By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

Ring of Honor president Cary Silkin made a tough decision firing long-time booker Gabe Sapolsky exactly two months ago, but he feels it was justified when things "weren't working out."

"A lot of it boiled down to simple business and as a company there needed to be some changes," Silkin told Alfonso Castillo in Newsday. "It was the right time to make a change. It's pretty much as simple as that. He did a tremendous amount of good things in his time, but it had sort of run its course and the change was important."

Silkin says there were certainly hard feelings after the firing because it was a close-knit group, but they're trying to move on, even if a vocal minority of fans weren't happy with the decision.

One of the changes he wants for the ROH product is a return to "wrestling" and not "wrestling moves" where the audience is burnt out on the action by intermission.

"I think the product had become more wrestling move oriented than wrestling oriented," Silkin said. "And we have such talented guys and I think there was a lot of redundancy in the matches. You know, it's funny to think about it because we had so many good shows during his run."

The business aspect was a major factor for Silkin, who says it came down to drawing dollars and selling DVDs, which he didn't feel was growing under Sapolsky. One of the new additions was the ROH DVD subscription package, which drew mixed reviews when it was announced.

"You know, people are using it. And it's a nice thing. It's a good thing to offer, and if they don't want it, it's no big deal," Silkin said. "They get to pick and choose. But there's a lot of completists. In our fan base, there's a lot of people who want it all so it's nice to give them the opportunity to subscribe."

Regarding other recent ROH business news, such as the DirecTV PPV deal, Silkin says it will add 20 million potential customers they hope to attract with the regular PPV shows. The increased production value will help, he adds.

"The pay per view we filmed in Chicago - "Rising Above" - which will be the first one that's on DirecTV as well as the other outlets, that was the first time we used a professional crew to film it." Silkin thinks the audience will be "pleased with the product," saying it "looks phenomenal."

Concern over the financial viability of ROH was inevitable after the booking change two months ago, but Silkin says the company is fine and their core DVD business continues to boost the company.

"We're definitely on safe ground. It's nice to know that the fans are so worried. But, yeah, we're doing fine," he said. "We wouldn't have done this expensive production upgrade if we weren't on safe ground. It would be the last thing we'd be doing. So yeah, everything is on target business-wise."

Regarding television, Silkin says they're "still working on it." He also comments on working with Darren Aronofsky when filming "The Wrestler" and ROH's exposure through the attention the movie is receiving.

Link: Newsday interview with ROH president Cary Silkin.

RELATED STORY at PWTorch.com: Gabe Sapolsky says why he thinks he was fired.

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