Al Snow on Why It's Still Important to Keep Kayfabe in 2023
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Al Snow on Why It's Still Important to Keep Kayfabe in 2023
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"A pat on the back is only two feet higher than a kick in the ass"- Al Snow. Wow, that sentence alone is a lifetime a knowledge. Thank you for interviewing him.
James get that on a t-shirt!!!🤑
There's a fine line between a pat on the back and a kick in the pants, so let's dance!
That line hit hard.
Took a class from Al in 2011 and it completely changed my view of the business. One of the best teachers/trainers in history.
I went to his school in Lima. Hes amazing. He could talk for hours about a working punch lol.
I took a class with Bob Holly..
He just beat me up.
@@fingersTitan i've heard stories lol
@@fingersTitan 😂😂😂
@@fingersTitan I GOT AN IDEAL....HOW BOUT YA GIVE ME THE BELT....THEN I BEAT EVERYBODY!
This is why I love Al Snow. his insight is exceptional and he breaks it down very eloquently. well done Al! always loved the snow plow as a finisher too :D
He's correct! I also say the pro wrestling is at it's best when you question if there is reality behind the confrontation. John Cena vs Rock promos are a good example. Brock Lesnar was a big draw in the PG era because his believability was head and shoulders over everyone (him cutting Orton). If I would've seen Austin and Mcmahon hanging out together during the Attitude Era that would've killed it for me lol even though I knew it was entertainment.
Spot on. Just think of Bret kissing that belt before handing it to Earl ahead of his title matches.
He's right. Wrestling fans in the age of the internet have liked to believe they are smarter and above the average fan because they know about some stuff, how training happens, shoot stories, backstage politics, booking and so on but in the end a fan is a fan, even a fan who has a website and writes reports is still a fan. Through the age of the internet some fans now want to play fantasy booker and money marks book these ridiculous pandering shows so they can feel like part of the wrestling business. No matter how much knowledge got out or what fans know today, they are still marks, they still care about the finish.
The amount of complaining online about "this guy should be champion!" or complaining about the finish because they thought the other guy should win shows it. If you care what the finish is to a match you're a mark, even if you'd like to think you're not. That isn't an insult, that's not calling you an idiot, it's just what they endeavour to create by selling you a story. It's no different than goingv to watch a movie, I can watch all the behind the scenes footage, hear interviews and stories about production and still watch the movie while buying into what's happening. I know that in reality James Bond isn't jumping out a helicopter on to a mountain then skiing down it while having a shootout with bad guys, then he jumps off the mountain into the car and gets away. I know that's probably not even the same actor doing that stuff and that a professional stunt team was involved, I'm still invested and excited hoping to see James Bond make a spectacular getaway at the last second. I never saw anybody like "That movie was really fake, you're an idiot if you got excited about that"
I'm 45 English and knew what was what by 12 / 13.. My argument back then to non fans was "Do you watch action films?" knowing they will say yes. "These guys don't have the luxury of STOP. CUT. RE-DO.. They are live action stuntmen."
It made me like wrestling even more.
My favorite are UFC/MMA marks. They all think "Oh the fighting is real so you can't be a "mark". OK mark. Any promotion and I mean ANY, that sells tickets has "marks". Their job is to put butts in seats, as it were. If your butt is in the seat or in front of the TV because "oh I hate that bitch!" or "He's gonna beat him down with ease because X..." - well guess what that makes you?
I love the way Al Snow explains things. It's so honest and practical.
His voice is getting harder and harder to listen to.
@@jefferyorton1723 why?
It's gravely and painful to listen to.
"A pat in the back is only two feet higher than a kick in the ass". I love that. Wished there was more interviews with Al Snow, he is really great.
Incredible.. Al is a GREAT speaker..
Agreed. Kayfabe is really needed.
Not really... Entertaining people and putting a55e5 on seats is what's needed. Al snow said the audience already knows it's fake they just want to watch a spextacle not what JC thinkw is right bc it's from 70s deep south IF JC had it his way, it would be deep south grappling bs that is a snore test that's why he failed miserably at roh.
@@robmartin5448 Here's a different way to think about it: what if there _is_ still an audience for Jim Cornette's old style wrestling, yet those fans have nothing to watch?
Remember, if you build it, they will come.
Think of a game that you find uninteresting. Let's say you have zero interest in chess.Guess what? Millions of people play chess. There are chess clubs everywhere. I'm certain that some people enjoy watching chess tournaments online. Oh, chess doesn't make stars? Maybe not like music and movies do, yet a _lot_ of people know of the late Bobby Fischer. I'm not a chess nut, and even I know who he was. I'm guessing that in Russia, Anatoly Karpov is treated with great reverence. In some parts of the world, mountain climbers(!) are celebrities (e.g. Reinhold Messner--look him, up, the man is treated like a quasi-rock star in Europe). Would you sit there watching someone climb a mountain? No, but some people would.
I'm not saying that Jim Cornette's old style rasslin' would fill a football stadium, but it doesn't need to do so. You corner store doesn't have a line a mile long, but it doesn't need to have one in order to do good business.
Consider how many promotions have tried to mimic WWE, and how many have failed. Not even Corny's SMW was the purist promotion that many make it out to be.
If you push no-nonsense wrestling to people, it _will_ find an audience. The fact is that so many people are so unoriginal, they just copy what Vince Junior does. Look at Japan, they are now copying the awful shaky camera work that WWE does. Sorry, but the people responsible (I'm looking at you, Dragon Gate production crew) are too dumb to realise that people watch WWE in spite of, not because of, the horrid camera work. Try something different, you'll be amazed how many people will be attracted to your product.
It no different if you watch a movie like spiderman.
You know Tom Holland cant really do all those things but you still watch and accept it for what it is
This is becoming if not already staked the claim as the best wrestling podcast out there...I still give Jim the nod but now with Al in the mix the possiblity of shooting past Corny is absolutely real. Dutch is fabulous & getting better each appearance. Al is just as amazing of a mind out there & a voice that hasn't been heard endlessly already for decades on shoot interviews. And dare I say Mr Romero is as good as it gets to guys on wrestling podcasts with no history in the business. Easily my favorite and arguably the best interviewer out there. Asks the question... which are typically well thought out questions...& he shuts the F up and listens. Something most fail at. Awesome stuff. I feel like going to get some head now
I started watching wrestling in the 1970s. Did I know it was a "work"? Yes. But, no one was on television or the internet spilling the beans. I was sad to see the WCW end in 2001, and the Attitude Era end. I stopped watching wrestling, at that time. Do I listen to lots of wrestler's podcasts today? Yes. While I find them interesting, entertaining, and educational, they contribute to me not watching wrestling again.
I really appreciate this interview because Al describes exactly what my problem with a lot of modern wrestling is perfectly. I enjoy a peak behind the scenes and an excellent match, dont get me wrong. For me part of being an excellent match though, is the wrestlers abilities to tell a story in the ring. When I see a lot of these clearly scripted and practiced spots, it just ruins things for me. It completely takes me out of the moment. Now I dont care how it ends anymore because im reminded it was scripted anyway. Al is 100% correct. If I can suspend my disbelief and buy into the story a match is trying to tell, you'll keep me watching all day. When I see a couple guys run a gymnastics routine, im going to change the channel.
Well al basically manhandled low ki at a indie show, not shot on him but made him work his way because he wasn't going to do the "hollywood fight scene" stuff that low ki wanted to do. basically protecting the suspension of disbelief.
This is my feeling exactly and why I abandoned my attempt to go back to watching a while back. I tried another time a couple weeks back and caught Smackdown for the first time in about 20 years, and it was alright until this tag team bout where every thing was painstakingly set up and executed. It took so long to suplex off the top I could have boiled a fkn egg
Al Snow's wrestling mind fascinates me. I don't think there is anyone in the pro wrestling business who approaches it, the way he does.
Just remember, this cretin "preserved kayfabe" by running around in a J.O.B. Squad t-shirt ("Pin Me, Pay Me!") in the WWF.
Jim LOVES him. I wish Al went on his podcast.
Them 2 would speak about wrestling for 5 days straight without breaks and every second would be worth the listen.
Are you serious? 😂 Did you watch the interview? The man literally just explained that this “ mindset “ has the been the mindset of the entire business for the last 100 years universally outside of the last 15 years or so where it’s changed to all this “Indy darling “ mindset 😂😭😂🤣….This is not an Al Snow “perspective “ he’s explaining how ALL of the previous generation was taught and brought up and the true concept of DRAWING MONEY , GETTING OVER and being a SUPER STAR lmao ….there’s literally not one person in the last 20 years to actually GET OVER outside of John Cena and Brock Lesnar, and when I say get over I mean to the point that people that don’t even watch wrestling knows who you are
@@markv1274 He also talked to a plastic head. So what? It was funny and didn't really do much to demolish kayfabe.
I bet it fascinates you, I'm not sure you understood it lol
I got the chance to interview al two different times on my little rinky dink radio show. Not only was he a great Interview, but he gave me as much time and respect and effort as he does the bigger interviewers. He still says hi to me when we run into each other in public. Nothing but love for al snow
So true.
Kayfabe was so great.
It made Wrestling Great.
"A pat on the back is only two feet higher than a kick in the ass." I'm remembering that one. Nice closing on this clip. 👏
He got that from Gorilla Monsoon ❤
@@jamesgroover4643 Thank you! Glad I'm not the only one who knows that.
I’ve been saying this same thing for years.
Wow. Never heard a breakdown of kayfabe and psychology of pro-wrestling like this before.
Didn't expect this. Very captivating explanation.
Yeah I have to hand it to him, I definitely understand a little better now the appeal of wrestling to someone totally disinterested in the backstage politics and the "reality" of it all. Just entertain me so I can have a break from this bullshit.
Been saying this forever. So glad to hear an actual talent say it and expand on it. If wrestlers put the effort in to be their characters in public (and yes that includes social media) wrestling could make a comeback. Probably never be what it was, but maybe it could in a couple decades. But they don’t want to do that. They want to be buddies with the writers and the minority of people online Al was talking about. It’s called suspension of disbelief. Not fooling people into thinking everything is real.
I hate when people say wrestling is dumb. It’s so fake. The. They turn on the walking dead or game of thrones or something 😂 like 99% of all tv and movies is fake. 😂
@@JayJay-tm7xw exactly. It’s just a way to get into the story of the athletes for the show. But wrestling is a little different, because it’s a combative type of entertainment so you need the people involved to act like what they’re portraying whenever they’re visible. Without that it just seems to stick out in your mind while you’re watching the show.
I love how Al Snow tells it exactly as it is, and I wish more people would listen to him.
I go to a local wrestling promotion, Next Level Prowrestling, with my kids. I know a little about wrestling behind the scenes so to speak. My kids LOVE watching it. They know its pre determined BUT they also know why they are performing. They cheer for the baby face and applaud the spots and boo the heels. Im so grateful to share that experience with them bc like Al said i want to suspend disbelief for a couple of hours and its way more entertaining then the movies
"Could I have done things better?"
"Absolutely not. Because I'm Al motherf'in Snow, ya Jabronis."
I really miss the surprises.
When Al said he had 41 years in the business, I had to google how old he is. He's in pretty good shape for somebody who is 60 years old.
He’s a nobody
Roids man
@@JokerThaToker he's on a trt dose. And gear doesn't do the work for you
I met Al snow on the road and while he wouldn't be able to point me out of a line up he taught me so much about wrestling. Years ago he sat young up and comers down to teach us about the art of the hot tag and how it works. His intelligence in this business is superior to most and his ability to convey what he has learned over the years is unmatched. If wrestling had a true learning institution, they would call him Dr. Snow. As a former fan and independent wrestler, I'm forever grateful to Dr. Al Snow
Al is quality! When the hell did his voice get so deep......???? ......He was making my speakers rattle!
Also love the "quids" and "Tesco" references....... Hahah.
Like, we know the matches are generally lightly choreographed and winners are generally pre-determined. We know that the guys in the ring (almost) never actually dislike each other, letalone wanting to genuinely hurt each other. If we get into it young enough we initially believe in the story, but there's a point we all reach where we know it's pre-determined. The point is, though, we don't know what that pre-determination IS. We're there to see how everything unfolds, we're there to see these athletes act out their characters and perform their insanely cool-looking moves. We're there to see these athletes put on a show and we love it.
It's like sitting down to watch a movie. We know the people on screen are acting, we know there are people doing choreography. We also know that we're watching it to be entertained in some way.
In all honesty, there have been a LOT of wrestling gimmicks in WWF/E that I've really just not liked (I've been kinda sheltered, I've almost never seen anything other than WWF/E) but I've ALWAYS enjoyed watching the guys and gals work their angles and do their good shit. I've ALWAYS respected the work these people put in to entertain us. It just kinda happens that Al Snow was one of my favourites for pretty much his entire WWF run.
He is 100% right in what he is saying. I totally agree and thanks for some great insight, Al! Well done!
Al Snow is the king of changing the definition of words.
You got that right
The only thing I disagree with Al on here is when he said toward the end that 98% of the audience don't care about the thinga that the 2% SMARKS do. He is wrong. That DID used to be the case when wrestling was much more popular in the mainstream and so you had a large mainstream following that outnumbered the so-called smart marks. This is categorically not the case today. The mass appeal of professional wrestling isn't just dying today, it is dead. These days the professional wrestling audience is flipped. The number of viewers all round is MUCH lower, and those that have remained are the marks. So now we have almost a reversal - probably about 90+% of those watching professional wrestling today are marks, with only about 10% who are just general viewers. A very sad, but unquestionably correct state of affairs.
Keeping Kayfabe can still be used really well. Look at Rey Mysterio being inducted to the Hall of Fame and Dominik walking out. It added more heat to Dominik and sympathy for Rey.
That’s not kayfabe buffoon that was an angle
No it doesn't work on them at all. Rey looks like a midget that does flippy moves and couldn't ever hurt a full-grown man. Dominik looks like an out-of-shape wimp that couldn't fight to save his life. None of their garbage is believable.
@@jd9119 Rey has an awful mind for the business. His gimmick is in his name: Rey Misterio. He's the king of mystery, right?
I was watching live on pay-per-view when he unmasked. That totally fucked his aura, he was never the same after that.
We all knew his face--and he had the face of a 12 year old boy.
Additionally, he _used_ to be a good mat wrestler. When Jushin Liger could no longer do the high flying stuff, he switched to mat wrestling. Rey is broken down, yet for some reason, still insists on doing high flying moves and spots--which, when he does them these days, look like shit.
Liger retired with his mask, an icon of Japanese wrestling. I know, I was there in person.
Rey is just another wrestler.
Think of how good it could've been if Rey had kept the mask and his skills. Imagine his son as Rey The Third. Imagine Rey retiring, giving his son a mask of his own, and telling his son that now _he_ was going to carry on the family tradition. Now _that_ would've been something. Yet Dom from day one looks like a little kid. No aura, no mystique. Nothing to immediately identify his as Rey's son. A monkey could write this stuff, yet try telling that to WWE.
@@markv1274 - WWE didn't make Rey take his mask off..... That was nearly 25 years ago in WCW.
As for his wrestling style; he might not have kept up with doing all the wild stuff of his early days; but the idea the he hasn't been a great worker since and hasn't had one hell of a run with WWE is loony smark-dom.
Al Snow is right. Pro-Wrestling/Sports Entertainment is one of the greatest Performance Arts because it does 2 things in droves. Cash and Crowds. That's your only metric.
It's not performance art. The term "art" is overused. Wrestling is commercialism. That's exactly what you've described: cash and crowds. That's not art, that's commercialism. I'm a wrestling fan, yet I'm not afraid to admit that wrestling isn't art. If you want art, go to the art gallery, totally different crowd for the most part.
@@markv1274 Let me get this straight. Art doesn't need money or an audience? Ever heard of patrons aka investors? All those people hanging at
exhibitions just for overpriced wine and cheese? Ever heard of Pop Art
and it's meaning POPular as in attracting large CROWDS? Ever heard of Andy Warhol? Who happened to be a celebrity guest to Wrestlemania & enjoyed every minute of it. Pro-Wrestling is an art, more or less refined.
@@p.d.stanhope7088 I'm going to wager the house that I've visited more art galleries that you ever will, so I don't need the condescending lesson about what qualifies as art. I visited the Andy Warhol exhibition when it came to my town, and some of his work sits in the main gallery in my city. I'm well aware of the fact that he was a wrestling fan. Warhol was on hand for the opening of GRUNT! THE WRESTLING MOVIE in Los Angeles (bet you didn't know that). Yet just because Warhol, an artist, enjoys something, it doesn't make it art. You could do reproductions of the Mona Lisa, then buy a ticket and enjoy the Indy 500, yet just your presence at the Indy 500 doesn't elevate it to the level of art. Maybe Vincent van Gough would've enjoy watching naked women wrestling in oil if such a thing had been available to him, enjoyed every minute of it. Yet Vincent van Gough, an artist, enjoying something, doesn't make it art if that thing isn't already itself art.
Speaking of Vincent van Gough, he sold _one painting_ out of _hundreds_ that he painted. He died in poverty. Does that make them any less significant? Today, they sell for millions, yet is art only justified as art when it makes money? Did Vincent van Gough's paintings only acquire beauty the day someone with a million dollars decided to buy one? So, Mister Fat Cat Billionaire who buys a painting sees the beauty of that painting more than a poor arts student who will only ever be able to look at it in a gallery? Your logic is non-existent.
There _can_ be an overlapping between art and commercialism. That's where Andy Warhol comes in. The problem is that we have a world where even the most untalented pop star (to use a rather egregious example) is called an "artist." Look at Rudyard Kipling. When did you hear _anyone_ call him an "artist"? Yet amazingly, a rapper can spew profanities over a generic computer-generated piece of music, mumbling his or her way through lyrics seemingly cribbed from a subway station toilet wall, and he or she is an "artist." So, the poet who composed "If" is just a poet, yet the half-arsed, mumble-mouthed rapper is a "recording artist"? Please, spare me.
Many artists have day jobs. A lot of art is displayed for free. If someone buys it, wonderful, but I've spoken to countless artists. A _lot_ of them don't expect their stuff to sell. It's something that they do for fun. It's the _doing_ that they enjoy. There are many people who are quite good at music, yet they play it for their own amusement, just pick up a guitar or sit at the piano and start playing. The fact that they're not playing in front of 5,000 people doesn't make them any less artistic.
Some go to movies to escape, I go to Pro Wrestling matches to be entertained and escape reality for a couple hours.
I've always loved Al Snow. His voice sounds a lot different than I thought it would nowadays LOL. Last time I saw him in a wrestling ring he was super jacked, glad he's still doing well.
Sounds like he's got a cold.
The most hardcore fans are the ones that don't pay for PPVs and therefore do not support the business. It's the mainstream casual fans that pay and support the business far more than any hardcore fan does.
It's both, yet the casual viewers have, for the most part, been pushed away.
He totally nailed the thought process of the silent majority wrestling fan.
As someone part of that niche 2 percent, even I just want to sit down and forget about by troubles with a wrestling show.
That’s what’s missing in todays wrestling. It’s hard to take storylines serious when you see 2 wrestlers who are suppose to hate each other and about to get into a big fight and they’re posting stuff on Instagram having dinner together.
It really sucks when you're trying to buy into what they're doing when they put it out there in social media how much respect and admiration they have for the guy. I couldn't care less if Hacksaw & Sheik are smokin & snortin I just don't want to know about it. Do what ya want with who ya want just keep it to yourself for the sake of holding the fan's interest
Being on twitter/insta/whatever is entirely voluntary.
It depends. You can see two boxers hanging around together, two football players from rival teams being friendly, so long as when you watch the match, you believe it's a competition. Yet as you've mentioned, if you have a heel and a babyface breaking kayfabe on social media, it doesn't sell tickets.
@@ChrisStoecker for me, the perfect example is bray Wyatt. He’s trying to be this mysterious man with powers and I’m ok with that. But it’s ruined when he’s at a press conference talking out of character or taking pictures with fans while he’s waiting in line at six flags
Imagine if we had seen Austin and Triple H having dinner and beers together back in the attitude era? Social media has ruined the wrestling business
Rather than replying to everyone who disagrees with Al, the biggest problem is the vanity of modern wrestlers. Because of social media or growing up watching behind the scenes interviews and documentaries or whatever, there is a culture of needing to cosplay as the great artiste and explain in detail how clever you are with the things you make. The mystery is dead because people actively kill it. Media scrums, twitch channels, podcasts, twitter... everyone needs to spill their guts on what they were thinking in the match they literally just did. Just shut up and be a wrestler. If other people think it was worth talking about, they'll ask you in the future, years later when looking back on the great matches.
Imagine not being able to enjoy a movie because the main actor posted a picture having fun with the actor playing the bad guy…
@@Erlewyn imagine thinking that's what I'm talking about.
@@Handles_are_garbage It is, you just haven't realized it yet, apparently.
@@Erlewyn because you said so, yeah? Okay 🫠
@Erlewyn right, I feel like I've done you a disservice. You don't get where I'm coming from, but instead of trying to give you more information I just dismissed you (probably because of your confrontational first reply). I suppose this message is for you but also a little extra for anyone else who might think the same thing. My issue is with the incessant need many modern wrestlers have to talk about everything all the time. Probably the best thing to compare it too is magic: we know magic is "fake" but magicians have a code, try to keep things hush hush, and attempt to make an audience buy into what they're doing. Maybe wrestlers need something akin to the magicians code. I hope this helps you understand the difference, even if you still disagree.
"What does everybody wantttt?!"
The internet is an incredible tool, but it ruins so much. I was never hardcore enough to check dirt sheets and what not, but I watched every show, had every game, every magazine, at least one figure per wrestler…etc. I was an attitude era kid to the fullest. I knew it was predetermined from 6 years old, but I didn’t know everything. Now I bet I can find out what a wrestler had for lunch yesterday with a bit of sleuthing.
What was The Undertaker’s cheat food or guilty pleasure playlist song in 1998? Anyone?…, No fucking clue, right?
These men and women are athletes, sure, but they don’t need to sell them to us as though they’re NBA players or Olympic athletes. They are supposed to be characters/gimmicks and they should sell them as such.
Loved Al Snow's European Champion run. When he came out repping Greece with a Grease the Musical theme. Priceless!
LOL no one talks about that. he was absolutely hilarious as euro champ. easily my fav european champ.
😂😂😂
or when he gave lawler a picture of pepe la pew when he represented france
@@georgefranco7900 Just read his book. Very fun read 😁😁
al would be a great guy to have a conversation with. knowledgeable, respectful and always entertaining
Al really nails it IMHO. Working class people of the past would indulge in sports and entertainment to FORGET and become immersed. Now it's all marks circle-jerking over Meltzer star ratings. "I miss when the marks were in the seats" is my favorite Kevin Sullivan quote.
Jim cornette is the problem too, people want to be experts, this guy needs a push.. but don't realize they are marks too bc the suspension of disbelief is now on the internet /UA-cam comments not the audience.
@@robmartin5448 Oh I agree, and I LOVE Cornette! It all sucks lmao.
Al Snow gets it.
I grew up watching matches in Virginia (University Hall, Richmond Coliseum, Hampton Coliseum) and I can tell you that a lot of people there "believed" what they were seeing was real. To me that's a testament to how good some of these guys were back in the late 70s and 80s. When someone like Wahoo or Dusty got jumped by 4 or 5 heels and were "getting beaten to a pulp" you almost had riots of people trying to get to the ring because they thought their hero was getting killed in the ring.
Almost? You did have riots along with fans who would stab heels, vandalize vehicles, etc. I don't support that level of fandom, but I much prefer pro wrestling of the 70s and 80s.
@@cstomp1 luckily most of the places i went had gated parking for the wrestlers, so usually nothing bad happened their cars.... until they tried to leave lol Lots of crazy drunk fans back then lol
I grew up watching shows at the Jaffa Mosque in Altoona, Pa. I've actually heard stories from Cornette and Nash about how they had to fight the fans there. Cornette split a dudes head open in the crowd with the tennis racket. 😂
Al snow just dropped so many gems in this shirt clip I really hope they make young up n coming wrestlers listen to this n a lot more of his clips
"A pat on the back is only 2 feet higher than the kick in the ass."
I like that! Gonna have to remember it!
No wonder he was the teacher on Tough Enough!
Al and I seem to agree, and that is as someone who was a teenager watching Al is in prime WWF run
PLEH em eselP! Al Snow, one of the best in the business.
This is incredible! I have never thought of it like this before 😲Thank you, Al
Tony Kahn you better stop listening to Metzler and hire Al Snow as your daily consultant!
Al Snow is dropping absolute FACTS in this right here.
Be it Barry Windham's "turn" on Lex Lugar, or the several week saga that led up to Bobby Heenan,& Andre entering Piper's Pit together to confront Hulk Hogan (GOOSEBUMPS)...there was a special relationship between us fans,& the stars who provided us with for lack of a better term, the illusion of reality. It was indeed...."Magic"!!
“THE JOURNEY IS USUALLY THE PART THAT YOU REMEMBER ANYWAYS” 🤖
MJF is the best on keeping kayfabe in wrestling and in public.
Al's a wrestling professor, man. He sounds like Megatron and gives fantastic breakdowns.
Superbly explained.
"You got to feed them. The little monsters always eat." Lol
If I had to explain why I don't like pro wrestling today I would use an action movie analogy. The villain in the movie kills a person but the actor turns to the camera and starts talking to the audience. "Hey I'm actor so and so and I didn't just kill that guy. Hey(He or she calls the other actor by their actual name) stand up and show them you're not really dead." The other does just that then they shake hands then the villain actor says see we're really friends." That would ruin the movie.
Al's voice sounds like a robot suffering from indigestion
Been watching through late 90s PPV lately and as these come out I’ve been watching Al and he’s suddenly one of my favourites of all time when at the time cos I was a kid and he was mid card I was never that bothered.
I saw Al Snow in an airport once and he was walking around with "head"
That's Kayfabe
Yeah, and he was wearing a J.O.B. Squad t-shirt, begging for people to "Pin Me, Pay Me!" He even dropped down on his back in the middle of the ring once, begging to be pinned.
The fuck he knew what kayfabe was.
This is historical
Im one of the guys that analayze the wrestling so I partially disagree. The best way imo to suspend disbelief is through great wrestling and that should be the standard. Not saying they need to be Bret Hart but they can't look stupid. Charisma and size can't be taught but wrestling can
I could listen to Al Snow talk about the wrestling biz all day, in spite of his voice here lol
Al looks great for 60yo.. he must've not partied drank and done all the pills like other wrestlers or atleast not as much
Whats crazy is that most ecw guys/ladies look great right now lol. Shiiit, even Sandman.
This kinda changed my outlook on kayfabe. My hardheadedness doesn't want to buy into it but i know that's the old school mark thinking. Dudes like MJF carry his gimmick with pride. I often get kayfabe and storytelling mixed up. Wrestling can't tell stories anymore.
Lol 70 or 80. Bruh. It’s a $50 ticket, a $40 tshirt, a $10beer. Kids need those $10 hot dogs and $7nachos.
A wrestling show with treats is $200 per person. Al Snow is a work.
The only one in all of wrestling who is truly is keeping kayfabe alive is actually MJF. He is never out of character.
As an audience member I'm no longer trying to believe this is a "competitive finish". Moreso I want the story and action to be so good and so entertaining that I forget for a moment that none of this is real. Kinda like a really good movie. MJF and Adam Cole and the Bloodline are the only things that are doing that consistently for me these days. I think that's what Al is saying. This has been a great interview series.
“It’s still real to me, damnit!”
Al had a fantastic career and any company would/should be interested in having him as a wrestler/producer/coach.
Al Snow spitting the truth. This guy needs to link up w/Cornette and fix the wrestling business.
I've called Wrestlers fighters ever since I can remember. This sport is very competitive to me.
😁Some of these wrestlers and there voices
"The wrestling business hasn't changed. The wrestling business has evolved."
So like, change?
Its funny, he described exactly what Ultimate Warrior's view on wrestling was (get in, make yourself a name, get out, use your name to do other stuff) and everyone totally shit on him for it and said he didn't "respect the business" just because he didn't want to wrestle into his 60s like everyone else
It is funny. When Snow previously defined a good worker as someone who drew money, I immediately wondered about his thoughts on Ultimate Warrior.
The guy sold tickets and merchandise. He was huge. Yet wrestlers will ignore their own definition of a worker in order to denigrate his achievement?
Very odd. But they're all bitter and toxic carnies.
@@Anthony-fw4tt They also say he "didn't pay his dues" and act as if he just showed up to WWF one day and Vince immediately put him in a feud with Hogan, completely ignoring all the territories he went through before he got to WWF. There's still plenty of wrestlers that he was friends with and said he was nice. Bad News Brown even said Warrior helped him talk to Vince to get a bigger payday for Wrestlemania. Doesn't sound like the "racist" that everyone else tries to make him out to be
@@Anthony-fw4tt He saw what the business was and treated it accordingly. I'm not a huge Warrior fan but the dude was totally lucid and realistic in his shoot interviews. Nash barely did anything and looked out for himself primarily and people love him.
Jake can gripe about how he lost money because of Warrior but how many times did he go out drunk and reckless.
Bottom line is nobody in that particular business can point a finger with an accusation of moral turpitude. They ALL hurt/fucked somebody. Every one of them.
Just got to say.. Ultimate Warrior helped me get out of depression with his motivational speeches and interviews before he died. While other wrestlers just shit on each other on interviews calling it "shoots" all day like degrading warrior. If Warrior is such an asshole, then why is there no interviews where hes talking down on others? There isnt.. his interviews are all about uplifting humanity, bettering yourself, keeping your head up, etc.
@@Anthony-fw4tt A lot of good stuff related to wrestling is sadly no longer on the internet. So many interviews that I remember reading, now wiped from cyberspace.
One that I remember is one from Marc Mero.
Mero once said many years ago (and I'm paraphrasing here): "This stuff about paying your dues is bullshit. If a guy is ready now, he's ready now."
Mero understood it. If the fans are begging to see this wrestler on the show, put him on the show.
Best definition ever. Always l9ved Al!! Hope to get a little head this evening. 🙏 lol
Pro wrestling for me is sadly dead in the water. Kayfabe may be scripted, but wrestlers still get hurt. If I went into the business myself, I would have lasted 8 months and quit suddenly because of the pain I would have taken. Not everyone will be able to hack it in wrestling. It is putting it bluntly only the 1% of wrestlers stay employed 30 years and more. Take care of yourself even though its Kayfabe
Al snow does the best interviews
Dave Melzer heard this he’d say.. “I’ve been living a lie!” And cry
Literally have seen NO ONE endowed with wrestling wisdom other than the man with the head…. The head of every wrestler is Christ💡
I don't remember al snow having a weird robot voice
He is spot on.
i can only speak for myself as a viewer, but my view of wrestling has changed. when i was younger, i did believe it was all real but now i understand that it's predetermined and is a show. i don't get invested in the outcome anymore, i just want to be entertained.
This is so true. If a product wants to tells me it's all a work and the wrestlers are all friends then why should I watch it? A pro wrestling match should try and resemble a legitimate contest. I remember when western wrestling fans first saw uwfi and so many thought it was a shoot and didn't believe me when I would try and explain that 'shoot' style exists in Japan.
Al needs to be running mainstream wrestling
Talk about where the industry has changed in the minds of certain people on the indies, Al actually manhandled low ki in a match because what low ki was doing wasn't believable, Al is of the belief that it should somewhat still look like a fight low ki wanted a hollywood action scene. Al got his way.
Al "Vocal Fry" Snow
I'm not watching this video cause I know what he's gonna say. He does this in every interview. He speaks on some insider concept like everyone in the world has it wrong and then his explanation is EXACTLY what everyone thinks it is. Like "We don't shake hands to be friendly you marks, we shake hands cause we're DOING BUSINESS!" Yeah Al, we got it.
Too many people think that Snow is some wise old man with all the answers. Fucking bullshit. Just about any little kid could make the comparison between wrestling and a movie, or talk about the suspension of disbelief.
*Oh, Al Fucking Snow just gave me a masterclass on how wrestling works! Wow, I never knew any of this before!*
Please.
Snow is a hypocrite, anyway. This idiot wore his J.O.B. Squad t-shirt on television each week. He once flopped to the canvas and begged someone to pin him. Wrestlers would survive powerbombs through tables, falls from steel cages and down onto breakaway tables, chair shots to the head, they would crash into the ring steps, and _still_ battle back to win the match.
Yet all this was undermined in advance when Snow would win the second or third match on the card in under four minutes, simply by smacking his opponent with a mannequin's head for the three count.
I guess that wrestling fans have short memories.
The only thing that's different now is that there's a certain swathe of people in the wrestling business, be they performers or people in the back, who like to rub it in the face of the audience that the shit isn't real and think that they're "smart" for doing so. That's the real cancer that infests the business now.
Dave Meltzer and the dirt mark geeks need to listen to this
That quote at the end was MONEY!!!
Just the same thing that Gorilla Monsoon said for many years.
If it has evolved, then by definition it has changed. You are arguing semantics. My Grandma did not know for sure that wrasslin was fake. She certainly did not know how the choreography or the finish was determined.
Wow......exactly!!!! Amen Mr. Al Snow you hit the nail on the head as consciously as possible! Great interview James, right on for posting this brother!
I don’t know if it’s just the audio recording or what, but Al sounds almost robotic in this video. I’ve heard him many other times, and he never sounds like this. Unless it’s just my phone. No one else sounds robotic, though. Lol. Anyway, I love Al Snow. I loved him from ECW days and on. Man, I miss that time in wrestling.
Al snow has never drawn a dime, ecw never drew a dime. Why is he talking.
He knows the business. He doesn’t have to be a megastar to know how the business works. He has over 4 decades in the business.