The Up & Under 10.31.08: The Era of Honor Ends

“You’re awful, I love you…”
-Ludo
Love Me Dead

See, I’m torn.

Half of me wants to say something along the lines of, “see ya, wouldn’t want to be ya…” I mean I’ve been as critical as anyone over the last number of months and maybe it was time for a change. Maybe getting some new blood in is the right move, even an absolute necessity.

But the other half is filled with doubt as it relates to things going forward. I mean, being replaced by an untested, out-of-nowhere stop-gap is a result that is disappointing at best and troublingly unfortunate at worst. And in all of this there is the unsettling stench of disloyalty, that insouciance of bitterness when someone’s contributions are casually forgotten to justify alleged forward progress.

I’m sure that in the coming weeks and months that I’ll end up on one side or the other, but either way, Gabe Sapolsky, I’m sure going to miss you.

I cannot claim to be an insider on any level. Most of the information I come by is second- or third-hand at best, so my take on every wrestling situation is based almost completely on circumstance and conjecture. I certainly wasn’t there when Ring of Honor Cary Silkin told his booker extraordinaire that his services would no longer be required. And I absolutely was not present when any of ROH’s talent was informed that recently released talent “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce would be replacing Sapolsky as the company’s point man. But I can imagine both meetings leaving a bad taste in at least someone’s mouth.

Sapolsky’s departure seems so unexpected, and comes with such bizarre timing, that one is forced to wonder just how far back the problems began. Is this about the current mix of talent? Is it a reaction to dwindling live crowds in smaller markets? Are there contributing factors stemming from potential, or missed, television deals? Is this just an arbitrary cracking of the whip, meant to make clear to everyone in the company just who is in charge?

Say what you want about some of ROH’s recent booking decisions, and I’ve said plenty, but over the last number of years Ring of Honor has played host to some of wrestling’s most talked-about and successful angles. Some of the company’s success is clearly attributable to the performers getting a ton of input into their characters and storylines, but at the heart of every big move has been Gabe Sapolsky’s mind and thought process, both second-to-none in the current wrestling landscape.

Think about the Summer of Punk, the ROH vs. CZW war, Generation Next taking on the Embassy, and the Road of Homicide. Those angles have helped to define wrestling over the past few years, with the epic title reigns of Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson and, currently, Nigel McGuinness having been some of the most impressive runs by any champions in American pro wrestling history. Furthermore, Sapolsky can be credited with helping to bring Dragon Gate into the American Independent wrestling consciousness. The Japanese Independent has seen its profile soar since some of its top stars made their ROH debuts. As good as he has become in recent months, at least some of current Open the Dream Gate Champion Shingo Takagi’s success has to be ascribed to Ring of Honor, where he had an extended run in 2006 & 2007. Sapolsky’s booking of Pro Wrestling NOAH star Takeshi Morishima as a dominant ROH World Champion last year seemed to lead directly to the powerhouse winning the GHC Heavyweight Title upon returning to Japan.

All of those are simply bullet points on Sapolsky’s overall resume. Under his watchful gaze, Ring of Honor went from being a regional promotion running occasional supercards to establishing itself as the clear third ranked promotion in the United States, one that has grown into mainstream exposure and a Pay-Per-View audience organically. As talented as they are, would men like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Brian Kendrick, Homicide, Paul London and Alex Shelley have become such household names amongst mainstream wrestling fans without the platform of a Sapolsky-booked Ring of Honor in which to ply their trade? Perhaps some of them, and the many other performers to “graduate” from ROH, would have found their way to World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action, but Ring of Honor, and by extension Gabe Sapolsky, helped to showcase these incredible talents, putting them in a position to rise to national prominence.

The press release from Ring of Honor that announced that Sapolsky would be “leaving the company” included a line that has been interpreted as nothing short of ominous by the ROH faithful. “Going forward Ring of Honor will be focusing on the stories and the talent in the ring.” A layman’s view of that statement leads me to believe that ROH intends to focus less on the in-ring product, choosing to instead bolster the company’s “sports entertainment” quotient. This potential bent seems similar to the motion of TNA over the past few years. Just as that company’s motto has shifted from “We Are Wrestling” to “Cross the Line”, will ROH go from being the foremost pure wrestling product available in the United States to a soap opera overrun by sensationalism and wackiness?

Adam Pearce’s booking resume is certainly no match for Gabe Sapolsky’s. Why would the third-biggest wrestling company in the country turn its long-term planning over to someone whose booking experience is limited to hotel accommodations and airfare? Beyond that, why would Pearce, who recently departed the promotion, be trusted with the book over great wrestling minds like Dave Prazak or Jimmy Jacobs, both of whom were already in the fold? Though parts of the Ring of Honor product had indeed become stale in recent months, I cannot believe that an outright divorce from the company’s longtime point man was the best possible decision, especially given the peculiar, untested choice of replacement.