NEW BLOG FROM GABE: CLOSURE & GETTING PUNCHED IN THE FACE
- 12/22/2008 (5:11:05 pm)
- Press Release
……
Hey everyone,
I hope you all have a happy holidays. I posted a new blog focusing on something I did to give me closure from ROH and a story about almost getting punched in the face backstage in the original ECW. Please plug it. Thank you. It is at www.myspace/rohgabe.com
Monday, December 22, 2008
Closure and Getting Punched In The Face As I mentioned before, I am writing these blogs more for myself to try to get some closure on the ROH chapter of my life. I did something about three weeks ago that gave me so much closure that I felt empty the next day. Before I get to that, here is a little story about the closest (to my knowledge) I ever came to getting punched in the face. ECW was still in its growing days. We had a house show at an ice hockey rink in Warwick, Pennsylvania. As usual, I was getting ready to fan cam the evening's card. I always checked with Paul Heyman about 10 minutes before belltime to ask if there was anything to look out for or any footage he needed. 90% of the time he would say no. On this night he told me to make sure I got the Bruise Brothers match, especially the finish. The doors from the side locker rooms were behind a set of bleachers. It was a few minutes from the opening bell and I started to make my way down the empty hallway to the ring entranceway when I ran into twins Ron & Don Harris, The Bruise Brothers. I had hardly ever talked to them. To my surprise, they immediately cornered me under the bleachers as some of the building lights started to dim. "Don't tape our match tonight," one of them said in a threatening manner. "It's my job," I answered with a youthful bravado. They started to move in closer. Things were getting tight. At over a foot taller than me, the two identical bikers were blocking what little light was left. All I could see as I looked up were two snarling faces and a lot of flowing hair. "We'll tell you one more time," one of them again warned, "don't tape our match tonight or we will destroy your camera." Now I felt like I was underneath two menacing weeping willow trees. "I have to," my 150 pound frame pleaded as confidence began to wane. Well, Ron and Don had just run out of patience. Suddenly, one of them grabbed me around the throat to hold me steady. He began to draw back his fist in a calculating way. It looked like the size of a boulder as time completely slowed down. My entire focus was on this giant ball of flesh, knuckle and bone pulling back ready to unleash a clear shot at my face. A blow like that can change your entire perspective on life. It really is amazing how someone's world can be completely altered in just the briefest moment. It can happen physically like a strike to the head that gives you a concussion and causes daily migraine headaches. It can occur mentally and emotionally like shockingly getting fired from a job. This brings us back to closure. Kayfabe Commentaries had approached me over a year ago about doing a "Guest Booker" DVD about the WWE version of ECW. I never had any desire to appear on camera. I especially didn't want to do any interview that might reveal some of my theories, philosophies and secrets. However, I'm not one to turn down a payday so I agreed despite my better judgment. I am happy that I did as it was a good experience and I had fun doing it. Kayfabe Commentaries treated me great and proved to be a reputable, professional company that cared about putting out a quality product. We had been talking before that fateful October night about doing another shoot interview type thing. I liked the way that Kayfabe Commentaries put some unique twists on the shoot concept and really innovated it in different, entertaining directions. After my experience the first time I was more than happy to work with them again. Then my life changed when I was immediately terminated from Ring Of Honor right after the October 25th, 2008 event. One of the ironic parts is that I had just finished booking out the rest of the year through "Final Battle" as well as the entire roster's direction heading into 2009. So here I am with lots of fresh booking plans and nothing to do. Then about a week after I was dismissed I had an epiphany that completely changed my paradigm of pro wrestling. I was done with all my booking philosophies, theories and formulas when it came to the Ring Of Honor style. Now it was time to purge them out of my system. I needed closure. The best way for me to do this was to expose them all. They can't be used after they are revealed. It is final. I started exchanging emails with Sean Oliver at Kayfabe Commentaries. The idea came together of opening my sticker covered "booking book" to explore where ROH was headed in my head. This wasn't a shoot that I did for money. I did it because I HAD to in order to try to move on. Let's be clear that this isn't an interview about the history and my experiences in ROH. This details what my vision was of ROH for the rest of the 2008 leading into 2009. Some new directions had started on the October 24th and 25th shows, which turned out to be my final weekend with ROH. Now you can learn what would have followed. Yes, this is nothing more than fantasy booking at this point. I don't give away any company secrets here, but I do completely let my guard down and expose my plans for everyone on the roster. In the process, almost all of my theories, philosophies and the thought process behind booking ROH come out. I also had a lot of fun finally answering the critics and the most common critiques of my booking. I will cover some of the topics I talked about soon, but for now I will say that things have gone down very differently in real life ROH compared to what was in my "booking book." In fact, I had a completely different double main event for this weekend's Hammerstein Ballroom show in this now fictional world. I was exhausted after doing this shoot. It was a release. I am still trying to shut the door on the ROH chapter of my life, but putting it all out there gave me a great deal of closure. And back to our regularly scheduled program. One of the Harris brothers was about to put closure on the fan cam situation by pounding his gargantuan fist into my face. Everything was in slow motion as those knuckles deliberately reared back. Then suddenly a beam of light escaped from a nearby door. Stevie Richards, much like Superman coming out of a phone booth, hurried out of a locker room before stopping dead in his tracks. "Ron, Don, what are you guys doing?" Stevie shouted surprised at what he was witnessing. They then said something to Stevie when Paul Heyman suddenly appeared out of thin air. We always joked that Heyman had a supernatural ability to be everywhere to see and hear everything. Now we had some proof. "What's going on?" Heyman said as he opened a locker room door. "Ron, Don get in here! Gabe stay there." I felt the tight grasp on my throat released as the Harris brothers obediently followed Heyman. Stevie, who I worked with in the ROH office, asked me what happened. About one minute later, the door opened and like two giant, smiling, tattooed teddy bears both twins were giving me the "OK" sign. Paul then explained that they said that they didn't know me since I didn't shake their hands so they didn't want me to tape their match. Paul taught me to make sure to always shake everyone's hand before every show. However, a few days later the story got to me that The Bruise Brothers were heading to WWE and Paul wanted to broadcast them doing a job on their way out on TV. Evidently, The Bruise Brothers figured that out and didn't appreciate it. Anyway, I have shook hands about a million times with wrestlers after that day. I have to admit that I lied at the start of this story. I did get punched in the face once during the ECW days, but that's a story I might not ever tell. Shaking hands was one minor lesson from Paul. My next blog will focus on an important lesson I learned from Heyman and why I now realize it led to the biggest mistake I made during the last seven years. Thank you very much for reading this blog. I am having fun writing them. I'm looking forward to a very relaxing holiday. Have a great and safe holidays and I hope you get all the presents you want!!! |
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