Rob Van Dam spoke about the passing of Terry Brunk a.k.a. Sabu and the performer’s final match against Joey Janela.
Van Dam was joined by Taz on his 1 of a Kind podcast to reflect on the life and career of Sabu, who died this past weekend.
Van Dam reiterated that Sabu was 61 years old and born on December 12, 1963. Most reports listed his age at 60, but the New York Times noted that court documents reflected the older age.
Early in the show, Van Dam addressed the controversy stemming from Sabu’s final match with Janela last month at Spring Break 9 in Las Vegas. This was amplified when an article by Phil Schneider at Uncrowned was released earlier this week with comments from Janela about Sabu’s state going into the match. Janela said the match was in doubt the day of the show due to problems with his legs, but after taking a substance called Kratom, it assisted him in getting through the match.
Van Dam says he is an advocate of Kratom and has taken it himself over the past five years, adding that there are only two times he got “high” from the powdered substance, and it helps with pain and sleep. He denounced Dutch Mantel’s recent comments on his own podcast, comparing Kratom to heroin.
He said he spoke to Sabu after the match with Janela and that Sabu said he had one more match left in him and proposed doing a barbed-wire match with Van Dam as his final match.
A documentary on Sabu was in development with filmmaker Joe Clarke, who worked with Van Dam on his “Headstrong” doc that came out in 2019. In the promotional material for the yet-to-be-released doc on Sabu, Van Dam is listed as a producer.
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On the podcast, they shared that a GoFundMe campaign has been launched to assist Sabu’s family with the funeral costs.
No cause of death has been reported yet for Sabu.
