Below are a couple of top news stories of the day, featuring Sabu and Samantha Irvin.
• John Cena Pays Tribute To Sabu
Sabu passed away on May 11, and the wrestling world is still mourning his loss. Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena honored the late ECW Legend with an Instagram photo.
The image featured Sabu’s face superimposed onto Stone Cold Steve Austin’s body, accompanied by the caption “STONE COLD SABU.”
At WWE Vengeance Day 2006, Cena defeated Sabu via submission in an Extreme Rules Lumberjack Match.
While some reports have claimed Sabu died of cardiac arrest, Rob Van Dam says that isn’t true — at least not officially.
On his 1 of a Kind podcast, RVD addressed a video from Sabu’s biographer, Kenny Casanova. In the video, Casanova said he spoke with Sabu’s sister Paulina and his ex-wife Jeanie’s brother, and claimed the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
RVD responded directly:
“I can tell you right now—and this is me—I talk to Paulina several times a day. I talked to the coroner investigator yesterday. They are not, and have not, released the cause of death yet. 100%. 100% fact. I’m 100% certain.”
He made it clear that, despite the rumors, nothing has been confirmed. RVD also explained why the process is being held up. Sabu’s wife, who lives in Japan, still has legal authority over important decisions because they never officially divorced.
“Check this out—guess who’s got the authority to make decisions? She does. In Japan. Like, she doesn’t want nothing to do with it. They never got the official divorce. Yeah. So, we need her signature for several things. And I don’t want to get too personal on what the holdup is, but it’s everything. And, um, part of that is the cause of death.”
RVD said a mutual friend has tried to contact her, but she doesn’t want to be involved. Without her signature, the process — including the release of the official cause of death — remains on hold.
A GoFundMe page has been launched to help Sabu’s family with funeral expenses. As of this writing, over $6,000 have been raised, with Chris Jericho being the top donor with a $5,000 donation. Tap here to visit the page and donate.
Also Read: Accusations Of GCW Dru**ing Sabu Before Final Match – Joey Janela Responds
• YouTube Admits To Shadow Banning Samantha Irvin’s Video
Former WWE ring announcer Samantha Irvin recently released her music video “Shawty Wanna.” However, she faced issues as her video was shadow banned (not being recommended to people).
Here’s what she tweeted:
“Welp, my music video is completely shadow banned on YouTube.”
Her husband, AEW wrestler Ricochet, tweeted:
“Hey @youtube, why doesnt @SamanthaTheBomb’s video pop up when I type ‘Samantha The Bomb Shawty Wanna Music Video’???
Seems fishy.”
YouTube saw Samantha’s tweet and replied:
“We understand how important this is for you. We’ll look into it and check to see what’s happening here.”
Samantha noted that a lot of her haters reported her video:
“Oh a lot of them did, they were bragging in the comments.”
In an update, YouTube revealed that there was indeed an issue and they have fixed it, thus confirmed that they did shadow ban the video:
“Thanks for your patience here while our team was investigating! Confirming that this was not working as it should and we’ve fixed the issue. Your video should be showing up normally in search now.”
Samantha replied:
“Can’t thank you enough for looking into this and resolving for me!”
You can watch her music video below:
