunky at this point but could throw a suplex once he figured out how to lock the opponent up, and the Malenko brothers totally out of their element. They made the most of the time they had, and just rolled out suplexes, dives and random high spots. It was basically the ECW chaos variety of what would later be classified as the Nitro junior sprint. Sabu was noticeably off here compared to any time earlier in the year, and that could be chalked up to him having no business whatsoever in the ring to begin with. In Joey Styles mind, Dean Malenko invented the dropkick to the back of the head here. Taz pinned Dean with a released Dragon suplex. The aftermath involving 911 and Public Enemy was longer than the match itself, and they had the brilliant idea of having Public Enemy spike piledrive Sabu and Grunge DDT him just in case his neck had started to heal. This was when Sabu started to become less unique because Rocco was allowed to moonsault 911 through a table and drive by Sabu through a table instead of having Paul Heyman protect Sabu's special spots.