My Wrestling Hero

[Big Red Machine]

Like many other people’s from that same time period, my wrestling hero got his start in ECW. There, he became the third longest tenured employee in ECW history. He was there longer than Sabu. He was there longer than Sandman. He was almost there before Paul Heyman (the other, of course, is Tommy Dreamer). He was at almost every single ECW show, but was never acknowledged by name, and was rarely ever on camera. After all, it’s hard to be on camera when you are the one holding it. But being both the brains and the hands behind the ECW fan-cam (or the writer of the ECW programs and newsletter, or the one of the voices on the phone of the ECW hotline) is not what Gabe Sapolsky is famous for.

Paul Heyman is famous for his eye for talent, but that does not just stop once you leave the ring. Over the years, Gabe became Pual Heyman’s protege, eagerly soaking up every bit of knowledge he could.
When ECW folded, it didn’t just affect the wrestlers and people in the ECW office. Selling tapes of ECW events was the majority of the income for RFVideo, a company that specialized in shoot interviews until it signed an exclusive deal with ECW back in the early 90’s. His work behind the fan-cam allowed Gabe to make friends with the people who sold most of the footage that he shot: Doug Gentry and Rob Feinstein (the “RF” in “RFVideo”). Gabe quickly landed a job working for RF video, but without ECW shows to sell, RF video was in hot water. Gabe’s solution: “Let’s start our own promotion to sell DVD’s of!”

Gabe used his ECW connections to bring in a few big names (most notably Super Crazy and Eddie Guerrero) and his eye for talent to scout and bring in some of the best (and in many cases least well known) wrestlers on the indies. He learned from his mentor's example by creating a unique concept to get the product noticed. This was a product about the wrestling; but rather than just say that, Gabe codified it in the promotion's rules:
The Code of Honor:
1. You must shake hands before and after every match
2. No outside interference: no interfering in others' matches or having others interfere on your behalf
3. No sneak attacks
4. No harming the officials
5. Any action resulting in a disqualification violates the Code of Honor

These rules made the ROH product unique, and allowed Gabe to establish his top talent quickly. The main event of the first ever show was Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels. Unlike the other two, Daniels refused to shake hands, instantly establishing himself as a heel. The match itself would go on to revolutionize indy wrestling, creating the style that is today variously referred to as either the “Indy Style” or the “X-Division Style.” The match made all three men instant stars. That same show featured names like Amazing Red, Jay Briscoe (Mark was too young to legally compete), Brian Kendrick, Michael Shane, Dan Maff, and Homicide. Later, as the year progressed, ROH would bring in well known stars such as Steve Corino, Joey Matthews, and Tony Mamaluke, and barely known wrestlers such as AJ Styles, Paul London, Colt Cabana, and Samoa Joe. A complete unknown named Doug Williams became a star overnight when he defeated first Jay Briscoe and then Bryan Danielson in one night. A woman named “Alexis Laree” had her first major match at Glory By Honor. Bigger indy names soon started to come to ROH, including BJ Whitmer, Tom Carter, and IWA-MS star CM Punk.

Gabe knew how to make the absolute best out of what he had. He was not afraid to use elements of real life in his angles if he felt it would help the show. When Steve Corino decided that he was going to form his own faction, the first thing he did was steal the Prophecy’s first ever recruit, Christopher Daniels’ valet Simply Luscious, who was Corino’s legit girlfriend. In retaliation, Daniels replaced Luscious with a new valet: Corino’s sister Allison Danger. CM Punk’s famous feud with Raven was inspired by Raven’s well-known history of drug issues.

Gabe was also smart enough not to fall into the trap that many other bookers do: going worked-shoot crazy. Gabe kept a firm head on his shoulders and realized that there were times where it was better to work the fans... even if they all knew the real story behind what had happened. When CM Punk’s valet, Lucy (Daffney) was signed by WWE, rather than acknowledge this in kayfabe (as he had before with Eddie Guerrero, Paul London, and Alexis Laree), Gabe wrote her out by saying that someone had attacked her. Punk, on a quest to find out who had done it, asked the Prophecy’s “assassin” Dan Maff whether the Prophecy was responsible. Maff swore to Punk that they were not, and made it known that he himself was disgusted by the attack. At Final Battle 2003, it was revealed the BJ Whitmer, a new member of the Prophecy, had carried out the attack under orders from Daniels, thus placing Maff in the position of both hating his new tag team partner and being disgusted with the leader of his faction, even though he believed in Daniels’ ideology. Maff also had to deal with the mental anguish of having lied (although unknowingly) when he swore on the grave of his recently-dead father that his words were true, and had to feud with Punk, whom he had inadvertently lied to. Rather than just write off Lucy’s signing with WWE, Gabe turned it into an angle that elevated two guys on the card.

Perhaps the most important lesson that I have learned from Gabe (and one of the things that makes him, in my opinion, one of the greatest bookers of all time) is his ability to make the absolute best of a very, very bad situation. In the spring of 2004, ROH was not doing particularly well financially. Then, ROH owner Rob Feinstein got busted for soliciting sex from a minor. While Feinstein sold the company, it was not that easy to erase the stigma of having been associated with him (especially since RFVideo was the only place to get ROH DVDs). Not only did ROH now have to start up their own production company, but more importantly, they had to deal with TNA pulling all of its contracted talent from ROH. This included main eventers such as newly crowned and inaugural ROH Pure Wrestling Champion AJ Styles ROH’s top heel Christopher Daniels, and indy legend Jerry Lynn. Others, such as Bobby Heenan, Roddy Piper, Sonjay Dutt, and Abyss pulled out of contracted appearances. The one man who chose to stay with ROH despite being under contract to TNA was CM Punk (this got him fired from TNA). Gabe was in a tough spot. He needed new stars and he needed them quick, but he also had to make them in such a way that the infamously smarky Philadelphia crowds wouldn’t view them as being shoved down their throats. He also needed to put on shows that would make money, and shows that would change the company in enough of a way to wash off the negative stigma of Rob Feinstein. The company needed to be Reborn.

Over the course of the next nine shows, from Reborn: Stage One to Death Before Dishonor II, Part 2, Gabe did exactly that. He wrapped up some of the companies major feuds, including the war between the Second City Saints and the Prophecy. He disbanded the Prophecy, turning Maff and Whitmer face. He broke up one of the hottest teams on the indies, the Backseat Boyz (who are very much the “missing link” between the Hardy Boys and MCMG in terms of past-paced tag team offense), began the transformation of Special K member and lower midcarder Hydro in Samoa Joe’s protege Jay Lethal, and crowned Doug Williams the new Pure Champion. He revamped the Code of Honor to fit the new ROH and introduced a new method for determining title contenders. He took top babyface Homicide and had him snap, turning him into a psychotic violent heel with a faction of his own behind him, including returning ROH legend Low Ki, who joined Cide’s Rotweilers in their mission to show no respect for anyone or anything, even the ROH World Title, which they spat on. He took the next step in making ROH the “new version of the old school” wrestling promotion by booking Samoa Joe and CM Punk to go to a 60 minute time limit draw for the world title, and he created dissension within longtime tag team The Carnage Crew. He created a new tournament, Survival of the Fittest, pushed Colt Cabana to a main event singles spot, and turned top heel CM Punk face by having Punk save Ricky Steamboat and finally “be the man” Steamboat knew he could be.

Most importantly, however, Gabe took a major risk by creating a new faction called Generation Next. Austin Aries, Alex Shelley, Jack Evans, and Roderick Strong: All of these guys had less than five ROH appearances under their belt before May 22, 2004… and Gabe pushed them all to the moon, instantly making them a new heel stable by booking them strongly and giving them the time to show off what they could do. Gabe managed to turn a major negative into a positive in his use of the spots opened up by the guys who left the company. In addition to the Gen. Next guys as well as Rottweilers members Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero, more spots opened up for wrestlers like Jimmy Jacobs and Nigel McGuinness, who would become major players later on in their ROH careers.

A year later, when ROH’s biggest star and top babyface CM Punk signed with WWE, Gabe again displayed an amazing ability to turn a negative into a positive. The result was one of the best (and shortest) major angles in wrestling history: The Summer of Punk. In his final ROH appearance, Gabe had Punk win the ROH World Title in an AMAZING match against Austin Aries… Punk then proceeded to turn heel by telling everyone that he was going to take the belt with him to WWE. Punk was challenged by the returning Christopher Daniels, now a babyface. Punk’s hubris and desire to brag brought him back for two more shows, during the first of which he signed his WWE contract on top of the ROH World Title belt. After defending the belt that weekend, the title was stolen from Punk by Christopher Daniels, who told Punk that if he wanted to be able to bring the belt to Vince, he had to get it back from Daniels. Daniels’ price was a shot at the ROH World Title. Punk retained the belt in a time limit draw, but Punk’s Hubris brought him back to ROH once again, and he finally lost the title in a masterwork of storytelling against three of the men who had been chasing him: Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and James Gibson. The atmosphere for this angle was electric, as each weekend was billed as Punk’s last, with Punk’s returns being by his own choice, so no one knew when Punk was going to drop the title, or to whom.

Time and again, Gabe has showed his amazing skills as a booker, booking the best inter-promotional feud in wrestling history: the ROH vs. CZW war, in such a way as to make both companies look strong, coming up with genius angles such as Jimmy Loves Lacey and the Danielson vs. McGuinness Title vs. Title feud. Gabe has also shown an amazing ability to think outside of the box, coming up with ideas such as Pure Wrestling Rules, hanging someone from the thing that holds the belts during ladder matches, and ideas such as piggybacking off of Wrestlemania by going to the city that Mania is in and having shows the night before.

After serving an unprecedented (for someone who doesn’t own the company) 6 and a half years as booker for a single company, Gabe was let go from ROH, and once again showed his creativity by coming up with a new concept for a promotion. In EVOLVE, doing things that would otherwise be illegal in any other sport, like jumping other wrestlers backstage will result in fines or suspensions, and win-loss records are meticulously tracked because they are extremely important.

Now that I’ve rambled on for a while about Gabe’s genius and the life lessons it has taught me (don’t mope about a negative… turn it into a positive!) I would like to quickly plug both a DVD and my next upcoming fantasy booking project. After being released from ROH, Gabe and Kayfabe Commentaries put out a DVD called “Gabe’s Book of ROH Secrets,” in which Gabe discusses a lot about ROH and booking, before sharing his plans for the rest of 2008 (Gabe was released in late October, but the card for the early November shows was already pretty set in stone). I haven’t seen the DVD in a few years, but I remember a bunch of the details, so, coming soon, I will be picking up where Gabe left off (making some changes to his ideas, though) by fantasy booking ROH starting with November of 2008, including much of Gabe’s stuff (once I hit 2009, it is almost all my stuff). Anyway, that will be coming soon. Thank you, Gabe, for the great talents you have exposed me to, the great stories you have told me, and the great lessons you have taught me.

[cero2k]

awesome read BRM, thumbs up