Gabe Sapolsky

Early life

He attended Runkle Elementary School, and later Brookline High School, graduating in 1990. He received his B.A. in Communications from Temple University and graduated in 1994.

Professional wrestling career

Sapolsky began his career with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) writing a company newsletter in September of 1993. Sapolsky was hired full-time shortly after graduating from Temple University, about the same time that ECW opened its first office in Philadelphia. Sapolsky became a protege of Paul Heyman and handled many different responsibilities, including marketing, promoting and public relations throughout his tenure with the company. He became an official RF Video employee in 2001, shortly after ECW closed.

In 2002, Sapolsky co-created and co-founded Ring of Honor (ROH) and was named the booker of the promotion. He introduced a new style of booking. As the booker of ROH, Sapolsky won Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Best Booker award four years in a row from 2004 to 2007. Sapolsky was also the booker for Full Impact Pro (FIP), an independent promotion in Florida that used to be the sister promotion of ROH. Sapolsky used the ring name, Jimmy Bower, for commentary. On October 26, 2008, ROH made an announcement stating that Gabe Sapolsky was no longer working there. After Gabe's departure, he also ceased his roles with FIP.

On April 14, 2009, Sapolsky announced the launch of Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) with himself serving as its vice-president. The promotion's first show, Open the Historic Gate was held July 25, 2009 at The Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was voted in 2009 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as the Show of the Year. DGUSA was the American branch of Japan's popular Dragon Gate promotion and as per this connection, it featured the top stars of Japan, and various independent wrestlers in the United States. In early 2010, Sapolsky co-founded Evolve along with WWN COO, Sal Hamaoui. Evolve began as a means of featuring American based wrestlers while DGUSA focused on Japanese wrestlers. DGUSA held its last event in 2014 and is currently dormant.

Since that time, Sapolsky has altered his booking style, and following the dormancy of DGUSA, in August 2014, EVOLVE was relaunched. It has now established a unique identity, shying away from the Dragon Gate affiliation. Evolve and DGUSA both became subsidiaries under the parent company World Wrestling Network (WWN). In 2011, WWN launched its live iPPV streaming service, www.WWNLive.com, where Sapolsky helped market and produce the infrastructure in order to start up WWNLive.com. Soon after, WWN held its first "Supershows" with a two week tour of China. The first WWN Supershow in the United States also took place in 2014. The idea behind the WWN Supershow is to combine title matches and talent from all WWN brands, as well as special guest attractions to the affiliated promotions.

Sapolsky also plays a vital role in the WWN Seminar/Tryouts, which are designed to give wrestlers an opportunity to perform in WWN. Sapolsky gives lectures to talent. He also has launched his own Creative Seminar series with WWN for those interested in the creative side of pro wrestling.

WWN signed a lucrative deal to provide content to FloSports and help launch the FloSlam.TV channel in November, 2016. The deal was focused on EVOLVE, but featured more brands under the WWN umbrella. The FloSports deal allowed Sapolsky to co-found Style Battle, a promotion based on tournaments on every event. Sapolsky also returned as head booker of FIP. All these promotions are under the WWN umbrella.

Sapolsky has been instrumental in building a relationship between WWN and WWE, which has seen Paul "Triple H" Levesque praise EVOLVE and Sapolsky. In addition, WWE talent scouts and top executives like William Regal, Canyon Ceman, Matt Bloom and Norman Smiley have all attended WWN Seminars and EVOLVE live events.

Sapolsky is now the vice-president of talent relations, creative and marketing of WWN, as well as serving as the head booker of EVOLVE, FIP, Style Battle and WWN Supershows. Sapolsky also helps market the other WWN brands, including SHINE Wrestling, an all women's promotion, and American Combat Wrestling. Sapolsky currently helps build partnerships between WWN and several other independent wrestling promotions. Sapolsky also co-promotes the WWNLive Experience, which includes multiple live events and seminars on WrestleMania weekend.

Sapolsky is widely known for his talent scouting and development abilities.

Other media

Sapolsky has been featured on the WWE DVD and network releases of My Name Is Paul Heyman and Journey to Summerslam: The Destruction of The Shield, featuring former mentor Heyman, and former DGUSA and ROH talent in Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.

Mick Foley mentioned Sapolsky in his book "Foley Is Good.", a #1 New York Times best seller. Former ROH World Champion, Daniel Bryan, prominently mentioned Sapolsky in his book, "Yes: My Improbably Journey To The Main Event Of WrestleMania.", another best seller. In the book, Bryan writes: "It was the first time anybody had chosen me to be "the Man" - the only time, really- and I can't thank Gabe, ROH, and the ROH fans enough for giving me the opportunity to be the guy to carry the promotion."

Sapolsky has been mentioned, quoted and interviewed in numerous podcasts, radio, newspaper, magazine and online articles. Sapolsky has been seen on The Travel Channel in a documentary on pro wrestling in 2002 as well as Strange Days With Bob Saget on A&E. He has also appeared on several DVD releases by wrestling merchandise companies such as Highspots and Kayfabe Commentaries. Sapolsky hosted Ring of Honor's "Straight Shootin'" DVD series, with many wrestling legends.

Sapolsky was the subject of an article on Sports Illustrated's website talking about many subjects including his career, Paul Heyman and Daniel Bryan.

Sapolsky was the subject of an interview by Rolling Stone [1] on EVOLVE and WWE's connection to independent wrestling.

Sapolsky was interviewed by Paste Magazine [2] about the WWNLive Experience.

Awards and accomplishments