ROB VAN DAM & SABU
1997 - Present
ECW World Tag Team Championship
Written by Adam Zimmerman
Rob Van Dam and Sabu first met in 1989 while both were being trained to wrestle by Sabu's uncle, The Sheik. The two became immediate friends but it would take almost a decade before they would ever team together on a regular basis.
RVD debuted in ECW in 1996 and started off as a rival of Sabu's. Both men were seen as having a similar, high-flying, "extreme" style so naturally, the fans wanted to see the two wrestle against one another. After a while, the two men decided to cast aside their differences and form an alliance. Along the way, Bill Alfonzo even decided to defect from "Team Taz" to becomes the team's manager.
The two didn't always team up as each man set his sights on individual conquests at times but when they were a team; they usually tore the house down. You could always count on RVD and Sabu to have exciting matches regardless of whether they were on the same or opposing sides of the ring. Whether they were taking on classic teams such as The Dudley Boys, The Eliminators, or Jinsei Shinzaki and Hayabusa - RVD and Sabu both became "The Whole F'n Show".
Eventually, all good things must pass and the team's original run ended when Sabu became jealous of Van Dam being the long-running ECW World Television Champion. This caused him to call out RVD and challenge him in a match for the title at Guilty As Charged 2000. Sabu subsequently lost the match and left ECW. It would be a few years before these two men would join forces again.
The next time these two would team up was a few years later, in the WWE version of ECW in 2005, when Van Dam helped Sabu defeat Rhyno at that year's One Night Stand. Afterward, they would form a team, off and on, and would eventually join the ECW Originals stable.
One match I remember of theirs in particular from this point in time is one they had against Mike Knox and Test. With all due respect, I was never much of a Test fan and I didn't really have any idea who Mike Knox was. Regardless, I was super impressed with both men by the end of this hard-hitting match; Mike Knox in particular. It's a shame that he didn't hang around very long and wasn't used any better.
While in WWE, they also got to induct The Sheik into the WWE Hall Of Fame, Class Of 2007. A much-deserved induction, I must say. That year Sabu was also released and RVD decided not to renew his contract, thus disbanding the team for a second time.
A few years later (I can start to see a trend here. Like, RVD and Sabu is such an awesome team, they can only resurface after every few years. Yeah, that's what I'm going with anyway.), both men turned up in TNA; now known as Impact Wrestling. Sabu was returning from his previous runs in the company but this particular run of his didn't last long and the team didn't really get to have many memorable matches in my opinion.
Luckily, this is where get an upside to the story - both RVD and Sabu once again signed to compete in Impact Wrestling! Only time will tell but RVD and Sabu should go down into the annals of great tag teams, regardless.