During a recent edition of his “1 Of A Kind” podcast, Rob Van Dam discussed Sabu’s passing, the ECW legend taking kratom before his last match, and Joey Janela’s comments regarding that bout.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Dutch Mantel’s claim 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 f—ing 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. 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.”
On kratom’s effects and Sabu’s passing: “I’m an advocate for it; I always have been. It had nothing to do with Sabu dying three weeks later. Y’all are basic thinkers and you need to put extra thought into it.”
On criticism of GCW allowing Sabu’s final match: “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 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.”
