The Football Star and the Daredevil! RIP Mongo and Sabu

This memoriam is a double-header, because we have lost not one, but two legends of wrestling within the month or two. Legends in their own right, and how they got through their careers in their own way. I am referring to both Steve "Mongo" McMichael and Sabu.

Originally a football player, and a member of the 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears, Steve McMichael started his wrestling career in 1995. In the WWF, he was one of many football players assisting Lawrence Taylor in his match against Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania XI, where the former beaten the Beast from the East. Then, he joined WCW, originally a color-commentator for a short time, he eventually became a full time wrestler and joined Ric Flair and his stable, the Four Horsemen, alongside his then wife, Debra. Around that time, he won his only title, being the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. He then retired around 1999, but then returned to his old stomping grounds with football, when he became the head coach of the Chicago Slaughter of the CIFL (Continental Indoor Football League) until the team disbanded in 2014. He died from complications from ALS aka Lou Gehrig's disease on April 23rd. He was 67 years old. His nickname "Mongo", was a nod to the name of the planet from the Flash Gordon series, along with his other nickname, Ming, named after Flash Gordon's archenemy, Ming the Merciless.

And now, from the grid-iron, to going hardcore, as we talk about...

Born Terry Brunk, and trained by his uncle Ed Farhat aka The Sheik, Sabu was best known for one thing, which became the norm for the most part in professional wrestling, his brutal, bloody, style of hardcore wrestling. Named after the famed Indian actor of the same name, Sabu cut his teeth in wrestling in the independent circle, but he rise in fame came when he was a part of ECW, alongside his friend and fellow student of the Sheik, Rob Van Dam. His type of hardcore wrestling almost pay homage to the type of brutality that the Great Muta brings, but brings it up 10xs more bloodier. I mean, scars from barbed wire, super gluing your wounds, not to mention all the bumps, bruises and broken bones that go with it, that guy's a savage, in more ways than one, and he is being doing this for 40 years, up until his eventually death on May 11th. He was 61 years old. Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal...now...you can add Eternal to that list, too. If not for Sabu, there wouldn't be the likes of Rob Van Dam, Taz, the Sandman, the Dudley Boyz, or even those in the present like Jon Moxley or Darby Allin.

Godspeed to you, too. Your paths in wrestling may differ, but you made wrestling even more cool. Thank you.

(TAPS plays)

Stephen Douglas "Mongo" McMichael
(October 17th, 1957 - April 23rd, 2025)

Terry "Sabu" Brunk
(1964 - May 11th, 2025) (Sorry, his birth month is not listed)

This has been a Retro Rebellion Special Report