SABU VS CANDIDO: The OTHER Interpromotional Match in 2000

Once in a while, you come across something by complete accident, that leads to an interesting discussion or topic. Today is one of those days.

I was watching an old episode of ECW Hardcore TV from May 28, 2000. Right before the Dusty Rhodes vs Jack Victory bullrope match, Joey Styles segwayed into a commercial break. The first ad was for the infamous ECW Hardcore Hotline.

In this particular advertisement, Paul Heyman, executive producer and owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling, spoke about an interesting tidbit that I had never heard of before.

“Earlier this year, ECW played host to wrestling’s only interpromotional battle: Mike Awesome vs Tazz. But now, it’s happened again. An ECW contracted wrestler has taken on a WCW contracted wrestler, and you can’t see this match on television. Exclusive details of this interpromotional battle TONIGHT on the Hardcore Hotline.”

Heyman’s incredible ability to hype up a story sold me instantly, even twenty-four years later.

I started researching like crazy. I went through old websites, YouTube, and even the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. I found nothing.

Then, I went on a limb and searched Cagematch. I went through ECW and WCW results, but found nothing that stood out. I even looked at house show listings that were no avail. I even checked any independent events that might have had a match that took place in 2000, like the Brian Pillman Memorial Show. Still nothing.

Finally, I went back into the archives of my mind and remembered one independent wrestling promotion that existed in the year 2000 and looked at their results.

Once I dug deep enough, I researched a few more statistics and put it all together.

The match: SABU VS CHRIS CANDIDO on May 26, 2000. The promotion: XPW.

How was this match allowed to take place?

Here’s the story.

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Contrary to popular belief, Sabu was contracted to ECW until its final day, despite not wrestling in ECW for nearly a year.

In January 2000, after Rob Van Dam defeated Sabu in a classic at the Guilty As Charged pay-per-view, Sabu turned heel on RVD at the ECW Arena, joining ECW World Champion Mike Awesome in a complete destruction of the ECW World Television Champion.

However, shortly after this night, “the Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal” Sabu and Heyman had a falling-out.

According to the book HARDCORE HISTORY: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW by the late Scott E. Williams, Heyman believed that Sabu’s body was beginning to break down after years of high-flying and death-defying matches. After RVD broke his ankle in February 2000, ECW forced him to vacate the TV Championship and put on a tournament, leading into the “Living Dangerously” pay-per-view.

Sabu, according to Williams, was handed a script by Heyman for his tournament match with Super Crazy. After flipping through the script, Sabu “saw the finish - he was to put over Super Crazy clean in the middle.”

Then, Sabu “balked, but Heyman told him his only alternative was to walk out and breach his contract, which would bar him from working anywhere else for its duration.” After pondering it for a few moments, “Sabu walked,” as per Williams, “out of the building and out of ECW for good.”

Sabu, who was under contract to the company, later tried to get out of his contract, due to Sabu’s belief, according to Williams, that a renegotiation clause was violated. As he prepared to sign with WCW, Heyman called WCW executives and threatened a lawsuit had Sabu signed. Instead of dealing with the litigation, WCW pulled back on the offer.

Sabu began working on the independent circuit. In April 2000, he began wrestling for Rob Black’s Xtreme Pro Wrestling, based out of California. Within a month, he was XPW Heavyweight Champion.

XPW, interestingly enough, was in the middle of their own issues with ECW. Heyman and Black, who were friends, had a falling-out in 1999 after ECW got onto TNN. Black, who was trying to give ECW a foothold in California prior to the television deal, got offended that Heyman cut him off and, to spite ECW, started his own promotion to rival them.

Gaining Sabu as a part of XPW, as well as making him Heavyweight Champion, escalated issues between the two promotions.

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On the flip side, Chris Candido was going through some dark times.

After leaving ECW in 1999 alongside his long-time girlfriend Tammy Lynn Sytch due to his personal demons, Candido was working the independent scene by the turn of the millennium.

In January 2000, Candido turned up in XPW. Over the next three months, “No Gimmicks Needed” defeated Damien Steele four times in row, ultimately becoming the XPW Heavyweight Champion. Coincidentally, on April 15, Candido actually retained his XPW Heavyweight Championship in April against Sabu and “the Franchise” Shane Douglas.

The next day, Candido wrestled on the WCW Spring Stampede pay-per-view and WON the vacant WCW Cruiserweight Championship in a six-way match. 

Knowing his responsibilities were going to pick up, Candido would vacate his XPW Heavyweight Championship, which Sabu would win after an eight-man tournament on April 29, 2000, pinning the Messiah in the finals.

Doing my research on Mr. Candido for this article, I came to learn that he was not actually under WCW contract, but was being paid per-appearance (thanks to the TPWW archives for this story.) 

With that little tidbit in play, it meant that “Hard Knox” was able to wrestle on independent shows.

A few days after losing the championship in a three-way match on the May 24, 2000 Thunder to Daffney, Candido made a surprise appearance at the XPW D-Day event on May 26 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena to face Sabu for the XPW Heavyweight Championship.

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