PWTorch.com - RADICAN'S "The Kevin Steen Show with Gabe Sapolsky" review - fatherhood, lessons learned after being fired from ROH, launching EVOLVE, Heyman, inside the Steen-Generico-Briscoes feud

RADICAN'S TAKE
RADICAN'S "The Kevin Steen Show with Gabe Sapolsky" review - fatherhood, lessons learned after being fired from ROH, launching EVOLVE, Heyman, inside the Steen-Generico-Briscoes feud

Oct 16, 2014 - 3:26:18 PM

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By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S “THE KEVIN STEEN SHOW WITH GABE SAPOLSKY” REViEW
RELEASED BY HIGHSPOTS IN 2014
BY SEAN RADICAN, TORCH COLUMNIST

“The Kevin Steen Show with Gabe Sapolsky” is an entertaining and informative conversation between Sapolsky and Steen about wrestling and life in general. Sapolsky covers some of the same territory that he has before, but there are a lot of interesting stories here and Steen and Sapolsky have good chemistry. Sapolsky also appeared to be healthy and relaxed when the interview was filmed, which was good to see given the stress I had seen him under in the past when he was booking ROH.

Gabe and Kevin discuss fatherhood.

The show opens with Steen and Sapolsky taking about fatherhood. Steen remarks that he never thought Gabe would be a father and he admits that he hated kids before becoming a father. Fatherhood has clearly changed Sapolsky and he talks about how much he enjoys being a father and how it brought new meaning to his life.

It’s refreshing to see Sapolsky in a good frame of mind. He discusses how consumed he was with ROH throughout the interview and how it was 100% of his life when he was with the company, but it seems that life has changed for the better for him since he was fired by ROH in 2008. Gabe has become a father and admits that he was fired from ROH, he wished he had pursued other ventures outside of wrestling, as ROH was the only thing he knew and he was completely consumed by the wrestling bubble.

One of the biggest takeaways from this interview is Sapolsky talking about the lessons he learned under Paul Heyman in ECW. Sapolsky was there for Heyman’s entire run and he tells a great story about the famous speech Heyman gave backstage before “Barely Legal” and how it influenced him as a booker.

Gabe talks about how he’s not a big speech guy because he didn’t want to be seen as imitating Heyman and relates that to how bookers have come into the business and he’s been at shows where they give these big speeches and nobody is paying attention. Sapolsky discusses his philosophy with how he deals with talent one-on-one and it’s interesting to see how he learned all of these incredible lessons from Heyman, but became his own person once he became a booker and established his own philosophy for dealing with talent.

Another interesting aspect of the interview is that Steen and Sapolsky talk about working with each other behind the scenes. They spend a lot of time talking about the Steen & Generico vs. Briscoes feud in ROH and Steen talks with Sapolsky about why he did things a certain way. It is really interesting to hear Gabe talk about how he built up Steen & Generico to finally win the ROH World Tag Team Titles at Driven 2008.

Sapolsky goes into great detail about why he had The Briscoes beat Steen & Generico 2-0 in a 2/3 Falls match for the ROH tag straps during their program to build to the moment where Steen & Generico beat Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs at Driven 2008. Sapolsky did a really good job discussing why he booked things the way he did during that period and even if fans didn’t like some of his decisions, his job as a booker is to build to the bigger moment even if people don’t like some of the things he does along the way. It’s a great look into Sapolsky’s mind as a booker. Sapolsky also later discusses how he set up Ricochet’s Open the Freedom Gate Title win over Johnny Gargano at “Open the Ultimate Gate 2014” a year in advance and how much he enjoyed the moment when Ricochet beat Gargano.

Sapolsky discusses being immersed in the wrestling bubble while booking Ring of Honor.

Gabe also talks about the advice he gives to wrestlers and it is evident he is passing along what he learned after being fired by ROH in 2008. Sapolsky talks about how he tells wrestlers that they should immerse themselves in wrestling when they’re in their 20s and go all-out and not worry about the money they’re making, but when they turn 30, they need to set aside 2-3 days per week to pursue other ventures outside of wrestling, which is great advice. Sapolsky talks about how he reads one marketing book per month and has learned to make wrestling a part of his life as opposed to consuming his life like it did when he was booking ROH.

There were a few topics that came up that definitely could have been elaborated on, but it seemed like Steen was set on keeping the interview to around 2 hours. At one point, Steen brought up how he nearly fought Green Lantern Fan at a restaurant after a show, but he doesn’t elaborate on what happened. Sapolsky also brings up how booking ROH changed for him after the Rob Feinstein scandal in 2004 and it became about survival to him, but it would have been great to hear him say more about how things changed for him after that whole fiasco.

Another topic that could have been elaborated on was the events surrounding the launch of EVOLVE with Daniel Bryan. Sapolsky does say that Bryan thought people had seen everything they could in ROH and wanted to help Sapolsky usher in a new style, but Sapolsky hints that Danielson wasn’t happy with how former ROH owner Cary Silkin fired Sapolsky, so it would have been interesting to hear more about that.

Sapolsky and Steen share their favorite Daniel Bryan moments in WWE.

Sapolsky and Steen do discuss how they feel pride seeing Daniel Bryan’s succeed in WWE and share some of their favorite moments from his recent run leading up to his WWE World Championship win at WrestleMania this year. It is a lot of fun to listen to them talk about Bryan’s success in WWE and how much pride they take in seeing one of their guys make it on the big stage.

Overall thoughts: (8.5) – This was a really good interview with Steen getting Sapolsky to open up and discuss his philosophy as a booker and how he deals with certain situations as well as the pressures on a booker when they have the lives of so many wrestlers in their hands.

The behind the scenes stories from Sapolsky are really interesting. Steen questions Gabe about his time working under him in ROH and their conversations brings out a lot of interesting information from Sapolsky about why he booked things the way he did as well as some sidebars about how he handles talent and why he does certain things differently than Heyman would.

It’s also fascinating to listen to Sapolsky talk about how he planned certain angles out and the joy he had seeing Steen & Generico finally win the ROH World Tag Team Titles at Driven 2008. Sapolsky also discusses the great feeling he had watching the fans after Ricochet beat Johnny Gargano for the Open the Freedom Gate Title during WrestleMania weekend earlier this year.

I give this release a high recommendation. Gabe goes into a lot of detail about a lot of behind the scenes occurrences in ROH and he seems to have a good perspective on the business now that his life isn’t all about wrestling. Thumbs up!

You can purchase “The Kevin Steen Show with Gabe Sapolsky” on DVD by clicking HERE or by visiting Highspots.com. This show is also available on VOD via Highspots new website DIYWrestling.com by clicking HERE

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