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Sabu recalled struggling with promos despite help from Vince McMahon and Rob Van Dam.
The ECW legend appeared on the One of a Kind podcast with RVD where he spoke about his issues with promos in the WWE. Sabu told a story about how Vince McMahon tried to get him to cut long, unnatural promos which went against what the Sabu character was.
“One day Vince McMahon goes to me, ‘You should be a top babyface. You need to talk, be a friendly babyface.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m getting over the way I am.’ He goes, ‘I could get you over so much more.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I kind of like what I’m doing, you know? I did it myself,'” Sabu explained. “He says, ‘No, no, you talk, and I can make anybody talk. Just me, you, and the camera.’ I said, ‘Alright.'”
Sabu says McMahon wanted it to be the two of them working on it, but Sabu invited RVD to join him for moral support.
“I couldn’t do it. [Vince] tells me, ‘Say ‘Homicidal, Genocidal, Suicidal. I am Sabu.’’ I can’t do that. I don’t call myself that.’ I was too afraid to say it,” he continued. “I’d never say I’m the greatest or the best—I’d never say it. It’s hard. I’m not an actor. I can’t act. Wrestling, to me, isn’t acting—it’s natural. I act like myself, and that’s easy. But if I have to act, it’s harder work. If I see through it, the fans will see through me.”
Continuing, Sabu talked about how his promos troubles led to him being fired from the WWE. In the past, Sabu said that his refusal to do a match led to John Laurinaitis firing him. Now, he maintained that his promo issues led to his dismissal.
He recalls reading a script with Stephanie McMahon and struggling with the words written for him. After failing to read it convincingly, he ripped the script in half and left. This caused him to be taken out of the Elimination Chamber match at December to Dismember and eventually led to him being fired from the WWE.
“Stephanie McMahon wanted me to read a script, but I couldn’t really read it. I told her, ‘These are words I’d never say. It’s too long, I can’t remember it,'” Sabu said. “She goes, ‘Try it.’ So I read it, and she goes, ‘Stop, stop! Sounds like you’re reading.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am reading.’ She says, ‘Try it again.’ I go, ‘How about this?’
“I look at the script, rip it up, and walk away. I come back and ask, ‘How was that?’ She says, ‘Do it again.’ I ask, ‘Do what again? That, or your script?’ She says, ‘Do mine.’ I said, ‘Alright, I’ll be right back.’ And I left. I thought they were just going to ignore the promo, but they didn’t. Then they broke my arm, took me out of the match [The Elimination Chamber match at December to Dismember], and I was fired shortly after.”
