[2001-11-23-ACW] Sabu vs Matt Borne

[GSR]

Sabu vs Matt Borne in 2001?  I couldn’t believe it either.  This bizarro of all bizarro matches taking place in Asylum Championship Wrestling.  The barrel chested Borne has got half of his face painted up as if he’s Doink but is wearing regular-ish wrestling gear, Bill Alfonso in the corner of Sabu.  Before they’ve even had the initial lock up Fonzie grabs Borne’s ankle from ringside, tripping him up and allowing Sabu to get the jump on him.  Borne rolls to the floor and gets a low blow in, from where he runs Sabu head first into the ring post.  They set off into the pro-Sabu crowd and a “Holy shit” chant starts up although I have no idea why.  The former Doink uses Sabu’s own cape to choke him with, however it is tough to follow what’s going on.  A short while later they return to the ring which means at least we can see what’s happening.  Sabu jabs some object into Borne’s head, busting him open, and he’s busted open even more when he gigs himself right in front of the camera.  Borne to the outside for a second time and Sabu wipes him out with a suicide dive.  Another “Holy shit” chant.  It would appear something happened out of camera view as Borne is to his feet first.  He slams Sabu’s head into the timekeeper’s table and then climbs the turnbuckles.  Fonzie, from behind, swipes out Borne’s legs and he falls backwards to that mat.  Sabu goes for the triple jump moonsault but Borne trips him and he clatters into the chair.  Borne tries to throw a table into the ring, literally throw a table into the ring, and I get the impression that he’s never used one previously, not even thinking about folding the legs down.  Sabu shows him how to do it and the table gets set up in the corner of the ring.  I think they probably had to improvise for a bit due to Borne’s struggles as eventually Sabu ends up lay across that table courtesy of a Borne right hand.  Borne tries his luck upstairs again, it’s the same outcome mind, Sabu shaking the ropes which results in him taking an exaggerated and unnatural dive off the top.  Fonzie is in the ring with that wretched whistle and the ref is doing nothing to get him out of there.  Sabu puts Borne through the table with a top rope legdrop, although surprisingly he kicks out of the cover.  Not so the triple jump moonsault with which he follows.

If the initial match up between these two wasn’t bizarre enough, things take an even stranger turn.  After being beaten, Borne says that he ain’t finished , is still standing and he isn’t going until he can’t get back up.  He then spends several minutes cutting a promo on Sabu, who has long since left, involving the crowd too, almost as if he’s using them to guilt trip Sabu into coming back out.  Sabu eventually does and he breaks something (a bottle perhaps by how it shattered?) over Borne’s head, which he no sells.  Borne hits Sabu a couple of times, goes to hiptoss him, but Sabu slides out of the ring instead.  He’s then back at it on the mic, saying how in order to beat him you’ve got to kill him, all the time Fonzie is holding Sabu back.  I’ve no idea if Borne has gone into business for himself but this is so weird.  Sabu has had enough and leaves Borne to it, who at this point starts telling the fans that he loves them and will die for each and every one of them.  He gives it one final try, calling Sabu gutless and comparing him to Osama Bin Laden, but those words fall on deaf ears.

The bits of brawling aside, the actual match wasn’t much cop and someone really should given Borne the “how to” on getting a table into the ring.  I tried Googling to see if I could find anything online about what went on in the post-match but there’s nothing.  It went on far too long and if it was an angle and wasn’t Borne going into business for himself, well done, they fooled me.