Gabriel Sapolsky (born September 26, 1972) is an American professional wrestling promoter, creative writer, and booker who currently works for WWE. Sapolsky has also held various creative and marketing positions in the professional wrestling industry, notably as Paul Heyman's personal assistant with Extreme Championship Wrestling, the co-founder and head of talent relations (booker) at Ring of Honor, the vice-president of Dragon Gate USA, vice-president of talent relations, creative and marketing of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) and creative writer (booker) and founder of EVOLVE. Sapolsky also worked in a booking capacity for various other promotions including Full Impact Pro and Style Battle, as well as for special events like the WWN Supershow and the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup.
Early life
Sapolsky attended Runkle Elementary School, and later Brookline High School, graduating in 1990. He received his B.A. in communications from Temple University and graduated in 1994.
Professional wrestling career
Sapolsky began his career with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) writing a company newsletter, known as The ECW Action Wire, in September 1993. Sapolsky was hired full-time shortly after graduating from Temple University, about the same time that ECW opened its first office in Philadelphia. Sapolsky became a protege of Paul Heyman and handled many different responsibilities, including marketing, promoting and public relations throughout his tenure with the company. Sapolsky also worked the "fan cam" and filmed most ECW events on a camcorder at ringside. The ECW Action Wire morphed into the Official ECW Program, which was sold at live events. Sapolsky wrote, edited and published it. He became an official RF Video employee in 2001, shortly after ECW closed.
Sapolsky took over editing and writing the RF Video Mail Order Catalog and website after ECW. In 2002, Sapolsky co-founded Ring of Honor (ROH) with RF Video owner Rob Feinstein and employee Doug Gentry. Sapolsky was named the booker of the promotion. Sapolsky developed the unique booking style of ROH, which included The Code Of Honor. As the booker of ROH, Sapolsky won Wrestling Observer Newsletters Best Booker award four years in a row from 2004 to 2007. Sapolsky was also the booker for Full Impact Pro (FIP), an independent promotion in Florida that used to be the sister promotion of ROH. Sapolsky used aliases Jimmy Bower and Matt Pike when he filled in on commentary. On October 26, 2008, ROH made an announcement stating that Gabe Sapolsky was no longer working there. After Sapolsky's departure, he also ceased his roles with FIP.
On April 14, 2009, Sapolsky announced the launch of Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) with himself serving as its vice-president. The promotion's first show, Open the Historic Gate was held July 25, 2009, at The Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was voted in 2009 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as the Show of the Year. DGUSA was the American branch of Japan's popular Dragon Gate promotion and as per this connection, it featured the top stars of Japan, and various independent wrestlers in the United States. In early 2010, Sapolsky co-founded EVOLVE along with WWN COO, Sal Hamaoui. EVOLVE began as a means of featuring American based wrestlers while DGUSA focused on Japanese wrestlers. DGUSA held its last event in 2014 and is currently dormant.