[The_It_Factor]

after 20 years, i still can't keep up with what a "good" wrestler means. to me, it's someone that can put on a match that i genuinely don't know who will win and who can sell the match like it's real. while a lot of people consider sabu a "spot monkey", or whatever, i tend to think he was a good wrestler. he wasn't that smooth with his moves, but he seemed to put on matches that "made sense". when sabu would wrestle, he would sell an injury for almost the entire match. if someone was working his arm, he would sell that "bum" arm for pretty much the entire match.

i was trying to explain to someone what i think makes a "good" wrestler, and i found myself referring to sabu a lot. i feel like he gets 0 credit for being a "good" wrestler, yet his matches were great in that a) you didn't immediately know who was going to win, and b) they actually made sense. if someone beat the crap out of his arm, leg, etc. he would work the match as if those parts were actually injured. i'm also not sure what "telling a story" quite means (especially considering what other fans think it means), but sabu was always the type that "made sense". i mean, opponents would work him, and he would sell that so well that i actually thought that whatever part they were working was actually injured.

this may have already been discussed, but i just wanted to get some old school opinions on it. i loved sabu for his high flying and reckless behavior, but i also think he was a great wrestler. to me, all that matters is making it appear as if the match is undetermined and making the match look "real". i felt sabu did both, yet, he never seems to get respect as a "real" wrestler. is it just the new era fans that dislike him, or was he truly a "bad" wrestler? i just respect the fact that he would sell a single injury for the entire match and it would get to the point where i really had no idea whether he was actually injured, or, if he would possibly win.

is it the "new era" fans, or was sabu a good wrestler? i've always been a fan and thought he was terribly underrated as a wrestler, but maybe it's just me... do any other classic fans have any input?

just thought it was a good topic... hope to hear y'all's opinion.

 

[ByTor]

Hell yeah, he was! Or if he wasn't, then wrestling needs more "bad wrestlers" because Sabu was awesome. Haters like to point out his botches, but even his botches were epic because Sabu never halfassed anything a day in his life.

I don't feel like going into a Sabu lovefest right now, but he's one of my favorite wrestlers ever. Call him #13. Maybe I'll be back tomorrow with some more praise of the most homicidal, suicidal, genocidal death-defying athlete in the history of professional wrestling.

*Points to sky*

 

[Ghost Lantern]

Hell yeah, he was! Or if he wasn't, then wrestling needs more "bad wrestlers" because Sabu was awesome. Haters like to point out his botches, but even his botches were epic because Sabu never halfassed anything a day in his life.

I don't feel like going into a Sabu lovefest right now, but he's one of my favorite wrestlers ever. Call him #13. Maybe I'll be back tomorrow with some more praise of the most homicidal, suicidal, genocidal death-defying athlete in the history of professional wrestling.

*Points to sky*

Agreed. He was about as can't miss as there was.

 

[The_It_Factor]

hahaha, yeah, he's one of my favorites as well, i just feel like he (like several ecw guys) is criminally underrated and seemed to be able to put on, what i consider, a "good" wrestling match.

 

[Ghost Lantern]

hahaha, yeah, he's one of my favorites as well, i just feel like he (like several ecw guys) is criminally underrated and seemed to be able to put on, what i consider, a "good" wrestling match.

From my experiance over the last year on this board, it's very "trendy" to downplay anything of value as over-rated.

 

[The_It_Factor]

From my experiance over the last year on this board, it's very "trendy" to downplay anything of value as over-rated.

good point... it just seems that he never gets respect anywhere (albeit, "anywhere" means anywhere online).

 

[Pappa Bacon]

yeah Sabu is probably really underrated even more so when RVD came into the spotlight to me Sabu > RVD any day of the week. not only was he great in the ring his feud with Taz was amazing and deserved to be in the top 25 of all time. Sabu was a captivating wrestler and he was one of my favorites in ECW. I think he had pulled a rep that made guys in the bigger organizations scared to work with him. if I remember correctly didn't he break or hurt Jericho's neck in ECW due to a table breaking the wrong way or something?

 

[Mr Poifect]

While he may not have/have had the technical ability like a Dean Malenko or Curt Henning, or the oozing charisma of Piper or Jericho, what Sabu did have was amazing psychology in relation to the timing and impact of his moves. He knew when to do each one and how to build a match. Of course, this is helped by other guys who were/are equally adept at that sort of thing like RVD and Jerry Lynn.

For me, that's worth watching a hell of a lot more than 20 minutes of rest holds or luchadore stuff.

 

[SOR]

He was. Not in a traditional sense but in the sense of having good entertaining matches and being completely original (At least early on) he was good.

He was also a master of two styles. He could be one of the best brawlers out there but if you needed him to fly he could do that also.

 

[hardysno1fan]

He was a competent wrestler.

 

[popo39]

I never heard that Sabu was considered a bad worker. Enjoyed his work myself.
One though I have is that people might find his high flying style, and that of Lucadoors, as being in bad wrestling taste. As that style lends itself to a bigger risk of botching something due to the complex spots. Also the aerial style can seem a bit more unrealistic- requiring a lot of cooperation from the opponent to pull off.

 

[Chismo]

Wrestling is performing. It doesn't matter HOW you do it, as long as it's good, effective and tells a story. Some guys do it via fancy martial arts, submissions, strikes and stuff, some guys do it via brawling and stuff, some guys do it via chairs, tables, thumbtacks, lighttubes and glass boards, it doesn't matter as long as it's compelling, good. Why can't annoying smarks coexist together?

Performing.

 

[777]

Sabu can actually mat/chain wrestle. He has sound fundamentals, simply added multiple facets to make himself special. The Sabu criticisms are unfounded and generally out of context.

 

[zidane2000]

He was competent in the ring but he did what a lot of ECW talent did well, he masked his faults and really showed his strengths. He could put on a good high flying brawl with the best of them, and 99% of the time that's what he did. He was always enjoyable to watch but I would never classify him as a 'good' wrestler to be honest.

 

[SpocksEvilClone]

I would have to agree with everyone here. Sabu was a good wrestler. Maybe not technically sound & his mic skills were non-existent, but his psychology was/is amazing. He knew how to tell a story in the ring, his timing was usually pretty good, but mistakes were made. And he knew how to work a crowd.

 

[Jupiter Jack Daniels]

What I really liked about Sabu was his selling ability. I don't mean him taking a bump, usually, he would be legitimately in pain.


I mean how he would be punching a guy in the corner and Sabu would sell the pain in his hand for a good 5-10 seconds after and on occasion, through out the match. Same thing with him taking a punch, he would consistently sell his jaw.

 

[sXeMope]

Maybe someone can verify/correct this, but if my facts are correct didn't Sabu teach RVD how to wrestle, and RVD taught Sabu how to "fly".

 

[Rugrat]

Spot fests are generally better than technical bouts, so if putting on good matches constitutes a good wrestler, then that's what he is.

 

[HBK4LIFE]

Definitely was a good wrestler.

 

[hgr423]

I enjoyed a lot of Sabu matches in the 90's but after looking back on some of them I haven't found any that hold up today.

I will keep looking through the collection though.