Sabu and Lightning Kid Go Wild for Better and Worse

How fucking good was Sabu, man?

More than anything, I came away from this match just dazzled by that man. It's no wonder he became such a cult icon, and why Paul Heyman so smartly built so much around him. Before the bell even rings, he's filled with this near boundless energy. Once the bell does ring, he moves in a manner so distinct and unique to him that it's not a stretch to really buy into the idea that this is a deranged lunatic barely being constrained by the confines of an athletic contest.

Sabu translates this idea into this really energetic charges and feints, constantly diving in a frantic manner even if just going for a single leg trip. When he does start working a few more traditional holds on the mat, it's a jarring contrast but one that still fits his persona as a sick dude using whatever means he can to put a hurting on the young Lightning Kid. Even better, once the spots ramp up and it's time to do the wilder things expected of these, Sabu excels there as well. No coward dives from Sabu, full force, throwing himself into Kid and whoever else might be at ringside.

Kid himself delivers a decent performance here, if somewhat less eye-catching. What came to mind for me on this go-around is just how ahead of its time it feels for Kid to build so much of his offense around kicks. Over in Japan, that's a staple at this point especially given the development of shoot style from the mid-80s into the 90s, but stateside, I struggle to think of contemporary comparisons. The closest I could get to is Stan Lane's white boy karate kicks which still have a more "pro wrestling" vibe than the more precise kicks that Kid's throwing here. He's not exactly getting killer heaters out of those kicks though, but one can see the transition moving towards a more Japanese-influenced style happening here through his offense.

So much of what I associate with American independent wrestling really surrounds that synthesis of styles. Bringing together international influences and boiling them down to a highly physical, well-rounded language of pro wrestling. That's not quite what we get here in 93, a decade or so away from the true super indie boom that we'll be covering more in the month to come. The combination of Sabu's rather eclectic in-ring style and persona with Kid's kick-heavy offense means that this never quite gels the way one would want.

That friction might prove rather compelling to some, and at the match's highest points, it works really well. Sabu not going for pinfalls because he's more invested in punishment functions on a narrative level, and it also makes sense that his more unfocused, sadism-first style would allow Kid more openings to come back from beneath than usual. In practice though, there's more than a few missed opportunities here. Kid gets his face busted open on a ring post thanks to Oliver Humperdink at ringside, for example. And while we get some delightful shots of that claret just pouring onto the ringside area, Sabu doesn't give it enough focus to really allow sympathy to go Kid's way. At the same time, Kid himself comes back a little too quickly and a little too often to get the most out of the visual.

The stuff that holds up really holds up though. Sabu's frantic energy means there's a genuine sense of violence throughout this whole thing. It's not just in those crazy dives and bumps either, but in the smaller moments like how he's always just on the verge of knocking out the referee, which of course pays off by the time the match ends. I mean, goddamn, Sabu could throw a punch! He's getting some real heaters in there early on and I wish he'd given that a little more opportunity to shine through especially when Kid has a big ole cut just begging to be worked over. Beyond all that though, the crazy spots are still sufficiently crazy even in 2025. The best might just be Sabu's attempted Frankensteiner that Kid counters into a truly gruesome avalanche Gonzo bomb. For real, Sabu looks he lands square on his neck here and it's beautiful and disgusting.

Unfortunately, this match suffers in the way a lot of Sabu and Kid's successors will as well. There's so much going on moment to moment that very little of it has the opportunity to breathe or escalate with a real sense of purpose. From a character perspective though, Sabu and Kid do a lot more right than some of their lesser imitators though. Sabu's maniac persona lends a lot to how unstructured this all feels, in a positive way, and Kid does enough here on the selling and comeback front to at least make it all function together.

Far from the most cohesive thing in the world, but ain't that the indies for better or worse?

Rating: ***1/2