ROH worker leaks email from Gabe Sapolsky to the DOI

[Bix]

http://www.declarationofindependents.net/d...aythefword.html

 

As reported earlier today, the DOI received the following email from people on the ROH roster. One wrestler described this letter to me as "The president of a high school Sci-Fi club addressing the agenda for the next meeting."

 

The letter talks about what's expected from the roster and how to improve the shows. I've also forwarded this email to people in the wrestling business before printing it here, and the reaction for the most part is that this should help tighten up ROH shows and improve the ROH product. I do think fans will be excited to see the changes and overall make ROH shows more enjoyable.

 

As stated before, there should be another big letter soon (based on what's written in this letter) and we hope to share that with our loyal DOI readers too.

 

Here's the letter, in its entirety:

 

Hello everyone,

Please take some time and read this and make sure all the points sink in. It will make this a better company for all of us.

 

You will all be hearing from me in the next week or so with a bunch of notes about upcoming direction. Here are some quick thoughts on how we can all pull together as a team and improve the shows. I am going to keep repeating these things until they become second nature. I believe these things will help us tighten up our shows and in turn everyone will have a better and easier chance to get over. I think our shows are too long now and we are burning out our crowd. We are leaving them tired after the show instead of satisfied, but wanting more. I think that just by tightening up a few areas we can eliminate this and make the people satisfied, but hungry for more and then hopefully buying more live event tickets.

 

1) STAY IN YOUR TIME, STAY IN YOUR TIME, STAY IN YOUR TIME. The simple fact is that our shows run much smoother and have the right peaks and valleys and the crowd stays strong until the end if everyone stays in their time. Now you might think to yourself "what's the big deal if I go 1-2 minutes over." Well add it up. Lets say there are 8 matches, 6 go over by an average of 90 seconds (and this is on the low end of some of our shows as far as matches going over). Well that's nine minutes of nothing but wrestling added to the show. This means the people are really seeing an extra match by the time the main event goes on. We are simply giving them way too much when matches go over. If this is a problem with ref cues, let me know so we can correct it.

 

2) Stay on me about angles and promo time. I have to admit that I have done a poor job on some things lately, one of which is following up on angles on a consistent show-to-show basis. If you were in a big angle on one show and then you see there is nothing following up on it the next weekend, get on me about at least doing a promo on it or something. Stay on me about "what is going on next" or "what is going on this weekend with that angle we did last show" so that nothing falls to the wayside. Also, I have talked to some of you and been approached by some of you about doing promos and stuff. So far no one has really followed up with me. Please stay on me about this. Demand your promo time and that your storylines are adequately followed up on. I will get with you in the next week or so and then you will have a better idea of your direction, which will make it easier for you to come to me with ideas. I know this falls in my hands to improve and I am working on it. Just stay on me about it.

 

3) Another place we lose time is ring entrances, the time between the final ring entrance and the opening bell and then postmatch. Don't take a lot of time with these things. Unless your ring entrance has a special spot like the people yelling "The Final Countdown" during Bryan's entrance then do your thing, but don't take more time than needed. The main place I'd like to cut down on time is when the final ring entrance song ends and the opening bell rings. If every match takes 90 seconds here that can add another 10 minutes or so to the show. Now add that to the 9 minutes that all the matches went over and we've added 19 unnecessary minutes to the show. This is where the crowds are getting burned out. Finally, post match. If you are over get your hand raised, strike your post and get out while the crowd is still hot and hungry to see more of you. If you are under sell what you need to or better yet sell to the back or let yourself get carried to the back quickly if you took something big. Let the winner have the spotlight and comeback ready to fight another day. Attention students/graduates, you need to be there quick to help the guy that went under if he needs to be carried to the back. Now if we can take off a minute from each postmatch which is 7 minutes and add that to the 19 we lose on people going over/ring entrances & prematch and now we have shaved 26 minutes off the show and we are having nice 3 hour shows into 3 1/2 hour marathons.

 

Also, Bobby, Wayne, Mary, Refs- Lets cut the time in between matches way down. I know the camera guys need time in between certain matches to switch tapes, but they do this pretty quickly. In NOAH they have the music for the next match playing like 10-20 seconds after the guy is through the curtain from the previous match. What do we need to do to cut down on this time between matches? We can easily shave another 3-5 minutes here.

 

4) Don't swear. There is more and more swearing sneaking its way back into things. I know I have threatened fines in the past and haven't followed through, but I'm really thinking it'll be the only way to finally eliminate swearing.

 

5) One thing I would like to see everyone doing is cutting promos on your way to the back postmatch, especially if you go over. Cameraman Jimmy is usually in your face with the floor camera on your way back down the aisle and this is usually dead time on the DVD. Take this 30 seconds and cut a quick promo into the camera that gets people interested in what you are doing in the future. For instance, lets say you are in a feud with Austin Aries. On your way to the back just hit a line like "That's a message to you Austin Aries, I want a match soon." A prime example of this is on the Man Up PPV. Claudio and Nigel both cut promos in the aisle way on their way to the back. They each ended up with extra airtime because the promos were short and to the point and gave their character easy to follow direction into the future. Aries & Steen are also good examples on recent DVDs.

 

Anyway, thanks for reading all this. Let me know your thoughts. I have been getting some good work done and will be in contact in the next week or so with direction.

 

Thank you,

Gabe

The booker can't remember anything that he booked. Wonderful.

[Guest The 3H's]

It seems more like he doesn't remember everything and made some pretty good improvements, but hey, lets not let that get in the way of you having a reason too shit on Gabe...Again.

 

How credible is DOI anyway?

[kjh]

I think there is more to the problem of crowd burnout than just running long. I'm sure there is some dead time that could be cut out of ROH tapings, but if you are cramming too much into one show, burnout will still happen even if you keep to time. I mean where is he going to squeeze in extra promo and angle time into shows, when they are already running too long.

[Guest MarkGotch]

I think those are good ideas... doesn't DOI have anything better to do than pursue an unhealthy obession with Gabe? I'm not sure if that email is legit.... the spelling and grammar seem to good to be Gabe's writing. But if they were going to use a fake email they probably would have made it damaging and not respectfully getting across points that actually would help make his company better.

[Cox]

It seems more like he doesn't remember everything and made some pretty good improvements, but hey, lets not let that get in the way of you having a reason too shit on Gabe...Again.

 

How credible is DOI anyway?

Um, isn't it the booker's job to...you know, remember everything he wrote? Especially when his promotion only runs about 4 times a month? It sounds like those who criticize Gabe and say he's untested until he has to write a weekly TV show are right - if he can't handle what little he has to worry about now, how would he handle the stress of taping TV week after week? Judging by what little he has control of these days, it sounds like he'd fold under the pressure quite quickly.

[Loss]

I'm curious, because I've never really heard it discussed either way. I know Gabe obviously books finishes, but does he given any guidance to the wrestlers on what type of match he wants them to have? I know he's against road agents, but when he books, does he do anything to help with laying out the matches?

 

I do think part of being a good booker is just letting talent do things they're good at doing, and you don't necessarily have to be overly creative or have tons of ideas to be successful in the position. But I'm curious how much of ROH is Gabe's vision, and how much of it is wrestlers doing their own thing.

[Childs]

I'm sort of speculating but I gather that as a Heyman disciple, he leans toward giving them a free hand. Heyman has always said that ECW worked to the extent it did because he let guys be themselves.

[anarchistxx]

That's pretty hilarious stuff. Telling everyone to up their game while admitting he himself is shit.

 

Demand your promo time

But according to him, there is no time. He's complaining the shows are going to long, then telling people to push to be given time on the shows.

 

This is where the crowds are getting burned out.

The crowds are getting burned out because every match on the show has to have several near falls and usually has numerous high spots. By the time the main event comea around, people have probably seen all the hard hitting moves already.

 

What they need to is is start booking traditional shorter matches with shorter finishing stretched, and big moves ending things.

 

"That's a message to you Austin Aries, I want a match soon."

Jesus. No wonder ROH promos are so shit.

[Guest BilJim2]

I've got some in-house work memos, anyone want to see those?

 

Christ, talk about obsessing over ridiculous minutiae...why is it anyone's business that we see this stupid shit?

[MikeCampbell]

You know if he'd stuck to his guns about levying fines for swearing, Homicide would have been paying Gabe to wrestle for ROH.

[sek69]

I've got some in-house work memos, anyone want to see those?

 

Christ, talk about obsessing over ridiculous minutiae...why is it anyone's business that we see this stupid shit?

 

Probably the same reason people read newsletters and go to internet message boards. Folks are always going to want to know behind-the-scenes stuff.

 

IMO, the criticism Gabe gets is valid. It's not like he's Vince and forgetting angles for some mid level no name type dudes in a massive company. Like it was stated before, he runs a small group that only runs a handful of shows a month and is still all "dudes, help me remember wtf is going on". Hell, it's not even like TNA where you actually do need a road map to figure out what is going on, most ROH feuds are like "you have dishonored me, lets fight" or "I want your belt, let's fight".

 

Also him talking to his workers like they're grade schoolers is pretty funny. If he wants there to be no swearing at ROH shows, perhaps he should have passed that letter out to the fans at the shows, like that one crowd in England that was chanting F-bombs at some kid. I'm seriously cracking up picturing Gabe going up to someone like Homicide or the Briscoes and telling them they'd face fines for swearing. I'm sure the Briscoes in particular would shank him in a second if he took any of their meth money away.

[Loss]

Does ROH have their own security or do they use building security?

[Bix]

They tend to use building security at the door and wrestling school students et al in the building, IIRC.