Al Snow Discusses The Problems With His Original WWE Character
Former WWE Superstar Al Snow has discussed the problem he encountered with his original WWE character known as ‘Avatar’.
In an interview with Wrestling Shoot Interviews, Al Snow spoke of his first meeting with Vince McMahon in 1995 to go over what the plans were for the gimmick.
I signed with WWF, Vince McMahon and I talked, and I knew what Vince was wanting to do. He wanted to capture the popularity of Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat at that time. Masked guys in WWE are not main event guys and don’t have an identity but Vince said ‘well you’re gonna carry the mask to the ring and then put it on to wrestle’, and I was like ‘OK, I don’t know how I’m going to do that’. We’re gonna do all these vignettes to introduce your character and help people understand it.
Al Snow had previously been working in Smoky Mountain Wrestling before signing with WWE, mainly teaming with Glen Jacobs – the future Kane. But despite the original plans for video packages and vignettes to be shown before the character debuted, Snow was thrown straight in at the deep end on a live episode of Monday Night Raw, and it was clear Snow and the character were not ready.
Then all of a sudden out of nowhere he called and said you need to be in Winnipeg, you’re gonna be live on Raw debuting Avatar. The mask didn’t fit right and I had just come from Jim Cornette in Smoky Mountain and was at the height of my physical ability doing flips and stuff. When I get to WWE, it’s real ropes and not cable, it’s very loose and nobody really did anything off the top rope because these were the old rings that were really tight, really stiff and the ropes were just treacherous.
The debut for Al Snow as Avatar on an October 1995 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw was pretty much a disaster. Avatar would defeat Brian Walsh in his debut match, with very little crowd reaction and several missed moves during the match, and this would turn out to be Avatar’s only win on WWE TV.
What they don’t tell you is they don’t give you direction, they don’t tell you what they want. You kind of just have to figure it out. So I had a gimmick and if I knew then what I know now, I could have taken and capitalized the opportunity to a much greater degree. Now all of a sudden I’m the babyface who comes out carrying a mask, taking it off, putting it on and what a surprise you’re still the same guy with a very confusing gimmick.
By February 1996, the Avatar character was no more in WWE, and Al Snow would be repackaged as Leif Cassidy of the New Rockers teaming with Marty Jannetty shortly thereafter.
Al Snow Shares Insight On Training Other Wrestlers
Former WWE Superstar Al Snow opens up about his enjoyment for training other superstars and the legacy he leaves behind while discussing his recent Netflix docu-series ‘Wrestlers’.
H/t to ITRWrestling.com