Wrestling veteran Rhino has offered heartfelt insight into the late Sabu (real name Terry Brunk), revealing intimate details about the iconic ECW star’s life outside the ring—including why he avoided using his real name and why he famously never cut promos.
Speaking on AdFreeShows, Rhino shared that Sabu had a deep aversion to being called by his birth name.
“Sabu hated his real name, which was crazy,” Rhino said. “He’d always say, ‘I just want people to call me by my work name. I just don’t like my real name.’”
While Sabu was always known for letting his brutal in-ring style do the talking, fans often speculated about his silence during promos. Rhino explained that this was no gimmick—it was a promise made to his mother.
“He told me that when he was a kid watching his uncle [The Sheik] wrestle… his mother looked at him and said, ‘If you ever wrestle when you get older, I hope you don’t do that [yelling and screaming on promos] because you’ll embarrass me,’” Rhino revealed. “So he said the only reason why he never talked is he didn’t want to embarrass his mom.”
Rhino made it clear that Sabu wasn’t avoiding promos out of shyness or inability.
“‘It’s not that I can’t talk or I don’t want to talk,’” Rhino recalled Sabu saying. “‘I don’t want to embarrass my mom.’ That’s what he said.”
These stories add a poignant layer to the legacy of the “Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal” legend, reminding fans that behind the scars and barbed wire was a man deeply loyal to family and values.
Stay tuned to PWMania.com for more tributes and stories celebrating the legacy of Sabu.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
