Al Snow Thinks The Fans “Don’t Matter” To Modern Wrestlers
Al Snow has shared his thoughts on modern wrestling and bemoans the fact that in his opinion the stars of today don’t wrestle for the sake of their audience anymore.
Speaking on the It’s My House podcast, the former WWF Hardcore Champion explained why modern wrestlers competing today don’t react to fans in the same way as stars of Snow’s vintage. For Snow, today’s wrestlers are too busy trying to impress each other:
“The talent aren’t performing for you anymore. That’s a fact. They’re not going in the ring and wrestling for you. Your opinion doesn’t matter. They are wrestling for each other, trying to impress each other, and they are wrestling for that small group of people that write a report and give them critical acclaim and say either it was really a good match or it was a bad match. That’s the truth.”
“That’s why the talent are so caught up today and in the locker room calling every single second. They’re not living in the moment, not reacting to each other, to the referee, not interacting with the audience like they used to. They’re so concerned that they’re gonna forget the next thing that’s coming up, and they’re scared to death that they’re going to make a mistake.”
Al Snow, who currently owns the former WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, also gave his thoughts on botches in the ring. As far as Snow is concerned, the only botch is when the illusion is broken:
“It’s not that you’ll notice it because you won’t. It’s that somebody in the back will notice it, and we’ll call them out on it, or someone who’s writing a report will notice that they made a mistake or they did a botch. You can’t botch anything unless you expose the wrestling, the lie.”
“If you ruin the illusion, that’s the only way you can make a mistake, otherwise, there’s no way to do it. It’s not possible, because you can make and create everything you want to make and create, and you’re only limited by your own imagination and creativity, as long as it’s within the context of a competition. As long as you’re trying to still win and not lose.”