May 20, 2025 • 28 mins
In this heartfelt and powerful episode, ECW’s Queen of Extreme, Francine, pays tribute to one of hardcore wrestling’s most iconic and influential figures — the legendary Sabu. With raw emotion and deep respect, Francine reflects on Sabu’s legacy, his fearless style, and the unforgettable moments they shared in the land of Extreme. From brutal battles to backstage memories, she honors the man who redefined what it meant to sacrifice for the sport. This is more than a farewell — it’s a celebration of a true original.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hm h m h h h.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
H h. We've got to get in here today to
talk about some incredibly sad news, the passing of the
hardcore icon.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
But before we do that, I gotta welcome in them
of extreme Franccene fran scene.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Pretty much gonna hand it over to you as we
discuss the death of Saboo.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
My god, what what pains are you about? This is Saturday.
We were we were in the car and it was me, uh,
Hack Sandman and Todd. We were just talking about people
in general, and like I want to say, maybe like
(01:15):
you know, people who did drugs in the locker room
and just just you know how you tell you're on
a really long car ride and you just bring up
stuff out of the blue, And I said something like
I cannot believe that Sabo was still alive. And then
the next day I get a phone call from Todd
(01:38):
or no, he texted me. He texted me Sabou died.
And my heart just dropped and I was like what,
and He's just like, yeah, it's he goes. It's not
out to the public yet, but I wanted to let
you know. And I just like, I felt so bad
(01:58):
for saying that on Saturday. But just because like I
always thought of Saboo as like a cat went nine lives,
like not only for like his like the drug use,
because it's out there, like people knew that he took stuff.
I'm not, it's not breaking news or anything, but watching
(02:24):
him work and seeing all the crazy bumps he took
and the death defying leaps and just Saboo being Saboo.
I cannot believe that he survived like a lot of
the stuff that he did and wasn't hurt more in
(02:46):
however many years. You know that he worked, but he
he first of all, he should have been a gazillionaire,
and I don't think he had much money at all
towards the end. And you know, people can say what
they want to say on how he spent his mind.
You know, I am I am will never bash Sabou.
(03:09):
He was a dear friend of mine who I loved
and admired, and I took it hard. It was Mother's
Day and we were having company over and I was
sitting at the island in my kitchen just sobbing, sobbing,
an hour before our guests were supposed to come, and
(03:31):
my husband walked upstairs because I guess he heard me
crying and he just came over and gave me a hug,
and you know, it's like it's like you know it's
going to happen, but you don't know when. And it
kind of should not have been such a shock to me,
but I was taken aback. I was like, this can't
be happening. I just saw him the last two weekends.
(03:55):
I was with him, you know, and even after and
we have a clip to share, even after the Joey
Janellas Spring Break match, which was brutal. I didn't see
the whole thing. I saw a little bit here and there,
like I saw him the next day at Wrestle Con
(04:15):
and Classic Taboo gives me a big hug, big kiss
and grabs me and whispers in my ear. They said
I'm retiring. I never said I'm retiring. I'm not retiring.
And I go, oh, are you gonna pull a tary
funk on us? And he goes, I don't know if
they're trying to do ticket sales or what. He goes,
but I'm not retiring. I'm going to keep wrestling, And
(04:36):
I said, good for you, so I mean he and
he looked he looked tired. He just but he was
there and he was taking pictures and signing autographs, and
you know, he made a shot, but I just said,
are you okay, and he's I'm okay, I'm okay. He
didn't look okay to me. He just looked exhausted and rightfully. So,
(05:00):
I mean, you know, twelve hours before then, that crazy
stuff was happening. But I mean, my heart was broken.
It was broken, and I don't I don't know what
else to say. I loved him, I love him, I
will always love him. I remember one time one time
(05:27):
doing promos and I was almost attacked by a homeless
guy and I was telling him the story and he
pulls out his box cutter and he says, you always
need one of these, and he showed me how to
cut somebody with a box cutter. Here's never been without one.
And I was just like, oh okay, and he's like,
if you had this, that guy wouldn't have bothered you.
(05:49):
And I was like, okay. But he was my friend.
And if you know, to some people, he might have
been stand offish, but again, if he was your friend,
he would give you the shirt off his back. He
was funny. He was witty and so talented, like he
gave his life to professional wrestling, and no one can
(06:09):
deny that about him. So I will miss him greatly,
and I just I don't know, sixty years old is
just too young, and it's it's somebody else, you know,
from my ECW family that we lost, and I I
don't know exactly. I know he had a heart attack.
(06:31):
I don't know what caused it. You know, people are
speculating out there. I don't I wasn't there. I don't
know what caused it, you know. But I I just
feel that sixty is way too young, and I don't
know what else to say. I'm just very very sad,
very very sad.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
This hit the wrestling community in a big way. Like
you said on Mother's Day, go back if you can
to when you first met, when you first came into
the business.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Now he had a huge like.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Aura around him, and everybody knew who Saboo was before
they knew who Saboo was. And you knew the pants,
you know, you knew the scars across the stomach, you
knew all that. But what was your first impression of
Saboo when you got into professional wrestling and we're backstage
at ECW.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I mean, I only knew what I saw of him
on TV. I got to know Saboo the more time
that I was in that locker room. And in the
beginning he shook my hand, it was very polite, and
then you know, then it became like a little hug,
and then it was a big hug, and then it
was a hug and a kiss, and then it was
my brother, you know what I mean, just like anybody else,
(07:46):
he warms up to you, and I I don't know,
I just people fans didn't see what we saw because
we saw whole different side of Saboo. He just I mean,
he was so funny. He was just so funny and
(08:08):
had such a good sense of humor and was such
a sweet soul, you know. And you know, some people
might say he had a hard exterior, but they didn't
know him. They didn't know him personally like we knew him.
And again, I just I never I never expected him
(08:32):
to die. But on the flip side, it was just like,
I can't believe he's still here. And that just doesn't
make any sense when you say it out loud, you know,
it really doesn't. Now that I said it out loud.
It makes no sense. It's like a Noxi moron or something.
But it again, it goes back to like him doing
all this crazy stuff, and then you do add whatever
(08:55):
he was doing on his own time, which scared me
because you know, look look back at all the guys
who've passed, ninety nine percent of them, well not ninety nine,
but a lot of them had drug and substance abuse problems,
alcoholism or whatever, you know what I mean. But a
(09:15):
lot of them had to do that to deal with
the pain. You know, you get hooked on these pills
because you're in constant pain. Look at the bumps that
this man took. How I'm I'm in awe that he
can even walk. Yeah, you know, so I don't put
(09:36):
my nose up at him for you know, taking what
he took or whatever. And I don't know what he took.
I'm going by what I hear, and you know what
people are saying, I really don't know. I mean, he's
never come out to me lately, and like you know,
he always said he doesn't have a problem, he can
(09:58):
handle it, and he was always at the shows. I've
seen him at so many of these signings and functioning
and taking pictures and stuff. So I thought he was okay, yeah,
you know what I mean. But then you know, you
get the news like this, and it's just like, where
did this come from? I just saw him. I saw
(10:19):
him in Vegas, and then I saw him at the
ECW Arena, you know, and I didn't get to talk
to him now much, but of course he ran over
and gave me a hugging a kiss, and that's the
last time I saw.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Him, yeah, you know, And it was funny. I was
thinking about this afterwards. You know, when super Genie Melissa
Coates passed away, right, you know, she was a real
essential part to him for many years, and I think
many might have thought after she passed away that would
(10:51):
have been the beginning, yeah, the beginning of his downfall.
But he actually did manage to find a way to
go on and live for many years afterwards and make
it to the shows and do exactly what you're saying.
And it's just a miraculous existence he had, and it
(11:14):
is a remarkable way he did live. Just the things
he did in the ring, and I mean we've heard
stories of what he did outside the ring, you know,
over the years, but again, you saw what he was
like on the inside and behind the curtain. I mean,
you know this is a guy again you said the
heart exterior. I mean at shows, booking guys, all your friends. Basically,
(11:37):
he scared me. He's walking by him, he gave you
a look, and you're just like, I just don't even
want to go by and say anything because I think
he's going to bite your head off. But maybe I
should have just gone and said hello, and maybe I
would have been dead wrong.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But yeah, and you didn't. You didn't know him well
enough to see that side. And you know you mentioned
Melissa when she died. I talked to him so often
about her afterwards, and I was checking in on him
to see if he was okay, and a lot of
(12:14):
times I get no, I'm not okay. And I was
worried about him, you know, and I was like, saboo,
you know, please don't do anything you're gonna regret. He
loved her, he loved her, and it was just he
got through it, you know, like you said, bounced back
(12:34):
and was working more, and just I just I understand,
but I don't understand. And again that doesn't make any sense.
I sat here on Sunday. I called Shane right away
(12:55):
after Todd, and you know, Shane was just like, oh
my god, oh my got He's like, you know, like
I expected, but I didn't expect it today kind of thing.
And I was like, yeah, it was just it's a lie.
And just see, I'm glad I saw him recently and
was able to give him that warm hug. And but
(13:19):
it's it just doesn't make it any easier for us.
You know. It's just it's another member of our family
gone and it sucks. Yeah, so I'm I'm just sad
about it.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
We'll end on a high, happy note in a few minutes,
but I just want to bring this up because this
is the elephant in the room after all the tributes,
after everybody was kind of coming through and saying all
their you know, well, great memories about Saboo. A story
kind of started to circulate after an interview with Joey
(13:53):
Janella about possible passing of some sort of substance in
saboos or be prior to Sabu's last match at that
GCW show, leading to people sharing the bumps that Sabu
took in that last match with Joey Janella and then
pairing it with the quotes that went along with that
(14:13):
interview and kind of like making it seem really rough. Now,
you said you saw Sabou the next day and he
was looking really tired. Well, apparently he needed or this
is all a legend from this interview, there was some
sort of something that was passed to him to help
him get to that match, because he kind of came
in not feeling so great and or looking ready to
(14:38):
go into this quote last match. As he said, he
wasn't feeling it was his last match.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Do you want can you run the clip of the
the bump for me?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah? Absolutely, Excuse me, we.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Can get into uh real quick, what was said?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
All right, So here's the first one.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Okay, this is into the farmwire.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
He goes, Now, this is the one everybody's talking about
right here. Okay, this in the back of that one
sect this one right here, situate.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
More. He goes to his head that concrete. That's that's m.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So your expert opinion watching that bump, seeing him go
he I mean, it looks to me like his body
went limp as he was in mid air. But what
do you see when you see him?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
You know, I mean his legacy is already set in stoon.
He did not have to do this at sixty years old,
just my opinion. I know he he loved the business
so much and he wanted to keep working, but I mean,
he could have just gotten away with just signing autographs
(16:09):
at this point and trying to get his body healed
up for the you know, the golden years so to speak,
coming forward. You tell me, is there any reason why
he needed to do something like this. And again they
were labeling it as his last match, and I told
you what, he whispered in my ear, It's not my
(16:31):
last match. I'm gonna keep working. And I'm like, you're crazy,
Why why do you have to do this. I mean,
I know, okay, for the paycheck or whatever, but I mean, man,
just double up on the bookings and save your body,
you know, not saying he couldn't go anymore, because I
(16:51):
mean obviously still doing stuff. But to me, I would
have preferred him to just take bookings, just signing and
being safe and just trying to you know, recover from
all the damage over the last forty years that he
(17:13):
put his body through. It's just it makes me sad.
It makes me sad again. It falls back on these
wrestlers not having pensions or social security or you know,
because a lot of them won't buy into it or whatever.
No union, there's nothing to fall back on when these
guys are older. So what do they do? They continue
(17:37):
to work and do these crazy matches, and that's what
he's known for. I understand that, but I don't know that.
I thought I just just to me it was unnecessary.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
You want to read it or here's the quote says
we're an hour into the show, and I said, just
get Sabo here. Janella continues. So he gave him something
called kray Tom. You can buy it at a smoke
shop or something. It's like a legal opioid or opiate
or something. They said, he's hopping on the bed, he's
hopping off the bed, and we're going to get him
(18:13):
to the show. So he shows up two hours into
the show. Sabu was on a different fucking planet. Everyone
in the backstage is like, what the fuck is this
match going to happen? And my god, did it happen.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
He's on a different planet, meaning drug wise, is that
what they're talking about?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That would be my estimation. When you give somebody an
opiate they're on a different planet.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well there's more to that. There's more than that quote.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Uh well that was the second part of the quote.
The first part of the quote is how uh what
do you mean Sabu can't walk? They said, yeah, sabab I.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Have it, I have it right here.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
It was fairly confident that he was fine. I was
kept in contact with him, and he has a team
of people around him. Guys. At the time, they were
all saying he was ready to go, that he was
going to the gym, that he was on a training program.
I believe them until the day of the show. The
two hours before I get a call Sabo can't walk.
What do you mean Sabo can't walk? They said, yes,
Saboo's something with his knee. They're locked up. He can't
(19:18):
walk and his feet are bleeding. He's not coming. Saboo's
not coming. I said, Saboo's fucked. So we talked to
indie wrestler Matt Tremont and Treymont is about to be
the replacement for the match, and I feel like this
is going to be the most embarrassing moment on my
wrestling career. Here's two thousand people this is one of
(19:38):
the biggest spring breaks ever, the biggest crowd Mania week
in Indie wise, and I'm gonna have to go out
there and announce that Saboo once again No showed, and
No showed his own retirement match. And then your quote
came second, and then it says he was definitely out cold.
He was done. They were telling me there was no way.
(19:58):
The roughs were commune to me that there's no way
he's continuing this match, like holy shit, that is the
one time you want the barbed wire to stop you.
He just blew right through it. And then the Sandman
came out and that was all saboued it needed. The
resurrection happened. Jesus resurrected two days later, the anniversary. I
(20:20):
couldn't fucking believe it. Dude, he was ready to go again.
I guess that concussion knocked him back in the nineteen
ninety six or something. I don't know. Okay, so that
was done in an interview. Meanwhile, everybody on the internet
goes ape shit saying that GCW had no reason to
(20:42):
put him in the ring like that, which you know,
we just said if he if his feet are bleeding
and he can't walk. Why would you make somebody wrestle?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Right?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
You would pull them correct? Right? Yoh yeah, Joey. Janella,
he's come and he wanted to clear the air about
Saboo's usage of kray Tom. In a lengthy post, he says,
I'm truly devastated over this, and this whole deal has
really affected me. Am I pronouncing it correctly, cray tom,
(21:16):
That's what I think it is, Okay. It's something Sabo
took daily for years and it helped him get off
other substances. Saboo loved his weed and kray Tom. His
body was wrecked doing what he loved for forty years.
He says he embellished a bit when he said the
(21:38):
veteran was knocked out. I love Saboo. He was legitimately
my idol growing up in my friend I just wanted
to give him in the fans one last great Saboo spectacle.
A snowball effect happened one acts people were saying that
Janella was responsible for Sabu's death. He comes and says
Taboo was fine after the day after he signed out
(22:00):
Russel Khan. He has been doing many appearances since. I
don't know what the cause of death was. But all
I can say is I wouldn't change a thing, and
I'm happy he went out on top. So well, I
have a bit of a problem with that because if
the man cannot walk and his knees are messed up
(22:21):
and his feet are bleeding, was he forced into doing this?
That's something we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
No, you know what I mean, who's his team? Who's
Sabo's team? Almost knows the guys that booked the appearance.
I mean who's the team.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean, there's a guy that hanged, that was hanging
out with him all the time, that used to he
was dressed like Rick Flair, that was his buddy. Yeah,
he was with him several times. I don't know. I
forget the guy's name. I don't know if he was
with him that evening, I don't know. All I know
is reading that one, uh parograph is disturbing because, like,
(23:03):
why would you force somebody to wrestle if they're not
in the right state to do so, or if they're
so messed up on drugs or substance, or if they're bleeding,
their feet are bleeding, their knees are so locked that
they can't walk.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
That's that's that's out there.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Like, why would you always say that? And then why
would you say that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
In an Yeah, that's really not helping your cause with
giving that detail.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I don't understand it. I don't. I don't get. Look,
I'm not putting blame on anyone. I'm just saying I
don't get why you would force somebody to perform. I
understand it's the biggest show of the you know, the week,
the weekend, and you want it to go well and stuff,
(23:52):
But isn't somebody's health more important you think? I don't know. Again,
I wasn't there, you know, I don't. I never I
don't believe I met Joey in person. I'm not sure.
I never heard anything bad about the guy, and from
what I heard, the match was incredible. But it makes
me sad if he was forced to do something, and
(24:17):
you know, Sabu wouldn't have done it if he didn't
want to do it too. Again, he loves the business
so much, you know what I mean. So I'm not
saying he was held at gunpoint and oh you have
to wrestle tonight, but that is disturbing to hear that
his feet were bleeding, his knees were messed up. He's
bouncing off, bouncing off the bed, bouncing on the bed.
(24:39):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, he was jumping. Did you know Sabo is somebody
who would jump on a bed.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, if he can jump off and on a bed,
why then how is this feet bleeding and his legs
locked up? It's contradicting each other. Like, I don't understand,
I don't get the interview. I don't know, I don't know.
It makes me sad, this whole thing. It makes me
very very upset. And you know, maybe that match had
(25:05):
nothing to do with him dying. I guess we'll never know,
but it sickens me because I lost a friend and
a brother and I'm I'm just devastated. And he's in
a better place and he's at peace and he's not
in pain anymore. So there's that.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I Like I said, I wanted to end it on
a little bit of a lighter note. Do you have
a favorite match against Sabu?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
The one I mean, you know, Shane wrestled him a
bunch of times, and the one thing I remember there was,
like I want to say, there was a tag. It
was him, It was Sabo and Van dam on one side.
Maybe it was I don't know if it was Shane
(25:55):
and Tommy, because Beulah and I got to jump in
the ring and do sleeper holds simultaneously on like I
it was Saboo and then I jumped on Saboo and
put put it on him, and then Rob came in
and then Buelah put it on him. So it was
(26:17):
like a four way sleeper and we were all laughing
that's awesome. Yeah, like it was a house show. It
was a house show. Yeah, but yeah, I jump on me,
It'll be great. I was like, Okay, it was just
I don't know. He just worked with them so many times.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
He was just a nice guy. He's easy to get
along with if you were in his inner circle. And
I I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna miss him a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, they broke the mold when they made Sabo. We
will that's all you got. We will get out of here,
Will point one more time? Will point up?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I get cut off by my green screen, isn't there?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
We go area point up one more time?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I can't disappeared.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Well, definitely, I'll go back and check the ball. I
know we did a couple of watch alongs to some
matches with Shane and Saboo. So if I can find one,
I will throw one up for the for the members,
and if there's not one on there already, I will
put one up because I know we do have one
in the vault. So if that's all you got, we
will get out of here for today. And for that
(27:33):
Queen of extreme, this.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Is the chad Ster.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We will catch you on the flip side.
H m hm h m h h h.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
H h. We've got to get in here today to
talk about some incredibly sad news, the passing of the
hardcore icon.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
But before we do that, I gotta welcome in them
of extreme Franccene fran scene.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Pretty much gonna hand it over to you as we
discuss the death of Saboo.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
My god, what what pains are you about? This is Saturday.
We were we were in the car and it was me, uh,
Hack Sandman and Todd. We were just talking about people
in general, and like I want to say, maybe like
(01:15):
you know, people who did drugs in the locker room
and just just you know how you tell you're on
a really long car ride and you just bring up
stuff out of the blue, And I said something like
I cannot believe that Sabo was still alive. And then
the next day I get a phone call from Todd
(01:38):
or no, he texted me. He texted me Sabou died.
And my heart just dropped and I was like what,
and He's just like, yeah, it's he goes. It's not
out to the public yet, but I wanted to let
you know. And I just like, I felt so bad
(01:58):
for saying that on Saturday. But just because like I
always thought of Saboo as like a cat went nine lives,
like not only for like his like the drug use,
because it's out there, like people knew that he took stuff.
I'm not, it's not breaking news or anything, but watching
(02:24):
him work and seeing all the crazy bumps he took
and the death defying leaps and just Saboo being Saboo.
I cannot believe that he survived like a lot of
the stuff that he did and wasn't hurt more in
(02:46):
however many years. You know that he worked, but he
he first of all, he should have been a gazillionaire,
and I don't think he had much money at all
towards the end. And you know, people can say what
they want to say on how he spent his mind.
You know, I am I am will never bash Sabou.
(03:09):
He was a dear friend of mine who I loved
and admired, and I took it hard. It was Mother's
Day and we were having company over and I was
sitting at the island in my kitchen just sobbing, sobbing,
an hour before our guests were supposed to come, and
(03:31):
my husband walked upstairs because I guess he heard me
crying and he just came over and gave me a hug,
and you know, it's like it's like you know it's
going to happen, but you don't know when. And it
kind of should not have been such a shock to me,
but I was taken aback. I was like, this can't
be happening. I just saw him the last two weekends.
(03:55):
I was with him, you know, and even after and
we have a clip to share, even after the Joey
Janellas Spring Break match, which was brutal. I didn't see
the whole thing. I saw a little bit here and there,
like I saw him the next day at Wrestle Con
(04:15):
and Classic Taboo gives me a big hug, big kiss
and grabs me and whispers in my ear. They said
I'm retiring. I never said I'm retiring. I'm not retiring.
And I go, oh, are you gonna pull a tary
funk on us? And he goes, I don't know if
they're trying to do ticket sales or what. He goes,
but I'm not retiring. I'm going to keep wrestling, And
(04:36):
I said, good for you, so I mean he and
he looked he looked tired. He just but he was
there and he was taking pictures and signing autographs, and
you know, he made a shot, but I just said,
are you okay, and he's I'm okay, I'm okay. He
didn't look okay to me. He just looked exhausted and rightfully. So,
(05:00):
I mean, you know, twelve hours before then, that crazy
stuff was happening. But I mean, my heart was broken.
It was broken, and I don't I don't know what
else to say. I loved him, I love him, I
will always love him. I remember one time one time
(05:27):
doing promos and I was almost attacked by a homeless
guy and I was telling him the story and he
pulls out his box cutter and he says, you always
need one of these, and he showed me how to
cut somebody with a box cutter. Here's never been without one.
And I was just like, oh okay, and he's like,
if you had this, that guy wouldn't have bothered you.
(05:49):
And I was like, okay. But he was my friend.
And if you know, to some people, he might have
been stand offish, but again, if he was your friend,
he would give you the shirt off his back. He
was funny. He was witty and so talented, like he
gave his life to professional wrestling, and no one can
(06:09):
deny that about him. So I will miss him greatly,
and I just I don't know, sixty years old is
just too young, and it's it's somebody else, you know,
from my ECW family that we lost, and I I
don't know exactly. I know he had a heart attack.
(06:31):
I don't know what caused it. You know, people are
speculating out there. I don't I wasn't there. I don't
know what caused it, you know. But I I just
feel that sixty is way too young, and I don't
know what else to say. I'm just very very sad,
very very sad.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
This hit the wrestling community in a big way. Like
you said on Mother's Day, go back if you can
to when you first met, when you first came into
the business.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Now he had a huge like.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Aura around him, and everybody knew who Saboo was before
they knew who Saboo was. And you knew the pants,
you know, you knew the scars across the stomach, you
knew all that. But what was your first impression of
Saboo when you got into professional wrestling and we're backstage
at ECW.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I mean, I only knew what I saw of him
on TV. I got to know Saboo the more time
that I was in that locker room. And in the
beginning he shook my hand, it was very polite, and
then you know, then it became like a little hug,
and then it was a big hug, and then it
was a hug and a kiss, and then it was
my brother, you know what I mean, just like anybody else,
(07:46):
he warms up to you, and I I don't know,
I just people fans didn't see what we saw because
we saw whole different side of Saboo. He just I mean,
he was so funny. He was just so funny and
(08:08):
had such a good sense of humor and was such
a sweet soul, you know. And you know, some people
might say he had a hard exterior, but they didn't
know him. They didn't know him personally like we knew him.
And again, I just I never I never expected him
(08:32):
to die. But on the flip side, it was just like,
I can't believe he's still here. And that just doesn't
make any sense when you say it out loud, you know,
it really doesn't. Now that I said it out loud.
It makes no sense. It's like a Noxi moron or something.
But it again, it goes back to like him doing
all this crazy stuff, and then you do add whatever
(08:55):
he was doing on his own time, which scared me
because you know, look look back at all the guys
who've passed, ninety nine percent of them, well not ninety nine,
but a lot of them had drug and substance abuse problems,
alcoholism or whatever, you know what I mean. But a
(09:15):
lot of them had to do that to deal with
the pain. You know, you get hooked on these pills
because you're in constant pain. Look at the bumps that
this man took. How I'm I'm in awe that he
can even walk. Yeah, you know, so I don't put
(09:36):
my nose up at him for you know, taking what
he took or whatever. And I don't know what he took.
I'm going by what I hear, and you know what
people are saying, I really don't know. I mean, he's
never come out to me lately, and like you know,
he always said he doesn't have a problem, he can
(09:58):
handle it, and he was always at the shows. I've
seen him at so many of these signings and functioning
and taking pictures and stuff. So I thought he was okay, yeah,
you know what I mean. But then you know, you
get the news like this, and it's just like, where
did this come from? I just saw him. I saw
(10:19):
him in Vegas, and then I saw him at the
ECW Arena, you know, and I didn't get to talk
to him now much, but of course he ran over
and gave me a hugging a kiss, and that's the
last time I saw.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Him, yeah, you know, And it was funny. I was
thinking about this afterwards. You know, when super Genie Melissa
Coates passed away, right, you know, she was a real
essential part to him for many years, and I think
many might have thought after she passed away that would
(10:51):
have been the beginning, yeah, the beginning of his downfall.
But he actually did manage to find a way to
go on and live for many years afterwards and make
it to the shows and do exactly what you're saying.
And it's just a miraculous existence he had, and it
(11:14):
is a remarkable way he did live. Just the things
he did in the ring, and I mean we've heard
stories of what he did outside the ring, you know,
over the years, but again, you saw what he was
like on the inside and behind the curtain. I mean,
you know this is a guy again you said the
heart exterior. I mean at shows, booking guys, all your friends. Basically,
(11:37):
he scared me. He's walking by him, he gave you
a look, and you're just like, I just don't even
want to go by and say anything because I think
he's going to bite your head off. But maybe I
should have just gone and said hello, and maybe I
would have been dead wrong.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But yeah, and you didn't. You didn't know him well
enough to see that side. And you know you mentioned
Melissa when she died. I talked to him so often
about her afterwards, and I was checking in on him
to see if he was okay, and a lot of
(12:14):
times I get no, I'm not okay. And I was
worried about him, you know, and I was like, saboo,
you know, please don't do anything you're gonna regret. He
loved her, he loved her, and it was just he
got through it, you know, like you said, bounced back
(12:34):
and was working more, and just I just I understand,
but I don't understand. And again that doesn't make any sense.
I sat here on Sunday. I called Shane right away
(12:55):
after Todd, and you know, Shane was just like, oh
my god, oh my got He's like, you know, like
I expected, but I didn't expect it today kind of thing.
And I was like, yeah, it was just it's a lie.
And just see, I'm glad I saw him recently and
was able to give him that warm hug. And but
(13:19):
it's it just doesn't make it any easier for us.
You know. It's just it's another member of our family
gone and it sucks. Yeah, so I'm I'm just sad
about it.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
We'll end on a high, happy note in a few minutes,
but I just want to bring this up because this
is the elephant in the room after all the tributes,
after everybody was kind of coming through and saying all
their you know, well, great memories about Saboo. A story
kind of started to circulate after an interview with Joey
(13:53):
Janella about possible passing of some sort of substance in
saboos or be prior to Sabu's last match at that
GCW show, leading to people sharing the bumps that Sabu
took in that last match with Joey Janella and then
pairing it with the quotes that went along with that
(14:13):
interview and kind of like making it seem really rough. Now,
you said you saw Sabou the next day and he
was looking really tired. Well, apparently he needed or this
is all a legend from this interview, there was some
sort of something that was passed to him to help
him get to that match, because he kind of came
in not feeling so great and or looking ready to
(14:38):
go into this quote last match. As he said, he
wasn't feeling it was his last match.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Do you want can you run the clip of the
the bump for me?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah? Absolutely, Excuse me, we.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Can get into uh real quick, what was said?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
All right, So here's the first one.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Okay, this is into the farmwire.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
He goes, Now, this is the one everybody's talking about
right here. Okay, this in the back of that one
sect this one right here, situate.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
More. He goes to his head that concrete. That's that's m.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So your expert opinion watching that bump, seeing him go
he I mean, it looks to me like his body
went limp as he was in mid air. But what
do you see when you see him?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
You know, I mean his legacy is already set in stoon.
He did not have to do this at sixty years old,
just my opinion. I know he he loved the business
so much and he wanted to keep working, but I mean,
he could have just gotten away with just signing autographs
(16:09):
at this point and trying to get his body healed
up for the you know, the golden years so to speak,
coming forward. You tell me, is there any reason why
he needed to do something like this. And again they
were labeling it as his last match, and I told
you what, he whispered in my ear, It's not my
(16:31):
last match. I'm gonna keep working. And I'm like, you're crazy,
Why why do you have to do this. I mean,
I know, okay, for the paycheck or whatever, but I mean, man,
just double up on the bookings and save your body,
you know, not saying he couldn't go anymore, because I
(16:51):
mean obviously still doing stuff. But to me, I would
have preferred him to just take bookings, just signing and
being safe and just trying to you know, recover from
all the damage over the last forty years that he
(17:13):
put his body through. It's just it makes me sad.
It makes me sad again. It falls back on these
wrestlers not having pensions or social security or you know,
because a lot of them won't buy into it or whatever.
No union, there's nothing to fall back on when these
guys are older. So what do they do? They continue
(17:37):
to work and do these crazy matches, and that's what
he's known for. I understand that, but I don't know that.
I thought I just just to me it was unnecessary.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
You want to read it or here's the quote says
we're an hour into the show, and I said, just
get Sabo here. Janella continues. So he gave him something
called kray Tom. You can buy it at a smoke
shop or something. It's like a legal opioid or opiate
or something. They said, he's hopping on the bed, he's
hopping off the bed, and we're going to get him
(18:13):
to the show. So he shows up two hours into
the show. Sabu was on a different fucking planet. Everyone
in the backstage is like, what the fuck is this
match going to happen? And my god, did it happen.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
He's on a different planet, meaning drug wise, is that
what they're talking about?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That would be my estimation. When you give somebody an
opiate they're on a different planet.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well there's more to that. There's more than that quote.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Uh well that was the second part of the quote.
The first part of the quote is how uh what
do you mean Sabu can't walk? They said, yeah, sabab I.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Have it, I have it right here.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
It was fairly confident that he was fine. I was
kept in contact with him, and he has a team
of people around him. Guys. At the time, they were
all saying he was ready to go, that he was
going to the gym, that he was on a training program.
I believe them until the day of the show. The
two hours before I get a call Sabo can't walk.
What do you mean Sabo can't walk? They said, yes,
Saboo's something with his knee. They're locked up. He can't
(19:18):
walk and his feet are bleeding. He's not coming. Saboo's
not coming. I said, Saboo's fucked. So we talked to
indie wrestler Matt Tremont and Treymont is about to be
the replacement for the match, and I feel like this
is going to be the most embarrassing moment on my
wrestling career. Here's two thousand people this is one of
(19:38):
the biggest spring breaks ever, the biggest crowd Mania week
in Indie wise, and I'm gonna have to go out
there and announce that Saboo once again No showed, and
No showed his own retirement match. And then your quote
came second, and then it says he was definitely out cold.
He was done. They were telling me there was no way.
(19:58):
The roughs were commune to me that there's no way
he's continuing this match, like holy shit, that is the
one time you want the barbed wire to stop you.
He just blew right through it. And then the Sandman
came out and that was all saboued it needed. The
resurrection happened. Jesus resurrected two days later, the anniversary. I
(20:20):
couldn't fucking believe it. Dude, he was ready to go again.
I guess that concussion knocked him back in the nineteen
ninety six or something. I don't know. Okay, so that
was done in an interview. Meanwhile, everybody on the internet
goes ape shit saying that GCW had no reason to
(20:42):
put him in the ring like that, which you know,
we just said if he if his feet are bleeding
and he can't walk. Why would you make somebody wrestle?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Right?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
You would pull them correct? Right? Yoh yeah, Joey. Janella,
he's come and he wanted to clear the air about
Saboo's usage of kray Tom. In a lengthy post, he says,
I'm truly devastated over this, and this whole deal has
really affected me. Am I pronouncing it correctly, cray tom,
(21:16):
That's what I think it is, Okay. It's something Sabo
took daily for years and it helped him get off
other substances. Saboo loved his weed and kray Tom. His
body was wrecked doing what he loved for forty years.
He says he embellished a bit when he said the
(21:38):
veteran was knocked out. I love Saboo. He was legitimately
my idol growing up in my friend I just wanted
to give him in the fans one last great Saboo spectacle.
A snowball effect happened one acts people were saying that
Janella was responsible for Sabu's death. He comes and says
Taboo was fine after the day after he signed out
(22:00):
Russel Khan. He has been doing many appearances since. I
don't know what the cause of death was. But all
I can say is I wouldn't change a thing, and
I'm happy he went out on top. So well, I
have a bit of a problem with that because if
the man cannot walk and his knees are messed up
(22:21):
and his feet are bleeding, was he forced into doing this?
That's something we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
No, you know what I mean, who's his team? Who's
Sabo's team? Almost knows the guys that booked the appearance.
I mean who's the team.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean, there's a guy that hanged, that was hanging
out with him all the time, that used to he
was dressed like Rick Flair, that was his buddy. Yeah,
he was with him several times. I don't know. I
forget the guy's name. I don't know if he was
with him that evening, I don't know. All I know
is reading that one, uh parograph is disturbing because, like,
(23:03):
why would you force somebody to wrestle if they're not
in the right state to do so, or if they're
so messed up on drugs or substance, or if they're bleeding,
their feet are bleeding, their knees are so locked that
they can't walk.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
That's that's that's out there.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Like, why would you always say that? And then why
would you say that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
In an Yeah, that's really not helping your cause with
giving that detail.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I don't understand it. I don't. I don't get. Look,
I'm not putting blame on anyone. I'm just saying I
don't get why you would force somebody to perform. I
understand it's the biggest show of the you know, the week,
the weekend, and you want it to go well and stuff,
(23:52):
But isn't somebody's health more important you think? I don't know. Again,
I wasn't there, you know, I don't. I never I
don't believe I met Joey in person. I'm not sure.
I never heard anything bad about the guy, and from
what I heard, the match was incredible. But it makes
me sad if he was forced to do something, and
(24:17):
you know, Sabu wouldn't have done it if he didn't
want to do it too. Again, he loves the business
so much, you know what I mean. So I'm not
saying he was held at gunpoint and oh you have
to wrestle tonight, but that is disturbing to hear that
his feet were bleeding, his knees were messed up. He's
bouncing off, bouncing off the bed, bouncing on the bed.
(24:39):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, he was jumping. Did you know Sabo is somebody
who would jump on a bed.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, if he can jump off and on a bed,
why then how is this feet bleeding and his legs
locked up? It's contradicting each other. Like, I don't understand,
I don't get the interview. I don't know, I don't know.
It makes me sad, this whole thing. It makes me
very very upset. And you know, maybe that match had
(25:05):
nothing to do with him dying. I guess we'll never know,
but it sickens me because I lost a friend and
a brother and I'm I'm just devastated. And he's in
a better place and he's at peace and he's not
in pain anymore. So there's that.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I Like I said, I wanted to end it on
a little bit of a lighter note. Do you have
a favorite match against Sabu?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
The one I mean, you know, Shane wrestled him a
bunch of times, and the one thing I remember there was,
like I want to say, there was a tag. It
was him, It was Sabo and Van dam on one side.
Maybe it was I don't know if it was Shane
(25:55):
and Tommy, because Beulah and I got to jump in
the ring and do sleeper holds simultaneously on like I
it was Saboo and then I jumped on Saboo and
put put it on him, and then Rob came in
and then Buelah put it on him. So it was
(26:17):
like a four way sleeper and we were all laughing
that's awesome. Yeah, like it was a house show. It
was a house show. Yeah, but yeah, I jump on me,
It'll be great. I was like, Okay, it was just
I don't know. He just worked with them so many times.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
He was just a nice guy. He's easy to get
along with if you were in his inner circle. And
I I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna miss him a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, they broke the mold when they made Sabo. We
will that's all you got. We will get out of here,
Will point one more time? Will point up?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I get cut off by my green screen, isn't there?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
We go area point up one more time?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I can't disappeared.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Well, definitely, I'll go back and check the ball. I
know we did a couple of watch alongs to some
matches with Shane and Saboo. So if I can find one,
I will throw one up for the for the members,
and if there's not one on there already, I will
put one up because I know we do have one
in the vault. So if that's all you got, we
will get out of here for today. And for that
(27:33):
Queen of extreme, this.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Is the chad Ster.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We will catch you on the flip side.
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.