RVD Recalls Breaking Sabu’s Jaw While Practicing A Springboard Kick Maneuver

Rob Van Dam shares a story about how he broke Sabu’s jaw and Sabu allowed him to try the move again to perfect it.

The master of the “Five-Star Frog Splash” Rob Van Dam works a limited number of dates per year. He last wrestled in November of 2018 at Northeast Wrestling’s ‘Redemption’ show when he defeated Jake Hager in a singles match. Van Dam recently chatted with Bill Apter and Josh Shernoff for an edition of the Apter Chat podcast and discussed a variety of topics ranging from his past accomplishments in the sport of professional wrestling to what he is looking for now in his career.

During the podcast, Van Dam spoke about Sabu who he held ECW World Tag Team gold with. RVD recalled the early stages of his journey to becoming a professional wrestler and training with The Original Sheik and Sabu trained with Sheik as well. RVD stated that while he and Sabu were trying out new moves, he suggested a springboard kick and was fearful that if Sabu let him try the move out, he would break Sabu’s jaw. RVD did indeed break Sabu’s jaw when executing the move and after Sabu healed up, he allowed the former WWE Champion to test the move out once more.

“Sabu, he’s always been crazy too. I asked Sabu one time; we were in the ring and [The Original] Sheik wasn’t there for whatever reason and I was already a martial artist, kickboxing at that time. I said, ‘I’d like to do this move where I do a springboard off the second rope’. I probably didn’t know it was a called a springboard but anyway, the one where I do the back jump out of the corner and I kick the guy in the face, and I was telling Sabu that I think that would be a cool move and he goes, ‘Okay, try it’. I was like, ‘Yeah, I know how to kick you really hard, knock you out, but is there a trick or something? Like do I aim somewhere else?’ He goes, ‘Just do it, and try not to break my jaw’, and I was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t feel that comfortable’. He goes, ‘No, no. You’re good enough. You got good control and if you do break my jaw, when it heals’, he said ‘then we’ll try it again.’ I was like, ‘Okay’. I bounced off the rope, bam. Broke his jaw.” RVD said. “He’s eating through a straw for the next four or five, maybe six weeks, and then afterwards, he got in the ring just like he said. He said, ‘Do it again, but try to pull it back some’. With that very same kick, I knocked Abyss’ teeth out in TNA which is one of the injuries I feel the worst about.”

As mentioned, RVD last wrestled in November against Jake Hager and Hager is coming off of his first professional victory in MMA and to hear some thoughts about Hager’s performance, head over to the Fightful MMA & Boxing YouTube channel for our Bellator 214 review podcast.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit the Apter Chat podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.