Next February will mark twenty years of Ring of Honor. Its origins are humble starting out as the successor to Extreme Championship Wrestling as the premier indy company on the east coast. Current WWE consultant Gabe Sapolsky was a massive part of that as well as the direction wrestling in the U.S went in the 2000s and 2010s.
Roots of Ring of Honor
As a matter of fact, if you look at the final two years of ECW, there was a gradual change in the in-ring direction. While the extreme brawling element was the namesake of the company and gave it that edge that was later polished and emulated by WWE’s Attitude Era, the company also delivered some highly competitive matches that the hardcore fans greatly appreciated.
The likes of Rob Van Dam, Rhino, Steve Corino, Jerry Lynn, Lance Storm, Justin Credible, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and Super Crazy were ECW’s new wave and presented styles that were intense, flashy, and technical.
When ECW closed in 2001, there was a gap that saw a number of offshoots as well as the continuation of the extreme wrestling approach.
The Gabe Sapolsky Factor
RF Video is a wrestling content distributor that made its name off of shoot interviews, ECW content, compilation tapes, and indie shows. The nucleus of the company were production talents who worked on ECW shows and helped develop the presentation and promotion direction of the company.
This small team would travel the east coast indies to record shows and sell them to fans. Many of those tapes I’ve purchased from them or received via the later days of the tape trade.
Among that small team was future EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA founder as well as current WWE consultant Gabe Sapolsky who paid close attention to Heyman’s booking of ECW.
When Ring of Honor was formed in early 2002, the shows were kind of a reverse of ECW’s approach for most of its run. There was definitely extreme wrestling and stuff such as ladder matches but now athletic and stiff wrestling was the order of the day.
We’re talking generation one American strong style and post-cruiserweight era high flying basically. The RF Video crew had their finger in the pulse of the U.S indies and were following the puroresu scene at this time.
Gabe Sapolsky’s booking progression early on was similar to Paul Heyman’s even with a different approach to wrestling during their respective periods as a head booker and owner. Even though he used what worked about feuds and event flow, he was working with a whole new generation of talent capable of incredible stuff in the ring.
The result was a product that fans couldn’t miss and couldn’t get enough of—if they were aware it existed. Now, the “Gabe Factor” comes in with his booking approach being applied to multiple promotions.
EVOLVE is the best-known company utilizing his approach to wrestling but you also had Dragon Gate USA, Sal Hamaoui’s Full Impact Pro, and Style Battle.
Most of the companies were formed during his time in Florida and feature a lot of the same talent but all put on exciting events. In the same way that Heyman saw the industry and American culture changing in the early 90s, Gabe saw the industry changing in the early 00s and made his booking approach around it.
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