Hardcore wrestling legend Sabu passed away last weekend and a lot of criticism ended up being levied at both Joey Janela and GCW for comments that Janela made speaking about Sabu's retirement match and his use of kratom at the GCW sponsored Spring Break event which Janela runs annually. Janela and GCW both defended themselves publicly and now WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam has chipped in, also offering his support and calling the criticism ridiculous.
"All the heat that’s gone to Joey Janela and GCW? Ridiculous. I’ve read comments from social media followers that say, ‘GCW should be arrested on manslaughter.’ Wait, regardless of the cause of death, three weeks later? Thank god these people aren’t actually in control actually making real decisions."
"A lot of my friends have been able to quit taking opiates and take kratom. A lot of followers have told me and thanked me for talking about kratom because they’ve done the same thing. Can you get addicted to kratom? You can get addicted to f*cking chocolate. If you’re a person that’s going to be addicted to stuff, then stay away from everything. The answer to that is, sure it’s possible. Can you take too much? Sure."
"People are saying, ‘Shame on GCW for allowing a 60 year old to get in the ring and have a match like that.’ And I can tell you, he was my closest dude friend, closest person to me next to Katie Forbes right here. And I can tell you that he was 61 and he wanted that. He wanted that for a long time. In fact, Joe Clarke, we’ve had him on the show before, Joe Clarke and I made my documentary on concussions called ‘Headstrong’ which is on Amazon. He had been working with Sabu for a long time, several months, on filming a documentary. Just a few weeks ago, they were over here. Sabu and I were working out in my gym and hanging out in my sauna… I can’t wait to see the footage that he has now. And of course the ending is definitely going to be a little different than they planned on. He was training. He was wanting to have this big retirement match, so much that when it got down to it, he knew that he had more in him, you know?"
"One thing that he said when I saw him after his match with Joey Janela — he said, ‘I got one more match in me. If you’re still interested in doing that barbed wire match, I’m interested.’ Because I had talked to him before about being the guy that’s his last opponent, which a lot of people would think, easy, of course you’re going to do that. But he said, ‘No, that’s cheating.’ Just like he thinks two brothers wrestling each other is cheating, from his perspective, because they grew up and they know each other too well."
RVD also cleared a couple of pieces of information that were incorrectly reported about Sabu when he died: his first name is Terry (not Terrance), he was born in Michigan (not New York) and he was 61 years old (not 60).
H/T: f4wonline.com for the transcription
