PARKS’S TAKE: The impression Sabu made on me when I first discovered the wild wild west ECW TV show on Empire Sports Network at odd hours

I remember when ECW first began airing on a television network we got at home. I was probably in my early-to-mid teens when the company was hitting its stride, theoretically the exact demographic they were appealing to.

Growing up on the cartoonish WWE, ECW was like the wild west when I’d catch it on Empire Sports Network at all kinds of odd hours. The wrestlers and character felt gritty and real, much more so than what WWE was offering at the time. Sure, they didn’t seem as polished either, but that was part of the charm.

Sabu personified what ECW was about. A rebel, someone who wasn’t going to appeal to the “major leagues” (even though I recall a short stint in WCW), yet someone who Paul Heyman could take and market as part of his motley crew. I probably first saw Sabu when he jumped off the famous “RAW” sign on a Monday night episode of WWE’s flagship show. It remains one of the more iconic images of the show some 30 years later.

But it was those one-hour ECW shows on local TV, which often acted more as an infomercial than a coherent episode, that really showed who Sabu was. The scars, the silence, it all set him apart from what WCW and WWE were offering at the time. With Sabu, you never knew if you were going to get a hardcore classic or a complete mess of a garbage match. Therein was the appeal, in a way.

For a long time, Sabu protected the business in ways learned from his uncle the Original Sheik. In retirement, he came out of his shell a bit and did a number of interviews (including on the most recent episode of “Dark Side of the Ring,” framed around his uncle). Mercurial on the independent scene after ECW folded, Sabu frustrated promoters as much as he entertained fans. It was part of what made Sabu, Sabu, and set him apart from his peers. His death represents the loss of one of the most recognizable hardcore wrestlers during an era in which wrestling’s popularity exploded.

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