Kemo
04-21-2016, 04:17 PM
EVOLVE co-founder and booker Gabe Sapolsky recently spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog about his history in the business, EVOLVE’s working relationship with WWE and much more.
EVOLVE, Revolution Pro and PROGRESS Wrestling will be hosting qualifying matches for WWE’s Global Cruiserweight Series in the coming weeks.
Sapolsky worked closely with Paul Heyman from the early days of ECW, was a co-founder and head booker of Ring of Honor and has worked closely with some of this generation’s brightest stars, including Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose.
With WWE breaking new ground and working closely with EVOLVE to discover new talent, Sapolsky is excited to be working with the top wrestling promotion in the world.
“We’re in uncharted waters with WWE. The WWE relationship has made for a very exciting time, which makes everything very unpredictable, so we’re taking it one day at a time. The relationship with WWE originally started with a few discussions,” explained Sapolsky. “We’re still in the getting-to-know each other phase, and they’re very careful about what they go into. They do their research, they don’t just jump into anything, and they did their research on us.”
He also spoke about Daniel Bryan’s influence on his career. “Bryan made my career as a booker,” said Sapolsky. “He was the ace pitcher, he was the Tom Brady, and he made me. I always recognized that and appreciated it. Bryan had a lot of special moments, but the one that stands out for me is the match he had against Shingo at Dragon Gate USA. That really gave us a shot in the arm and gave new life to the promotion in 2010.”
EVOLVE, Revolution Pro and PROGRESS Wrestling will be hosting qualifying matches for WWE’s Global Cruiserweight Series in the coming weeks.
Sapolsky worked closely with Paul Heyman from the early days of ECW, was a co-founder and head booker of Ring of Honor and has worked closely with some of this generation’s brightest stars, including Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose.
With WWE breaking new ground and working closely with EVOLVE to discover new talent, Sapolsky is excited to be working with the top wrestling promotion in the world.
“We’re in uncharted waters with WWE. The WWE relationship has made for a very exciting time, which makes everything very unpredictable, so we’re taking it one day at a time. The relationship with WWE originally started with a few discussions,” explained Sapolsky. “We’re still in the getting-to-know each other phase, and they’re very careful about what they go into. They do their research, they don’t just jump into anything, and they did their research on us.”
He also spoke about Daniel Bryan’s influence on his career. “Bryan made my career as a booker,” said Sapolsky. “He was the ace pitcher, he was the Tom Brady, and he made me. I always recognized that and appreciated it. Bryan had a lot of special moments, but the one that stands out for me is the match he had against Shingo at Dragon Gate USA. That really gave us a shot in the arm and gave new life to the promotion in 2010.”