In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE star/OVW owner Al Snow.
Al Snow on the Netflix Series “Wrestlers” premiering Wednesday, September 13th featuring OVW (Click here to see the trailer):
“Well, it was a one in a million chance, you know what I mean? Like, legitimately just one in a million opportunity. Because of COVID, myself and my other partners, you know, we elected to bring in additional investors and we sold a majority shares of the company to those investors. It just so happened that one of them, he and his wife had went to school with an executive from BBC America, and literally one thing happened, you know, she came into town. I mean, again, a million and a one chance. She came into town for a wedding in Louisville. They got to talking and then another one of the owners started communicating with her that led to speaking to Greg Whiteley, who was the director producer for the Netflix series docu-series ‘Last Chance U’ and ‘Cheer,’ which did phenomenal audience numbers and won an Emmy, won several actual Emmys. Then next thing you know, I mean, it was about a two-year process of let’s wait and see, what’s going to happen. BBC America showed up and did a teaser tape, came back, left, and then we were greenlit to go. Greg Whiteley and his crew showed up at the end of May last year and filmed through the end of August.”
Al Snow on what he would like to see come out of this series:
“I hope that this vehicle gives more relevancy and more exposure to OVW and gives more relevancy and exposure to the talent that are in OVW and those talents can potentially parlay this opportunity into an opportunity on a much larger platform. If that happens, then I would be thrilled.”
“If you’re an existing wrestling fan, I hope that it creates more of a understanding and more of a respect and maybe gives you a little more insight as to just how challenging it is to really pursue a life and pursue the dreams and the goals of being a professional wrestler and makes you appreciate performance in the ring a little bit more. You know, if you’re not a wrestling fan, my endeavor, my hope, my goal is that it will make you do those same things, but also maybe capture you to where you now want to follow, if nothing else, the journey of of the characters that are on the show, you know, where do they go and what do they do, and ultimately makes you more of a wrestling fan that you never would have been in the first place. That helps expand the audience of wrestling as much to the market of Mr. and Mrs. Walmart as possible. Tough Enough up did a wonderful job of that initially in those first couple of seasons, and I’m looking and hoping that it will do the same.”
“As far as OVW is concerned, I hope that it takes and raises OVW back to a level of prominence that it once held. It brings the talent to a level of prominence that the talent in OVW once held. I hope that it brings OVW back to a point of relevancy and an understanding of the necessity for an OVW to exist within the wrestling business.”
On his feud with Big Boss Man:
“I would say that if I’m not trying to, you know, please understand, I’m not trying to shift the heat or, you know, disparage anybody, just being realistic and being honest. If the company had not dropped the ball, I think it could have been, as far as relatability, I think that it could have been a really amazing storyline. Yeah, I really think so. I think that, you know, no one doesn’t relate to having their pet stolen, and then, you know, something so cruel as being fed to them, but when you arrive at the payoff, when you’ve made the crux of the match, the story, the conflict, that has to be resolved, the dogs, animals, you know, every week since I heard the initial pitch, I was like, we’re gonna have highly trained, vocally commanded animals in this scenario. Then when you arrive, and there’s multiple animals, with multiple owners that the company waited until that morning of the pay-per-view to contact a local veterinarian clinic to get owners of particular breed of dogs that then went out and urinated, defecated, fornicated, and you couldn’t even show them on the air nor interact with them, well then you’ve completely hamstrung the whole thing. It’s unfortunate that happened, but ultimately for both myself and Ray Traylor, God bless his soul, you know, Big Boss Man, we were responsible for taking crap and making shoe polish out of it. That’s the number one thing you got to do in wrestling. The show always goes on.”
Al Snow was asked his thoughts on Endeavor taking over WWE:
“I don’t know. I have a lot of mixed emotions. You have to understand that at the end of the day, regardless of corporate structure and all that, the wrestling business is like every other business and it’s like no other business. Jimmy John’s, you market your sandwiches. In wrestling, you market your wrestlers. Your sandwiches that are the wrestlers have their own thoughts and their own ideas. Here’s the thing. As a promoter, I created a platform. That’s all I do. I create a platform to advertise and promote my wrestlers. My wrestlers, the minute they walk through this curtain, it’s their responsibility to make themselves a star and attraction. I don’t care how they go about doing it, all I care is that they do it.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
