KayFabe Commentaries' Guest Booker with Gabe Sapolsky

The Good

Gabe Sapolsky is not the most charismatic interview, but he gets his points across and when paired with Sean Oliver, it all clicks together pretty well.  Here, Gabe rebooks the early stages of the ECW rebirth under the WWE banner.  I have to say, while many Guest Bookers get pretty wild and crazy, Gabe's approach is very doable and convinced me that he could actually contribute significantly to the WWE product…if he was ever given the chance.  He is pragmatic about which talent he can use, what he can get away with, what he can do to make the brand stand out and seems to book a nice few months of TV and builds up a pay-per-view nicely.  Sure, it is not a dream card, but it is something notably better than the WWE's attempts at the time even with Paul Heyman at the helm…kind of.  Gabe explains his logic, explains his approaches and reveals his abilities as a booker.  The goal of the series is to do those things, so I would consider this a success.

The Bad

Gabe is certainly an acquired taste.  He has a good mind, but is so do Kevin Sullivan and Gary Hart and their shoots are decidedly more enjoyable.  Instead of getting caught up in anecdotes, even from his own ECW days, Gabe focuses on the task at hand.  I think that sort of detracts from this in a way.  While the goal is achieved, this is not particularly exciting and you don't have those moments where you feel like you getting a glimpse at a genius.  JJ Dillion is certainly not the most entertaining and I found his Guest Booker to be much more fascinating.  I guess the difference between Gabe and all those other aforementioned talents is that he has never been an on-air talent himself.  Perhaps if people like Dave Lagana, Court Bauer and other former WWF writers get their own Guest Booker shoots, we'll see if this is a trend or not.  


The Rating: ****