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I saw you and lots of others noted the 15th anniversary of Ring of Honor, but I noticed that the company has nothing on their website or even their social media? What gives?
I don't know, but that is a pretty silly thing not to acknowledge. I am going to guess it fell between the cracks, although that's something that never, ever should have happened.
What is Cary Silkin's official role with ROH these days?
Exactly what you see when he is at the events, he's sort of an ambassador to the brand, like Stan Lee is to Marvel Comics. That's all.
All the talk of the 15th Anniversary of ROH made me think about Gabe Sapolsky. Is it me or is he completely overrated as a booker? When was the last time we saw a classic angle from him? Sure, there have been lots of good matches but it doesn't take a genius to figure out who's a good worker and then place them against each other. He hasn't developed any characters in years, the last being Johnny Gargano and a lot of that was Gargano doing Youtube videos on his own. I really wonder how much of his booking prowess was simply being smart enough to let Danielson, Joe, Punk, etc. do their thing and take the credit. Am I wrong?
There's no argument that what Sapolsky was doing with ROH and what he does now is completely different. Whether you consider him a good booker or not is a subjective thing. I know that in ROH and in EVOLVE, he allowed a lot of creative freedom for talents and knew when to let them do their thing vs. strongly scripting them, but there are others who he gave that freedom to who failed when he allowed it. So, he knew when something wasn't working. I think the issue is you are comparing ROH Sapolsky to EVOLVE Sapolsky and that's apples and oranges because the promotions are different and ROH was in its own golden age when he was booking it, a style and time that neither side ever recaptured after he was fired by Cary Silkin.
What's your all-time favorite ROH bout?
There have been a lot of amazing matches but I have a soft spot for Paul London vs. Bryan Danielson, Two out of Three Falls at the first Epic Encounter, which is the match that sparked the back and forth chants we see all over wrestling. It's 47 minutes of awesome.
At TLC 2011, John Cena was not on the PPV. The storyline was that he had given up his spot so that Zack Ryder could have a US Title shot. Why wasn't Cena on this PPV? As far as I remember, he was not injured, and he was totally capable of performing on the show, he was just not booked. He was on the previous PPV and on the one following it. This was the first PPV since CM Punk had captured the WWE title, in what would go on to become his record setting reign. Did it have anything to do with them testing to see how Punk drew on the card without Cena? I also remember Punk even mentioning in a promo that Cena wasn't going to be on the show. Any information on what the reason behind Cena not being booked at all on the show was? It just seemed so odd at the time to not book your top draw, especially back when there weren't many top level main event guys. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!
Cena was backstage at the event, but not used as a creative decision. Nothing more.
I read a rumor that Sheamus is playing Darth Vader now. Will he miss Wrestlemania?
No and no.
If Johnny K-9 did all these terrible things, why the hell was anyone booking him after that?
Most of what he did, happened after his wrestling career was over. In the days before the Internet, however, it was a lot easier to turn a blind eye. Not saying it was the right thing to do, but it was easier.
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