ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky apologizes for controversial angle

ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky apologized on the promotion's message board for a controversial angle that took place during Saturday’s show in New York. Dot Net reader Jon Scott described the segment as follows in his review of the the event:

“They brought out Allison Danger and ran her down for being a slut and sleeping her way into pro wrestling. Danger was about to leave the ring when Sweeney knocked her down/out. He pushed Dempsey onto her to ‘make a man’ out of him. The crowd was cheering for Dempsey, of course. With Sweeney's delivery and Dempsey's innocent expressions, it was funny.”

The angle sparked criticism and debate on various message boards, which inspired Sapolsky to issue the following statement: “I am sorry if you are offended by this. I can assure you that this will never happen in ROH again. Thank you for all your support.”

Powell’s POV: I wasn’t in New York so I did not see the segment in person. However, I can say that I laughed out loud while reading Jon’s description of the angle before I was aware there was any controversy. I knew going in that the Sweeney character is sleazy and Dempsey is portrayed as a naive comedy figure. I can only assume that everyone in the building understood that this was a scripted segment and recognized it as comedy.

It’s not as if this was portrayed as a serious segment and ROH tried to make it seem like Danger was at risk of being violated in a more serious manner. I’m sure the fans who cheered did so because they recognized it as comedy and knew there would be a limit to how far the angle would go. Again, I can only tell you what my reaction was to reading about the angle. Either way, Gabe made the right business move by apologizing.