Al Snow recently sat down with Harry Kettle of CLICKON Sports to discuss everything pro wrestling; here are the main highlights from the interview:
Al discussed his simplistic view on gimmicks within sports entertainment and selling a character or persona to an audience:
“If they cannot describe you to their friends and family in a sentence or less, then you’re no good. You’re not gonna be successful, or as successful as you can possibly be. If you’re not able to do that, no matter how talented an individual may be, male or female. Steve Austin was always a beer drinking, ass kicking redneck. You have to deliver on what you’re selling to the audience.”
Thankfully for him, Al Snow’s character was very easy to describe in just one word: insane.
“I was involved in a lot of interesting storylines and things like that, and a large part of that was because my character was insane. I was free because of my insanity to do absolutely anything. A lot of guys say Al Snow was a comedy wrestler, but I wasn’t a comedy wrestler. I didn’t do any of it for comedy, I did it to be entertaining.”
However he contrasts the beauty of being free with his view on the possibility of missed opportunities:
“Sometimes you’re in the forest so deep that you can’t see the trees. You don’t even see the opportunities that are there until you get further out, and then you realise ‘oh that was an opportunity’ or ‘oh I blew that one’. As far as regrets though, I never regret being a professional wrestler. I’ve lived an amazing life, and the only regret is that at some point it’ll have to come to an end. That’ll be hard.”
One opportunity that he didn’t miss was the chance to work as a trainer and to help those around him become successful. For those who are unaware of who he’s helped, here’s what he had to say about training some WWE greats:
“Steve Austin came and spent several days with me at one point when I had my school in Ohio to kind of get the ring rust off. Glenn Jacobs [Kane], D’Lo Brown, CM Punk spent time with me, Beth Phoenix, Alicia Fox, Cody Rhodes, and I can go on and on. I had a hand with some of these guys either from the ground up or later on, so I’ve had quite a lot of wrestlers who are enjoying some level of success in professional wrestling that I played a factor in.”
Al expanded upon his professional training with how perceives his personal success.
“It’s a big thrill for me to watch my students succeed on any level. I’m just so proud of them, and I really believe and have determined that whatever legacy I leave behind in wrestling is going to probably be my training. I’ve been blessed to have been an in-ring performer for going on 36 years, and in that time I’ve made a lot of mistakes, so that gives me a wealth of experience that I can pass on. They can understand where I made my mistakes, and I can help to prevent them from making it themselves.”
In the final high-light, he offers a piece of advice on permission versus forgiveness.
“You’d be surprised at how much control a performer actually has once they step foot in the ring. Something may work, or not work, but that’s on you. The phrase that’s used the most is ‘always ask for forgiveness, never ask for permission’. If you ask for forgiveness, then you take your chances. You may have to come back and say you screwed up, but at least you took your shot.”
Catch the whole interview with CLICKON Sports here:
