We took a week off from the main show, and you know what that means: We’re keeping you busy with some older Between the Sheets Patreon content that we’ve now made available for free. This time, we decided to assemble the entire “FUCK SABU!” trilogy (originally Patreon episodes #43-#45), covering Sabu’s wild 1995, into one file for everyone to check out as a taste of what our Patreon-only deep dives are like. This is a great example, too, as we notice some very interesting things that the newsletters didn’t pick up on at the time, like Chris Benoit’s surprisingly obvious involvement in orchestrating the whole scenario.
Want more content like this? Then sign up for the $5.00/month ($50.40/year if paid annually upfront) tier on our Patreon page and check out the back catalog that spans almost 9 years. This month, for August, the deep dive that we’ve started on is more 1995 content, covering Bill Watts’ brief stint booking the WWF. Also, don’t forget: From this point forward, regardless of if we’re doing a month-long deep-dive or a smattering of smaller topics, we now release weekly Patreon content, with the segments of the month-long deep dives getting dropped each week as we record them.
Anyway, we hope you enjoy these shows, and now, here are the original show descriptions:
Part 1:
Since April is the 25th anniversary of Sabu being fired from ECW, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to take a deep dive looking at everything that happened surrounding that very memorable event. So that brings us to this month's special, part one of what should be at least two episodes looking at Sabu's 1995, from his signing with NJPW to his indie schedule to his troubles with ECW, climaxing with Sabu double booking himself the night of ECW's big Three-Way Dance card. How did Sabu end up booked in NJPW the same night as the ECW show on late notice, why didn't he just cancel one of the bookings, and how did the situation devolve from there?
We look at all of this in-depth, as it was covered in the newsletters, where both Sabu and Paul Heyman were commenting in detail on the record. All that and much more, including Chris Benoit's apparent major role in the Sabu/ECW schism, the greatness of Murder Inc./Wolf Army in 1995 NJPW, Sabu getting maced while doing a run-in for Circle City Wrestling, Chris Zavisa as Sabu's house organ, the proliferation of "Best of Sabu" videotapes, the reemergence of Dennis Coralluzzo in Sabu's career, and much more.
This is a GREAT show, with a *lot* of fascinating stuff that's never talked about. Here's looking forward to part two!
Part 2:
We're back to pick up where we left off in our journey through Sabu's 1995, starting a few weeks after his firing from ECW over the "FUCK SABU!" no-show, as he starts talking to WCW and wins the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Koji Kanemoto at the Fukuoka Dome. Things quickly take a turn, though, as Sabu *throws down the title while cutting a promo about how he's a heavyweight*, NJPW tries to pretend it never happened, Sabu drops the belt at the next major show, Sabu becomes one of the anchors of Kevin Sullivan's plan to build "two WCWs" for the Monday Nitro launch, and much more happens as we close out the show just before Nitro launches. But the real meat of this show is in the forgotten Observer report, in black and white and plain English, that Sabu and Paul Heyman came to a secret agreement on an ECW return months before the actual return happened, and how Taz must have been privy to it given his career prospects at the time.
All that and much more on another fascinating chapter in the "FUCK SABU!" saga!
Part 3:
We're back to pick up where we left off in our journey through Sabu's 1995, finishing up the series as we cover the launch of WCW Monday Nitro through the release of the 1995 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards in January 1996. Topics include how quickly Sabu’s WCW run fell apart, the strange six month gap where Sabu stops teaming with the rest of Masahiro Chono’s Okami Gundan/Murder Inc. stable in NJPW, Sabu scrambling for ideas to make him a pushed heavyweight in WCW like bringing in The Sheik’s old United States Championship belt, The Sheik becoming Sabu’s agent, Sabu returning to Dennis Coralluzzo’s NWA New Jersey, Sabu becoming a transitional UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Champion, Konnan trying to court Sabu for AAA, Sabu returning to ECW the same day he worked for Dennis, a labyrinthian web of conflicting stories from Sabu and Heyman about how they worked out the return, Sabu “officially” being fired from WCW on their hotline, the WWF’s efforts to get Sabu for the 1996 Royal Rumble, and MUCH more. This is a fantastic end to the series and we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.
Timestamps:
0:09:00 December 1994-January 1995
0:40:11 February-March 1995
1:09:52 Week of April 3 & Week of April 10, 1995
2:04:29 Week of April 17, 1995
2:27:03 April-May 1995
3:14:04 June 1995
3:33:51 July 1995
4:02:51 August 1995
4:36:30 September 1995
5:19:37 October 1995
5:55:23 November 1995
6:43:38 December 1995 and beyond
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