Former WWE star blames Paul Heyman for "killing" his gimmick

Sabu recently recalled how one of his signature wrestling spots became overused due to Paul Heyman’s apparent failure to protect him.

Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see more than one wrestler go through a table every week on television. During Sabu’s early days in ECW in the 1990s, however, he was one of the only people in wrestling who was synonymous with breaking tables.

Speaking in a “Title Match Wrestling” video, the 57-year-old explained how former ECW owner Heyman “killed” his table spots in matches.

“Paul E. [Heyman] didn’t protect me on that,” Sabu said. “He let everybody break a table, kinda killed my gimmick. And if the promoter don’t protect you, you’re nothing. I can’t stop those guys from doing it. I can threaten them, but I can’t stop them. He can stop them.” [2:09-2:22]

Sabu is widely regarded as one of ECW’s most iconic wrestlers. The high-flyer held the company’s World Heavyweight Championship twice and also appeared in WWE’s revamped version of ECW in 2006 and 2007.

Why Sabu felt Paul Heyman should have given instructions to other wrestlers

Sabu puts RVD through a table.

ECW High Incident '96 https://t.co/l7EvO39al4

It is common knowledge that certain wrestling moves should not be repeated by co-workers. The tombstone piledriver, for example, is synonymous with Kane and The Undertaker in WWE. Similarly, the Stone Cold Stunner was only used by Steve Austin before Kevin Owens adopted the move as his finisher in 2019.

Sabu felt Paul Heyman should have told ECW stars to cut back on their use of tables during matches, especially as he made table-breaking popular.

“I don’t care if someone else breaks a table, just not the same guy every night besides me,” Sabu continued. “I don’t even break a table every night, but I hate it when the same guy breaks a table every night, because now that’s their move. Instead of it being a fluke, it’s their move, and I didn’t like that.” [1:47-2:00]

The wrestling legend added that Public Enemy duo Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock “couldn’t have a match without breaking a table.” Table spots also became a big part of The Dudley Boyz’s gimmick.

Please credit “Title Match Wrestling” and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.