There was once a time when Gabe Sapolsky was viewed as more than a low-budget carny. When he was actually held in quite the high regard, even when in hindsight his performance was starting to dip tremendously. It’s officially been a decade since his perceived peak ended, with a final Booker of the Year award from the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
But 2007 has not been kind to Sapolsky, and he admits that in hindsight. It was a year that saw one horrendous idea after another, including faction warfare (with such mesmerizing stables as the Resilience, Hangmen Three, and Vulture Squad), the split of the Kings of Wrestling (instead of Larry Sweeney recruiting both of them to channel the glory days of Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express), Takeshi Morishima losing his debut against Samoa Joe, and giving Nigel McGuinness humdrum-at-best creative direction throughout most of the year prior to winning the ROH Title (instead of just pulling the trigger at that year’s guaranteed Liverpool events 7 months earlier.)
So what exactly convinced the most astute followers of the professional wrestling business to crown Sapolsky one last time as he was clearly in burnout mode? Part of it was due to the excellent workrate still being provided by the loaded roster. But the biggest reason would be the two Quebecers that had to scratch and claw to earn their spots on the roster: Kevin Steen & El Generico.
Having put forth disappointing performances in 2005, the tandem found themselves having to further pay their dues in the rest of the underground. Generico would have to put in a sensational performance against the legendary CIMA in PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament in September 2006 to get invited back a couple months later. After getting over incredibly well in the opener at Final Battle 2006, Generico was given a do-or-die opportunity with the returning Steen, and while the pressure was on, they certainly had a more-than-fair shot to earn their spots: they were pitted against the Briscoes at Fifth Year Festival: Philly.
The match would be a show-stealer that accomplished its mission; despite being defeated, Steen & Generico fit right in with hottest tag team in wrestling at the time, earning “Please come back!” chants and in hindsight, outshining Samoa Joe’s ROH home base farewell and Morishima’s dethroning of Homicide for the ROH Title on that card.
Whether it was Sapolsky’s idea or not, he made the right final decision upon Steen & Generico returning a couple months later at This Means War II: the Briscoes would actually have a feud with the newcomers. It was a perfect matchup, because the Briscoes are irrational redneck sons of bitches that are more than willing to go above and beyond in the heat of battle (great examples being At Our Best and Motor City Madness 2006), Steen is an elite heel and promo that’s willing to do the same, and Generico is the perfect babyface also willing to do the same.
The saga would continue for the next 5 months, completely carrying the creative end of the company now that Jimmy Jacobs had just wrapped up his feud against BJ Whitmer. It started with Steen being a complete scumbag towards the Briscoes, as Mark was out due to injuries suffered at All Star Extravaganza III that forced Jay to single-handedly win the Tag Titles back from Shingo & Naruki Doi. As a result, Jay agreed to team with Erick Stevens at Fighting Spirit to battle Steen & Generico.
The No Remorse Corps would take Stevens out of the equation, only for Mark to arrive in street clothes to help his brother. The entire piece of business was yet another show-stealer, but unlike their first battle, this was now a ruthless war. Steen & Generico focused on Mark’s head injury, dropping him on it countless times. Whatever Generico would have to be so ruthless would be outweighed by Steen’s sociopathic insistence, and the healthier team would seal the victory, earning a match for the Tag Titles in the future.
The feud would be kicked up another notch in the company’s PPV debut at Respect is Earned. The Briscoes would have yet another show-stealer against Matt Sydal & Claudio Castagnoli, but the bigger news was in the post-match. As the commentators went over ROH business, Steen & Generico crashed the segment, with Steen asking when they’d get their match for the Tag Titles. This led to a WILD brawl, easily the best thing on the PPV (which included a couple other great matches such as Rocky Romero vs. Naomichi Marufuji and Morishima & Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA & McGuinness). Students couldn’t keep the action at a standstill as Generico dove to the outside, and it eventually went to the back. Once again, Steen & Generico (specifically the former) left with the last laugh, having not just gone through a grueling title defense like the champions had.
The next event would in a Boston suburb called A Fight at the Roxbury. Generico would face Sydal in a show-stealer that would be the ideal 205 Live encounter today, while Steen would face Mark in singles action. Steen kept up his shit-talking and ruthlessness, eventually winning yet another quality match by digging into his sociopathy. His post-match attempt to further maim Mark would be thwarted by Jay. On the card’s main event, Jay would unsuccessfully challenge Morishima for the ROH Title, but whatever disappointment he had would be short-lived as Steen arrived, resulting in yet another brawl between the tandems, setting up the main event for the company’s Boston return a couple months later.
However, the best piece of business for this feud from A Fight at the Roxbury wouldn’t take place at ringside, but backstage. Steen cut an incredibly promo about what he did to Mark, stating that when the event became available on DVD, he’d make sure he had a copy so he could revisit their match over and over again and use it like pornography. For ROH viewers, this was the first sign of Steen’s elite excellence on the microphone, filling a void left behind by CM Punk.
The company’s return on PPV saw Steen & Generico get their Tag Titles match at last. It would be another quality encounter, although not the show-stealer for the PPV broadcast thanks to Danielson vs. McGuinness V airing from the Domination event, nor would it be for the live Driven 2007 event thanks to KENTA vs. Danielson III. But it would still serve its purpose with Steen being driven further insane in defeat, bringing ladders to the equation in the post-match attack. This telegraphed that the next PPV would be headlined by the feud ending in the company’s first-ever ladder match.
This feud would see more than its fair share of absolutely dangerous stunts, so for that reason, it must be pointed out that on the weekend of United We Stand and Driven 2007, the wrestling world suffered its 9/11 when Chris Benoit murdered his wife Nancy (stage name Woman), their 7-year-old son Daniel, and then himself over a period of roughly 36 hours. In the wake of the tragedy, numerous points of speculation would be debated as to why such a tragedy unfolded, but one thing certain is that Benoit took too many bumps and chair shots to his head. More on this later.
In the wake of an unspeakable tragedy, the Briscoes vs. Steen & Generico saga would deliver an all-time classic in the main event of Death Before Dishonor V Night 1 in Boston. This was an absolutely brutal war. This went all over ringside with so many dangerous chair shots. In a move used years later at Royal Rumble 2016, Steen was pushed off the turnbuckle onto an outside table. The finish was also perfect, with Steen kicking Jay in the nuts to dump with a Package Piledriver on a ladder, further telegraphing the upcoming PPV main event. With this being a nontitle affair, Steen & Generico earned another shot, with Steen he wanted it the next time the company would visit New England 2 weeks at Caged Rage in Hartford, this time in a cage match.
Death Before Dishonor V Night 2 the following day in Philly would have a couple singles encounters to continue the feud. Mark vs. Generico was a damn good Falls Count Anywhere opener with Generico getting the victory as expected. There’d be yet another post-match brawl between the tandems. Later on the card, Jay vs. Steen would battle in a Last Man Standing match with Steen winning as expected, but this time thanks to Generico’s assistance, making them the new Punk & Cabana in the company to a degree, the self-absorbed loudmouth convincing his more jovial best friend to play dirty.
The cage match would be a bit disappointing as it lacked the heat of prior encounters, and Steen’s table bump couldn’t compare to their hardcore match in Boston. It certainly made sense for Generico to be double-teamed in the cage for the defeat, but this feud never needed a cage match; singles encounters of Jay vs. Generico and Steen vs. Mark II would’ve made far greater sense, or perhaps this card could’ve had much fresher matchups for them involving other opponents if the company’s overall creative direction wasn’t so limp.
They’d face off again the following night at Manhattan Mayhem II. For whatever reason, this closed out the show over the highly-anticipated Morishima vs. Danielson encounter. Despite Morishima vs. Danielson stealing the show and going on to win Match of the Year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards, this chapter in the Briscoes vs. Steen & Generico saga was another excellent one, elevated by it being a 2/3 falls match. That’s because not only was the feud excelling so tremendously, but Sapolsky had come up with a rare good idea in 2007: the Briscoes had swept Sydal & Castagnoli, the Kings of Wrestling, and Austin Aries & Roderick Strong each 2-0 in 2/3 falls matches earlier in the year, so the second fall would be dramatic in future matches under this stipulation.
But Sapolsky was still burned out, and it showed with the Briscoes sweeping Steen & Generico. Some would say this is when the titles should’ve changed hands, and then the Briscoes couldn’t won them back in the feud-ending PPV ladder match. At the very least, Steen & Generico was the ONLY appropriate team to break the clean sweep streak, and had it done so, perhaps this double main event with Morishima vs. Danielson would be as highly regarded as Unified and Glory By Honor V Night 2. To say that Steen & Generico forcing the Briscoes to a third fall in the Manhattan Center would’ve been an unforgettable moment and that the match would’ve closed out in a crowd frenzy is a gross understatement. Perhaps it would’ve even turned out to be voted as the Match of the Year.
But the post-match would be the go-home segment for this saga, with one last post-match brawl involving ladders. This would be it. The next weekend of action for ROH just 3 weeks away would be the Man Up PPV, as the main event would see this saga end in the company’s first-ever ladder match. It would be the 4th opportunity at the Tag Titles for the challengers. There would be no more excuses.
Before this though, brutal reality ricocheted back: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070905224343.htm
Leading medical experts associated with the Sports Legacy Institute appeared Sept. 5 with Michael Benoit, father of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, to release the results of neuropathological tests that demonstrate his son suffered from a type of brain damage called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which was found in all regions of his brain.
Despite this news being fresh in everyone’s minds, as well as the mild backlash PWG got when the Benoit family tragedy was exploited to kick off a Chris Hero vs. Human Tornado feud at the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles weekend tournament, nobody seemed to bother paying attention.
For all of its excellence, the company’s first-ever ladder match was a display of stupidity in its opening portion, just one unprotected chair shot after another while all four men brawled in the crowd. For many viewers it was quite unsettling; Dave Meltzer would refuse to rate the match (and never has a decade alter) as he felt doing so would encourage such dangerous stunts in the wake of the tragedy that had taken a tremendous emotional toll on him. He did credit the match as being excellent, accurately saying it belonged in the conversation with the legendary series of ladder matches several years earlier involving the Dudleyz, Hardyz, and Edge & Christian.
In the years that have followed the Benoit family tragedy, the business has seen the in-ring death of Mitsuharu Misawa, plus the early retirements of Edge, Christian, Danielson, and Corey Graves, the first name mentioned due to neck injuries, the latter 3 due to excessive concussions. So while this ladder match was a fitting conclusion to the feud that lived up to the hype, it’s one to also learn from as all four men continue their careers. In addition, Sapolsky has publicly expressed some regret for airing the match at all, viewing it as poor taste now that all of us are far more enlightened on the subject.
Dangerous stunts would not be the only ”downside” stemming from this all-time classic ladder match. In what is arguably a nitpick, the only thing keeping the match from being a flawless masterpiece was the lack of verbal trash talk from Steen, but that can be explained away by saying that the match’s environment was not safe and conducive to allow that. It was never a boring match, but the most impressive part was Steen saving the match at the end while Jay struggled to remove the belts, selling a pitiful last hope of delaying the inevitable, which was that Steen started a fight, and he’d now be losing it alongside his best friend.
The real downside would be in the post-match. Steen teased a split from Generico by pie-facing and then immediately leaving in disgust. In hindsight, no matter that it may have been too early, the Steen vs. Generico feud should’ve kicked off right here, resulting in Steen finally completing the betrayal at Rising Above 2007 or Final Battle 2007 in the company’s last weekend of the year. Both Steen and Generico had earned main event pushes in the company, and this feud would’ve carried Sapolsky’s sagging performance. It would be a year and a half before Steen & Generico would do anything creatively interesting, instead being involved in programs that had very little redeeming value at best (most notably alongside Delirious against the Hangmen Three), and doing nothing special at all to build up to their inevitable Tag Titles victory that came way too late for Sapolsky, and then doing nothing for 4 months until feuding with the newly formed American Wolves in January 2009. (Steen & Generico could’ve eventually still ascended to the top of the tag division upon reuniting in 2010-11.)
As for the Briscoes, they would be attacked in the post-match by the newly formed Age of the Fall faction, paying off a viral marketing campaign called Project 161. The faction would turn out to be Lacey, Jimmy Jacobs, the debuting Tyler Black, and returning Necro Butcher. The segment doesn’t hold up at all and also an admitted embarrassment for Sapolsky in hindsight, as Jacobs rambled on about revolutions to justify targeting the Briscoes and the Tag Titles while hanging the bloody Jay upside down and being covered with his crimson. This turned away from fans that were live in attendance at Man Up, and when the feud finally ended a year later at Glory By Honor VII with Austin Aries involved, it was a convoluted mess that saw the saga creatively peter out. Doesn’t sound as epic as a Steen vs. Generico main event would’ve been, now does it?
To state the obvious and risk sounding redundant, the Briscoes vs. Steen & Generico not only carried Sapolsky, but turned out to be the last great feud of his career to date. Nothing in the past decade that he’s done has come close to this. Not Jacobs against Aries and Jon Moxley (better known today as Dean Ambrose.) Not anything in Evolve. Not anything in FIP. Sapolsky’s best days are clearly behind him, and he’ll never be able to generate this kind of buzz again.
It’s fitting that the final great feud of Sapolsky’s career would be one half ROH darlings, the other half not quite darlings that had to take the long route to this point. In a year that Sapolsky thought he could tap into something special from the likes of Brent Albright, Matt Cross, Ruckus, and Erick Stevens, it would be the mainstream-driven personalities, the yin and yang tandem, that would be the year’s defining breakout stars.
It was the feud that earned Steen & Generico’s spots. It was the feud that put Steen & Generico on the map. It was the feud that critically carried Sapolsky’s fallen performance as the company moved to PPV. It was the feud that saw Steen break out as one of the best mic workers in the history of the business, a skill that has been leaned on to carry significant time on mainstream cable TV every week in the past 2 years. It was the feud that saw wild brawls, numerous show-stealers, unforgettable matches, and a historic ladder match so outstanding, that the company would have to wait 9 years for another one that could even be comparable.
It was ROH in 2007. It was the year that the Briscoes, Kevin Steen, and El Generico came together and manned up to carry the company and provide a beacon of hope as everything else fell apart.
Cattle Mutilation 