Column of Honor Special Edition 10.27.08: Gabe Sapolsky Out As ROH Booker

Most writers and artists commit to a certain amount of comic book issues and then depending on a number of different circumstances (on their or the part of the company) he or she will continue on or decide to leave the comic. For example, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko began to work on The Amazing Spider-Man in 1963 (along with Jack Kirby, who some claim actually helped both Lee and Ditko formulate the basic idea of Spider-Man, but Lee hated the look so he went to Ditko for something different). Lee and Ditko set the whole mythos of the Spider-Man universe for years to come, creating along the way some of the standard bearers of that series, from Peter Parker and Aunt May to villains such as Chameleon and Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin). However, Ditko was not happy with the role he had in the creative process of the comic and left the comic. John Romita Sr. took over as an artist just at a very momentous moment in the history of the Spider-Man universe. He drew Amazing Spider-Man issues 39 and 40, which had The Green Goblin discover Spider-Man’s secret identity and vice versa. Romita Sr. would go on to draw Spider-Man for the next seven years, crafting a legacy just as important as the early Lee / Ditko pairing.

Eventually, Stan Lee left writing the comic book as well, but as history has shown, Spider-Man didn’t go away because the writer left. Someone else took the reins of the comic. The fans stuck with the book and now, in 2008, Spider-Man continues to remain entrenched in both the comic book universe and in the mainstream.

I include this story to make a comparison to the shocking news that has developed over the past twenty-fours hours regarding Ring of Honor and the departure / firing of booker Gabe Sapolsky. It is possible for a major creative force to leave an entertainment medium and for the company to continue onwards and continue achieve success.

Sapolsky, the ROH booker and a driving creative force since the beginning of the company, was fired unceremoniously by owner Cary Silkin last night. The release came as a complete surprise to Sapolsky and many on the ROH roster, who found out about the news like most of the rest of us, through the internet. The news, released through ROHwrestling.com, was confirmed by Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer.com and Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com. While there may have been speculation of a possible work (the ROH website often mixes kayfabe and non-kayfabe news within the same press releases), the release is real and signals a change in the direction of the company. This change in booking along with the news that picked up over the past week that ROH may be negotiating again for some sort of television deal have created a maelstrom of uncertainty for just about everyone, fans and wrestlers alike. ROH is going to be treading into unknown territory without one of its main components for the first time in four years, when Rob Feinstein and Doug Gentry left the company amid controversy.

Silkin is not revealing much else about the future direction of the company from either a creative or a logistical and practical standpoint, other than the Montreal and Toronto shows scheduled for November 7th and 8th 2008 would go on as scheduled. While the news will continue to develop as the days and weeks go on, for now there is a lot that remains unknown about this whole situation, what sparked it and what happens next.

Yet right now, Ring of Honor needs its version of a John Romita Sr. It needs someone to take over from where the original booker left off and keep this company going. Whether or not it finds the right man for the job remains to be seen. Rumors circulate that the company will turn to a booking by committee, which would be a major departure from how the creative side of ROH was done for the past six years. Other rumors have it that Bushwacker Luke Williams, who is a friend of Cary Silkin and has appeared before for ROH, could step in as a booker. He has previous booking experience in Puerto Rico and obviously a large number of years in the business. Meltzer and at least one other anonymous source on the ROH website intimated that it would be Williams stepping in to take the book, but that has been far from confirmed.

It was a very odd time for Sapolsky to be replaced, because it comes right in the middle of what has been a year-long build to two major events for the company—the 11/22 Pay Per View taping in Chicago, Illinois that is to feature ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. top challenger Bryan Danielson for the title, as well as the 12/27 Final Battle 2008 show in Manhattan, which has become an incredibly important annual showcase to close out the year. In addition, the company was in the middle of many angles and rivalries, from Delirious and Daizee Haze’s situation to Claudio Castagnoli’s heel turn to Brent Albright’s war against Sweet & Sour Incorporated. All of these angles and storylines now are up in the air. It is yet to be seen if these storylines will reach a proper conclusion or at least a satisfactory point where they can be transitioned smoothly into new programs set out by the new booker / booking team.

It was bitterly ironic that last night in Edison, New Jersey, Tyler Black, who has broke out of the pack thanks to being increasingly featured as a top talent and shining in matches against Danielson and McGuinness, called out for a change in ROH that started with him winning the ROH World Title. In actuality, the real change is starting with the removal of Sapolsky and could make its way all the way down to the roster.

As far as Sapolsky’s future, he remains the booker of Full Impact Pro (owned by Sal Hamoudi and not Silkin) as far as its known. ROH and FIP had enjoyed a close connection since 2005 thanks to Sapolsky, who booked both companies at the same time. This led to the FIP title being featured as a secondary title within ROH events. Now the future of that connection and the role of the FIP Title in Ring of Honor become uncertain. Sapolsky could also find another position elsewhere, maybe within WWE or TNA, although both remain unlikely given current booking situations of those companies. Yet stranger things have happened, like Sapolsky being sacked from a company that has enjoyed much success over the past six plus years under his direction.

Whoever takes the reins of the promotion has huge shoes and lots of responsibilities to fill. Sapolsky, not only wrote the storylines and communicated with the wrestlers, but he also wrote the newswires, news stories and press releases that were published through the ROHwrestling.com website. He was also previously a commentator (known for his catchphrase of “Dangerous!” whenever a spectacular and risky move was performed in the ring) and the disembodied voice of the ROH camera man that followed the wrestlers backstage and got promos with them. Aside from these two conceits, Sapolsky mostly shied away from on-camera appearances. He was not an active on-air performer, although from time to time there would be a mention of “Gabe” this or that. He also most famously appeared on camera after CM Punk left Death Before Dishonor III as ROH World Champion, exclaiming “he left with the belt! He took the belt!” over and over again.

Sapolsky may have also been one of the more open and accessible bookers ever in the history of wrestling. Taking a cue from his mentor Paul Heyman, he reached out to the fans and talked to them personally, although his medium was the internet and not the microphone. He often relayed important information through the ROH website and message boards, including updating fans on angles and situations in between shows held on the same weekend. He also gave a lot of access (although not always the best and most open answers) to several wrestling websites and radio shows. He even made sure to get the fans involved in the creative aspect of the shows, by letting fans suggest names for shows (and even once, a tag team, although that name was such a fiasco has become the stuff of legend). It remains to be seen whether or not the new booker or booking team will maintain such a close relationship with its fan base. Say what you will about Sapolsky’s booking style or the choices he made, you can’t take away the connection he created with the fans who tuned into ROH. That is why so many are up in arms now that he is no longer a part of the company. The man, in many ways, was Ring of Honor.

Yet, ROH was able to survive the departure of many wrestlers who symbolized and defined the heart and soul of the company, including Samoa Joe, CM Punk and Homicide. These men had huge fan bases within the company and provided a multitude of defining moments for the company. Each and every time ROH was able to move on without them. This is not the first time ROH will have to deal with the departure of such an important and defining cog in the machine. It is however the first time they’ve had to deal with a new booker.

As I said before, in comic books, there is a huge sharing of responsibility between the writer and the artist. In professional wrestling you get quite a similar connection between the booker and the wrestler. The booker sets up what’s going to happen, but the wrestler puts that thought into execution on the stage that is the wrestling ring. They put the word to the act, as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet. Now the wrestlers will have to work with a new booker and a new script to perform. They will need to form a new relationship with a new person or people in charge…and that changed dynamic is likely going to change the actions on their stage, among other venues.

Sapolsky was voted Wrestling Observer Booker of the Year for the last four years running, but he was not immune to criticism. Especially recently, the complaint from some loyal ROH fans, some former ROH fans and many non-hardcore fans chiming in with their own two cents was that ROH had become stale. Book a promotion, like writing a comic book, or coaching a team or doing anything for a long period of time, and you can lose your edge. Maybe Sapolsky had spread himself thin by booking for two promotions, maybe he had run out of the better ideas, or maybe the audience just yearned for something new. I thought that while 2006 and 2007 had been the better years for storylines that there was still plenty to like about the angles going on. Austin Aries, Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, Kevin Steen, El Generico and Nigel McGuinness in particular have owned this year as far as storylines, promos and in ring work.

However, Sapolsky has made more than a few mistakes over the past two years. There was the Sweeney-Dempsey-Danger angle that caused so much controversy back in February of 2008 (and now seems like so much water under the bridge). The so-called Stable Warfare series was ultimately a failure across the board and much of early 2008 was spent correcting the problems of those programs by consolidating or eliminating stables. Meanwhile, the two major successes from that program, Sweet & Sour Incorporated and The Age of the Fall, looked to be major forces within the company as far as taking the storylines into new and interesting directions. ROH’s best storylines aside from title feuds have been when the wrestlers had to deal with a massive and dangerous force. ROH vs. The Prophecy, The CZW invasion, Punk’s run of terror were all major successes because something important was at stake. ROH and Sapolsky could have gone in that direction with either of these paradigm-shifting stables, but did not do so. That left both stables running in circles or losing ground, creating similar matches and storyline situations which created a certain “been there, done that” feeling among the fan base.

Yet, whatever can be said about the storylines, it is also my opinion that this may have been the best year of in-ring work in the history of the company. I’ve been building my lists (and checking them more than twice) of top matches and moments and the list is huge, larger than that of 2006 and 2007. There have been more of what has been classified and accepted as 4 and 4+ star matches in the company than at any other time.

There also seemed to be an attempt to renew the freshness of the product by bringing in a number of new talent to the shows over the weekend, especially those connected to CHIKARA. New Jersey had appearances by Brodie Lee, Vin Gerard and of course the previously announced showings by The Osirian Portal and Cheech & Cloudy. These new additions in addition to featuring several new talents in the local areas (Kenny Omega for Canada, The Phoenix Twins in Chicago) seemed to be a part of a new effort to rejuvenate and create excitement for the ROH product.

Sapolsky was also someone who was adamantly opposed to bringing ROH to television before having the right offer that could help ROH and not sink it. He had been present when ECW went out of business due in part to mounting financial obligations. A large part of that was the debt created because of the costs of producing a television show for TNN and the lack of building enough new fans to balance it out. In some ways, this was the huge risk that ROH has always had to deal with—to be or not to be like ECW and find its way to television. While Heyman was obsessed with getting to mainstream television, Sapolsky learned the lessons of his mentor’s failure and wanted just the opposite. Maybe he learned too well from those mistakes.

As ROH transitions into a new direction, there are several responsibilities they have to keep in mind regardless of who is in charge of the booking. First and foremost has to be the respect to the paying customers. Now more than ever, ROH needs to be upfront and straight-forward to the fans about the product they will see. While it’s true that in the process of developing a product such as a TV show (which I should note is still speculation and not confirmed), you are trying to reach a larger audience, it’s also true that you shouldn’t forget where you came from and who got you there. I think many fans that love the ROH product and have been watching for some time would be willing to give the new version of the product a chance, so long as they know what they are getting and are treated with respect. Over the year ROH has generally paid a ton of regard for the fans, owner Silkin especially, who shakes hands with the fans at the end of the show. Those same fans he shakes hands with now want to know what’s going to happen next and I think they all deserve an honest answer.

If ROH is heading in a new direction and that new path includes a television show then maybe now is the time for upgrades in the way ROH conducts certain parts of its business. Improved advertisement and production upgrades (for the fiftieth time, let’s take care of that white hot light / glare that shows up on DVD) would be a must if this is the ultimate aim to which they aspire.

Most importantly, ROH owes it to the fans to make this transition as smooth as possible. That means finishing or bringing to an acceptable conclusion the current sequence of angles and storylines to make the transition into whatever comes next a lot easier on the palette. Fans such as me didn’t put in the investment of their hard earned dollars on the product to see the storylines of the past year abruptly halted. It is on the new booking team to take the current angles and guide the keepers to their natural conclusions…and slowly wind down the parts of the angles that they want to change. Anything less than that would be inexcusably irresponsible to the paying customer.

A final suggestion to owner Cary Silkin: under any circumstance DO NOT EVER hire Vince Russo as a booker for the company. EVER. It would be a dagger to the heart and conscience of many ROH fans, but especially me. It’s the doomsday scenario that would automatically mean the end of me as an ROH fan. Luckily, I don’t think that is going to be a problem since TNA seems nice and happy with his work. They can keep him.

Finally, to Gabe Sapolsky, a note of thanks for his six plus years of work put into the little independent promotion that could. I’ve written this before and will write it again, but ROH (and obviously the angles he put into it) kept me around as a wrestling fan when I was just about done with the whole thing. I appreciate the effort he put into making sure I and many other fans felt that way. The effort of the last six years was nothing short of amazing, and while I may not have liked everything about the product, there was so much to like that it became my choice for number one wrestling product to follow.

And follow the promotion I shall, at least for now. I always gave the comic books that underwent creative team changes a chance to show me they could still deliver the goods. Most of the time, they did just that. The story went on, as did my purchase of the comic, as did life in general. However, sometimes I couldn’t stand the new writer or artist and had to drop the book from my rotation, regardless of my appreciation and or loyalty to the character or my past enjoyment of the product. If the writer or artist couldn’t deliver to my liking, I was soon gone.