Terry Brunk, known to the world of wrestling fans as “Sabu,” has died at the age of 60. Trained by his uncle, Edward Farhart “The Sheikh,” Brunk was maybe most known by my generation as John Cena’s foil in Vengeance 2006, a hardcore showdown between ECW and Raw rasslers. Brunk, a product of Staten Island and Detroit, was a thoroughbred entertainer, still participating in events just weeks before his passing.

As often as the man sacrificed his body for the crowd’s adulation, his villainy will be what he’s remembered for, earning the crowd’s rapturous condemnation. Some men exist to receive laurels, while others, Sabu among them, have the less enviable — but absolutely necessary — job of getting one up on the hero just to be cut down to size seven different ways and then laid out for the carrion birds while the next goon tries the main man. The hero’s journey demands a Sabu, and Mr. Brunk delivered like no one else.

Consider, he provided two of the most wicked takedowns ever recorded: first putting John Cena through the broadcaster’s booth, and the second time wrapping himself in lacerating barbed wire for his world heavyweight championship match against Terry Funk. The image of their bleeding forms snared by a German trench’s worth of wire is as vile as it is utter dedication to craft.

Cactus!!!!

R.I.P. Sabu.