Former ECW World Heavyweight Champion and all-around hardcore legend Sabu has made the decision to hang up his boots and retire from in-ring action.
Sabu is a name synonymous with ECW with his death-defying style and devil-may-care attitude making him a huge hit with the Philadelphia faithful.
During his time with Paul Heyman’s promotion, Sabu won the ECW World Tag Team Championships three times. Sabu is also a two-time Heavyweight Champion and one-time Television Champion.
The Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal star’s ECW career featured a multitude of manic matches and moments but none more so than his infamous Barbed Wire Match with Terry Funk at 1997’s Born To Be Wired. So brutal was the match that Heyman vowed to never promote such a stipulation ever again.
In a recent interview with Wrestling Shoot Interviews, the hardcore icon announced his retirement stating that a back injury has limited his ability to wrestle and work out:
“I’m not doing real good. My back, I hurt my back about a year ago and it’s still been hurting. I wrestled a couple of weeks ago but I shouldn’t have.
I’ve only wrestled like twice in the last year…I only went to the gym a couple of times the last year ’cause I hurt my back.
I’m probably not gonna wrestle no more… I’m probably just gonna do autograph signings and personal appearances and meet and greet type stuff.”
However, despite announcing his in-ring retirement he revealed there was one wrestler he would love to face in his final match:
“I’d definitely get back in the ring for Brock Lesnar, I’d love to wrestle him. Especially if it was my final match, I’d love to wrestle him.
He’s the best, he’s a shooter, he’s a good worker, he’s my kind of opponent. I like big guys, I like wrestling big guys.
I don’t like wrestling guys like me because it’s not that interesting. It’s more interesting wrestling a guy like me against a guy like Brock Lesnar.”
During his career, The Arabian Machine of Destruction wrestled for multiple companies such as WCW, WWE, IMPACT Wrestling, NWA, and New Japan Pro Wrestling.