Sabu’s final match against Joey Janela at GCW Spring Break 9 has sparked controversy. Some fans accused GCW of giving Sabu drugs before the match because Sabu had taken kratom, and they criticized Joey Janela. Now, Rob Van Dam has defended Sabu, Janela and GCW.
On his ‘1 of a Kind’ podcast, RVD said fans were overreacting and didn’t know the whole story. He mentioned some people even suggested GCW should face manslaughter charges, which he found absurd. Rob stated:
“I’ve read comments saying, ‘GCW should be arrested on manslaughter.’ Wait, regardless of the cause of death three weeks later? Thank God these people aren’t in control and making relevant decisions.”
Van Dam also disagreed with Dutch Mantel, who claimed kratom is worse than heroin. RVD argued that Dutch doesn’t understand kratom.
He acknowledged that people can become addicted to kratom, just like chocolate. During his podcast, Rob took a large dose of kratom live and told listeners to observe if his behavior changed. He said to Dutch:
“Dutch, you know nothing about kratom. It helps so many people. As my regular listeners know, I’m an advocate for kratom. It says in there Sabu got some kratom so he could make it through the match.
The way Joey puts it, he said, ‘He was on another f***ing planet.’ I don’t like that he put that, I really doubt that’s true, but I’ve had people say that about me. In fact, I’m going to administer some kratom. Woooo! Did you know Ric Flair has his own kratom? You didn’t know that. That shows you how dangerous this is. Joey is getting a bunch of heat. GCW is getting a bunch of heat.
People saying, ‘I can’t believe I supported them. They k!lled Sabu.’ First off, they didn’t give him the kratom. It was his own people. For sure, Sabu had some kratom. He eats it every day. I usually eat it every day. It’s good for blocking pain, sleeping, and anxiety. It’s a plant that comes from the coffee plant family. They dry the leaves, grind them into a powder, and you can put the powder into a capsule, a drink, gummies, or eat the powder. It tastes horrible.”
RVD emphasized that kratom and GCW were not responsible for Sabu’s death three weeks later. He felt people were drawing conclusions too quickly without considering the facts. He also pointed out that Sabu really wanted to have that match and had been training for it.
After the match, Sabu even expressed interest in having another barbed wire match, saying he had one more left in him. Van Dam recalled a previous conversation where he offered to be Sabu’s final opponent, but Sabu declined, saying it would be “cheating.” RVD explained:
“People are saying, ‘Shame on GCW for allowing a 60-year-old to get in the ring and have a match like that.’ I can tell you, he’s my closest dude friend, I can tell you he was 61 years old and he wanted that. He wanted that for a long time. In fact, Joe Clark had been working with Sabu on filming a documentary. He was training.
He was wanting to have this big retirement match, so much that when it got down to it, he knew he had more in him. One thing he said after his match with Janela, ‘I got one more match in me. If you’re still interested in doing a barbed wire match, I’m interested.’ I talked to him before about being the guy that is his last opponent, but he said that was cheating.”
