The departure of Gabe Sapolsky is a different one. This is not London, Punk or Joe departing for greener pastures. We didn’t get to say goodbye; in fact if he’d come out and waved, most in attendance wouldn’t have known who he was. For the better part of six years Gabe Sapolsky was invisible to his audience, and yet was as important a name as many of his wrestlers.
There is that first difference. London got a goodbye match. Punk had a magnificent summer in 2005. Joe had a farewell tour in 2007. Each got speeches and tearful send-offs. That’s how ROH’s fans like those important to them to leave, if they have to leave at all. Chanting “THANK YOU GIBSON†or laughing with Cabana one more time was reciprocation to admired wrestlers, and sealed up the wound opened by their departures.
But you can’t do a farewell tour for a booker. What was he supposed to do? Write really nice cue cards for the wrestlers read?
Still, his firing in the middle of a show stepped on that emotional tripwire. For someone thought to be so integral for so long to be dismissed in private felt like an injustice, even if the indignant fans couldn’t identify Mr. Sapolsky in a line-up. Even if you never met him you know that he was enormously passionate and gave six years to this company. When ROH was dying after the Rob Feinstein scandal, he helped find the very financial backer who now fired him. Even if it’s inaccurate, the mental image of him getting the news in a backroom while the wrestlers were doing their thing in the ring feels wrong. As negative as people were in their expressions, it came from a place of sympathy.
It also comes from the second difference – not only was his departure different, but so was the nature of what Gabe Sapolsky represented. While he wasn’t a familiar face, he was the familiar name. Really, his was the only name we had to put on the scripting of a company so often praised for not insulting our intelligence. Just as people chant “FIRE RUSSO†and blame the McMahons for anything in their respective companies, in their positive feelings they liked to post “In Gabe We Trust.†When they had feelings of ROH going stale or getting really good, they personified it by claiming Mr. Sapolsky was burned out or on a hot streak. His name alone was a symbol of confidence.
His name was also a symbol of ignorance. Realistically only a dozen or so fans ever glimpsed the booking practices of the company. None of us knew if Mr. Sapolsky bounced ideas off of other people, or what wrestlers proposed and produced their own stories. How much of the Age of the Fall’s shtick is put together by Jacobs, Black, the Briscoes, Butcher, Lacey and Aries? How much of the Danielson/Morishima rivalry was them capitalizing on something hot, and how much was it a booker telling them what to do? Especially given how much of that rivalry happened in matches and in the heat of moments, the credit should probably have gone to the guys. Yet it was Sapolsky who won Booker of the Year in the Observer in 2007.
For all most fans knew he was actually working with a full staff who didn’t want to be credited. But this didn’t matter. The name did.
And that’s because the name was the symbol. ROH is wise to make Adam Pearce the new symbol. Fans already have a face and a name to put to the direction the company takes beginning this weekend. If the promotion disappoints, he’ll be slammed. ROH could excel and he could still get attacked, but regardless, just the belief of an individual at the center of ROH creative gives fans a sense of stability, interaction and the human element. They can personify the company again.
It’s truly incredible – literally, I cannot give it credit and find my credulity challenged just thinking about – how important the mere idea of a Gabe Sapolsky is to a Ring of Honor. Most of the people would never see him, let alone talk to him and watch him work, and yet had an attachment to the idea of him to the point where even now he’s more frequently called “Gabe†than “Mr. Sapolsky.†Most of my fellow writers here on the Pulse don’t even call me “John†yet.
It’s something Pearce will have to think about, because it’s something his name is about to become.
Stay with Pulse Wrestling for the most detailed ROH coverage on the net. Come back tomorrow for a special look at what Adam Pearce might do to this weekend’s shows. On Friday join Pulse Glazer and myself for ROH Weekly and a match-by-match preview of the new ROH on those weekend Canada shows. Already up are Glazer’s response to Mr. Sapolsky’s departure and Vinny Truncellito’s “The Death of ROH?†Over in the review section Big Andy Mac is averaging at least one DVD a week, with Tag Wars 2008 and Injustice up right now, and I’ve got a review for Southern Navigation.
