Al Snow
Allen Ray Sarven is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Al Snow. He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment. Snow has also held various backstage positions for professional wrestling promotions. Snow worked as a road agent for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2010 to 2017 and has promoted Ohio Valley Wrestling since 2018.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1982–1995)
Sarven attended a professional wrestling try-out camp held by Ole Anderson and Gene Anderson. There he met Jim Lancaster, promoter of Ohio's Midwest Championship Wrestling, who agreed to train him. Lancaster later described Sarven as "a leader in the ring" who "had drive and natural ability". He made his debut on May 22, 1982. Sarven defeated Lancaster on May 5, 1985, for the Midwest Championship Wrestling title. He wrestled against Harley Race, Bruiser Brody, Kerry Von Erich, Ken Patera, Curt Hennig and Jimmy Garvin.Sarven wrestled in various independent promotions throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, capturing both tag team and singles titles, but failed to make any big breaks.
In 1993 he competed in the WWF as a jobber losing to Marty Jannetty and The Undertaker under the name Steve Moore. He gained a reputation as "the best-kept secret in wrestling". Sarven helped train future Ultimate Fighting Championship Hall of Fame member and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn. During this time he would sometimes wrestle as Shinobi, a ninja-style masked gimmick. He wrestled in the November 19, 1994, tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but he lost to Chris Candido, the eventual winner of the tournament.
Also fought in a couple of matches for World Championship Wrestling in 1993 and 1995.
From 1995 to 1997, Snow operated a professional wrestling school called "Body Slammers" in Lima, Ohio, employing D'Lo Brown as an assistant trainer. It has since branched out with one of his trainers running "Bodyslammers" in Ottawa, Canada.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994-1995)
After a tour of Japan, Sarven wrestled a match in Michigan against Sabu, an Extreme Championship Wrestling regular, who suggested he try ECW. After making his debut against The Tazmaniac and losing via pinfall on December 10, 1994. Sarven faced Chris Benoit as Al Snow, in a 15-minute match that was hailed as one of the best of the year.Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1995)
Sarven was also being courted by Jim Cornette for his Smoky Mountain Wrestling federation. ECW booker Paul Heyman agreed to let him work for both companies. Sarven soon found that he was not being utilized by ECW and went to Smoky Mountain full-time. In Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Snow teamed with Unabomb as the Dynamic Duo and defeated the Rock 'n' Roll Express for the SMW Tag Team Championship. Both wrestlers caught the attention of the World Wrestling Federation and were signed by the end of 1995.World Wrestling Federation (1995–1997)
Various gimmicks (1995–1996)
Sarven began working for the World Wrestling Federation when he signed a contract in August 1995. During his tenure in the company, Sarven wrestled under numerous gimmicks, such as Avatar, which saw him come to the ring unmasked, putting on a wrestling mask to wrestle, then removing it afterwards. The gimmick was based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat whose popularity the company wanted to capitalize on at that time. During his particularly short run under this gimmick, Sarven's WWF debut as Avatar took place on the October 23, 1995, episode of Monday Night RAW, defeating Bryan Walsh. About a month after his debut, he was scheduled to be the third man for The Underdogs at Survivor Series but for reasons unknown, was replaced by Bob Holly. After this, he started teaming with Aldo Montoya. His two final matches as Avatar were against Sycho Sid and 1-2-3 Kid. He was also to partake in the 1996 Royal Rumble match but once again, for unknown reasons, never appeared. His final match in February was against Isaac Yankem. On February 20, 1996, Sarven wrestled as "Shinobi", a "ninja assassin" hired by Jim Cornette to dispose of Shawn Michaels, who defeated Shinobi in quick fashion. Avatar returned for one last appearance against Justin Bradshaw at a house show on March 17, 1996, at Madison Square Garden in a losing effort.New Rockers (1996–1997)
Sarven received his first mainstream exposure with the WWF as Leif Cassidy, the tag team partner of Marty Jannetty in February 1996. The duo were promoted as The New Rockers, a throwback to the original Rockers team of Jannetty and Shawn Michaels. Eventually, Jannetty left in December 1996, and Sarven was reduced to jobbing for mid-carders in January 1997. In the late 1990s, WWF and ECW began to cross-promote their organizations to counteract the success of World Championship Wrestling ; Sarven was one of the wrestlers sent to Extreme Championship Wrestling. He left in July of that year and went to ECW. His last appearance in WWF in September 1997 was a loss to Tiger Ali Singh at WWF One Night Only.Return to ECW (1997–1998)
Sarven found success back in ECW in August 1997, billed once again as Al Snow. Sarven developed a new character gimmick after reading about abnormal psychology and finding a mannequin head on the street near the ECW Arena during a Mummers Day parade. He got the idea to portray an individual with a schizophrenic disorder using the head as a prop for projection. In this role, Sarven received a lot of fan and management support for his J.O.B. Squad storyline, which promoted him as being driven insane by his years as a jobber for the WWF.In the storyline, Snow, upset at his lot in life, asked Cactus Jack what he had to do to get anywhere in wrestling. Jack said to Snow that to become famous he had to "get a little head". Snow, however took this literally, and thus he started coming to the ring with the mannequin head whom he talked to as if it were a real person, which prompted ECW crowds to chant "We want Head", an intentional double entendre. ECW promoters handed out styrofoam mannequin heads at wrestling shows, and audience members started waving them and shouting, "Head! Head! Head!" in time to "Breathe" by The Prodigy, his entrance music. The entire audience would then throw the heads into the ring before the match started. The biggest match of his ECW career came when he wrestled for the promotion's World Heavyweight Championship, losing to Shane Douglas at Wrestlepalooza in May 1998. He lost to Bam Bam Bigelow at A Matter of Respect. His last match with ECW was a lost to Axl Rotten in June 1998.
Return to the WWF/E (1998–2008)
Hardcore Championship pursuits (1998–1999)
Sarven was then recalled to the company in May 1998, where he continued his gimmick of talking to "Head", creating some of the more memorable humorous skits of "The Attitude Era" including fighting himself in a hardcore match. He verbally feuded with Jerry Lawler. This led to Snow's first match back at King of the Ring, teaming with Head losing to Too Much. He defeated Sgt. Slaughter in a boot camp match on Monday Night Raw on September 15. Then defeated Marc Mero at Judgment Day: In Your House. He wrestled in a tournament for the vacated WWF Championship at Survivor Series where he defeated Jeff Jarrett and lost to Mankind in the second round. In October and November 1998, he feuded with Tiger Ali Singh. Snow then formed the J.O.B. Squad with Bob Holly and Too Cold Scorpio. Later, The Blue Meanie and Gillberg joined. JOB Squad disbanded when Scorpio was released by the WWF in February 1999. Later that month at St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Snow lost to Bob Holly for the Hardcore Championship.At WrestleMania XV, Snow lost a WWF Hardcore Championship triple threat match involving Hardcore Holly and Billy Gunn. During the summer of 1999, at the conclusion of a storyline where Head was impaled with a spike by Prince Albert, Snow replaced Head with a chihuahua named Pepper, who he claimed talked to him. A variety of segments were broadcast showing Snow's interactions with the dog, including bringing Pepper to the ring to either "participate" in matches or be held by the broadcast team. This led to a storyline where Big Boss Man kidnapped Pepper. Big Boss Man agreed to return the dog if Snow defeated him in a match for the Hardcore title; however, after losing the match he reneged and kept the dog. Later, in a segment on WWF SmackDown!, Big Boss Man invited Snow to his hotel room to discuss the situation, before serving Snow dinner which was then revealed to be Pepper. The feud culminated at a "Kennel from Hell" match at Unforgiven, which consisted of a regular cage which was surrounded by a Hell in a Cell structure, with "a trained pack of wild dogs" in between the two, and the objective was to escape both cages without being attacked by the dogs. Snow won the match.
Snow received some mainstream publicity in 1999 when Wal-Mart pulled his action figure from their shelves after Sabrena Parton, a professor at Kennesaw State University, complained that "Head" was a "decapitated woman's head" that sent an inappropriate message about violence towards women. Parton was quoted as saying "What kind of message would this toy send children about brutalization of women?" Sarven used the story as part of an angle in which the controversy caused Al Snow to develop depression.
Various alliances and feuds (1999–2004)
Snow would later team with real life friend Mick Foley in October 1999 and became tag team champions with him for a short amount of time, but turned heel by betraying him due to Foley's jokes about him in his autobiography, Have A Nice Day, and his growing jealousy of Foley's tag team partner, The Rock. He would later turn face again due to fan reaction. Snow was often the butt of Foley's jokes during Foley's tenure as the Commissioner in 2000. However, they are close friends in real life. Foley continued to use Snow as the butt of many jokes in his second book, Foley Is Good: And the Real World Is Faker than Wrestling.In early 2000, he began to team with Steve Blackman as an "odd couple" tag team called Head Cheese. At WrestleMania 2000 the two suffered a loss against Test and Albert. Also in the same year, Snow won the WWF European Championship from Perry Saturn. He then began a tongue-in-cheek gimmick of entering the ring to various European countries' native music, with his theme song sung in the language of the country, and wearing attire which would suit the stereotype of that country. This continued until he lost the title to William Regal.
In 2001, Snow tried to rally support from the fans to vote for him as the new Commissioner of the company following Foley's on-screen firing by Vince McMahon in December 2000. By March 2001, a match was set up between Snow and Regal to determine the new Commissioner, which resulted in Regal winning. Snow then took some time off from the ring in order to commit more time for the reality show Tough Enough. He made his return to the ring in October 2001 during the InVasion era and challenged Christian for the WWF European Championship at Survivor Series, which he lost.
Snow's last championship reign came on March 11, 2002, when he defeated Goldust to win his last Hardcore Championship. He lost the title to his former Tough Enough student, Maven, a few days later. He was drafted to SmackDown! as part of the 2002 Brand Extension, where he teamed up with Maven. After taking time off again for another season of Tough Enough, Snow returned as a member of the Raw roster in October and eventually became a commentator for Sunday Night Heat alongside Jonathan Coachman. When Coachman sided with Eric Bischoff, Snow followed suit, turning heel. The two feuded with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, and briefly replaced them at the Raw announce table after a victory at Unforgiven in 2003. When Tough Enough IV came to SmackDown!, Snow was on the scene and turned face once again.
On April 12, 2004, episode of Raw, Snow dressed up as the Five Star Ninja a portray of Shinobi which he lost to Tajiri.