ECW Icon Sabu Seemingly Confirms In-Ring Retirement

Former ECW World Champion Sabu has appeared to confirm his retirement from in-ring competition.

After a career that took him through ECW, WCW, WWE, and TNA, as well as all over Japan, Sabu is calling time on his career, revealing to WSI: Wrestling Shoot Interviews that issues with his back have led to this decision:

“I’m not doing real good. I hurt my back about a year ago and it’s still been hurting," said Sabu. "I wrestled a couple of weeks ago but I shouldn’t have. I’ve only wrestled like twice in the last year [and] I only went to the gym a couple of times the last year ’cause I hurt my back.

"I’m probably not gonna wrestle no more… I’m probably just gonna do autograph signings and personal appearance-type stuff."

However, most wrestlers are always tempted for that ‘final match, and when asked who he’d put his boots back on for, there was only one name on Sabu’s mind:

“I’d definitely get back in the ring for Brock Lesnar, I’d love to wrestle him. Especially if it was my final match, I’d love to wrestle him… He’s the best, he’s a shooter, he’s a good worker, he’s my kind of opponent. I like big guys, I like wrestling big guys. I don’t like wrestling guys like me because it’s not that interesting. It’s more interesting wrestling a guy like me against a guy like Brock Lesnar.”

Through his work in ECW and FMW, Sabu became one of the biggest cult stars of the 1990s, known for bloody barbed wire strewn deathmatches, and incorporating tables, chairs, and high flying manoeuvres into his matches.

A former two-time ECW World Champion, 'The Homocidal, Suicidal, Genocidal, Death Defying' Sabu is also a former one-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion in NJPW, and briefly held the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship in 2000.