Hardcore Legend Sabu Is Not Impressed With His Imitators

Nobody had seen a performer quite like Sabu when he burst onto the scene in the '90s. Though not the first wrestler to use a table as an offensive tool, he was perhaps the first wrestler who conditioned fans to expect them. 

Sabu has criticized the overuse of tables in modern wrestling, claiming it has diluted the impact of the spot. 

"I'm not saying the guys don't know what they're doing today. They're great, but they misinterpret my bumps," Sabu said during an interview with "Covalent TV." "When they break a table, they're just doing it for the crash. If you watch it, I set up that table 5 minutes, 10 minutes before that, where you forget about it, tease it, forget about it, tease it — bam! And that's more than breaking 10 tables."

According to Sabu, today's table spots are more about spectacle than storytelling. He singled out table stacking as something that would never realistically occur in a legitimate battle between people.

"Even in an Olympic match, I could throw a guy through a table," Sabu claimed. "I could do that. It's possible. But in an Olympic match, you cannot stack a couple [of] tables and then climb something and jump off. That's a stunt. I'm not a stuntman or an actor. And today's wrestling ... are stuntmen and actors."

After becoming a Hall of Fame-worthy performer in ECW, Sabu tried his hand in the more polished, structured environment of WWE, signing a one-year contract in 2006. But Sabu reportedly clashed with creative when they wanted the famously silent performer to deliver promos.