Former GFW producer & WWE star, Al Snow, recently spoke with Sun Sports about a wide variety of topics ranging from: his time in the WWE, not having enough knowledge during his in-ring days to take advantage of what was being given to him & more.
Here are the highlights:
Al Snow On Not Taking Advantage Of Opportunities:
“Those were opportunities that I mishandled, I didn’t have enough of an understanding or knowledge to take full advantage. At that time, I made the mistake that a lot of pro-wrestlers do and pointed the finger at everyone else and and never took responsibility for not succeeding. I was given a stage and platform; the Avatar character was new and different and neat, but knowing what I know now, I could have made that so much more than what it was.”
The Misconception Of Vince McMahon:
“Vince McMahon genuinely wants every wrestler to succeed. He’s a businessman. Not to mention his ego, the more his wrestlers succeed, the more his business succeeds, the more he succeeds and he gets to take credit. Guys misunderstand, in WWE Vince gives you creative freedom, once in you step in that ring, there’s nothing Vince can do to help you get over and there’s nothing he can do to stop you getting over. It’s 100 percent on you and you’re free to do whatever you want, you’ve got limitations with TV time but it’s up to you, it truly is.”
Snow On How He Came Up With The “Head” Gimmick:
“I had to go away and reinvent myself. If I stayed in WWE I was never going to be in a better spot. Chris Candido spoke to Paul Heyman on my behalf, Heyman spoke to Vince and I was kind of put on loan to ECW. Paul had no plans for me, so I was free to do whatever I wanted. I was trying to demonstrate that I had suffered a nervous breakdown and had mental illness. I was reading books on abnormal psychology and read a case study about a woman who heard voices from inanimate objects. She thought they were talking to her. I picked up this mannequin head that was backstage at a show and remembered Mick Foley jerking around in the car with this Styrofoam head he kept his mask on. He would pretend it was his girlfriend and I thought, ‘You know I’m going to take this to the arena and talk to it.’ It just took off.”
How Did ECW Succeed:
“We kind of knew that we had something special with ECW; both between the wrestlers and the audience and that it was pretty unique at the time. I don’t think we knew the ramifications or influence it would end up having on wrestling as a whole. WWE back then felt like it was Vince’s, even though you didn’t know Vince was the guy running it, it was Vince McMahon’s. But ECW felt very like it was yours, as a fan. The fans at the arena were as much a part of the show as the show itself. I think right now, the boom period English wrestling is going through, the audience is like the ECW audience. Those guys are awesome, they love to sing entrance songs and chant, that was much the same in ECW.”
You can read the rest of Al Snow’s interview with Sun Sports by clicking here.
