TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
RADICAN'S TAKE
RADICAN: Al Snow discusses his wrestling career, philosophy, time in OVW, and more in new interview Jul 6, 2008 - 2:31:12 PM
PWTorch.com DVD review
RF Video Shoot with Al Snow 2008
By Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist
Al Snow of ECW, WWE, and Tough Enough fame, recently sat down with RF Video for nearly three hours for his first shoot with the company in 10 years. Snow comes off as a very knowledgeable person, who is completely different from the person he was when he conducted his last shoot with RF Video 10 years prior. As Snow explained during the course of the interview, he buried Vince McMahon and the WWE when he was first released by the company at the time of his first shoot because he didn’t know any better and realizes now that McMahon gave him a tremendous opportunity that he completely screwed up.
The interviewer, Rob Feinstein, constantly tries to plow through his list of questions for Snow instead of just letting him talk about his theories on pro wrestling. Snow, to his credit, fends off insignificant questions about feuding with Steve Blackman to discuss his philosophy on pro wrestling.
One of the big themes of the interview is Snow talks about being in the ring as an opportunity and not a job. He sets the framework for this philosophy by talking about the rates for a 30 second ad on television. Snow believes that when you get six minutes in the ring on Raw, it is a tremendous opportunity for wrestlers to market themselves and become valuable commodity the company.
The philosophy of wrestling that Snow lays out for the viewer on this release is when wrestlers are given an opportunity to wrestle on television, they should do all they can to get themselves and their opponent over for the benefit of the company. Snow’s discussion of his time in the WWE spotlight is if he had known then what he knows now, things might be different.
Snow says instead of viewing his time in the ring as an opportunity to market his personality, he spent too much time worrying about having a great match or doing certain spots. It is admirable to hear Snow say that he holds no grudges against anyone in the business for his lack of top tier success in the industry, but instead, blames himself. Snow goes on to talk about several specific matches where he was given an opportunity, but blew it.
Snow doesn’t just talk about himself in this interview, as he has a great deal of experience working with WWE developmental talent as a trainer and booker in OVW. Snow talks about his time in OVW in great detail. He worked with what he feels is the next generation of talent and gives his thoughts about wrestlers such as C.M. Punk and Cody Rhodes.
A highlight of this shoot is Snow’s discussion of how every show can only build to one pop. Snow gives the analogy of a man sleeping with a woman and doing all the right things to lead to a big climax. It might not be the most tasteful discussion of booking philosophy, but Snow’s analogy makes sense. Snow uses several examples of wrestlers on the independent scene that believe their job is have the best match on the card and discusses how that philosophy is wrong in his eyes, as each match in theory should build to that one pop on the show at the end of the night.
Overall thoughts: I would give this release a strong recommendation. It’s one of the better shoots I’ve seen in recent months, especially if you’re big into wrestling philosophy. Snow has been just about everywhere in the business and talks in-depth about Tough Enough, OVW, and of course, his own career (mostly ECW and WWE). Snow’s discussion of building a wrestling card, his own shortcomings in wrestling, and working in OVW are all well-worth going out of your way to sit down and listen to. Of course, Snow comes off as a little too nice when it comes to burying other people in the industry, as he has nothing but nice things to say about those in power in the WWE, but that doesn’t take away from a shoot that hopefully doesn’t get overlooked.
Check out the Sean Radican Audio Showcase Starring Sean Radican with Derek Burgan next weekend for an audio review of this release, plus so much more including the latest on ROH, TNA, and WWE!
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
