Gabe Sapolsky has likely never taken a bump in a wrestling ring during a live show. However, in being the head booker in Ring of Honor (ROH) when CM Punk used the promotion as a platform to hone his superstar "straight edge" persona, the two are inexorably linked together as Heyman protegees. Sapolsky started as the president of the Sabu (then managed by Heyman) Fan Club, and eventually became a key member of the ECW inner circle. When ROH started in 2002, Sapolsky, alongside then RF Video co-owners Rob Feinstein and (fellow booker) Doug Gentry in many ways took the reigns of fostering wild underground creativity from the defunct ECW. The one wrestler who arguably benefited most from being a featured star in this promotion was definitely CM Punk. By the time Punk reached Heyman-booked OVW in 2005, Sapolsky had already informed Heyman of Punk's strengths, Heyman and Punk creatively worked together on honing every aspect of his game from an in-ring and out-of-ring perspective. By the time Punk reached the resurrected, as yes, again Heyman-booked ECW in 2006, he was then in many ways a finished product of one era of his career, Punk's wild and autonomous ways being pushed to the hilt by Heyman creating Punk as an anathema to everything WWE at the time was doing on the main event scene. When Heyman and Punk rejoined in 2012 when Heyman named Punk as a "Paul Heyman Guy," it was magical. As "the voice of the voice of the voiceless," Heyman aided Punk by in many ways putting the icing on the cake of Punk's career. Both iconoclasts at the height of their abilities, from Sapolsky to Punk to Paul Heyman moving forward, the link of the legacy of ECW was carried on, elevated, and then at its apex, returned to its owner.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
