Dominic DeAngelo of the 1 Of A Kind podcast sent along the following to WrestlingHeadlines.com:
The great Sabu passed away this past weekend and it’s been a sobering reminder of how we need to appreciate these people while they’re still with us. For the short time that I knew him, I’m forever grateful for his authenticity and kindness.
Sabu undoubtedly changed the pro wrestling business and while his colleagues understood his impact, his legacy was never given its just due to the mainstream eye.
Tonight, “Dark Side of The Ring” will air the episode of The Original Sheik Sabu’s late uncle who also set his own historic tone for pro wrestling. RVD and Sabu are both featured interviews for tonight and both have credited Sheik for the wrestling foundation he created for both men in between the ropes.
On the February 26, 2024 episode of “1 Of A Kind With RVD” Sabu shares the biggest aspect he took from his uncle and it speaks to Sabu being the genuine person that he always was.
“I only smiled when I did stuff I was proud of. I didn’t like doing stuff I wasn’t proud of so I tried to stay away from that so he always said, ‘Don’t do nothing you’re not proud of.’ Now I’ve done some few things that I wasn’t proud of but I’ve done more things that I was. Even though I’ve burned a bridge, at the time I was proud of myself. Not so proud now, but at the time, the bridge was burning, I go ‘Haha bridge is burning – f*** you (laughs).’
Sabu reflects back on the opportunity he received from WWE back in the mid-1990s to become The Sultan, an unsuccessful gimmick that later went to Rikishi.
“Like they go, ‘Wouldn’t you think you would have been better off if I took the money back in 1994 when they offered me to be The Sultan? I go, ‘Yeah, but I wouldn’t be proud of myself. I’d be doing something else that somebody else told me to do,’ and I was becoming hot to want to conform to something else or somebody else when I had my own momentum going and I wanted to keep it going. I didn’t want help from them, you know?”
As noted, pro wrestling legend Sabu died at age 60 this past weekend.
