Al Snow (@therealalsnow) is a professional wrestler and the owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). He is known for his time in ECW, WWE and on the series “Wrestlers” on Netflix. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Blizzard Brawl in Milwaukee, WI to talk about how “Wrestlers” came together on Netflix, why he decided to buy OVW, how he trains aspiring pro wrestlers, his take on the importance of psychology in wrestling, how he first got over with “Head” in ECW, being part of the JOB Squad in WWE, his friendship with Mick Foley, his Kennel From Hell match vs. Big Boss Man at Unforgiven 1999, why he thinks deathmatches are stupid and much more!
Quote I’m thinking about:“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” —Michael Jordan
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On lapsed fans watching the Netflix docuseries:
“I don’t know if they’re lapsed fans. I gotta say that I’m very flattered. And I’m always surprised when people recognise me. And surprisingly, it does happen still quite, quite frequently. But, boy, it’s there’s been a major uptick in it since obviously, the Netflix thing. And I don’t want to say like, they don’t seem like your typical wrestling fans. They seem like they’re very casual wrestling fans, or not at all. And then they seem to recognise me.”
On the original Netflix pitch:
“I don’t know. It clearly was a one-in-a-million shot. Okay, so the president, Mayor of Louisville is one of my business partners in OVW, his name’s Craig Greenberg. So he and Matt Jones, another partner by the name of Jeff Tablin. They all came on board. And shortly after they bought into the company. Craig and his wife attended a wedding and a high school friend who happened to be an executive with BBC America was in attendance at the wedding. They get to having a conversation. He points out that they’ve just bought into this wrestling company, she finds it immensely fascinating, leads to another BBC executive. And then Matt Jones pitches the idea just out of the blue because he’s a sports radio host, he had watched Last Chance U and was like Hey, what about if Greg Whiteley were to come in here do similar to what Last Chance U was the documentary doc series on OVW. Yeah, so the BBC producer Alejandro Mendez caught his interest. He came out and did a about five or six-minute teaser tape was in OVW for about a week. He pitches it shows the sizzle reel to Greg Whiteley. Yeah, Greg Whiteley is like I want this to be my next project. He goes to Netflix because he’s under a developmental deal with Netflix and goes, Hey, I’ve got this idea. They paid for him to go out and film, a reel to show the executives at Netflix. And then they’re like, Yep, let’s let’s do it.”
On his deeper voice:
“I had severe chronic hiccups for almost 3 weeks, I was exhausted. I would fall asleep hiccuping and I would wake up like an hour or two later. And then I just said and then I’d pass out again while sitting and it just went for weeks but. I did not know this. Two things one. They treat chronic hiccups with anti-psychotic meds. So let me tell you something. I had some really intense dreams. One of them at a former WWE wrestler’s home. Kevin fertig seven. Jessica and I had went up to a wrestling convention there in Indianapolis and we’re like, ah, you know, stay at our house. Dave Hero was along and Kelly Hero and you normally play stay at somebody’s house like I’m you know, I believe that I in the most unobtrusive I hate it because I’m so on edge, you know that I’m going to offend somebody so but hey, this was different so I go to sleep. And I don’t even realise normally I’d have sweatpants on or something in case I had to go to the bathroom. I’m just in my underwear. And I’m laying and I wake up and I gotta go the bathroom I’ll prior to waking up. I have this. I can’t remember the dream but I know I was planning some celebration and if I found and I still don’t know what this is. But if I found it, it was going to be the best day ever. Doesn’t make sense. It’s a dream. Right? So I woke up, I got to go to the bathroom. I go the bathroom, done. I’m like can I find that? So I start looking through their entire bathroom. All the drawers cabinets, the shower. I take the tank the lid off the tank of the toilet, you know? I mean not there. You think I’m done? No not. That would be that’d be a dull story. I literally now go from room to room upstairs looking through everything including Katie and Kevin’s room, who are laying in the bed watching me do this. Not doing anything. I go into the nightstands go through the closet, lift up the mattress, walk out. You think I’ve done? No. I head downstairs and go through their entire kitchen, their entire refrigerator, every cabinet, the stove, and then around the rest of the house. I didn’t go in the garage or the basement. But I had thoroughly searched the rest of the house if I had been a cop I could have found evidence. So back upstairs I go. I’m disappointed and fall back asleep. Wake up the next morning. Oh god, what did I just do?”
On his body transformation:
“A lot of it is because of the way I change my routine change the way I work out. So you know, I enjoy it more, it’s more of a challenge. I don’t wrestle as much obviously in the ring as I used to, but it certainly helped at that time when it would conditioning-wise and training-wise to because really, the only real thing that can condition to be in the ring is to be in the ring. But that was the one thing I found that really helped me perform better and move better and endurance wise, it really helped.”
On the head entrance:
“I don’t know. I wish I could figure it out again. I mean, I kind of do know, and that is, and this is the advice I always give to all the wrestlers these days. And that that is number one. everybody’s forgotten what we really sell in wrestling. In wrestling, we use that term selling, and immediately think it’s to act like your hurt, and that’s the last thing we’re selling. Because an audience has never physically done what we’ve done. So they can’t relate to it. Unless of course they’ve grown up in a trailer park or something.”
What is missing from wrestling today:
“The performers do two things. And that is, first and foremost, they sell what they do, that it’s all about what, it’s all about the moves. They don’t sell the who and they don’t sell the why. The real definition of work is a sham. It’s a con. So make you believe a lie. And the only lie in professional wrestling that has ever been told, is that we don’t know who’s going to win, that we’re going out there with the full intent of anything we do to you is being done for one reason, that’s to increase the odds of us being able to win, and then decrease the odds of us losing. That’s it, because I could do anything to you anything at all, but the only consequence from it is that it might make you lose, or and allow me to win. That’s it. And that has been lost. That is no longer what they sell anymore. Now they sell you what because they think that you’re impressed, which we have more athletic ability now in the wrestling business than we’ve ever had in the history of the wrestling business. I mean, it’s astounding. And I mean really when you think about it in general, the athleticism of a professional wrestler, it’s incredible. I mean, and I’m not saying that because I’ve been one. I’m saying that because you’re taking people that are, you know, some of them are 250 280 pounds. And they have the coordination, the timing, the distance, the footwork and the spatial awareness, to be able to pull off incredible, almost Olympic gymnastic-type moves, and have the control and distance to not even truly injure the other person and do it in one take. I mean, they only get one shot at it because it’s live, you know what I mean? And that’s incredible. But that never, ever sells tickets. That doesn’t even in football, baseball, basketball, UFC, boxing, none of that ever sells tickets. Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers ever. Nobody bought a ticket to see him box, they bought a ticket to see him lose. Because he sold who he was, and the fact that he could box so incredibly helped, but that never sold tickets. And he knew that. And I even watched an interview where he’s like, you know, look, they’re never gonna go and just see me because I’m a great boxer, people are gonna come see me because they want to see me lose. Yeah, because I’m gonna run my mouth. Yeah. And that’s what he did. You know, he built what we call heat, heat is not what everybody in the wrestling business these days think that they think that’s offence for the bad guy. And it’s not, heat is a want, a need. It’s a desire, you build within the audience. And then they gotta they gotta buy a ticket to see the outcome.”
On the Kennel from Hell:
“Yeah, they were very very polite, one had some disciplinary training, but that was it. They’re out there urinating deprecating and fornicating to the point where two owners are back at the back exchanging addresses for puppy rights, Good lord.”
On being a punchline for Mick Foley:
“When you realise that, the more he talks about you, the more he puts you over, the more he draws attention to you, the more he acknowledges you, it’s not negative. You know, people have a misinterpretation of what the term like a wrestling term to bury somebody. They think it is anything to talk about them negatively. To bury someone is literally the actual term is just like burying somebody would for a funeral. Once you’ve put them in the ground after a period of time, you don’t talk about them anymore. They don’t exist. That’s burying somebody when you don’t speak about somebody. When you speak about them, whether it’s positively or negatively. You’re drawing attention to them, you’re actually putting them over. So he could make jokes about me all day. I mean, you know, especially in his comedy show, which probably that’s probably the only thing that’s funny. I remember Mick you know, in the locker room when he was wrestling, he tell everyone when I get done wrestling ‘m gonna be a stand up comic. We’d all laugh You know, he’s a stand-up comic now. Nobody’s doing it. Nobody’s laughing.”
On students thinking it’s easy:
“Even from when I started my own school back years ago, I was at first I was really dismayed. And I was really shocked. Like I had high calibre athletes would come in what I’ll never forget, there was an athlete out of Canada. He was professional, like cross-country mountain biking. And, like MMA or not. It wasn’t MMA at that time. It was, I think he was in full contact karate. Bunch of like three or four sports. He lasted a week, and was like, as a for me.”
On a career highlight:
“Still being able to do this. People asked me they go hey, what was your favourite moment? What was your favourite match? Who was the person you enjoyed? Every time I have gotten to do this. I have loved. I mean, there’s not. I mean, there’s certain moments that stand out more than others. But from the very first time on May 11 of 1982 When I walked to a 20 man two ring Battle Royale in Springville, Ohio, to walk it out in front of six people to walk it out in front of 66,000 people.”
What is Al Snow grateful for?
“Everything.”
