By Mike Mooneyham
Published in 2001
Nineteen-year pro veteran Al Snow comments his favorites and not-so-favorites.
His favorite wrestlers: “There have been so many. Harley Race was an incredible wrestler. Ric Flair, certainly, in his day, but he’s become very repetitive and formulamatic in doing the same match, which is too bad. Even still, in his interviews and stuff, he cuts the best promos in the business. Terry Funk and Ernie Ladd were incredible performers. Curt Hennig in his day. Jerry Lawler in his day was one of the best. We were in Memphis not too long ago, and it was as if the Lord had walked out there. It was just incredible. Chris Benoit is an absolutely incredible wrestler, but as a performer I don’t know. A performer is one of those guys who can combine everything, like a Flair or a Terry Funk or a Race where they can talk and entertain, but also wrestle and have the workrate. There aren’t an exceptional amount of guys out there who can do all that. Steve Austin for his period. Rock is one of those guys right up there. I hate to say it, and I’ll begrudgingly do so, but Mick Foley. But if you ever tell him I said that, I’ll deny it. I’ll never openly admit it.”
His contributions to the business: “I can safely say that I have done more things in the wrestling venue for the first time than any other person in the business – I’ve wrestled myself, I’ve wrestled an inanimate object (the head), I’ve wrestled a hard-core match in a dress, I’ve wrestled midgets in a hard-core match (it was kind of a `short’ match, no pun intended), I’ve done a lot of things that nobody else has done. But that’s sort of been the cool thing about my being a lunatic. People have gotten to the point that they accept anything I come out and do. They’re not surprised”
On how the business has changed: “I thought that the wrestling business was the wrestling business and was going to stay pretty much the way it was when I was brought in – a very closed society, very protected. But I think history will prove me out here that as we’ve opened up and become more liberal with the idea of what goes on backstage and letting people see things from the other side, we’ve become a little more relatable and much more entertaining. You don’t want to lose that mystique, and I don’t think wrestling ever will, but we can at least relate to the human side of it. And I think that it helps people gain a new appreciation for it. Wrestling is like a magic show. The fans are so far more sophisticated now than they were even five years ago. My son and daughter, at ages 10 and 12, are so more sophisticated than I was at that age. We live in a completely different age. The access to information is incredible. I don’t think you can lose sight of that. In order to survive, the wrestling business has got to become more sophisticated in its presentation. Give them a glimpse. Just a peek at what goes on so they can keep that appreciation for the business.”
On Jake “The Snake” Roberts: “It just goes to show what goes around comes around. If you live that type of life, eventually it will catch up with you. I’m surprised he’s still alive. In my opinion, I believe he’s an incarnation of Satan. During that turnaround, he was still the same heel incarnate who used it to make a living. He has no conscience, morals, spirit. He’s a very sociopathic human being.”
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