Сабу: Дикий человек рестлинга

American professional wrestler
the wrestler known as Sabu the Wildman

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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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"). 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.

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. 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.

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

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, Sabu stated in the Forever Hardcore documentary that he by then had a career wrestling in Japan and now only wrestled once every so often for ECW; thus, he chose Japan over ECW.

Sabu wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling throughout 1995, making a total of 64 appearances. He made his debut on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome, teaming with Masahiro Chono to defeat Junji Hirata and Tatsumi Fujinami. Sabu and Chono teamed together on several more occasions to face Heisei Ishingun. On May 3, 1995, Sabu defeated Koji Kanemoto at Wrestling Dontaku in the Fukuoka Dome to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to Kanemoto on June 14 in Tokyo's Nippon Budokan in a bout where Kanemoto's UWA World Welterweight Championship was also on the line. He went on to face Gran Hamada in a series of matches, culminating in Sabu defeating Gran Hamada to win the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship on November 23, 1995, in the Todoroki Arena in Kawasaki. He held the championship for just over a week, losing to El Samurai on December 1, 1995, in Niigata City. Sabu made his final appearance with NJPW on December 11, 1995, in Osaka, teaming with Hiro Saito to defeat Dean Malenko and Wild Pegasus.

Sabu made his WCW debut on the September 11, 1995, episode of WCW Monday Nitro against Alex Wright. Sabu won the match, but the decision was reversed when, after the match, he put Wright through a table. Sabu continued to wrestle some of the cruiserweights in WCW in the early days of the division, including a match against Mr. J. L. at Halloween Havoc. Sabu came out victorious against Mr. J. L. and following the match Sabu's uncle Sheik shot J. L. in the face with his trademark fireball. His last match in WCW was against Disco Inferno, which Sabu won.

Sabu returned to Japan to work for Big Japan Pro Wrestling in March 1996. He had an 18 match winning streak first defeating Jason Knight on March 13 to June 4 losing to Kazuo Sakurada's Kendo Nagasaki. He made his debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling in November 1996 teaming with Gary Albright. In 1997, he teamed with Rob Van Dam.

Sabu returned to ECW at November to Remember, defeating Hack Meyers in his first match in the promotion in eight months. He would embark on a winning streak against the likes of Cactus Jack at Holiday Hell, Stevie Richards at House Party, and Mr. Hughes at Big Apple Blizzard Blast. This led to Sabu challenging 2 Cold Scorpio for the World Television Championship. Sabu received various title shots against Scorpio at CyberSlam, Just Another Night, and Big Ass Extreme Bash, but the matches ended in twenty minute time limit draws. He eventually engaged in matches and a lengthy feud with Rob Van Dam after defeating him in a no time limit match at Hostile City Showdown. However, RVD insulted Sabu by refusing to shake hands with him after the match. As a result, a respect match took place between the two at A Matter of Respect. Sabu lost the match and was thus forced to shake hands with RVD, but RVD refused by saying "not only do I not respect you, you're a piece of shit". The rivalry between Sabu and RVD continued as Sabu defeated the latter in a standard match at Hardcore Heaven, a stretcher match at The Doctor Is In, and a grudge match at Unlucky Lottery, after which Sabu finally earned RVD's respect. RVD was about to shake Sabu's hand but The Can Am Express attacked the two, leading to RVD and Sabu facing Can Am Express at When Worlds Collide, a match which ended in a thirty minute time limit draw. However, RVD and Sabu defeated Can Am Express in a rematch at High Incident. Sabu and RVD subsequently began teaming with each other and ended their rivalry. They began pursuing the World Tag Team Championship, facing The Eliminators in a #1 contender's match at November to Remember. The match ended in a time limit draw and both teams faced the reigning champions The Gangstas in an immediate three way elimination match, which Gangstas won. RVD and Sabu continued to feud with Eliminators over the titles in 1997 after the latter team won the tag team titles. They failed to win the titles from Eliminators in a standard tag team match at Crossing the Line Again and a Tables and Ladders match at CyberSlam. In the meantime, Sabu's former tag team partner Tazmaniac (who had shortened his name to "Taz") began to publicly challenge Sabu at every given opportunity, but got no response. After a year of call outs and insults from Taz, Paul Heyman revealed that he had asked Sabu, as a friend, to ignore Taz's challenge. This standoff culminated in a grudge match at ECW's first pay per view, Barely Legal, which Taz won. In one of the most memorable moments in ECW history, Sabu attempted the "Air Sabu" corner splash on Funk, Terry moved and Sabu ended up colliding violently into the wire which tore open his biceps. He was the only champion to defend the title outside of the States. He would hold the title for a year until it was taken away in May 2001 by Josh Lazie when Sabu was not present for an event. He would return to All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2000 as a singles competitor. In 2001, he competed against Abdullah the Butcher and Giant Kimala. On July 8, 2001, he defeated Angel at ECW Reunion Show in Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he worked for Pro Pain Pro Wrestling. He won the 3PW World Heavyweight Championship defeating Gary Wolfe on October 19. He would drop the title to Wolfe on December 28.

Sabu returned to Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling on December 22, 1997, when he defeated ECW rival The Sandman at Super Extreme Wrestling War 1997 at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall. Then on December 13, 1998, he and Rob Van Dam defeated the Dudley Boyz to retain the ECW World Tag Team Titles at ECW/FMW Supershow. He would team up with Super Leather in a few tag team matches during 1999. On February 3, 2002, Sabu defeated former ECW wrestlers The Sandman and Vic Grimes in a three way dance. The next day was his last match with FMW was when he teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and lost to The Sandman and Kodo Fuyuki for the vacated WEW Tag Team titles. This would be the promotion last event as it went bankrupt on the 15th.

Sabu competed for the World Wrestling All Stars (WWA) in a number of events during 2002 and 2003. This included four appearances on PPV and a number of memorable matches. His first appearance was at Revolution PPV in Las Vegas in February 2002. He faced Devon Storm in a hardcore match. He was defeated in this match after his manager Bill Alfonso accidentally hit him with a chair after Storm moved out the way. After the match Sabu and Storm continued to fight onto the ring entrance way. Sabu placed Storm on a table and leaped from the entrance way through Storm and the table. This feud continued on the next PPV, the Eruption, in Australia in April. Sabu fought Storm in a steel cage match. The action spilled out of the ring and the cage with Sabu gaining the victory after leaping from the top of the cage through Storm, who was placed on top of two tables on top of each other. Next up Sabu took part in WWA European tour of November–December 2002. This included the Retribution PPV in Glasgow, which was broadcast two months later in February 2003. On this tour and PPV he fought former fellow ECW stars Perry Saturn and Simon Diamond in a three way hardcore match. Sabu took the victory in each of these matches, usually gaining the pinfall over Diamond after Saturn left the match to defend his companion. His final appearance for the WWA came in their last PPV, The Reckoning, in New Zealand. During this tour he first fought Shane Douglas but due to injury he did not face him at the PPV. Instead, Douglas came to the ring and eventually allowed Joe E Legend to face Sabu instead. Sabu won this match, his second and last WWA match ever. When the All World Wrestling League began in April 2003 (a spin off of Big Time Wrestling), which was run by Eddie & Tom Farhat, Sabu joined them for a while, before he left for another territory.

Sabu debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on July 17, 2002, defeating Jerry "Malice" Tuite in a ladder match. The next week he faced Ken Shamrock in a ladder match which was declared a No Contest when Malice interfered. In 2004, Sabu teamed with Raven to defeat Raven's former "Gathering" protégés, CM Punk and Julio Dinero. In March, he began feuding with Monty Brown and Abyss, who outnumbered him on several occasions after Raven failed to "watch his back". Eventually Raven challenged Sabu to an empty arena match to be held on June 9, but Sabu refused to wrestle him, claiming that he had promised his uncle, Ed "The Sheik" Farhat, that he would never fight Raven. Raven then waged a campaign against Sabu, disrespecting the memory of his uncle and assaulting Sabu's friend Sonjay Dutt, until Sabu finally broke and attacked him on July 23. Raven defeated Sabu on August 4, and a scheduled return match on August 18 was canceled after Sabu legitimately suffered a serious back injury. While injured, Brunk contracted a virus and was hospitalized, sidelining him for ten months. On December 12, a benefit show, A Night of Appreciation for Sabu, was held by the AWWL to raise funds for him. The show was considered a success, raising enough money for Brunk to cover the costs of his medical care and he was able to make a full recovery. In his first match back from the injury in the AWWL/BTW, he defeated N8 Mattson. Sabu then appeared at Hardcore Homecoming, where he defeated Terry Funk and Shane Douglas in a three way no ropes barbed wire match, and at ECW One Night Stand two days later, where he defeated Rhyno.

Sabu returned to TNA on July 29, 2005. At Sacrifice Sabu teamed with his old enemy, and then NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Raven to face Jeff Jarrett and Rhino. Rhino and Jarrett won the match after Rhino gored Raven through a table and pinned him. The match saw Abyss interfering and attacking Sabu, starting a feud between the two of them. They went on to have a match at Unbreakable in September which Abyss won after performing his Black Hole Slam finisher on to a pile of tacks in the ring. Sabu once again found himself squaring off against Rhino and Abyss, as well as Jeff Hardy, during Bound for Glory in the Monster's Ball 2 match. Rhino won the match. On the same night, Sabu competed in a ten man Gauntlet Match to decide a number one contender, which he also lost, once again to Rhino. Sabu continued his feud with Abyss, once again losing to him at Genesis after taking a Black Hole Slam onto a barbed wire steel chair. They met up again, in the promotion's first ever Barbed Wire Massacre at Turning Point. Sabu finally beat Abyss, but following the match was not seen on TNA television for several months. He made his return at Lockdown on April 23, 2006, in a match against Samoa Joe for Joe's TNA X Division Championship, despite Sabu having a broken forearm, a match he lost. Sabu was released soon afterwards from TNA.

Shortly after his TNA release, on April 24, 2006, Sabu's official website reported that he had signed a one year contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. At the ECW One Night Stand pay per view, Sabu faced Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship. At the end of the match, Mysterio found himself standing on a ringside table with Sabu flying at him. Sabu caught the champ in a front facelock and nailed him with a DDT which caused both men to crash through the table. At this point, the WWE medical staff rushed to the injured men and declared neither man could continue and ordered the match stopped, resulting in a No Contest in which Mysterio kept his title. On the June 13 premiere of ECW on Sci Fi, Sabu won a 10 man Extreme Battle Royal with the stipulation that the winner face John Cena at Vengeance. Sabu further fueled the feud during the next week's Raw, when he interfered in a Cena match and performed a Triple Jump Leg Drop on him, diving onto Cena and putting him through the announcers' table. Cena defeated Sabu in their "Extreme Lumberjack match" at Vengeance. On July 2, Sabu, traveling with fellow ECW wrestler Rob Van Dam, was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, and nine Vicodin tablets following a traffic stop in Hanging Rock, Ohio following a house show in Huntington, West Virginia. Brunk was fined $1,000 based on the guidelines of WWE's Wellness Policy. He pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and the charge of possession of drug paraphernalia was dropped. He was given a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail and a $500 fine. Meanwhile, he defeated Stevie Richards in an Extreme Rules match at Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII. Towards the end of July, Sabu began to talk on camera for himself – instead of using a go between – and demanded a shot at Big Show's ECW World Championship which Paul Heyman refused to grant him in order to "protect" his champion. Instead, he forced him into a match against the returning Kurt Angle to determine a number one contender. When that match was interrupted by the returning Rob Van Dam another match was signed, Angle versus Van Dam versus Sabu, for the number one contendership (Angle then became too injured to compete and was pulled from the match). Sabu beat Rob Van Dam in their ladder match to win a shot at Big Show at SummerSlam, a match which he ended up losing. At Survivor Series, Sabu teamed up with John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam and Kane to face the team of Big Show, Test, Montel Vontavious Porter, Finlay and Umaga. Sabu eliminated Test following a Tornado DDT, but he was later eliminated by Big Show via pinfall after receiving a chokeslam. In the end, Team Cena gained victory. At December to Dismember, Sabu was originally set to appear in the main event, an Extreme Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship against Big Show, Test, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk and Bobby Lashley, but was "taken out" and replaced by Hardcore Holly. The following episode on ECW, CM Punk and Rob Van Dam got on the mic before their match with Test and Hardcore Holly and dedicated the match to Sabu. When Punk and Van Dam won the match, Paul Heyman and his security team came out and had beaten down on the two. Sabu later made his return with a heavily wrapped arm to make the save. Sabu made his Royal Rumble match debut in the 2007 Royal Rumble on January 28, where he was eliminated by Kane after receiving a chokeslam over the top rope and through a table. Sabu joined the ECW Originals along with Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. The ECW Originals began a feud with the New Breed (Elijah Burke, Kevin Thorn, Marcus Cor Von and Matt Striker). The two teams faced off in a match at WrestleMania 23 in which the ECW Originals won. On the April 3 edition of ECW, the ECW Originals faced the New Breed again in a rematch, which the New Breed won after Burke performed the Elijah Express on Sabu through a table. Sabu's final WWE match was on the May 1 episode of ECW, where he competed in a fatal four way match against Dreamer, Van Dam and Sandman to determine the number one contender for the ECW World Championship, which Van Dam won. On May 16, 2007, Sabu was released from his WWE contract.

On July 13, 2007, it was announced that Sabu would be working in Mexico's AAA promotion in Mexico for their Triplemanía XV event. Sabu came out during the main event and put La Parka through a table, joining forces with the heels X Pack, Ron "The Truth" Killings, and Konnan. Since then, he has made appearances on their major televised programs on Galavision as a minor part of Konnan's heel stable, La Legión Extranjera. Sabu has been noted as a member of the Australasian Wrestling Federation roster, where he has so far wrestled three matches during the Wrestlefest 2007 Tour in October 2007. Sabu Defeated Il Cognito at Fairy Meadow, New South Wales on October 5, Steve Ravenous at Cardiff, New South Wales on the October 6 and finally wrestling then for the AWF Australasian Championship against Greg "TNT" Bownds to a no contest due to interference from The Platinum Players at Blacktown, New South Wales on the October 7. On February 8, 2008, Sabu debuted as "The Crazed Kamikaze" for a brief period in CWA Pro Wrestling in Columbia, South Carolina before going back to his Sabu ring name. Teaming with then CWA Heavyweight Champion Timber, Sabu won the match for his team after he dove off the staging area onto his opponent Phil Shatter, putting him through a table. On May 10, he was scheduled to face the new CWA Heavyweight Champion Raven in Fayetteville, North Carolina but Sabu did not show up due to injuries. In November 2009, Sabu completed a tour of the United Kingdom representing the AWWL/BTW. On November 29, 2009, Sabu faced RVD for his AWR heavyweight championship belt in an Extreme Rules match in Oberhausen, Germany. On October 30, 2010, Sabu defeated Damián 666 to win Xtreme Latin American Wrestling's International Championship.

In 2007, Sabu teamed with Insane Clown Posse to defeat Trent Acid and the Young Alter Boys at Juggalo Championship Wrestling's Bloodymania. During the second season of the company's internet wrestling show SlamTV!, Raven was involved in a feud with JCW Heavyweight Champion Corporal Robinson. In the third episode, Sabu appeared from out of the crowd and saved Robinson from an attack by Raven and his lackey Sexy Slim Goody. Raven and Goody teamed up against Robinson and Sabu in the following episode, but Raven fled from the match. At Bloodymania III, Sabu defeated Raven in a Raven's Rules match. He returned as a full time member of the roster at Oddball Wrestling 2010, where he defeated Officer Colt Cabana in an "I Quit" match. Following two victories, Sabu teamed with The Weedman to defeat Bull Pain and Isabella Smothers at Hardcore Hell. After the match, per narrative thread, he aligned himself with villainous manager Charlie Brown. He and Tony wrestled again at Up in Smoke in a match where Rob Conway was hired by Brown to attack Tony. After Rhino scared off Sabu and Conway, a tag team match was scheduled between the two and Rhino and Tony at St. Andrew's Brawl. At the event, he was defeated by former tag team partner and rival Rob Van Dam in a Hardcore Rules match. On the following edition of Impact!, the ECW alumni, known collectively as Extreme, Version 2.0 (EV 2.0), were assaulted by A. J. Styles, Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm, Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan of Ric Flair's stable, who thought they didn't deserve to be in TNA. The following week, TNA president Dixie Carter gave each member of EV 2.0 TNA contracts in order for them to settle their score with At No Surrender, Sabu unsuccessfully challenged Douglas Williams for the TNA X Division Championship. At Bound for Glory, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Rhino and Stevie Richards defeated Fortune members Styles, Kazarian, Morgan, Roode and Storm in a Lethal Lockdown match. On the October 21 edition of Impact!, Sabu and Rob Van Dam were defeated in a tag team match by James Storm and Robert Roode, after Sabu accidentally hit his own partner with a chair. After the match, Van Dam and Sabu began shoving each other, before being broken up by the rest of EV 2.0. At Turning Point, EV 2.0 faced Fortune in a ten man tag team match, where each member of EV 2.0 put their TNA careers on the line. A. J. Styles won the match for his team by pinning Sabu, who as a result was fired from TNA. It had been reported earlier that Brunk's release from TNA was legitimate.

On January 14, 2012, Sabu returned to the former ECW Arena, when he defeated Justin Credible at an Evolve event in the venue's final professional wrestling event. In 2013, Sabu completed a UK tour, wrestling for a number of the UK's top promotions. Sabu entered the Extreme Rising World Championship tournament but was eliminated in the first round by Devon Storm. On March 30, 2013, Sabu made his Newfoundland wrestling debut when he wrestled in the Newfoundland and Labrador based company's CEW "King Of The Rock" tournament. This was a two show event which saw Sabu defeat multiple CEW mainstays such as CEW headliners Psycho Mitch and Krys Krysmon. Sabu ultimately lost the tournament after a brutal match with Scott Gotch in which Sabu lost intentionally at the request of CEW owner Dennis Guthrie. As a reward, CEW owner enshrined Sabu as the new CEW Newfoundland Heritage Champion. He defended his title in a Fatal Four Way elimination match on April 1, 2013, for CEW in St. Lawrence, NL against Justin Lock, Tony King and Brandon Flip. In Scotland, Sabu challenged Jack Jester for the ICW Heavyweight Championship but was defeated. Sabu returned to ICW in 2015 to continue his feud with Jester and challenge the ICW World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway but was again defeated. Sabu has also worked for Pro Wrestling Holland, where he has held the PWH Championship. On June 5, 2015, Sabu lost a match to his long time partner Rob Van Dam in Scranton, Pennsylvania. At the end of the match, after pinning Sabu, RVD helped him up off the mat and both raised hands together. On August 17, 2018, Sabu lost to Nick Gage at a GCW event.

On February 8, 2019, it was revealed that Sabu would return to TNA, now named Impact Wrestling at their following pay per view, United We Stand. At the event on April 4, 2019, Sabu teamed with Rob Van Dam to face Lucha Bros (Pentagón Jr. and Fénix). Sabu wrestled some of the following television tapings, but disappeared after a while. In September it was reported that Impact was going to bring him back for more dates in the future. Just days later, Sabu wrestled Rohit Raju at the Impact television tapings in Las Vegas, in a match that went to a double countout. At Bound for Glory, Sabu competed in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match which was won by Eddie Edwards.

On November 5, 2021, Sabu officially announced his retirement from professional wrestling.

On May 24, 2023, Sabu made his debut for All Elite Wrestling on Dynamite when it was revealed that he would come out of retirement for a one off in the corner of Adam Cole along with Roderick Strong during his unsanctioned match with Chris Jericho at the Double or Nothing pay per view.

He appeared in the video game ECW Hardcore Revolution, Legends of Wrestling, Legends of Wrestling II, Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This At Home, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008. Sabu's likeness also appears, albeit unofficially, in several games within the Fire Pro Wrestling franchise including Fire Pro Wrestling, Fire Pro Wrestling 2, and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. On September 8, 2016, Brunk guest starred on an episode of the Viceland television program, Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch 'Ancient Aliens': Alien Devastation with his former tag team partner, Rob Van Dam and then manager The Super Genie.

Brunk was married to a Japanese woman, Hitomi, on June 22, 1997, in Michigan, and had a separate Japanese ceremony on December 12, 1998, in Tokyo while in Japan for the ECW/FMW Supershow. In Forever Hardcore, Brunk reveals he took his name "Sabu" from Indian American actor Sabu, of whom his uncle Ed Farhat was a fan. In July 2016, Brunk was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred "long term neurological injuries" and that the company "routinely failed to care" for them and "fraudulently misrepresented and concealed" the nature and extent of those injuries. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant in September 2018. In the mid 2010s, Sabu began dating Melissa Coates, who also began working as his wrestling valet. Coates died in her sleep from COVID 19 complications on June 23, 2021, aged 52.

Sabu is nicknamed "The Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal, Death–Defying Maniac" due to his mixed style of high flying and hardcore wrestling. Some of his moves includes using a steel chair, like the Air Sabu (a heel kick to a cornered opponent, with the assistance of a steel chair), the Arabian Facebuster (Jumping, diving or a somersault leg drop, driving a steel chair into the face of the opponent) or the Arabian Skullcrusher (jumping, diving or a somersault leg drop, driving a steel chair into the back of the opponent's head, usually through a table). Being trained by his uncle, The Original Sheik, he also uses his Arabian Clutch (a Camel clutch) as a move. His character has rarely spoken, however while working for WWE he had to do the most talking he ever did. Sabu has been credited as a revolutionary due to his work in ECW.