ECW - RVD/Sabu Questions

[chippychipotle]

Towards the end of the original ECW - where was Sabu? Did he quit prior to Heyman declaring bankruptcy? If so, when was his last Month or last matches in ECW? What was the report/reason why he left?

Also - why was RVD not on the Massacre on 34th Street card in 2000? Did he stay all the way til the end?

Thanks

[gordon]

Not sure about Sabu, but I think RVD didn't appear at Massacre on 34th Street because he was owed a lot of money and didn't want to work it.

[The Dude]

Dec 1, 2009 11:37:09 GMT -5 @gordon said:

Not sure about Sabu, but I think RVD didn't appear at Massacre on 34th Street because he was owed a lot of money and didn't want to work it.

Yeah if I remember correctly Paul E. owed RVD millions by the time ECW went bankrupt.

[chippychipotle]

Dec 1, 2009 12:41:04 GMT -5 The Dude said:

Dec 1, 2009 11:37:09 GMT -5 @gordon said:

Not sure about Sabu, but I think RVD didn't appear at Massacre on 34th Street because he was owed a lot of money and didn't want to work it.

Yeah if I remember correctly Paul E. owed RVD millions by the time ECW went bankrupt.

Unless it was a heat of the moment type of beef between RVD & Paul - that doesn't make too much sense, since RVD has til this day - stayed very, very loyal to Paul. Not saying it's not true - just doesn't make much sense. Nobody knows when/why/where was Sabu's final dates in the land of Extreme?

[tobycooper1]

Sabu fell out with Heyman i believe, i have read that Sabu was leaving and he was supposed to put over Super Crazy as they were going to push him as the new table guy. However he didnt want to leading to a fall out.

[Juba]

Wasn't RVD injured during that ppv? sabu part i have no idea

[Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai]

Sabu was on-again off-again with Paul Heyman dating all the way back to the first time they "fired" him in '95.

I was following ECW pretty closely for the last few years it existed. While my memory has faded over time, I clearly recall that RVD held out on the last several ECW shows due to Heyman owing him tons of back pay. It's correct that RVD was always very loyal to Heyman, which is why he didn't begin holding out until he was owed so much money that he felt like he had to stop working for free.

Also, even though RVD stopped showing up to work for ECW since Heyman wasn't paying him, he never attempted to find work in WCW or the WWF during his time away, which I always attributed to his still being loyal to ECW. It seemed like he wanted to give Heyman every opportunity to make it right and didn't want to bail on ECW even though he had been screwed out of so much money already. But yeah, toward the end, he did stop appearing because he was not getting his promised pay.

As for Sabu, I thought he was one of the people who quit over money. Although Sabu always had a somewhat on-again, off-again history with Paul Heyman, so it's just as likely that they got into some other disagreement and Sabu just quit. Sabu was known, especially in the mid-1990s, as the type of guy that would simply bail on a show/promoter if he wasn't completely happy with how things were going.

That's part of the reason Sabu's WCW stint in the early Nitro era in 1995 was so brief. He almost immediately decided he hated it there, and quickly bounced.

[chippychipotle]

Dec 1, 2009 21:53:09 GMT -5 Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai said:

Sabu was on-again off-again with Paul Heyman dating all the way back to the first time they "fired" him in '95.

I was following ECW pretty closely for the last few years it existed. While my memory has faded over time, I clearly recall that RVD held out on the last several ECW shows due to Heyman owing him tons of back pay. It's correct that RVD was always very loyal to Heyman, which is why he didn't begin holding out until he was owed so much money that he felt like he had to stop working for free.

Also, even though RVD stopped showing up to work for ECW since Heyman wasn't paying him, he never attempted to find work in WCW or the WWF during his time away, which I always attributed to his still being loyal to ECW. It seemed like he wanted to give Heyman every opportunity to make it right and didn't want to bail on ECW even though he had been screwed out of so much money already. But yeah, toward the end, he did stop appearing because he was not getting his promised pay.

As for Sabu, I thought he was one of the people who quit over money. Although Sabu always had a somewhat on-again, off-again history with Paul Heyman, so it's just as likely that they got into some other disagreement and Sabu just quit. Sabu was known, especially in the mid-1990s, as the type of guy that would simply bail on a show/promoter if he wasn't completely happy with how things were going.

That's part of the reason Sabu's WCW stint in the early Nitro era in 1995 was so brief. He almost immediately decided he hated it there, and quickly bounced.

Thanks! Do you know when was Sabu's official last match in ECW though?

[Deleted]

I could be wrong, but the last match I saw him was at Guilty As Charged 2000, where he was defeated by RVD, in one of his better matches, I reckon...