Sabu vs. Lightning Kid
April 17, 1992
NWA House Show, Minneapolis, MN

This Christmas season, I am feeling quite somber and retrospective. So it’s funny that I received a match from 1993. Less than a year later, I would attend my first live pro wrestling event in a similar high school gymnasium with my mother and would-be stepfather. On November 29 of this year, my stepfather passed away. He was a Vietnam War veteran, a mechanic, a race car driver, a manager, a golfer, and a farmer by trade. Though I’ll remember him as a wonderful husband to my mom, father to his three(four) daughters, grandfather and great grandfather to several (including my son), friend to many, and the definition of the perfect step-parent. So much so that I never thought of him as a step-parent, but as a second father. 

In many cases out there, a parent remarries and the new person wants to come in and change the children in their image, especially when the child is four years old as I was. By that age, I was already OBSESSED with pro wrestling. He embraced and encouraged this, much like most of my passions throughout my upbringing and adulthood. There are fond stories of me as a little guy, jumping off our living room couch delivering a devastating big elbow as he lay prone on the floor relaxing, knocking the wind out of him. Or me lining up all of my wrestling action figures from the mid-90s (you know the ones) and showing them off to some of his business associates that he would meet with at the house. We even attended a WCW house show in 1996 main evented by The Outsiders and Harlem Heat. I remember him being rightly annoyed that my small bladder HAD TO be emptied right as his other favorite, Lex Luger, was about to hit the ring. Being the man he was, though, he led me to the boys room so I would be safe. 

His favorite was always Razor Ramon. Most likely due to the obvious cool factor, but as likely due to the obnoxious gold necklaces and his love for room-clearing cologne. It’s fitting, because not long after this match takes place, Sean Waltman would get his big break on WWF television, with his shocking upset of Razor. 

That’s not where the parallels end, though. Several years later, we would be on a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC to visit one of his daughters (my step-sister). While at her house, and in the midst of proving to everyone there I could eat an entire box of hard shell tacos (crazy the memories that just roll back to you), I stumbled across ECW television for the first time. Here I was introduced to Sabu, among many others. 

This match I’ve been gifted is terrific. Sabu at his death-defying best and Waltman as the never quit, punishment-taking babyface he’d become famous for. An easy ****¼ match to me. So thank you to whoever sent this my way. More so than for the quality of the match, but the memories it conjured up in me. The happy times I remember with my step-father and my family. This provided a much-needed smile. Hug your loved ones folks, whether they are family or otherwise. This is for you Bob. Love you and miss you. 

Merry Christmas to all of you wrasslin’ fans out there. I hope this stuff makes you feel the way it can make me.