Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996–2000) Rob Van Dam and
Sabu first met in December 1989 and became close friends. The pair started out as enemies in
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), when Rob Van Dam debuted in 1996. Both men were trained by Sabu's uncle,
The Sheik, and fans wanted to see them face each other since they both utilized high-flying, daredevil techniques. In 1996, they eventually became a tag team as they went for the
ECW World Tag Team Championship. At
ECW Barely Legal,
Bill Alfonso betrayed
Taz and joined Van Dam and Sabu. Four months later, Van Dam helped Sabu beat
Terry Funk in a barbed wire match to capture the
ECW World Heavyweight Championship. After Sabu lost the belt in a three-way dance with Terry Funk and
Shane Douglas at
ECW Hardcore Heaven, Sabu and Van Dam joined
Jerry Lawler in his crusade to "kill" ECW. When the crusade ultimately failed, Sabu eventually set his sights on
Bam Bam Bigelow's
ECW World Television Championship. So Bill Alfonso helped schedule a match between Bigelow and Van Dam, so that the latter could "soften" Bigelow before Sabu would face him at Wrestlepalooza 1998. When Sabu interfered in the match, however, he "accidentally" helped Van Dam win the title, so the two then faced each other at
Wrestlepalooza. The match ended in a 30-minute draw, preventing title from changing hands. A month later, the two captured the ECW World Tag Team Championship when they defeated
Chris Candido and
Lance Storm. As champions, Sabu and Van Dam took on all challengers including
Jinsei Shinzaki and
Hayabusa at
Heat Wave 1998 in
Dayton, Ohio. They lost the titles to
The Dudley Boyz in October 1998; however, yet they went on to win them back from the Dudleyz in December at
ECW/FMW Supershow. After they lost the titles again to The Dudley Boyz,
The Impact Players formed and started to attack Sabu and Van Dam. When Sabu broke his jaw, the Impact Players had him eventually banned because of his injury and because he was too "dangerous" or "violent." Sabu returned, and after his loss to
Justin Credible at Anarchy Rulz 1999, Sabu started to attack Van Dam because he was still jealous that Van Dam was the ECW World Television Champion, and they would face each other at Guilty as Charged 2000. Sabu proclaimed before the match that if he could not win the belt, he would leave ECW. That night, Van Dam defeated Sabu with the
Five Star Frog Splash, forcing Sabu to leave the company.
World Wrestling Entertainment (2005–2007) Several years after ECW folded, Rob Van Dam and Sabu reunited at
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) produced
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 and
SmackDown), Van Dam and Sabu became a major part of the show and teamed on several occasions, including an Extreme Rules match against
Test and
Mike Knox on September 5, 2006. The team also became part of
ECW Originals stable in 2006 which feuded with
The New Breed. On March 31, 2007, Van Dam and Sabu inducted
The Original Sheik into the
WWE Hall of Fame. The following night, at
WrestleMania 23, ECW Originals defeated The New Breed but continued battling them into spring. In May 2007, Sabu was released from WWE. Van Dam's WWE contract expired in June 2007, and he chose not to renew it.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling / Impact Wrestling (2010, 2019) On August 8, 2010, Sabu returned to
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) at
Hardcore Justice, where he was defeated by Rob Van Dam in the main event of the evening. Van Dam and Sabu both then went on to join
EV 2.0, a stable consisting of former ECW wrestlers. On the October 21 episode of
TNA Impact!, Van Dam and Sabu were defeated in a tag team match by
Beer Money, Inc. (
James Storm and
Robert Roode), after Sabu accidentally hit his own partner with a chair. After the match, Van Dam and Sabu began shoving each other, before being broken up by the rest of EV 2.0. In November 2010, Sabu was released from TNA, as was Van Dam in March 2013. On February 8, 2019, it was revealed that both Rob Van Dam and Sabu would return to TNA, now named Impact Wrestling, at their following
pay-per-view United We Stand. At the event on April 4, 2019, the team tagged for the first time since 2015, facing
Lucha Bros (
Pentagón Jr. and
Fénix). Their last match was against
The North on the June 6 episode of
Impact!. Sabu passed away in 2025. ==Championships and accomplishments==