The Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch at AEW Revolution has inspired many fans to look back at the history of this violent stipulation. It’s impossible to think about Barbed Wire Matches without considering former ECW star Sabu.
The former ECW World Heavyweight Champion recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and reflected on his history with hardcore wrestling. First, Sabu revealed that he never “signed up” for his first Barbed Wire Match. Instead, the challenge was handed to him, and he tried to make the most of it.
“It was during a tour in Japan, and it just so happened [that] I had a Barbed Wire Match. I didn’t know about it until the last minute, so I didn’t think that much about it, and I took it in stride.
“It was just another day, and I tried hard, like I do any other time, and hopefully they like it. The thing was, I tried so hard that I was good at it [and] they thought I like doing it. But I didn’t like doing it. I was doing what [I] was facing in front of me.”
Sabu’s hardcore style has become iconic, and Barbed Wire Matches are practically synonymous with the former ECW World Heavyweight Champion. Early in his career, Sabu’s association with the match type grew overnight.
“The first time I did a Barbed Wire Match was one,” said Sabu. “And then the next tour, we did like three. And the third tour, we did 16 Barbed Wire Matches, so it just kept accumulating, where the next tour had more and more until eventually, every day of the tour, it was a Barbed Wire Match.”
The full episode is available here:
