Almost no one had an Abashi's during Velious, but then again, almost no one had WFoM either. Triple attack wasn't implemented until a month or two before Luclin, and most monks used naked epic fists, a few had SoS's offhand, and a very few eashen/tunare fists. TStaffs were decently popular among rich monks as well especially since the proc worked usefully on lots of mobs. Once Luclin rolled around, a lot more people had access to Primal Brawlsticks/Abashi's/Trorsmangs and the triple attack advantages were more obvious, so they got more common use.
EDIT:
vvvvvvvvvvv Yep, came in the melee overhaul at the end of Velious:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/hist...es-2001-2.html