Special guest Al Snow joins Sean Waltman and his crew on X-Pac 12360 this week, revealing that Tough Enough 4 producers ignored his advice to cut the Kurt Angle matches and Dan Severn “couldn’t throw a punch to save his life,” before Al’s coaching. Plus Randy Savage’s brother, “The Genius” Lanny Poffo is trying out for America’s Got Talent and X-Pac 12360 producer Jimbo Franck got a special preview of his audition.
Below are some Al Snow interview highlights, and you can watch the entire episode in the video below or download it at this link.
What has changed about pro wrestling since Al started:
I believe this has lead to the degradation of the business of professional wrestling, is that it’s far too easy to become a professional wrestler. The access, it’s an open door policy now. Back in the day, and I’ve tried to explain this to people before and they just can’t relate, it was easier to become a main man in the mafia than it was to become a professional wrestler…The reason was that ninety-eight percent of the wrestlers at that time, the only thing they did to make a living, the only way they could survive, the only way they fed their families was wrestling. They didn’t have another job.
UFC Champion Dan Severn hadn’t even been in a street fight before training with Al:
He didn’t know how to punch. He didn’t know how to block a punch. That’s what we tried to focus on is trying to teach him a blocking routine and how to try to throw a punch. He could not throw punches to save his life.
Al remembers making headlines with the head:
The top three news stories on every affiliate, I’m not exaggerating, every affiliate, this is how ridiculous it was, was the mayoral race for Philadelphia, the Bosnian peace process, and the fact they had pulled my action figures off the shelves at WalMart. Those were the top three stories on Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC. They did a story about it in Time magazine. Jay Leno had it in his standup act. Rush Limbaugh mentioned it. It was ridiculous, for a week and half. It was awesome!
The one thing Al didn’t like about ECW:
We were allowing the audience to dictate us, how we performed. I even mentioned that to several guys in the locker room like, we need to stop this. The tables are being turned on us. I directly link that to where we are today. It’s because the tables got turned there. It’s our fault and it’s remained turned ever since.
Al reveals Tough Enough producers ignored his advice to nix contestants’ live matches:
Nothing is a shoot. Everything is a work, OK? And that’s the truth. It’s a work. You don’t put anything on TV [that’s not]. In Tough Enough 4, part of SmackDown, against my advice, because hey what do I know? They wanted to do that shoot thing where Kurt [Angle] shoot wrestled all the Tough Enough contestants and then Daniel Puder hooked him and had him in a bad way. You never put shoot stuff on TV! You never do that!
Al’s answer to Alex Silva’s criticism of TNA Gut Check and what happened after he was signed:
Alex had an opportunity and he completely pissed it away. TNA and the developmental program OVW at the time, Alex was placed there and he just stuffed his head up his butt and just blew it. The hardest thing for us to ever accept as people, not just as human beings but especially as wrestlers is to take responsibility for our mistakes…It’s easy for Alex in his head to say that him getting hired was rib on me, but it wasn’t. Alex took that opportunity, cut that promo that changed Ric Flair’s mind and he had the ball. At that point he could’ve done anything. He could’ve been made into a money drawing talent. He just pissed it away.
Were there repercussions to Al’s Vince McMahon comments in Beyond the Mat:
There probably should’ve been, yeah because I was a complete idiot and an asshole. I shouldn’t have said that. That was me being an Alex Silva. I was being put on TV. I was being given opportunities. It was just me pointing the finger at everyone else and not at myself. No matter what anybody says when you go out in the ring there’s nothing anyone can do to help you get over and there’s nothing anyone can do to keep you from getting over.
Al also reveals the current state of TNA, says kayfabe is dead, and much more. We bring it all to you on AfterBuzz TV’s X-Pac 12360.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
