Wrestling Forward: Why Is Impact Wrestling Giving Sabu A Pass?

In today’s “Wrestling Forward”, where it’s all about advancing the conversation, I discuss Impact Wrestling’s decision to book Sabu, talk to Nia Jax fans about how the WWE superstar has inspired them, and gush about Kofi Kingston’s remarkable SmackDown Live performance.

Last week on Impact Wrestling, which airs on the Pursuit Channel and Twitch every Friday night at 10 p.m. ET, the promotion announced that Sabu and Rob Van Dam will reunite as a tag team. The former ECW stars will team up to face the Lucha Bros at United We Stand, which airs on Twitch on Apr. 4 (WrestleMania weekend).

The Lucha Bros, Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix, won the Impact World Tag Team Championships last week in a scintillating main event against LAX, so Impact fans are naturally excited to see one of the best tag teams in the world defend the titles against a legendary team of the past.

But should fans really be excited about seeing Sabu?

Just days after this announcement on Impact Television, Sabu, real name Terry Brunk, took to Twitter to remind wrestling fans why he’s one of the many sketchy characters in this business. He repeatedly quote tweeted fans with the homophobic slur f–, including when he was called out for

Sabu quoted fans who backed him up by supporting this targeted harassment and also used it to quote a fan who understandably stated that they would not support Impact financially if they booked Sabu.

Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin called out Sabu’s despicable behavior and had to remind fans that it is NOT OK for anyone, but especially a public figure, using slurs on a public forum. As Satin stated, this is hate speech, and the word f– is not Sabu’s to use.

But this isn’t the first time Sabu has used slurs without any regard or remorse.

Three years ago, Sabu directed the “n” word towards Taz on Twitter and doubled-down on it by using the word again when Pro Wrestling Sheet reached out for comment.

His reasoning? “Every one is a little bit racist. Even ur mother.”

As a result, Sabu did lose bookings, but the events of three years ago apparently did not deter Impact Wrestling from booking him at a major show.

Sabu’s history is well-known by wrestling fans, and in an industry where bigotry is so prevalent, it’s easy to become fatigued. But we most continue to fight against discrimination, especially since past offenders, such as Sabu, rarely change, as we saw with his tweets this week.

A few months ago, Impact’s then-World Champion Austin Aries used the “r” word, body-shamed Taya Valkyrie, and used the word “gay” in a derogatory way as part of an angle before a Pay Per View match. He has not been seen in Impact since making a scene after dropping the title, and Impact lost its TV deal with POP.

There are serious consequences when wrestling promotions book wrestlers who cross the line, share bigoted views, and hurt others. Sabu’s bigotry has no place in society, and we must hold Impact accountable in order to make pro wrestling a form of entertainment that everyone can enjoy and a space that is capable of emerging from the carny dark ages.

Just as we took WWE to task for bringing Hulk Hogan, who went on a racist rant that included the usage of the “n” word, to our television screens, I will keep the same energy when criticizing Impact for booking Sabu for their WrestleMania week show.

Importantly, although I cannot truly speak to Sabu’s character, I can say that this pattern of behavior is unacceptable and cannot be supported by either wrestling fans or promotions in 2019.

Let me make this clear to everyone reading: If you are not gay, there is NO circumstance under which using f– or f—-t is acceptable. Zero. Likewise, if you are not Black, do not use the “n” word or any derivation of the word. It is not your word to use or “reclaim”, and there is no joke in which using either word is acceptable.

If you’ve used those words in the past when you shouldn’t have but apologized and genuinely grew from the experience, I mildly applaud you for doing so. Hopefully, the rest of the world, Sabu included, can grow in the same way. Until then, we cannot afford to support his work.

Kofi Kingston Opened Our Eyes

When pro wrestling is at its best, it seems like there’s nothing in this world that’s better.

After I watched Kofi Kingston run the Gauntlet on SmackDown Live, I couldn’t help but bask in the moment. Here was Kingston, a man who has held every title in WWE but the world championship, reminding the WWE Universe why he’s quietly one of the best all-around performers of our generation. Whether it’s shining in tag teams, being the unofficial Mr. Royal Rumble, or holding down WWE’s mid-card scene, Kofi has seemingly done it all.

Well, except for being front-and-center as a world champion.

Seeing Xavier Woods’s tweet was bittersweet.

Sweet because how could you not love Woods pushing as hard as possible for his stablemate to finally capture the gold that he’s earned for about a decade of excellence?

Bitter because we know Xavier shouldn’t have to be pushing for Kofi to finally get his due; the deed should have already been done by Vince McMahon and Co.

As we celebrate Black History Month, we must remain aware of how much work still needs to be done in professional wrestling. WWE is among the biggest culprits of under-representing Black athletes. There have been too few Black world champions, and the promotion has excluded honoring Black women trailblazers who have made wrestling the sport it is today.

Kingston is one of the best pro wrestlers of our generation in terms of consistency, creativity, skills, and comedy (country music, anyone?)

There are no weaknesses in his game, and, even at 37, he remains at the top of it. Kofi got millions of fans to believe in him with a Gauntlet Match performance for the ages, and even though we know better than to get our hopes up, I can’t help but cheer vociferously for him at the Elimination Chamber on Sunday.

Because I don’t want the main adjective attached to Kingston’s career to be “under-appreciated”.

I want it to simply be “great”.

Voices From The Crowd: Nia Jax Is Inspirational

My aim is to use this space to spotlight the opinions of fans in wrestling to give others additional perspectives, especially those from fans they might not normally interact with.

Last year, Nia Jax was nominated for a People’s Choice Award and won the #SeeHER Now Award. She is a former Raw Women’s Champion who wears her heart on her sleeve and isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

While Nia has come into fire from fans for injuring wrestlers, including Becky Lynch and Zelina Vega last fall, the 2018 Evolution Battle Royal Winner has inspired plenty of fans with her strength, message of self-love, and kindness to her loyal fans. Nia is clearly a heel who loves getting fans, particularly those on social media, riled up against her, but there’s so much more to her than just one incident.

I decided to get some additional thoughts from one of her fans, @flairsnia, and I hope that you find her comments to be as enlightening as I found them:

"“So I know Nia is far from being the best wrestler on the roster but that’s not all I see. There is so much more to a wrestler than their in-ring abilities. I feel like to be a real fan of someone, to the point where you call them your idol, it’s because you’re attached to the human being behind the gimmick. After taking a break from wrestling for a year I think, I started watching again in 2015. I remember watching NXT TakeOver London in December of that same year. It was Nia vs Bayley and I immediately liked her. She was strong, she seemed confident and I thought she delivered during that match.I’m sensitive to people with a background, a story and Nia has a strong one. I love how she managed to turn the bad things that have happened to her into positive actions by going out there and inspiring a lot of people who have been bullied. I wish people would see the person behind the tweets, too. A lot of fans are convinced that she’s a mean girl and that she hurt Becky or even other girls on purpose, just because she makes jokes about it on social media. They don’t get she’s using that only for a Twitter game, obviously because she’s a heel. But I can understand that people don’t like her; we all have different taste.Sometimes they go too far, though. Flooding her notifs with insults and fat shaming is absolutely disgusting, especially knowing that she was bullied for a long time. During a basketball game in high school, an entire arena started chanting ‘Big Foot’. I don’t know if people realize that things like that leave scars forever. It really annoys me because she’s been through enough, she doesn’t need to be cyber bullied too. I know that she’s still green, she could do much better and she’s careless sometimes, but it’s still not an excuse to go off on her.I have to admit that to read people say that she should get fired hurts. I’m not just saying this as a fan. Nia was in an abusive relationship for ten years (link to her talking about this here), physically and mentally. Leaving someone and getting away from that person is extremely hard, especially when they were in your life for such a long time. And wrestling saved her life, literally.”"

An Important Message From Sonny Kiss

It is so important for wrestling promotions to create environments where all fans can safely enjoy wrestling. All Elite Wrestling’s decision to hire Nyla Rose and Sonny Kiss is HUGE for LGBTQ representation in wrestling, and they need to make sure LGBTQ fans feel welcome at their shows.

Kiss’s tweets mean so much to thousands of LGBTQ fans, because the abuse sent their way at wrestling shows or on social media are a reminder that we still have a long way to go. But with wrestlers like Kiss and Rose (and Sonya Deville and Charlie Morgan in WWE…and Effy and Candy Lee elsewhere), hopefully queer representation will help bring the issue of equality within the fanbase itself to the forefront.

Because while it’s incredibly important for promotions to hire LGBTQ talent and create codes of conduct, it’s just as important for us, as a fan base, to hold ourselves accountable in treating those around us with love and respect. It’s an issue of safety, it’s an issue of equality, and it’s an issue of meeting the lowest possible bar that could be set with us – the bar of not harming others.