Royal Rumble 1996 was won by Shawn Michaels, firmly defeating his former friend and rival, Diesel (Kevin Nash), and picking up his second Royal Rumble win in the method. But that wasn’t the one big moment originally scheduled for the match. In accordance with Bruce Prichard, the ’96 Rumble was alleged to have opened the door for Sabu to debut within the promotion, 10 years before he actually did.
“I contacted [Paul Heyman] first, told him I’d wish to use Sabu,” Prichard recalled during an episode of his “Something To Wrestle” podcast. “So I called Sabu and said: ‘Hey, we might wish to use you within the Rumble.”
Prichard noted that there was an idea to let Sabu eliminate himself, as a way to protect the legitimacy he had in ECW, but there was a roadblock he ultimately couldn’t overcome.
“Sabu says to me, ‘I do not have an issue with it but you’ll want to speak to my uncle, The Sheik,” he recalled, adding that Sabu believed that his uncle would know whether or not it could profit his profession, but for some reason wasn’t keen on talking to him himself. “He says, ‘Yeah, nah, it isn’t good for him!’ Okay? ‘Well, hey, thanks on your time.’ Hangs up.”
“It just ended there, I used to be like: ‘F*** this!'” Prichard said, noting that he’s never enjoyed coping with agents or managers and at all times desired to deal directly with talent.
After that phone call, Prichard gave up on bringing Sabu in for the ’96 Rumble, postponing the ECW legend’s WWE debut until 2006 ahead of the ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view.
In case you use any quotes from this text, please credit “Something To Wrestle” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.