Our match of the week is Sabu vs Lightning Kid, on April 17 1993, from Minneapolis, Minnesota (NWA).
Two of the hottest independent wrestlers in the world and most influential wrestlers of the 1990s square off on the first of two 1993 NWA Grandslam shows in Minnesota, loaded shows featuring all of the biggest indie names of the period, including Eddie Gilbert, Terry Funk, Chris Candido, Road Warrior Hawk, The Tazmaniac, and more.
The Grandslam events weren’t massive successes at the gate, with the April show drawing 750 fans (which, to be fair, was a strong number for 1993) and the July show falling to 450, but both shows were coveted at the time among tape traders.
Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman) and Sabu were both on the verge of major breakouts. Waltman broke through with tape traders and insiders a couple of years earlier with his excellent matches against Jerry Lynn, both locally in Minnesota and then later for a national audience on ESPN as they took their rivalry to Global. A couple of weeks after this Sabu match, Waltman (as 1-2-3 Kid) would kick off a WWF storyline on Monday Night RAW that culminated with the now legendary upset win over Razor Ramon. Few might know or remember that Waltman immediately left for Japan to work Best of the Super Juniors before returning to WWF a month later to continue his feud with Ramon.
By April of 1993, Sabu was already a star in Japan for FMW, and had picked up steam as one of the hottest names on the tape trading circuit in America for his wild, out-of-control style. He would debut with ECW in October, and by 1994 he was undoubtedly the top indie name in the country and one of the hottest wrestlers on Earth.
Watch & discuss: https://www.patreon.com/posts/match-of-week-8-70257312
