User:Alex Roggio/Sandbox

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Tag Team
Sabu and Rob Van Dam
Members	Sabu Rob Van Dam Bill Alfonso (manager)
Name(s)	Sabu and Rob Van Dam ECW Originals
Heights	Sabu: 6 ft. (183 cm) Rob Van Dam: 6 ft. (183 cm)
Combined weight	Sabu: 220 lb. (100 kg) Rob Van Dam: 235 lb (108 kg) Total: 455 lb. (208 kg)
Debut	1996
Disbanded	2007
Promotions	ECW WWE ECW
Trainer	The Original Shiek

Sabu & Rob Van Dam are professional wrestlers who often competed as a tag team (when they weren't fighting each other) in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW brand. While teaming in the original ECW, the team were managed by Bill Alfonso.

1 Career
- 1.1 1996
- 1.2 1997
- 1.3 1998
- 1.4 WWE
2 Team moves
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

[edit] Career

On January 5, 1996, Rob Van Dam debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), defeating Axl Rotten at House Party.^[1] Van Dam quickly became a face due to his laid-back attitude, and unorthodox style. Van Dam then (kayfabe) was disqualified in his second match in ECW against Sabu.^[1]

[edit] 1996

Sabu, at CyberSlam on February 17, faced ECW Television Champion Too Cold Scorpio to a 30 minute draw, and Rob Van Dam faced him to a 30 minute draw also on March 30.^[1]. Sabu and Van Dam had numerous confrontations and they later faced off at Hostile City Showdown on April 20, with Sabu being booked to win the match.^[2] Rob Van Dam continued to (kayfabe) demand Sabu's respect until Van Dam defeated Sabu on the May 11 edition of ECW. However, since that match, Sabu defeated Rob Van Dam consecutively twice, including a match which saw them both being taken out on stretchers at Hardcore Heaven, and a Stretcher match on August 3.^[2] Sabu and Van Dam, now respecting each other, became a tag team and fought The Eliminators, in an ECW Tag Team Championship match, to a time-limit draw at November to Remember.

[edit] 1997

Sabu and Van Dam continued to target the ECW Tag Team Champions, losing to them on February 1 and February 22. By this time, Tazz and Sabu had some (kayfabe) tension heating up for over a year, and Tazz defeated Van Dam on March 15 at Hostile City Showdown^[3] Then, at Bareley Legal, Tazz defeated Sabu, and was attacked by Van Dam and Bill Alfonso (Tazz's manager at the time) post-match.^[3] At ECW Wrestlepalooza, Sabu defeated Tazz, and Rob Van Dam, Bill Alfonso and himself allied themselves with Jerry Lawler in his quest to end ECW.^[4] They began a feud with Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman, and defeated them at June 28's Orgy of Violence. Various singles and tag team matches occured between the teams including a six-man tag team match between Sabu, Van Dam and Lawler against Dreamer, Sandman and Rick Rude at Heat Wave which ended in a no contest. At Born to be wired, Van Dam helped Sabu defeat Terry Funk in a barbed wire match to capture the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. However, at Hardcore Heaven, Sabu lost the title to Shane Douglas in a three-way-dance also featuring Terry Funk. At November to Remember, Sabu defeated the Sandman in a Tables and Ladders match, while Van Dam fought Dreamer to a no contest in a flag match.

[edit] 1998

April 4 when he defeated Bam Bam Bigelow to win the ECW Television Championship.^[5]^[6] After winning the Television title, RVD became known as The Whole F'n Show.^[7] RVD made the first title defense on April 10 against Doug Furnas, a match won by Van Dam.^[8] Sabu also expressed interest in Van Dam's championship, leading to a title match between them. Van Dam defended the Television title against Sabu at Wrestlepalooza. The match was a time limit draw, resulting in Van Dam retaining his title.^[7]^[9]

At A Matter of Respect, Van Dam and Sabu were forced to face each other in a tag team match as they both teamed up with ECW Tag Team Champions. Van Dam teamed with the one half of the champions, Lance Storm, while Sabu teamed with the other half, Chris Candido. Van Dam and Sabu reconciled and instead took out Storm and Candido making it a no contest.^[10] Van Dam and Sabu started a feud with Storm and Candido in the next month for the tag team titles.On June 27, Van Dam and Sabu beat Storm and Candido to win the ECW Tag Team Championship,^[11] which made Van Dam a double champion.^[7] On October 24, Sabu and Van Dam lost the titles to the Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von) after interference from Triple Threat.^[7]^[12] Van Dam decided to take revenge from his rivals. At November to Remember, Van Dam and Sabu teamed with Taz to defeat Triple Threat.^[7]^[13] On December 13, Van Dam and Sabu won the ECW Tag Team Championship for a second time by beating the Dudley Boyz in Japan at a Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW) show.

Sabu & Rob Van Dam first met each other in December 1989 and became close friends. The pair started out as enemies in ECW when Van Dam debuted in 1996. Both men were trained by Sabu's uncle, The Original Shiek, so fans wanted to see them fight each other since they both had pretty much the same high-flying, daredevil techniques.

In 1997, they eventually became a tag team as they went for the ECW Tag Team Titles. At ECW Barely Legal, Bill Alfonso betrayed Taz and joined Sabu & Rob Van Dam. Four months later, After Sabu lost the belt in a three-way dance with Terry Funk & Shane Douglas at ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997, Sabu & RVD joined Jerry "The King" Lawler in his crusade to "kill" ECW. When the crusade ultimately failed, Sabu eventually set his sights on Bam Bam Bigelow's ECW TV Title. So Bill Alfonso helped schedule a match between Bam Bam Bigelow & Rob Van Dam, so that RVD could "soften" Bigelow up for Sabu before he had to face Bigelow at ECW Wrestlepalooza 1998. But when Sabu interfered in the match, he "accidentally" helped Rob Van Dam win the title, so the two then faced each other at ECW Wrestlepalooza. The match ended in a 30-minute draw (which meant that the title did not change hands). A month later, the two captured the ECW Tag Team Titles when they defeated Chris Candido & Lance Storm. As champions, Sabu & RVD took on all challengers including Jinsei Shinzaki & Hayabusa at ECW Heatwave 1998 in Dayton, Ohio. But they lost the titles to the Dudley Boyz in October 1998, yet they went on to win the titles back from the Dudleyz in December 1998

After they lost the titles again to the Dudleyz, The Impact Players formed and started to attack Sabu & RVD. When Sabu broke his jaw, the Impact Players had him eventually banned because of his injury and because he was too "dangerous" or "violent". But Sabu returned and after his loss to Justin Credible at ECW Anarchy Rulz 1999, Sabu started to attack Van Dam because he was still jealous that Van Dam was the TV Champion, so they faced each other at ECW Guilty as Charged 2000. Sabu said or proclaimed before the match that if he did not win the belt, he would leave ECW. That night, RVD defeated Sabu with the Five Star Frog Splash, making Sabu leave ECW.

[edit] WWE

Years after ECW folded, Sabu and Rob Van Dam would reunite at World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW One Night Stand in 2005 when Van Dam helped Sabu defeat another former ECW wrestler, Rhyno. When ECW became the third WWE brand (to Raw & SmackDown), RVD and Sabu became a major part of the show teaming on several occasions, including a "Extreme Rules" match against Test and Mike Knox on September 5th.

RVD and Sabu were both part of the ECW Originals Stable, prior to Sabu's release from WWE. Rob Van Dam's WWE contract expired in June and by his choice was not renewed.