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