section_path: Personal life
section_name: Personal life
paragraph_text: Personal life
  
  Brunk's father was of Irish and German descent, while his mother was Lebanese. He graduated from Sexton High School in 1982. At the age of 19, Brunk was shot in the face at a house party, and he began training for his wrestling career after being released from the hospital.
  
  Brunk was married to a Japanese woman named Hitomi, on June 22, 1997, in Michigan, and had a separate Japanese ceremony on December 12, 1998, in Tokyo while in Japan for the ECW/FMW Supershow. They later separated and divorced in 2012. In Forever Hardcore, Brunk reveals he took his name "Sabu" from Indian-American actor Sabu, of whom his uncle Ed Farhat was a fan.
  
  In July 2016, Brunk was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred "long term neurological injuries" and that the company "routinely failed to care" for them and "fraudulently misrepresented and concealed" the nature and extent of those injuries. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant in September 2018.
  
  In the mid-2010s, Brunk began dating Melissa Coates, who also began working as his wrestling valet from late 2014 until her death on June 23, 2021.
  
  Brunk's father was of Irish and German descent, while his mother was Lebanese. He graduated from Sexton High School in 1982. At the age of 19, Brunk was shot in the face at a house party, and he began training for his wrestling career after being released from the hospital.
  
  Brunk was married to a Japanese woman named Hitomi, on June 22, 1997, in Michigan, and had a separate Japanese ceremony on December 12, 1998, in Tokyo while in Japan for the ECW/FMW Supershow. They later separated and divorced in 2012. In Forever Hardcore, Brunk reveals he took his name "Sabu" from Indian-American actor Sabu, of whom his uncle Ed Farhat was a fan.
  
  In July 2016, Brunk was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred "long term neurological injuries" and that the company "routinely failed to care" for them and "fraudulently misrepresented and concealed" the nature and extent of those injuries. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant in September 2018.
  
  In the mid-2010s, Brunk began dating Melissa Coates, who also began working as his wrestling valet from late 2014 until her death on June 23, 2021.