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121-613: Xtreme Pro Wrestling ( XPW ) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion owned by Rob Zicari and operated by Extreme Gifts. The promotion is known for its deathmatch style . From 2000 to 2002, XPW held an annual death match tournament called Baptized in Blood, also known as the King of the Deathmatch Tournament. Zicari originally ran the promotion out of Los Angeles from 1999 to 2002. He appeared on shows as

242-600: A No Contest in which Mysterio kept his title. On the June 13 premiere of ECW on Sci Fi , Sabu won a 10-man Extreme Battle Royal with the stipulation that the winner face John Cena at Vengeance . Sabu further fueled the feud during the next week's Raw , when he interfered in a Cena match and performed a Triple Jump Leg Drop on him, diving onto Cena and putting him through the announcers' table. Cena defeated Sabu in their "Extreme Lumberjack match " at Vengeance. On July 2, Sabu, traveling with fellow ECW wrestler Rob Van Dam,

363-522: A No Contest when Malice interfered. In 2004, Sabu teamed with Raven to defeat Raven's former " Gathering " protégés, CM Punk and Julio Dinero . In March, he began feuding with Monty Brown and Abyss , who outnumbered him on several occasions after Raven failed to "watch his back". Eventually Raven challenged Sabu to an empty arena match to be held on June 9, but Sabu refused to wrestle him, claiming that he had promised his uncle, Ed "The Sheik" Farhat , that he would never fight Raven. Raven then waged

484-533: A benefit show, A Night of Appreciation for Sabu , was held by the AWWL to raise funds for him. The show was considered a success, raising enough money for Brunk to cover the costs of his medical care and he was able to make a full recovery. In his first match back from the injury in the AWWL/BTW, he defeated N8 Mattson. Sabu then appeared at Hardcore Homecoming , where he defeated Terry Funk and Shane Douglas in

605-561: A booking in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), which led Paul Heyman to publicly and legitimately fire Sabu at the event. Sabu stated in the Forever Hardcore documentary that he by then had a career wrestling in Japan and now only wrestled once every so often for ECW; thus, he chose Japan over ECW. Sabu wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling throughout 1995, making a total of 64 appearances. He made his debut on January 4 in

726-416: A campaign against Sabu, disrespecting the memory of his uncle and assaulting Sabu's friend Sonjay Dutt , until Sabu finally broke and attacked him on July 23. Raven defeated Sabu on August 4, and a scheduled return match on August 18 was canceled after Sabu legitimately suffered a serious back injury. While injured, Brunk contracted a virus and was hospitalized, sidelining him for ten months. On December 12,

847-410: A champion there. Independent Mexican wrestlers may use a lot of gimmicks, including some that may be based on copyrighted characters from American television shows, such as Thundercats and X-Men . (These gimmicks are often changed if the wrestler playing them makes it into AAA or CMLL; the most prominent example of non-compliance with this method is midget wrestler Chucky from AAA, whose gimmick

968-413: A dark match at a WWF Superstars of Wrestling taping. In 1991, Sabu made his first tour of Japan with Frontier Martial–Arts Wrestling (FMW). While wrestling for FMW, Sabu received many of the scars on his arms and torso for which he became famous. Brunk cleared rumors that the scars were self-induced in a shoot interview with RF Video, confirming that they were a result of numerous hardcore matches he

1089-510: A feud between the two of them. They went on to have a match at Unbreakable in September which Abyss won after performing his Black Hole Slam finisher on to a pile of tacks in the ring. Sabu once again found himself squaring off against Rhino and Abyss, as well as Jeff Hardy , during Bound for Glory in the Monster's Ball 2 match. Rhino won the match. On the same night, Sabu competed in

1210-558: A few appearances for United States Wrestling Association as Samu. He feuded with Jeff Jarrett and Robert Fuller . Sabu made three appearances for the World Wrestling Federation . He defeated Scott Taylor in a dark match before Monday Night Raw on October 18, 1993. He lost to Owen Hart the next night for a dark match at a Wrestling Challenge taping and on the October 20 defeated Scott Taylor again in

1331-513: A few events in early 2003. On March 8, 2003, the promotion held an event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , which had 1,500 people in attendance, mainly due to Pittsburgh being Shane Douglas's hometown. This would be XPW's very last event; there was event scheduled for April 2003 but it was cancelled. Tickets for the April 2003 event were reported to be selling very poorly prior to the event, leading to

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1452-527: A five-year extension on its TV wrestling monopoly from January 1982 to December 1986. However, by the mid-1980s Dixon had won over many wrestlers and fans from Joint who were tired of the Big Daddy -orientated direction of Joint. Eventually this culminated in All Star gaining a TV show on satellite channel Screensport and later, a slice of ITV's coverage from 1987 until the end of ITV wrestling in 1988. By

1573-525: A good impression may be offered a developmental or even a full-professional contract. The advent of the Internet has allowed independent wrestlers and promotions to reach a wider audience, and it is possible for wrestlers regularly working the indie circuit to gain some measure of fame among wrestling fans online. Additionally, some of the more successful indies have video distribution deals, giving them an additional source of income and allowing them to reach

1694-581: A large enough crowd to fill such a venue were they able to do so. Instead, they make use of any almost open space (such as fields, ballrooms, or gymnasiums) to put on their performances. Some independent promotions are attached to professional wrestling schools , serving as a venue for students to gain experience in front of an audience. As independent matches are seldom televised, indie wrestlers who have not already gained recognition in other promotions tend to remain in obscurity. However, scouts from major promotions attend indie shows, and an indie wrestler who makes

1815-549: A larger audience outside of their local areas. Unlike the North American or Japanese products which have large, globally renowned organisations such as WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling with several hundred smaller promotions , Australia only has approximately 30 smaller independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories, that being the Northern Territory . Tours from

1936-476: A lengthy feud with Rob Van Dam after defeating him in a no time limit match at Hostile City Showdown . However, RVD insulted Sabu by refusing to shake hands with him after the match. As a result, a respect match took place between the two at A Matter of Respect . Sabu lost the match and was thus forced to shake hands with RVD, but RVD refused by saying "not only do I not respect you, you're a piece of shit". The rivalry between Sabu and RVD continued as Sabu defeated

2057-568: A locally televised TV show, simply known as XPW TV . The show original aired on KDOC-TV in Los Angeles, California, but later switched to WBGN-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when the promotion relocated to that city. Following the relocation to Philadelphia, XPW TV would be referred to as XPW Monday Nightmare , with the television series airing on Mondays instead of its original Saturday night timeslot. In November 2002, Kris Kloss

2178-490: A major focus on the soap opera aspect of wrestling, as the storylines involved porn stars , alternative lifestyles, profanity, and sadistic violence. The first XPW event was held on July 31, 1999 at the Reseda Country Club . The initial announce team for XPW consisted of Kris Kloss and Larry Rivera , with Kloss doing the play-by-play and Rivera taking on the role as a heel color commentator. Kloss's trademark

2299-541: A major promoter with shows featuring himself as headline heel. In 1958, when Bert Assirati was stripped of the British Heavyweight Championship , Lincoln formed the BWF alliance of promoters to support Assirati's claim, later recognising Shirley Crabtree as champion. Lincoln's BWF was eventually bought out into Joint in 1970. Welsh promoter Orig Williams also used the BWF name, promoting from

2420-473: A match against Samoa Joe for Joe's TNA X Division Championship , despite Sabu having a broken forearm, a match he lost. Sabu was released soon afterwards from TNA. Shortly after his TNA release, on April 24, 2006, Sabu's official website reported that he had signed a one-year contract with World Wrestling Entertainment . At the ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view, Sabu faced Rey Mysterio for

2541-536: A match against the returning Kurt Angle to determine a number one contender. When that match was interrupted by the returning Rob Van Dam another match was signed, Angle versus Van Dam versus Sabu, for the number one contendership (Angle then became too injured to compete and was pulled from the match). Sabu beat Rob Van Dam in their ladder match to win a shot at Big Show at SummerSlam , a match which he ended up losing. At Survivor Series , Sabu teamed up with John Cena, Bobby Lashley , Rob Van Dam and Kane to face

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2662-741: A match for the World Television Championship, which ended in a thirty-minute time limit draw. On the July 1 episode of Hardcore TV , Sabu and RVD defeated Chris Candido and Lance Storm to win the World Tag Team Championship , beginning Sabu's second individual reign with the title. Sabu and RVD held the title for nearly four months, retaining the titles against various ECW teams such as Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks ( Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney ), Full Blooded Italians , and The Dudley Boyz throughout

2783-449: A promotion called MEXPW, which billed itself as a successor to XPW, was founded by Damián 666 and former XPW producer Mike Hartsfield. MEXPW later changed its name to MEXPRO Wrestling (MPW), this was a result of legal action from Big Vision Entertainment. During the summer of 2021, Zicari announced on Instagram and Twitter his plans to relaunch XPW. The first event of the revived XPW, Rebirth , streamed on FITE TV pay-per-view from

2904-537: A rebooted version of ECW . Sabu would wrestle for WWE until he was fired in 2007. He also became a regular wrestler in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling since the creation of the promotion in 2002. Brunk was trained by his uncle, Ed "The Sheik" Farhat , and was initially trained to be a technical wrestler. He began his wrestling career in 1985 in Farhat's promotion, Big Time Wrestling , and

3025-532: A region and maintain a consistent schedule. After Vince McMahon , seeking regulatory relief, gave in 1989 testimony in front of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission where he publicly admitted pro wrestling was in fact a sports-based entertainment, rather than a true athletic competition, many state athletic commissions stopped regulating wrestling. This obviated the need for complying with many expensive requirements, such as

3146-462: A rematch at High Incident . Sabu and RVD subsequently began teaming with each other and ended their rivalry. They began pursuing the World Tag Team Championship , facing The Eliminators in a #1 contender's match at November to Remember . The match ended in a time limit draw and both teams faced the reigning champions The Gangstas in an immediate three-way elimination match , which Gangstas won. RVD and Sabu continued to feud with Eliminators over

3267-497: A shoot promo and in the documentary film Forever Hardcore that in fact it was not Paul Heyman that brought him into ECW but that he was at the right place at the right time. He was referred by a friend to Tod Gordon . According to the storyline, Sabu, who at that time often arrived to the ring by his handler 911 , was an uncontrollable madman strapped to a gurney and with a Hannibal Lecter -style face mask while trying to break free (he claimed to hate this part of his gimmick as he

3388-764: A singles competitor. In 2001, he competed against Abdullah the Butcher and Giant Kimala. On July 8, 2001, he defeated Angel at ECW Reunion Show in Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he worked for Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling . He won the 3PW World Heavyweight Championship defeating Gary Wolfe on October 19. He would drop the title to Wolfe on December 28. Sabu returned to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling on December 22, 1997, when he defeated ECW rival The Sandman at Super Extreme Wrestling War 1997 at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall . Then on December 13, 1998, he and Rob Van Dam defeated

3509-614: A six-man tag team match in the main event of November to Remember , in which New Triple Threat defeated Triple Threat. At the ECW/FMW Supershow II in Japan, RVD and Sabu defeated Dudley Boyz to win their second World Tag Team Championship as a team, while it was Sabu's third individual title reign. On the December 23 episode of Hardcore TV , Sabu defeated Taz and Justin Credible in a three-way elimination match to win

3630-630: A sixty-minute time limit draw, which meant that Funk retained the title. Sabu would then continue to retain the Television Championship against the likes of Pat Tanaka and Mike Awesome , before losing the title to The Tazmaniac, which aired on the March 15 episode of Hardcore TV . After the title loss, Sabu continued his feud with Funk, defeating him on the April 19 episode of Hardcore TV . At When Worlds Collide , Sabu teamed with Bobby Eaton to defeat Funk and Arn Anderson to conclude

3751-494: A suspended sentence of 10 days in jail and a $ 500 fine. Meanwhile, he defeated Stevie Richards in an Extreme Rules match at Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII . Towards the end of July, Sabu began to talk on camera for himself – instead of using a go between – and demanded a shot at Big Show 's ECW World Championship which Paul Heyman refused to grant him in order to "protect" his champion. Instead, he forced him into

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3872-488: A ten-man Gauntlet Match to decide a number one contender, which he also lost, once again to Rhino. Sabu continued his feud with Abyss, once again losing to him at Genesis after taking a Black Hole Slam onto a barbed wire steel chair. They met up again, in the promotion's first ever Barbed Wire Massacre at Turning Point . Sabu finally beat Abyss, but following the match was not seen on TNA television for several months. He made his return at Lockdown on April 23, 2006, in

3993-697: A third XPW reunion show, Perros del Mal vs. XPW: Xtremo y Sangriento , in August 2011. In 2021, after XPW was featured on Vice 's Dark Side of the Ring series, Zicari relaunched the promotion, basing it out of Rochester, New York . Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) was founded in summer 1999 on the West Coast, based primarily in Los Angeles, California . The promotion based its style on hardcore wrestling , featuring many dangerous matches. In addition, XPW kept

4114-670: A three-way hardcore match. Sabu took the victory in each of these matches, usually gaining the pinfall over Diamond after Saturn left the match to defend his companion. His final appearance for the WWA came in their last PPV, The Reckoning, in New Zealand. During this tour he first fought Shane Douglas but due to injury he did not face him at the PPV. Instead, Douglas came to the ring and eventually allowed Joe E Legend to face Sabu instead. Sabu won this match, his second and last WWA match ever. When

4235-436: A three-way no-ropes barbed wire match, and at ECW One Night Stand two days later, where he defeated Rhyno . Sabu returned to TNA on July 29, 2005. At Sacrifice Sabu teamed with his old enemy, and then NWA World Heavyweight Champion , Raven to face Jeff Jarrett and Rhino. Rhino and Jarrett won the match after Rhino gored Raven through a table and pinned him. The match saw Abyss interfering and attacking Sabu, starting

4356-525: A tournament for the vacated XPW World Heavyweight Championship defeating John Kronus in the first round, Damien Steele in the second and The Messiah in the finals. He was the only champion to defend the title outside of the States. He would hold the title for a year until it was taken away in May 2001 by Josh Lazie when Sabu was not present for an event. He would return to All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2000 as

4477-482: A week or once a month in local towns. Independent promotions are usually local in focus and, lacking national TV contracts, are much more dependent on revenue from house show attendance. Due to their lower budgets, most independent promotions offer low salaries (it is not unusual for a wrestler to work for free due to the fact most promoters can only afford to pay well-known talent). Most cannot afford to regularly rent large venues, and would not be able to attract

4598-537: A winning streak against the likes of Cactus Jack at Holiday Hell , Stevie Richards at House Party , and Mr. Hughes at Big Apple Blizzard Blast . This led to Sabu challenging 2 Cold Scorpio for the World Television Championship . Sabu received various title shots against Scorpio at CyberSlam , Just Another Night , and Big Ass Extreme Bash , but the matches ended in twenty-minute time limit draws. He eventually engaged in matches and

4719-457: A year of call-outs and insults from Taz, Paul Heyman revealed that he had asked Sabu, as a friend, to ignore Taz's challenge. This standoff culminated in a grudge match at ECW's first pay-per-view , Barely Legal , which Taz won. Following the match, Taz's manager Bill Alfonso turned on him and sided with Sabu and RVD. This resulted in a double turn as Taz became a fan favorite while Sabu turned heel. Sabu and Taz continued to feud on and off for

4840-807: Is a three-time World Heavyweight Champion having held the ECW World Heavyweight Championship twice and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once. Under the tutelage of his uncle Ed "The Sheik" Farhat , Brunk began his career wrestling in the North American independent scene in 1985 under the name of Sabu, before traveling to Japan, competing in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), winning several championships , including

4961-511: Is also not uncommon for veteran wrestlers who have had past tenures with major promotions to appear on independent shows, either as special attractions or as a way to prolong their careers. The "indie" scene in the United States dates back to the days of regional territories. When a promoter ran opposition in even one town controlled by a National Wrestling Alliance sanctioned territory, they were often called an "outlaw" territory. This

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5082-588: Is based on the Child's Play movies.) Until 1984, no independent puroresu promotion per se existed in Japan; potential talent went directly into the training dojos of either New Japan Pro-Wrestling or All Japan Pro Wrestling . ( International Wrestling Enterprise also was a third-party promotion until 1981.) The advent of the Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation offered a long-sought third alternative. From 1986 to 1988

5203-573: Is considered by some to be a forerunner to indies since some stars of the past got their start in these low quality local rivals to the big regional territories. The modern definition of the independent circuit came about in the middle to late 1980s and fully formed and flourished after 1990. These promotions initially sought to revive the feel of old school territorial wrestling after former territories either went national, such as WWF , went out of business, or eventually did both, such as WCW . Several indies did in fact manage to tour different towns within

5324-584: The 2007 Royal Rumble on January 28, where he was eliminated by Kane after receiving a chokeslam over the top rope and through a table. Sabu joined the ECW Originals along with Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. The ECW Originals began a feud with the New Breed ( Elijah Burke , Kevin Thorn , Marcus Cor Von and Matt Striker). The two teams faced off in a match at WrestleMania 23 in which

5445-537: The Dudley Boyz to retain the ECW World Tag Team Titles at ECW/FMW Supershow . He would team up with Super Leather in a few tag team matches during 1999. On February 3, 2002, Sabu defeated former ECW wrestlers The Sandman and Vic Grimes in a three-way dance. The next day was his last match with FMW was when he teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and lost to The Sandman and Kodo Fuyuki for

5566-731: The ECW FTW Championship and winning the ECW World Tag Team Championship with him. In 1997, Sabu began a tag team with Rob Van Dam , winning the ECW Tag Team Championship twice. After leaving ECW, Sabu wrestled in several national promotions, winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2000. In 2006, he was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as part of their new third brand,

5687-734: The FTW Heavyweight Championship after Taz put Sabu on top of him. As a result, Sabu began feuding with Taz in early 1999, stemming from a broken jaw and a broken neck that Brunk suffered during a match against Taz in December 1998. The injury occurred when Brunk took a Taz-Plex through a table and landed incorrectly. Sabu avenged that by interfering in Taz's match against Shane Douglas for the World Heavyweight Championship at Guilty as Charged , attacked both men and left. After that, RVD and Sabu retained

5808-594: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . He returned to the United States in 1995, briefly working for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), before beginning his most well-known stint in ECW, where he quickly became a fixture of the promotion. During his time in ECW, he became a two-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion and a one-time ECW World Television Champion . He would have both a feud and an alliance with The Tazmaniac , defeated him for

5929-603: The Insane Clown Posse , and Psicosis . At XPW's third-anniversary event, Night of Champions in July 2002, Shane Douglas made his return to XPW as the mystery opponent of Johnny Webb, winning the XPW World title. The event also saw the XPW's third King of the Deathmatch Tournament, matches from which got released on home video as Baptized In Blood III . Douglas would work as both an in-ring performer and booker for

6050-749: The Main Street Armory in Rochester, New York on November 7, 2021. Eight wrestlers competed during the event in a traditional single-elimination tournament for the then-vacated XPW World Heavyweight Championship , which was won by Brian Cage . XPW's Killifornia event took place at the Derby Room in Pomona, California on April 9, 2022. During the event, sixteen wrestlers competed in Baptized in Blood, XPW's signature deathmatch tournament, for

6171-628: The Tokyo Dome , teaming with Masahiro Chono to defeat Junji Hirata and Tatsumi Fujinami . Sabu and Chono teamed together on several more occasions to face Heisei Ishingun . On May 3, 1995, Sabu defeated Koji Kanemoto at Wrestling Dontaku in the Fukuoka Dome to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . He lost the title to Kanemoto on June 14 in Tokyo's Nippon Budokan in a bout where Kanemoto's UWA World Welterweight Championship

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6292-539: The World Heavyweight Championship . At the end of the match, Mysterio found himself standing on a ringside table with Sabu flying at him. Sabu caught the champ in a front facelock and nailed him with a DDT which caused both men to crash through the table. At this point, the WWE medical staff rushed to the injured men and declared neither man could continue and ordered the match stopped, resulting in

6413-658: The XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship . The tournament was won by Shlak. Beautiful Disaster took place on June 25 and featured an eight-woman tournament to determine the first holder of the XPW Women's Championship. In the tournament final, Taya Valkyrie defeated Kamille Brickhouse , Ludark Shaitan, and Sage Sin Supreme in a ladder match to win the title. From April 2000 until March 2003, XPW ran

6534-428: The "Air Sabu" corner splash on Funk, Terry moved and Sabu ended up colliding violently into the wire which tore open his biceps. He then asked his manager Bill Alfonso for some tape and after Alfonso went to get some Sabu began to tape the approximately 10 inch gash up. Funk has stated that, to this day, he has never seen anything like what Sabu did that night. The match ended with both men so badly tangled up together in

6655-501: The "All-New XPW" to his home state of Pennsylvania . Credited to the promotional efforts of Douglas and Cody Michaels , XPW's East Coast move was initially successful in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh before, ultimately, being deemed a failure and contributing to the promotion's closure in 2003. After the promotion became defunct, Big Vision Entertainment held two XPW reunion shows, Cold Day In Hell in May 2008 and XPW X in August 2009. Perros del Mal Producciones held

6776-476: The 1990s there have also been numerous American-style "New School" promotions. Note: Minimum attendance of 5,000. General Specific Sabu (wrestler) Terrance Michael "Terry" Brunk (born December 12, 1964) is an American retired professional wrestler , better known by his ring name Sabu. He is known for his trademark style of hardcore wrestling , which he pioneered in his time with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1995 to 2000. He

6897-480: The All World Wrestling League began in April 2003 (a spin-off of Big Time Wrestling), which was run by Eddie & Tom Farhat, Sabu joined them for a while, before he left for another territory. Sabu debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on July 17, 2002, defeating Jerry "Malice" Tuite in a ladder match . The next week he faced Ken Shamrock in a ladder match which was declared

7018-685: The ECW Arena, preventing other independent promotions from holding events at the venue. As XPW continued to run on the East Coast, the risqué storylines were quickly phased out, and a majority of XPW's West Coast employees were not a part of the East Coast-based "All-New XPW." The relocation to the East Coast also resulted in more former ECW stars passing through XPW, whether it be on a regular basis or one-night appearances. XPW would eventually return to their former home of Los Angeles for

7139-719: The ECW Originals won. On the April 3 edition of ECW , the ECW Originals faced the New Breed again in a rematch, which the New Breed won after Burke performed the Elijah Express on Sabu through a table. Sabu's final WWE match was on the May 1 episode of ECW , where he competed in a fatal four-way match against Dreamer, Van Dam and Sandman to determine the number one contender for the ECW World Championship, which Van Dam won. On May 16, 2007, Sabu

7260-595: The Enterprise emerged and would eventually feud with the Black Army the following year. Originally consisting of former Black Army henchmen Steve Rizzono , motivational speaker TJ Rush, porn star Veronica Caine, and G. Q. Money , the stable became fully formed at the Damage Inc. event when Kid Kaos won the newly created XPW Television Championship and turned his back on his uncle Supreme, aligning himself with

7381-561: The Enterprise. After this surprise heel turn, Kid Kaos dropped the "Kid" from his name and nicknamed himself "The Rock Superstar" Kaos. For a year, from April 2001 to April 2002, XPW ran events at Los Angeles' Grand Olympic Auditorium . Notable events during this period, included Genocide , which featured a double-ringed WarGames-style cage match and Free Fall , which included the infamous 40-foot scaffold match between Vic Grimes and New Jack . Many marquee names debuted in XPW during these events, such as The Sandman , Vampiro , Konnan ,

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7502-529: The January 30 episode of Hardcore TV , Sabu wrestled his last televised match in ECW, in which he defeated C.W. Anderson . Sabu's last match in ECW took place on February 26, in which he defeated Scott D'Amore . After that, Sabu left ECW. After leaving ECW, Sabu went to compete in the independent circuit . He worked for promotions such as Xtreme Pro Wrestling , IWA Mid-South , Stampede Wrestling , Border City Wrestling , and others. On April 29, 2000, he won

7623-618: The Japanese system went back to the two-promotion system, but then the UWF was reformed and another promotion, Pioneer Senshi, was started. Because of Japanese societal mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as Genichiro Tenryu , Gran Hamada , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Akira Maeda , Atsushi Onita , and Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in

7744-476: The North American product are regularly sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Brisbane . Lucha libre has many more independent wrestlers in proportion to the rest of North America, because of the weight classes prevalent in the Mexican league system as well as its emphasis on multiple person tag matches; just about anyone with ability can emerge from an independent promotion into either AAA or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and be

7865-425: The November 22 episode of Hardcore TV . In 1995, Sabu and Tazmaniac began feuding with The Public Enemy over the ECW World Tag Team Championship , failing to win the titles on the January 3 and January 31 episodes of Hardcore TV . Sabu and Tazmaniac finally defeated Public Enemy in a double tables match at the Double Tables to win the World Tag Team Championship on February 4. However, Sabu and Tazmaniac lost

7986-435: The September 11, 1995, episode of WCW Monday Nitro against Alex Wright . Sabu won the match, but the decision was reversed when, after the match, he put Wright through a table. Sabu continued to wrestle some of the cruiserweights in WCW in the early days of the division, including a match against Mr. J.L. at Halloween Havoc . Sabu came out victorious against Mr. J.L. and following the match Sabu's uncle Sheik shot J.L. in

8107-467: The World Tag Team Championship against D-Von Dudley in a singles match on the April 23 episode of Hardcore TV , which Dudley won. As a result, Dudley Boyz won the titles. In the summer of 1999, Sabu began a feud with Justin Credible, wrestling him in numerous matches at live events for various months. The rivalry led to a match between the two at Anarchy Rulz in September, which Credible won. Sabu would then challenge his tag team partner Rob Van Dam for

8228-436: The World Tag Team Championship against Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks at House Party . Sabu's rivalry with Taz led to the two competing in a falls count anywhere title unification match for Sabu's FTW Championship and Taz's ECW World Heavyweight Championship at Living Dangerously event. Taz won the match to unify both titles. Sabu would begin wearing a neck brace and take some time off, resulting in his partner RVD defending

8349-480: The World Television Championship on the November 19 episode of Hardcore TV and the November 26 episode of ECW on TNN , but failed to win the title both times. After defeating Chris Candido at November to Remember , Sabu continued his rivalry with RVD as he pursued the World Television Championship, unsuccessfully challenging RVD for the World Television Championship at Guilty as Charged on January 9, 2000. This would be Sabu's final pay-per-view appearance in ECW. On

8470-402: The XPW contingent and members of the ECW roster, which spilt out into the parking lot of the venue. Shortly after the ECW incident, XPW had their first-anniversary event, Go Funk Yourself , at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena on July 22, 2000. The main event saw XPW World Heavyweight Champion Sabu defeat Terry Funk . The event was considered by many as a high point for XPW; though it

8591-483: The barbed wire that it took several ring technicians armed with wire cutters to free them from the predicament (on the DVD Bloodsport – ECW's Most Violent Matches released by World Wrestling Entertainment , Paul Heyman said that the match was "so gruesome, I never ever dared to schedule another one like it", and that they never had another Barbed-Wire match in ECW because "no one could top that one – and in good conscience, I never wanted anyone to try"). Sabu went on to win

8712-461: The death of Giant Baba and retirement of Antonio Inoki , which effectively broke their control over the promotions they founded, the major promotions began looking to the smaller promotions for talent. In 2000, the first major signing from an independent, Minoru Tanaka by NJPW from BattlARTS , took place; soon after NJPW stocked the junior heavyweight division with independent talent such as Masayuki Naruse , Tiger Mask , Gedo , and Jado . On

8833-553: The end of this period, All Star had effectively replaced Joint (by now owned by Max Crabtree , brother of Shirley) as the dominant promotion in the UK. Joint, renamed Ring Wrestling Stars in 1991, dwindled down before closing with Crabtree's retirement in 1995, All Star has continued to be the dominant non-import live promotion in the UK up to the present day. Its principal competitors since that time have been Scott Conway's TWA, John Freemantle's Premier Promotions, RBW and LDN Wrestling. Since

8954-531: The entire event and its 45-minute pre-show. A second reunion show, called Ten Year Anniversary Spectacular , was held on August 22, 2009. A third and final XPW reunion show, called Perros del Mal vs. XPW: Xtremo y Sangriento was held on August 20, 2011. The show was a co-promoted event with the Perros del Mal promotion in Tultitlan, Mexico . In the aftermath of Perros del Mal vs. XPW: Xtremo y Sangriento ,

9075-498: The event being cancelled, though XPW announced they were canceling the event due to a large storm. In April 2003, Rob Black and Lizzy Borden were indicted on obscenity charges due to pornographic material produced by XPW's parent company, Extreme Associates. Federal agents in Pittsburgh had purchased the offending material, which depicted scenes of rape, urination, and murder. The trial took a financial toll on Black and Borden, and

9196-567: The face with his trademark fireball . His last match in WCW was against Disco Inferno , which Sabu won. Sabu returned to Japan to work for Big Japan Pro Wrestling in March 1996. He had an 18-match winning streak first defeating Jason Knight on March 13 to June 4 losing to Kazuo Sakurada 's Kendo Nagasaki . He made his debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling in November 1996 teaming with Gary Albright . In 1997, he teamed with Rob Van Dam . In

9317-426: The fall of that promotion. In July 2000, ECW made its West Coast debut, holding its annual summer pay-per-view Heat Wave in Los Angeles, California. Rob Black purchased six front row tickets and sent The Messiah , Kid Kaos, Supreme, Kristi Myst , Homeless Jimmy, and Kris Kloss to attend the show. Prior to the main event, the XPW crew began disrupting the show, which led to a legitimate out-of-character brawl between

9438-537: The goal of being noticed and signed by a major national promotion such as WWE , All Elite Wrestling (AEW) (which also owns Ring of Honor (ROH)), or Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in the United States, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico, or New Japan Pro-Wrestling , Dragongate , All Japan Pro Wrestling , World Wonder Ring Stardom or the CyberFight promotions in Japan. It

9559-533: The independents that were signed included Akitoshi Saito , Takahiro Suwa , and Taiji Ishimori ). Although AJPW, NJPW, and Noah remain committed to their dojos, the reliance on independents is growing as obscure talent is recognized for its ability. For most of the years of ITV 's coverage of British Wrestling, the dominant promoter in the United Kingdom was the Joint Promotions cartel, which

9680-416: The late 1960s up until the early 2000s and then sporadically until his death in 2009. From 1982 to 1995, Williams had a Welsh language TV wrestling show "Reslo" on S4C. Brian Dixon, a referee for Williams, set up his own company Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead later renamed All Star Wrestling c.  1984 . An alliance with promoter and former top star Jackie Pallo failed to prevent Joint gaining

9801-438: The latter in a standard match at Hardcore Heaven , a stretcher match at The Doctor Is In , and a grudge match at Unlucky Lottery , after which Sabu finally earned RVD's respect. RVD was about to shake Sabu's hand but The Can-Am Express attacked the two, leading to RVD and Sabu facing Can-Am Express at When Worlds Collide , a match which ended in a thirty-minute time limit draw. However, RVD and Sabu defeated Can-Am Express in

9922-405: The limelight ( Wrestling Association "R" , Universal Lucha Libre , Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi , Fighting Network Rings , Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , and Hustle respectively) . As the 1990s ended, though, things began to change. Independent promotions began gaining more prominence as they were featured in major specialized media such as Shukan Puroresu and Shukan Gong magazines. With

10043-596: The line. Sabu pinned Funk to win the Television Championship after Bundy turned on Funk. As a result, Sabu became a double champion. The rivalry between Sabu and Funk intensified as Sabu lost the Heavyweight Championship to Funk at Holiday Hell . Sabu received a rematch for the Heavyweight Championship against Funk in a Three Way Dance at The Night the Line Was Crossed on February 5, 1994, also involving Shane Douglas . The match ended in

10164-518: The main event of November to Remember , headlining ECW's premier event for the second consecutive year. The match prematurely ended when Benoit gave Sabu a back body drop and, expecting his opponent to land face-first, Sabu rotated himself in mid-air to attempt to land on his back. This injured Sabu's spinal cord resulting in nerve damage . However, Sabu returned to action two weeks later, and continued to wrestle Triple Threat in various matches, which saw Sabu and Tazmaniac defeat Dean and Joe Malenko on

10285-479: The match ended in a no contest. As a result, Sabu engaged in a lengthy feud with Sandman, resulting in a series of matches, as Sabu defeated him in a Tables and Ladders match at November to Remember , lost to him in a Stairway to Hell match at the 1998 House Party , and defeated him again in a Dueling Canes match at Living Dangerously to conclude the rivalry. Shortly after the event, RVD and Sabu turned into fan favorites. At Wrestlepalooza , Sabu challenged RVD to

10406-500: The match, winning the title for a second time. However, just eight days later, Sabu lost the title to Shane Douglas in a three-way elimination match, also involving Funk at Hardcore Heaven . Sabu received a rematch against Douglas for the title at The Homecoming, but lost. In the mid-1997, Sabu was included in the WWF invasion angle , in which ECW wrestlers invaded WWF's Monday Night Raw program and held ECW-style matches and angles on

10527-426: The need for an on-site ambulance and trained emergency medical personnel at each bout. After the business was thus exposed and deregulated, just about anyone could be a promoter or a wrestler since no licensing beyond a business license was then required. Many thought they could save money by holding shows in lesser towns and smaller arenas with little to no televised exposure, leading to many shows being held only once

10648-472: The on-camera owner under the ring name Rob Black alongside his then-wife Lizzy Borden . The promotion focused on hardcore wrestling and had connections to the Los Angeles porn industry, as Zicari was the real life owner of the Extreme Associates pornographic film production company. In 2002, Shane Douglas , who previously wrestled for the promotion, returned to XPW as its booker and moved

10769-583: The promotion, he defeated Shane Douglas for the ECW Heavyweight Championship . Sabu made his first successful title defense against Tazmaniac, which aired on the November 30 episode of Hardcore TV . Sabu then headlined the inaugural November to Remember event on November 13 by teaming with Road Warrior Hawk in a title versus title dream partner tag team match against Terry Funk and King Kong Bundy , with Sabu's ECW Heavyweight Championship and Funk's ECW Television Championship on

10890-532: The promotion; under Douglas' influence, the promotion would move its operations from the West Coast to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , basing itself at the former ECW Arena . XPW debuted at the former ECW Arena on August 31, 2002, at the Hostile Takeover event, and Shane Douglas became the promotion's focal point for the rest of the year. Controversy arose when XPW signed an exclusive lease with

11011-413: The remainder of Taz's ECW career. Sabu would continue his rivalry with Taz by defeating him in a rematch at Wrestlepalooza . Shortly after, Sabu competed in a no-Rope barbed wire match against Terry Funk for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship at Born to be Wired , a match which was promoted as being "too extreme even for ECW". In one of the most memorable moments in ECW history, Sabu attempted

11132-668: The ring and the cage with Sabu gaining the victory after leaping from the top of the cage through Storm, who was placed on top of two tables on top of each other. Next up Sabu took part in WWA European tour of November–December 2002. This included the Retribution PPV in Glasgow, which was broadcast two months later in February 2003. On this tour and PPV he fought former fellow ECW stars Perry Saturn and Simon Diamond in

11253-511: The ring for about a minute before all men got out of the ring due to the intense heat. The match ended with no winner. Sabu said in an interview that the ring burned for 19 hours. Sabu often competed in Japanese hardcore matches, where he teamed with The Sheik , Tiger Jeet Singh and Horace Boulder . Sabu feuded with the likes of Tarzan Goto and Atsushi Onita in FMW. His final match in FMW

11374-410: The rivalry. At Heat Wave , Sabu turned into a fan favorite by forming a tag team with The Tazmaniac to defeat The Pitbulls . Later that night, Sabu challenged Shane Douglas for the Heavyweight Championship, but failed to win after losing by count-out. Sabu and Tazmaniac would begin feuding with The Triple Threat (Shane Douglas, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko ), which led to Sabu facing Benoit in

11495-534: The same year, following the Pro Wrestling Noah split, AJPW was forced to fill its ranks with independent talent; Nobutaka Araya , Shigeo Okumura and Mitsuya Nagai signed up (Araya is the only one who remains, but other signings since then have been Kaz Hayashi , Tomoaki Honma , Hideki Hosaka , and Ryuji Hijikata .) Noah admitted one wrestler from the independents, Daisuke Ikeda , to its ranks as well (Ikeda has since left, but other wrestlers from

11616-423: The show. One memorable moment occurred at this show when Sabu appeared during a match and prepared for an aerial move off the "R" in the "RAW" lettered entryway onto Team Taz members, but accidentally fell off the "R". This was not planned which led to Sabu landing on top of Team Taz members and becoming an inside joke between him and Taz backstage. This was incorporated in ECW, as Sabu, RVD and Alfonso began promoting

11737-475: The summer of 1996, Sabu had planned on signing with the WWF . He was the original choice for The Sultan gimmick but rejected the offer when he learned that he was gonna be managed by The Iron Sheik instead of his uncle The Original Sheik and the gimmick was given to Fatu . Sabu returned to ECW at November to Remember , defeating Hack Meyers in his first match in the promotion in eight months. He would embark on

11858-473: The summer of 1998. They also defeated the Japanese team of Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki at Heat Wave . RVD and Sabu finally lost the titles to Dudley Boyz on the October 28 episode of Hardcore TV . Around the same time, RVD and Sabu joined forces with former rival Taz to feud with The Triple Threat and formed a short-lived alliance to counter the faction called New Triple Threat. The rivalry culminated in

11979-463: The team of Big Show, Test , Montel Vontavious Porter , Finlay and Umaga . Sabu eliminated Test following a Tornado DDT, but he was later eliminated by Big Show via pinfall after receiving a chokeslam. In the end, Team Cena gained victory. At December to Dismember , Sabu was originally set to appear in the main event, an Extreme Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship against Big Show, Test, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk and Bobby Lashley, but

12100-462: The titles in 1997 after the latter team won the tag team titles. They failed to win the titles from Eliminators in a standard tag team match at Crossing the Line Again and a Tables and Ladders match at CyberSlam . In the meantime, Sabu's former tag team partner Tazmaniac (who had shortened his name to "Taz") began to publicly challenge Sabu at every given opportunity, but got no response. After

12221-546: The titles to Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, just three weeks later at Return of the Funker . Sabu would soon wrestle his last match of his first tenure in ECW on the March 28 episode of Hardcore TV by defeating Mikey Whipwreck . The following month in April, after being scheduled to compete in the main event of Three Way Dance for the World Tag Team Championship, Sabu no–showed the event to accept

12342-534: The two could no longer financially subsidize XPW, with the promotion going out of business. Xtreme Entertainment Group (which would later split into two companies, XEG and Big Vision Entertainment ), the company of which former XPW employee Kevin Kleinrock would later become Executive Vice President of, purchased the rights to use the XPW name under license in 2004, through bankruptcy proceedings. Black later stated "If I never got indicted I would have definitely kept

12463-536: The vacated WEW Tag Team titles. This would be the promotion last event as it went bankrupt on the 15th. Sabu competed for the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) in a number of events during 2002 and 2003. This included four appearances on PPV and a number of memorable matches. His first appearance was at Revolution PPV in Las Vegas in February 2002. He faced Devon Storm in a hardcore match. He

12584-491: The virtues of the WWF product over ECW's. Sabu and RVD feuded with ECW loyalists Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman during this period, and were joined by Jerry Lawler from WWF. RVD and Sabu defeated Dreamer and Sandman in the first major meeting of the two teams at Orgy of Violence . After that, RVD and Sabu teamed with Lawler to take on the team of Dreamer, Sandman and Rick Rude in a steel cage match at Heat Wave . However, Rude turned on his teammates by attacking them and

12705-419: The wrestling thing going." In the summer of 2003, the only pay-per-view (PPV) of the original XPW, The Best of XPW , aired. The PPV featured a compilation of highlights from XPW's past events. In 2006, Big Vision Entertainment founded Wrestling Society X , the de facto successor to XPW. Between 2008 and 2011, three XPW reunion shows were held, two in Los Angeles and a third in Tultitlan, Mexico . The first

12826-500: Was Cold Day in Hell , held on May 24, 2008. The event came about when Big Vision Entertainment, the owners of XPW, worked on MTV 's Wrestling Society X which featured many XPW alumni. While working on the project, the company came up with the idea to hold an XPW reunion show. The event was produced by Kevin Kleinrock and Kris Kloss. Big Vision Entertainment released Cold Day in Hell on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2009, which included

12947-431: Was "taken out" and replaced by Hardcore Holly . The following episode on ECW , CM Punk and Rob Van Dam got on the mic before their match with Test and Hardcore Holly and dedicated the match to Sabu. When Punk and Van Dam won the match, Paul Heyman and his security team came out and had beaten down on the two. Sabu later made his return with a heavily wrapped arm to make the save. Sabu made his Royal Rumble match debut in

13068-502: Was a loss to the debuting Hayabusa at the 1994 Summer Spectacular . Sabu debuted in Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) in October 1993 as a villain at NWA Bloodfest by defeating The Tazmaniac . One of the most notable aspects of Sabu's early career was his refusal to speak, a gimmick that he inherited from The Sheik (who never spoke English in public to protect kayfabe ). In his early career, Sabu

13189-916: Was also on the line. He went on to face Gran Hamada in a series of matches, culminating in Sabu defeating Gran Hamada to win the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship on November 23, 1995, in the Todoroki Arena in Kawasaki . He held the championship for just over a week, losing to El Samurai on December 1, 1995, in Niigata City . Sabu made his final appearance with NJPW on December 11, 1995, in Osaka, teaming with Hiro Saito to defeat Dean Malenko and Wild Pegasus . Sabu made his WCW debut on

13310-523: Was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia , and nine Vicodin tablets following a traffic stop in Hanging Rock, Ohio following a house show in Huntington, West Virginia. Brunk was fined $ 1,000 based on the guidelines of WWE's Wellness Policy. He pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and the charge of possession of drug paraphernalia was dropped. He was given

13431-674: Was billed as being from Saudi Arabia under the ring names "Sabu the Elephant Boy" (use of "The Elephant Boy" was later dropped) and "Terry S.R." (the "S.R." standing for "Sheik's Revenge"). During the 1980s, Brunk wrestled for various independent promotions in Memphis , Michigan , Ohio , Canada , and Hawaii . He was rarely billed under his real name, in order to avoid confusion with the similarly named wrestler Terry Funk , but has wrestled under his real name in Hawaii. In 1991, Sabu made

13552-438: Was billed as being from Saudi Arabia , or Bombay , India (in real life he is a second generation Lebanese American from a suburb of Detroit ). In ECW, however, he was clearly heard speaking in the ring on several occasions and it was fairly common knowledge that Brunk was an American citizen from birth. This led to a joke at kayfabe's expense when Sabu began to be billed as hailing from "Bombay, Michigan". Brunk revealed in

13673-547: Was defeated in this match after his manager Bill Alfonso accidentally hit him with a chair after Storm moved out the way. After the match Sabu and Storm continued to fight onto the ring entrance way. Sabu placed Storm on a table and leaped from the entrance way through Storm and the table. This feud continued on the next PPV, the Eruption, in Australia in April. Sabu fought Storm in a steel cage match. The action spilled out of

13794-546: Was four more months until XPW put on another event. During the hiatus, an attempt to bring in Atsushi Onita , a pioneer of Japanese deathmatch wrestling, for an exploding ring match failed. One of the main storylines for most of 2001 concerned the heel stable known as the Black Army. The Black Army was headed by Rob Black, assisted by his wife Lizzy Borden and XPW's top star The Messiah , and feuded with Sabu . Also, throughout most of 2001, another heel stable called

13915-480: Was involved in, including participating in over two dozen no-rope barbed wire death matches. In May 1992, Sabu teamed with his uncle, the Sheik, in a "Ring of Fire Deathmatch" against Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto . The match was set in a ring where the ropes were replaced with barbed wire with sheets soaked in gas wrapped around it. As the match started, the ring crew lit the sheets on fire using torches. They were in

14036-490: Was normally tired before he started his match). Sabu could only be released from his bonds to wrestle his matches. Sabu also quickly became synonymous with table-breaking at this time; if a table was not broken during the match, Sabu would break a table with his own body after the bell had sounded, sometimes leading to 911 having to restrain Sabu during backstage interviews if a table was present. Sabu would quickly rise to main event status upon his debut. In his second match with

14157-464: Was originally modelled on the NWA and later amalgamated into a single company. Nonetheless, throughout this period, untelevised alternative promotions flourished with at least one significant competitor to Joint for live shows. Initially the main rival was the former dominant promotion in the territory, Atholl Oakley 's BWA. By the time of its demise, wrestler/promoter Paul Lincoln had established himself as

14278-415: Was released from his WWE contract. On July 13, 2007, it was announced that Sabu would be working in Mexico's AAA promotion in Mexico for their Triplemanía XV event. Sabu came out during the main event and put La Parka through a table, joining forces with the heels X-Pack , Ron "The Truth" Killings , and Konnan . Since then, he has made appearances on their major televised programs on Galavision as

14399-526: Was removed from XPW TV ' s announcing booth and replaced with former ECW commentator Joey Styles . Styles, however, left the company in December 2002, only spending about one month in the promotion. In 2009, the first three seasons of XPW TV were released on DVD by Big Vision Entertainment . XPW TV matches have also been extras on several other Big Vision wrestling DVDs, including the DVD releases of Forever Hardcore and Hardcore Homecoming . The series

14520-537: Was revived in 2021 with weekly episodes airing on FITE TV . Following the end of the XPW-FITE partnership in 2022, XPW TV moved to Stream XPW, XPW's own streaming service . As of November 23, 2024 Independent circuit Independent promotions are essentially viewed as a minor league or farm system for the larger national promotions, as wrestlers in "indie" companies (especially young wrestlers just starting their careers) are usually honing their craft with

14641-540: Was screaming expletives or shrieking a high pitched scream when something shocking occurred in a match. Rivera often sided with owner Rob Black, calling him the " Donald Trump of the pro wrestling business", and his trademark announcing consisted of referring to Kloss as "chico", using "chico" in nearly all of his sentences, and occasional wandering into Spanish announcing. In this period, the promotion's main stars were homegrown wrestlers, but many former stars of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) passed through XPW following

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