6 Ways Gabe Sapolsky's ROH Followed Paul Heyman's ECW Legacy
4. Renewed Dying Staples Of Wrestling
When Ring of Honor opened its doors in 2002 the state of the American wrestling world was slim. WCW and ECW had just merged into WWE leaving only one big company. During the six years Sapolsky was in charge of ROH, WWE for the most part neglected or squeezed out popular staples of professional wrestling. Despite WWE having a strong tag team division when ROH first opened, in part thanks to teams from WCW and ECW coming in, by 2006 the divisions were a wasteland. During that time ROH had a thriving championship division that was home to some of the worlds greatest teams. The Briscoe Brothers, Generation Next, The Kings of Wrestling, The Second City Saints, The SAT, Lacey's Angels, The Havana Pitbulls and many more. TNA saw the success and prioritised their own tag division to big success for a period and WWE would eventually come to realise the importance themselves by trying to reignite their division over the past few years. Stables also played a frequent role in Sapolsky's booking as they had in Heyman's. Whether they were stables that are mostly known for one specific line-up like Generation Next and The Rottweilers or ones that changed over time such as The Embassy and The Prophecy, they were utilised to great effect. Association with these stables helped to launch the careers of many wrestlers and build up name value. It also led to big group wars, something can be seen making a big return to WWE this past year thanks to the success of The Shield and The Wyatt Family, which has even led to the reunion of Evolution who were the first in WWE's renewal of interest in stables after the failed nWo attempt in 2002. Perhaps the biggest of the bunch was managers, something which WWE used sparingly at the time. Julius Smokes, Prince Nana, Larry Sweeney and Lacey were just some who managed various wrestlers to successful runs in Ring of Honor. WWE have been hot and cold on managers for well over a decade but there are undeniable positives to the use of them to make men into superstars.
