Gabe Sapolsky Talks Working Relationship With WWE, Triple H's Influence, Opportunities For Talents
Co-Founder and Vice President of EVOLVE and WWN Live, as well as former Ring of Honor booker, Gabe Sapolsky joined Busted Open with Doug Mortman and Dave LaGreca to discuss EVOLVE's relationship with WWE, Triple H's influence in it, and much more. You can check out some highlights below:
The relationship between EVOLVE and WWE:
"The WWE has been a tremendous help to us and we still continue our relationship with them. It's important that we have this relationship with WWE, not just for the company but for the wrestlers as well and have that conduit for the wrestlers to go to WWE, and that's something they'll always have with WWN. We made sure our relationship there is healthy, they have William Regal coming to our show in Maryland on November 13th, and EVOLVE show, and we're gonna keep going. Hopefully you see these guys move on. Drew Gulak and Tony Neese, they're on RAW almost every Monday, and you're gonna see them at our upcoming events in Queens, New York.
"It's an unreal time where you see this talent going from our evolve shows, and then being on RAW, and then coming back, and then going to NXT, and then we're able to have a farewell for someone like Johnny Gargano like we had last month, and see all the hard work he put in and move on. The opportunity is there, WWE has made this such an exciting time for wrestling fans because of this, because you never know who's going to pop up where next. They've made it an exciting time for the wrestlers, and most importantly WWE has played a huge part in helping the overall health in professional wrestling, and making this work for everybody."
WWE having their finger on the pulse of pro wrestling's streaming service after the WWE Network and their financial backing of FloSlam:
"It's freaking crazy (chuckles). I'm still at the point — it's been like this all year where I wake up everyday and I don't know what the next e-mail, or the next phone call, or the next text is going to bring. It's amazing because it's like limitless opportunity all over the place, and there is no telling what tomorrow is gonna bring. We'll just have to see what happens. Flo Sports and FlowSlam.TV is gonna have a very progressive attitude, and WWE has shown how much they respect and value the independents and the health of everything by everything they've done. This isn't something they're talking about, they have actually demonstrated it and shown it. I mean when you have Triple H showing up at one of our shows, that is unbelievable to me and that's what happened last January. I still can't believe it and we're ten months later. It's just one of those things where all of this crazy stuff is going on, and nobody really knows what's going to happen next."
Triple H's influence in their relationship with WWE:
"Yeah, Triple H is the man, I mean if you want to talk about a guy that is really right on the cutting edge, and sees the landscape, and has an understanding of where it's gonna develop and the vision of where it's gonna develop, that's Triple H. This thing has been very important to him, our House of EVOLVE has been very important to him, and he's backed up his words with actions. In turn hopefully they've benefited a little bit as far as this talent exchange goes, and we hope it continues. Most importantly I love seeing the talent get this opportunity. This is something that back in the ROH days I'd sit around and I saw these guys working their asses off and the sacrifices they made, and I sad down and said 'hopefully Bryan Danielson will be able to scratch out a living one day.' CM Punk, hopefully the same. Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, I go 'I hope it pays off for these guys, maybe they can go to Japan or something.' Now we see it really is paying off for these guys, and the fact that their future is limitless. Daniel Bryan, I know he's got the injury thing and everything, but it looks like he's got a job there for life doing various roles or whatever pops up. I just like seeing it pay off for everybody and hopefully it continues like this, and I don't see any reason why it won't."
Source: Busted Open