Former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho reveals a high-risk match Sabu once pitched to him.
Earlier this month, ECW legend Sabu passed away at the age of 60. Soon after the tragic news, the wrestling world went into mourning. Several stars paid their tribute to the late great star, while a GoFundMe campaign was also launched to help arrange for his funeral expenses.
Almost a month after his untimely death, Chris Jericho, alongside Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer, appeared on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast. Speaking on the podcast, the trio discussed their relationship with the legend before Y2J shared how Sabu had approached him for another final match, upon the conclusion of his retirement bout against Joey Janela.
“But I will say this too, when you mentioned his last match on his terms, I don’t think I’m talking out of school here in saying that I did get a text from him. As a matter of fact, it’s the last text I got about a week before he passed away, saying, ‘Aye, in six months, you wanna have another match? I wanna have another match.’
So I think he had his retirement match, but still wanted to have other matches and I know that Rob (Van Dam) talked about it where Sabu said it’d be cheating to have a match against Rob because they’re so close. I did get an inquiry from Sabu, who was saying he wanted to have another one and that’s a classic, old-school brother wrestling story too.”
However, as the conversation went on, Jericho also revealed how the hardcore wrestling veteran had once pitched an extremely high-risk match he wanted to have against Jericho on the Jericho Cruise.
“When Sabu was giving me these DMs, before he actually came on the Jericho Cruise because he did come on the cruise. He was great on it. He did a live podcast which was great. He got to reunite with Luther, his old friend from F.M.W., but he was texting me prior for years and he’d say he wants to come on the cruise and he wants to do a match with me where the loser jumps over the edge into the water. Here’s the classic Sabu part, he goes, ‘Now I’ll beat you, but I’ll still jump over the edge into the water…’ I’ll beat you on your own cruise, and then jump basically to your death.”
H/t Fightful
Chris Jericho Opens Up On His Relationship With Sabu
Earlier this month, during an appearance on 101 WRIF,Chris Jericho recalled his relationship with the now late wrestling great, Sabu.
Of course I knew Sabu. Yeah. Worked with him when I was in ECW. We had one match in 1996 and I think it was my second — last match I had there. But, Paul Heyman sold that match for 10 years afterwards. It was back when tape trading was a thing. He’d still always advertise that match on his TV shows for years and years and years afterwards and then actually, I just had Sabu work with us in AEW a couple years ago and I always talked with him a lot on Instagram on DMs.
He DM’d me, text me, when we were in Las Vegas at the beginning of this FOZZY tour and he said, ‘Are you guys playing tonight?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we’re at the Count’s Vamp’d’ or whatever the venue’s called. Didn’t hear anything else and then when I got off stage, he had text me at like 9 o’clock or so. We usually go at 9:30. ‘Can you put me on the list?’ I never saw it because I was getting ready for the gig. Then, I find out, ‘Oh yeah, Sabu was here.’ I was like, ‘What?’ ‘Yeah, he was here.’ Like, really?
He didn’t come and say hi or anything so, and he never mentioned it. I talked to him afterwards, just up until about two weeks ago. We had a quick conversation, and he never mentioned he was at the show so, a very Sabu-esque thing to do but, it’s a true shame. What a pioneer in the wrestling business in so many different ways. So important and so legendary. A true legend and a true character in the business for sure.”
He further stated,
“He was an enigma. I think a lot of that was by design, but also a very good-hearted guy. Very great sense of humor. Detroit guy. He came from Detroit. I think he grew up here. But yeah, a very strange guy until you get to know him and then he was just a very — like I said, a very good-hearted, good dude so, I’m glad that I had reconnected with him. I brought him on the Jericho Cruise a few years ago.
So yeah, I hadn’t seen him for a while. But then over the last few years, we had reestablished a relationship so I’m glad that we did because, like I said, he’ll be missed in the business for sure, and as a person… Only one (match with Sabu). Yeah, one match is all we ever had and like I said, it was kind of, you know, a tape trading classic at the time when that was still a thing back in the 90s.”
In other news: RVD had once pointed out the false facts presented by WWE about Sabu.