Joey Janela has defended the decision to have Sabu’s final match take place over WrestleMania despite concerns over the ECW legend’s health, prompting a follow-up statement from GCW owner Brett Lauderdale.
At the GCW Spring Break event in April, Sabu faced Janela in a no ropes barbed wire match. On May 11th, news broke that Sabu had passed away at 60 years of age. In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Janela spoke about the lead-up to the match, noting that at one point, Sabu was unable to walk and the match was close to being called off:
“I was fairly confident that he was fine. I was kept in contact with him and he has a team of people around him, guys this time. They were all saying he was ready to go, that he was going to the gym, that he was on a training program. I believed them until the day of the show. Then two hours before, I get a call: ‘Sabu can’t walk.’
“What do you mean Sabu can’t walk? They said, ‘Yeah, Sabu, something with his knee — they’re locked up. He can’t walk. And his feet are bleeding. He’s not coming. Sabu’s not coming.’ I said, ‘Sabu’s f***ed.’ So we talked to [indie wrestler] Matt Tremont, and Tremont is about to be the replacement for the match. And I feel like this is going to be the most embarrassing moment of my wrestling career.
There’s 2,000 people here. This is one of the biggest Spring Breaks ever. The biggest crowd ‘Mania weekend, indie-wise. And I’m going to have to go out there and announce that Sabu, once again, no-showed. And no-showed his own retirement match.”
Continuing, Janela noted that Sabu took the legal opiate Kratom before the match and that the retirement bout went ahead:
“We are an hour into the show and I said, ‘Just get Sabu here,’” Janela continued. “So they gave him something called kratom. You can buy it at a smoke shop or something; it’s like a legal opiate or something. They said, ‘He’s hopping on the bed, he’s hopping off the bed, and we’re going to get him to the show.’ So he shows up two hours into the show. Sabu was on a different f***ing planet. Everyone in the backstage was like, ‘What the f***? Is this match going to happen?’ And my God, did it happen.”
It should be noted that according to a study from Harvard Health Publishing, Kratom is described as “a tropical tree from the coffee family native to Southeast Asia, with properties that range from stimulant-like, energizing and uplifting, to opioid-like, causing drowsiness and euphoria” and is used to treat chronic pain. It is also noted that there are dozens of active components but “the two main chemicals, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, have activity at the main opioid receptor, the “mu” receptor, which is the same one stimulated by heroin and oxycodone.”
Kratom can lead to serious side effects, including seizures, respiratory suppression and cardiac arrhythmia.
Joey Janela & Brett Lauderdale Issue Statements On Sabu’s Final Match & Backlash
The use of Kratom and Sabu’s halth issues was met with criticism from fans, prompting Janela to issue the following response on social media, clarifying that Sabu’s team gave him the substance, adding that he took care of Sabu to the best of his abilities in the match:
“We didn’t give him kratom his team did, it’s also not illegal and 85% of professional wrestlers do it especially the ones on tv. So f*** you. Sabu was a grown man, he did what he had to do to get out there. I took care of him to the best of my ability, I didn’t think what happened half way through would happen, it was all to get him one great payday and one last shine in the spotlight. That night wasn’t about me, it was about sabu and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Additionally, GCW owner Brett Lauderdale issued a statement of his own on social media, defending the booking of the Sabu retirement match and reiterated that he, Janela nor GCW supplied the late wrestler with Kratom:
“Any suggestion that I or “GCW” or Joey Janela “forced” him to do this match, supplied him with substances or somehow caused his death is irresponsible, disingenous, hurtful, and false. It’s upsetting and discouraging to see people so eager to cast judgment without knowledge of the facts,” he wrote.
“I would never knowingly put someone who I believed was a danger to themselves or others in the ring and my track record shows this to be true,” he continued. “I have pulled people – in a public and painful manner – from big matches before, sometimes literal moments before a match was to begin and would do it again if I had to.
I spoke to Sabu moments before the match and he was Sabu. He was the same Sabu I had encountered in years past when I participated in his matches as a referee and later as a promoter. He was the same Sabu I met with the following day at WrestleCon, and the same Sabu that made multiple appearances on podcasts and at conventions in the weeks that followed.”
Following the news of Sabu’s passing, the wrestling world paid tribute to the ECW icon.