RVD defends GCW, Joey Janela from ‘ridiculous’ criticism over Sabu’s death

Rob Van Dam doesn’t place any blame on Game Changer Wrestling for the death of his best friend Sabu.

On Thursday night, RVD and Taz did a live stream sharing their memories of Sabu following his passing. RVD also addressed the controversy that emerged this week after Joey Janela revealed that Sabu’s final match at Joey Janela’s Spring Break 9 almost didn’t happen. Sabu could barely walk because of issues with his knee and feet, but Sabu’s team gave him kratom — a federally legal substance — to help him get through the no ropes barbed wired match. Fans on social media have criticized Janela and GCW for allowing the match to still happen.

“All the heat that’s gone to Joey Janela and GCW? Ridiculous,” RVD said. “I’ve read comments from social media followers that say, ‘GCW should be arrested on manslaughter.’ Wait, regardless of the cause of death, three weeks later? Thank god these people aren’t actually in control actually making real decisions.”

Sabu died on May 11, less than a month after defeating Janela at Spring Break. A cause of death has not been released yet. RVD said that, because Sabu and his ex-wife Hitomi never got officially divorced, there is a hold-up with needing her permission for some things. She is living in Japan and doesn’t want anything to do with the situation.

RVD said Sabu using kratom for the Spring Break match had “nothing to do” with him dying three weeks later. RVD called himself an advocate for kratom, which he believes helps a lot of people with pain, sleep issues, and anxiety. He uses kratom regularly, and Sabu would use it every day.

“A lot of my friends have been able to quit taking opiates and take kratom. A lot of followers have told me and thanked me for talking about kratom because they’ve done the same thing,” RVD said. “Can you get addicted to kratom? You can get addicted to f*cking chocolate. If you’re a person that’s going to be addicted to stuff, then stay away from everything. The answer to that is, sure it’s possible. Can you take too much? Sure.”

Sabu vs. Janela was billed as Sabu’s retirement match, but Sabu felt like he still had one more match left in him after it was over. Sabu told RVD that he was interested in facing him if RVD was up for it.

“People are saying, ‘Shame on GCW for allowing a 60 year old to get in the ring and have a match like that.’ And I can tell you, he was my closest dude friend, closest person to me next to Katie Forbes right here. And I can tell you that he was 61 and he wanted that,” RVD said. “He wanted that for a long time. In fact, Joe Clarke, we’ve had him on the show before, Joe Clarke and I made my documentary on concussions called ‘Headstrong’ which is on Amazon. He had been working with Sabu for a long time, several months, on filming a documentary. Just a few weeks ago, they were over here. Sabu and I were working out in my gym and hanging out in my sauna… I can’t wait to see the footage that he has now. And of course the ending is definitely going to be a little different than they planned on. He was training. He was wanting to have this big retirement match, so much that when it got down to it, he knew that he had more in him, you know?

“One thing that he said when I saw him after his match with Joey Janela — he said, ‘I got one more match in me. If you’re still interested in doing that barbed wire match, I’m interested.’ Because I had talked to him before about being the guy that’s his last opponent, which a lot of people would think, easy, of course you’re going to do that. But he said, ‘No, that’s cheating.’ Just like he thinks two brothers wrestling each other is cheating, from his perspective, because they grew up and they know each other too well.”

RVD said he didn’t really want to do a barbed wire match, but Sabu could have possibly talked him into it if it was really going to be his retirement match.

There was some incorrect information reported about Sabu that RVD wanted to clarify. Sabu’s legal name wasn’t Terrance Brunk, it was Terry Brunk. He was born in Michigan and not New York. And Sabu was 61 years old when he died instead of 60.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help pay for Sabu’s funeral costs. Chris Jericho made a $5,000 donation today.