Former ECW star Sabu (real name Terrence Brunk) died last year at the age of 61, just a short time after declaring his retirement from professional wrestling. His longtime friend Rob Van Dam has done a great deal of memorializing for Sabu since, and he recently revealed what may be a little-known fact about the two-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion.
“People don’t know this: Sabu carried a nail in his boot all the time for protection, ” Van Dam said during a WWE Vault retrospective video. “He always had that. … It wasn’t a gimmick. It was something – ever since we started, he always had the nail in case something didn’t go his way and he needed to defend himself in the ring.”
Sabu would sometimes use the nail for spots during his matches, including in the match that Van Dam was highlighting, which took place in 1996. Van Dam did not reveal if Sabu ever actually used the nail to protect himself.
The legacy of Sabu is one that is wrapped up with violence, but it’s also undeniable that he was a major influence on the style of modern wrestling at large. Though they weren’t the first to make high-flying acrobatics part of their repertoire, Sabu and Van Dam did a lot to popularize the style, laying the groundwork for people like Jeff Hardy and (later on) AEW’s Darby Allin.
Van Dam first met Sabu when they were young men, training to become professional wrestlers in Michigan. Their teacher was The Sheik (AKA Edward Farhat), who was Sabu’s uncle and a significant figure in the regional scene. They would go on to become tag team partners as well as in-ring rivals, having last teamed together back in 2019.
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