GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale Responds To Sabu Retirement Match Controversy After Joey Janela Interview

GCW owner, Brett Lauderdale, has issued his first public comments regarding his promotion's handling of Sabu during his retirement match at Joey Janela's Spring Break over WrestleMania weekend.

A new interview from Joey Janela, Sabu's opponent at that event, painted Sabu as a performer that required drugs in order to make it into the ring and said that he was worried Sabu wouldn't be able to do the match at all.

Lauderdale's comments push back hard on criticism that he and his company forced Sabu to participate in the match.

"Any suggestion that I, GCW, or Joey Janela "forced" him to do the match or supplied him with substances or somehow caused his death is irresponsible, disingenuous, hurtful, and false," Lauderdale wrote. It's upsetting and discouraging to see people so eager to cast judgment without knowledge of the facts.

"I would never knowingly put someone who I believed was in danger to themselves or others in the ring and my track record shows this to be true."
Brett Lauderdale

Sabu was my friend, and I was devastated to learn of his passing...

Please read: pic.twitter.com/yNJUxJJJgu
— brett lauderdale (@Lauderdale11) May 13, 2025

Sabu died at the age of 60 on May 11th. The cause of death is unknown at this time.

Sabu is best known for his extreme style and was a pioneer for hardcore wrestling inside promotions like ECW. Sabu spent time in WWE in the early 2000s.

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