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After CM Punk did his skilled impression of the Hindenburg, Ace Steel reportedly bit Kenny Omega, and whispers of the alleged backstage brawl after All Elite Wrestling’s All Out began to percolate, Sean Ross Sapp knew he wasn’t sleeping a lot for the following few days. Rarely did knowledgeable wrestling story from backstage unfold as shortly because the supposed jabs and chair tossing that occurred in a NOW Arena locker room in early September. Sapp’s calling was to chase the information, ask for data from sources and endure the relentless push generally related to old-school journalism to resolve one of many greatest squared-circle tales of the 12 months, in a 365-day interval with little respite.
Sapp’s job as knowledgeable wrestling journalist isn’t conventional media. He can’t cowl the happenings of World Wrestling Entertainment, All Elite Wrestling, and plenty of different promotions throughout the globe purely as sport. His job with Fightful isn’t solely hypothesis both. Sapp’s position, primarily because of how deep his contact and supply listing in skilled wrestling is, could be no matter he chooses it to be. His profile in squared-circle fandom gained invaluable traction when he broke the story of Punk’s return to the ring, practically a month earlier than he confirmed up in AEW. Thanks to the efforts spearheaded by Sapp, Punk referred to as his August 2021 debut “the worst kept secret in the world.”
How do you cowl an “outcome predetermined” sport?
“What’s worked out for me is highlighting my personality and doing review shows and stuff like that on top of breaking actual news,” Sapp lately advised Deadspin. “The unusual element is we got to break stuff that’s going to happen on this show that is scripted as well. I think it’s a little bit unlike anything else, kind of like pro wrestling is. You have to infuse those elements of realism, but you have to have an entertaining aspect of it as well.
“I always say that almost anybody can belong as long as they’re good people in wrestling media because there are so many different elements to do it. You can start up a wrestling website like wrestling doughnuts and just talk to wrestlers about their favorite doughnuts. And you might get invited to a media scrum. You might end up making that successful. I think the role of wrestling media is to inform and entertain, but sometimes you have to weigh that appropriately when the time calls for it.”
If you peek into Sapp’s highschool yearbook, you’d see an undersized athlete. Like loads of different journalists, those that knew they couldn’t maintain taking part in sports activities for a dwelling as a career determined the following finest transfer was to jot down concerning the individuals who may. Sapp had by no means heard of Dave Meltzer, Mike Johnson, or Wade Keller, a lot much less that skilled wrestling journalism was a factor. He figured his distinctive path to writing concerning the subsequent Dwayne Johnson or Charlotte Flair can be wrestling and combined martial arts coaching to realize a deeper understanding of the game. Sapp admits if he knew who Bryan Alvarez was earlier than going that route, he would possibly’ve performed it otherwise. Yet, he proceeded on, gaining his first bylines in skilled wrestling journalism working for Bill Apter without spending a dime.
It was the paycheck-less work beneath Apter that led to Sapp working for Fightful. When the professional wrestling conglomerate Fightful began, founder Jimmy Van approached Apter in search of somebody to assist with content material. Sapp was the suggestion and the web site has by no means appeared again. At first, Sapp’s roles had been so giant, he described them as “doing everything but designing the website.” Several years later within the current, he’s a minority proprietor within the firm and used to carry the title of managing editor. Sapp doesn’t do the hiring and firing, however he oversees many of the content material. He’s removed from the one worker on the firm today too, with round 40 those that submit month-to-month invoices.
To get to his established put up within the professional wrestling trade, Sapp mentioned he hardly ever took a day without work from 2014 via early 2019. He had a 3-day trip to Oak Island in 2018 and hated the journey. He didn’t work the times of his bachelor celebration or wedding ceremony. Outside of that, his days had been dedicated to profession constructing, together with Christmas and birthdays. Sapp nonetheless works most days now, and day by day on the job is completely different. He’s primarily in control of breaking information, internet hosting a podcast or reside stream virtually every day, and promoting sponsorships to the web site. When others break information, he’s completely happy to offer credit score to different retailers and piggyback to offer extra data.
“I never call myself a journalist because there’s such a weird, just amalgamation, of everything media that we have to do,” Sapp mentioned. “And I don’t feel like some of the stuff that we do is journalism, and some of it is. But there’s plenty of it that isn’t. It’s pro wrestling. It’s fake fighting. We’re not covering the war (in Ukraine). We can certainly discuss rumors and speculation a little more freely than something like that can.”
How does he get so many scoops?
That brings us again to the brawl at All Out. Three years earlier on the 2019 version of the identical present, an analogous altercation occurred between Sadie Gibbs and Bea Priestley. Sapp was later to getting the knowledge than he’d appreciated as a result of he coated the occasion reside with dangerous cellphone reception. While working final 12 months’s All Out from the consolation of his house, and information of The Elite’s confrontation with Punk and others began to unfold, Sapp’s cellphone was charged and he had a full web connection to search out the story. Fightful’s removed from a one-man operation, however Sapp is aware of the best way his tales and scoops have trended on social media is an incredible deal to his employer.
“I think I’m just good at getting information and my ultimate role is that I provide accurate information and insight to what’s happening, what’s going to happen and things that did happen, that sometimes wouldn’t otherwise be publicly known if we didn’t publish it,” Sapp mentioned. “Sometimes wrestlers, companies will hit me up and they’ll be like ‘Hey, we would like this information to go to you because we know a lot of people will see it.’ And that’s okay, as long as I can verify it. But I think that’s my ultimate role.
“And then completely separate to that is to do entertaining post-shows, which are a huge part of our business where I can offer subjective opinions on a subjective show, while still providing objective news, which I think is very important. And again, it’s one of those unique aspects because there is subjectivity and objectivity in entertainment.”
The subsequent step for Sapp is a want to normalize a direct line of communication from wrestlers to the media members who cowl them. Open clubhouses are mandated by groups in skilled sports activities, and permit topics and writers to know one another higher. Smaller promotions similar to Game Changer Wrestling and Black Label Pro have allowed Sapp that entry. That additionally didn’t cease Sapp from wanting into the allegations introduced towards GCW for faking COVID check outcomes final 12 months. He mentioned there’s solely been a number of situations of wrestlers mentioning their friendship and questioning why he reported one thing about them, saying 99.5 % of wrestlers perceive his job.
What he doesn’t report
What begs the query: how far does newsworthiness lengthen in skilled wrestling? Sapp has made the selection to remain out of private issues involving wrestlers except they arrive on to him for clarification and with the expressed consent that he can go public with the knowledge. Sapp has connections sufficient to listen to about non-wrestling issues involving expertise. He reached out to WWE’s Mia Yim when he had heard her husband, AEW’s Keith Lee, had been going via an prolonged sickness, however didn’t report it on Fightful. Same when former WWE wrestler Mojo Rawley had an especially dangerous coronavirus case. He despatched nicely needs, however didn’t use it for skilled achieve.
“They usually don’t forget that, too, because that is something that a lot of people could jump on. We could probably sell a lot of subscriptions off of information like that,” Sapp mentioned. “And it’s just not something that I want to do. I always say that you could argue that none of this is my business. And that is completely fair based on how you determine that. But there are a lot of people that do take notice of that within the industry. They’re maybe more likely to come to us for stories or news or something than somebody who does put that type of information out there.
“I just want to make it clear that this is just a business type of thing. And if we see each other in person, I’m going to be friendly to you. I’m going to be respectful to you. I’m not going to make it personal. I’m not going to do any of that. I’m not going to try to bury you or anything like that. And if people are cool to me, I’m gonna be cool to them. And I still gotta do my job.”