Sabu

Terrance Michael "Terry" Brunk (born December 12, 1964) is a retired American 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 is a three-time World Heavyweight Champion having held the ECW World Heavyweight Championship twice and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once.

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 Terry Funk, but has wrestled under his real name in Hawaii.

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 the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

He began his wrestling career in 1985 in Farhat's promotion, Big Time Wrestling, and 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").

In 1991, Sabu made 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.

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 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 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.

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 a dark match at a WWF Superstars of Wrestling taping.

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 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 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.

His final match in FMW was a loss to the debuting Hayabusa at the 1994 Summer Spectacular.

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 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.

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.

In 2006, he was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as part of their new third brand, a rebooted version of ECW.

Sabu would wrestle for WWE until he was fired in 2007.