Rob Van Dam Defends Joey Janela & GCW Over Their Handling of Sabu’s Retirement Match

As noted before, Indie Wrestling Hall of Famer and ECW legend Sabu passed away this past Sunday at the age of 60. Joey Janela and Game Changer Wrestling dealt with online backlash earlier this week over controversial comments made by Janela and GCW owner Brett Lauderdale during a recent interview about their handling of Sabu’s health situation and retirement match at this past April’s Joey Janela’s Spring Break 9 event.

In a recent episode of the 1 Of A Kind podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and ECW legend Rob Van Dam gave his thoughts about his defense of Janela and GCW over the backlash they have received over their handling of Sabu’s health situation and retirement match.

“I’ve read comments saying, ‘GCW should be arrested on manslaughter.’ Wait, regardless of the cause of death three weeks later? Thank God these people aren’t in control and making relevant decisions.”

RVD also gave his thoughts about recent comments made by wrestling legend Dutch Mantel who claimed that kratom was worse than heroin.

“Dutch, you know nothing about kratom. It helps so many people. As my regular listeners know, I’m an advocate for kratom. It says in there Sabu got some kratom so he could make it through the match. The way Joey puts it, he said, ‘He was on another fucking planet.’ I don’t like that he put that, I really doubt that’s true, but I’ve had people say that about me. In fact, I’m going to administer some kratom. Woooo! [Show Wooo! Energy Drink] Did you know Ric Flair has his own kratom? You didn’t know that. That shows you how dangerous this is. Joey is getting a bunch of heat. GCW is getting (a bunch of heat). People saying, ‘I can’t believe I supported them. They killed Sabu.’ First off, they didn’t give him the kratom. It was his own people. For sure, Sabu had some kratom. He eats it every day. I usually eat it every day. It’s good for blocking pain, sleeping, and anxiety. It’s a plant that comes from the coffee plant family. They dry the leaves, grind them into a powder, and you can put the powder into a capsule, a drink, gummies, or eat the powder. It tastes horrible …

I’m an advocate for it, I always have been. It had nothing to do with Sabu dying three weeks later. Ya’ll are basic thinkers and you need to put extra thought into it.”

RVD expanded on his comments in defense of Janela and stated that Sabu wanted to wrestle again.

“People are saying, ‘Shame on GCW for allowing a 60-year-old to get in the ring and have a match like that.’ I can tell you, he’s my closest dude friend, I can tell you he was 61 (years old) and he wanted that. He wanted that for a long time. In fact, Joe Clark had been working with Sabu on filming a documentary. He was training. He was wanting to have this big retirement match, so much that when it got down to it, he knew he had more in him. One thing he said after his match with Janela, ‘I got one more match in me. If you’re still interested in doing a barbed wire match, I’m interested.’ I talked to him before about being the guy that is his last opponent, but he said that was cheating.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com