Terrance Michael "Terry" Brunk (born December 12, 1964) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestler, better known by his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_name Sabu. He is known for his trademark style of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcore_wrestling, which he pioneered in his time with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Championship_Wrestling (ECW) from 1995 to 2000. He is a three-time World Heavyweight Champion having held the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_World_Heavyweight_Championship twice and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NWA_World_Heavyweight_Championship once.
Under the tutelage of his uncle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_%22The_Sheik%22_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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_Martial-Arts_Wrestling (FMW) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Japan_Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), winning several https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_(professional_wrestling), including the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWGP_Junior_Heavyweight_Championship. He returned to the United States in 1995, briefly working for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ECW_Champions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_World_Heavyweight_Champion and a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ECW_Television_Champions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_World_Television_Champion. He would have both a feud and an alliance with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tazmaniac, defeated him for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_FTW_Championship and winning the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_World_Tag_Team_Championship with him. In 1997, Sabu began a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_team with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment_(WWE) as part of their new third brand, a rebooted version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_(WWE_brand). Sabu would wrestle for WWE until he was fired in 2007. He also became a regular wrestler in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Nonstop_Action_Wrestling (TNA, now Impact Wrestling) since the creation of the promotion in 2002.
Brunk was trained by his uncle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_%22The_Sheik%22_Farhat, and was initially trained to be a technical wrestler. He began his boxing career in 1985 in Farhat's promotion, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Time_Wrestling_(Detroit), and was billed as being from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Tennessee, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii. He was rarely billed under his real name, in order to avoid confusion with the similarly named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Funk, but has wrestled under his real name of in Hawai'i.
Sabu debuted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Championship_Wrestling (ECW) in October 1993 as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NWA_Bloodfest by defeating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tazmaniac. One of the most notable aspects of Sabu's early career was his refusal to speak,a gimmick that he inherited from The Sheik (who never spoke English in public to protect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe). In his early career, Sabu was billed as being from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India (in real life he is a second generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_American from a suburb of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit). In ECW, however, he was clearly heard speaking in the ring on several occasions and it was fairly common knowledge that Brunk was an American citizen from birth. This led to a joke at kayfabe's expense when Sabu began to be billed as hailing from "Bombay, Michigan". Brunk revealed in a shoot promo and in the documentary film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Hardcore that in fact it was not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Heyman that brought him into ECW but that he was at the right place at the right time. He was referred by a friend to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tod_Gordon. According to the storyline, Sabu, who at that time often arrived to the ring by his handler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/911_(wrestler), was an uncontrollable madman strapped to a gurney and with a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Lecter-style face mask while trying to break free (he claimed to hate this part of his gimmick as he was normally tired before he started his match). Sabu could only be released from his bonds to wrestle his matches. Sabu also quickly became synonymous with table-breaking at this time; if a table was not broken during the match, Sabu would break a table with his own body after the bell had sounded, sometimes leading to 911 having to restrain Sabu during backstage interviews if a table was present.Sabu would quickly rise to main event status upon his debut. In his second match with the promotion, he defeated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Douglas for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_Heavyweight_Championship. Sabu made his first successful title defense against Tazmaniac, which aired on the November 30 episode of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_Hardcore_TV. Sabu then headlined the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_to_Remember_(1993) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ECW_supercards_and_pay-per-view_events on November 13 by teaming with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Warrior_Hawk in a title versus title dream partner tag team match against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Funk and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_Bundy, with Sabu's ECW Heavyweight Championship and Funk's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_Television_Championship on the line. Sabu pinned Funk to win the Television Championship after Bundy turned on Funk. As a result, Sabu became a double champion. The rivalry between Sabu and Funk intensified as Sabu lost the Heavyweight Championship to Funk at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_Hell_(1993). Sabu received a rematch for the Heavyweight Championship against Funk in a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Way_Dance at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_the_Line_Was_Crossed on February 5, 1994, also involving https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Douglas. The match ended in a sixty-minute time limit draw, which meant that Funk retained the title. Sabu would then continue to retain the Television Championship against the likes of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tanaka and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Awesome, before losing the title to The Tazmaniac, which aired on the March 15 episode of Hardcore TV. After the title loss, Sabu continued his feud with Funk, defeating him on the April 19 episode of Hardcore TV. At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_When_Worlds_Collide#1994, Sabu teamed with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Eaton to defeat Funk and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arn_Anderson to conclude the rivalry.
Sabu never gave shoot interviews in early 2000