No Holds Barred Interview 6/23/2001 Jason: Joining us on the line right now is WWF Superstar Al Snow who is currently involved with the Tough Enough tapings. Al, Jason and SA here, how are you today? Al: I'm doing just fine Jason. Jason: Well Al, the first question I have to ask you. Al: Ask away. Jason: How does it feel first of all knowing you're the first official guest on the No Holds Barred Radio Show on ESPN Radio? Al: Jason if I can be quite frank. Well, I can be a lot of different people because I have a lot of different aliases but if I can be quite frank for a moment Jason, I am so excited my genatilia are pulling right up into my body right now. Jason: Now on a serious note, how much fun was it going thru the Tough Enough tapings and I have to ask you, why didn't the Evil Custodian make the cut? Al: It was an incredible experience. It's a fantastic show to be involved with and I think people are going to find it's an incredibly entertaining show and why the Evil Custodian didn't make it? Al: You know honestly, I don't know personally because I thought he was hilarious. I thought he was really good but much like the box of crayons, he may have had a few of the colors but I don't think the rest of them were there. SA: Al, this is SA, now is Tough Enough going to be similar to Survivor where we're not going to get a clue who the winner is until the final show? Al: You will get absolutely no clue as to who the winner is before the final show. That will take away the fun of it and you know unlike Survivor though, and I've been trying to point this out to a lot of people, I think there's a lot of people who are going to have a misnomer about the show that it's like other reality shows and the fact that like Survivor, which I was a big fan of Survivor, that these people are showing to be A) simply be a star on TV, have their 15 minutes of fame and B) Go thru anything, any kind of physical or emotional torture and degrade themselves just for some kind of cash prize or notoriety. The difference with this show honestly is, that these kids all 13 of them showed up here and do what they have to do because they have a dream, they want to be a WWF Superstar. SA: Well everyone has a right to live out that dream and they have a great opportunity, now take yourself back a few years and put yourself in the shoes of a Tough Enough contestant. Al: It might be more than a few years. SA: What would you have done to impress WWF officials in order to get that once in a lifetime contract with the World Wrestling Federation? Al: Well, I was thinking about strutting into the restaurant naked, lathering myself up with a mixture of lamp oil and kerosene and then lighting myself on fire. Jason: Now you would of course leave Leif Cassidy at home for that. Al: You gotta be Leif for life man. SA: Now on the show Tough Enough we all know that your 2 co-hosts are WWF Superstars Jacqueline and Tazz, Is Tazz as tough on people as he seems on that show? Last night he looked really rough, is this Tazz in everyday life? Al: Oh yeah. Tazz is a miserable human being. He's a mister crabby pants all the time. Jason: It's funny too because you play more of the serious role explaining to people what can be expected when you go thru this kind of training, and Tazz is just a punk. He likes to get in the face of people and I think that's what makes the show great. Al: That's his thing. That's his personality and that's the thing about this show. For wrestling fans, for normal people Mr. and Mrs. Walmart out there it's going to be an incredible show because who can't relate to having a dream and then watching somebody deal with it in reality as opposed to the fantasy of that dream. For wrestling fans, it's an incredible opposite because it allows them behind the scenes to see Tazz, to see Jackie, to see you know... Jason: Al Snow Al: Well, yeah, of course. Jason: You've gotta give yourself a plug. Al: Right, but Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Hardys, and Lita and Kurt Angle and a lot of different superstars who came in and for an hour or whatever and actually interracted with these kids 1 on 1 as real people, as real human beings and told them from their hearts about different things, different aspects of the business, what it's going to take, so on and so forth, and did it as themselves not as their character and it's going to give an opportunity unlike baseball, football, basketball, the problem we have to deal with in wrestling is nobody can easily relate to it. You didn't do it as a kid, you did all those other sports, so you have to relate to the characters. With this show I think it gives an opportunity because we have that stigma of it being fake and a bit conned, you know granted it is entertainment and it's pre-determined but people are going to see how real this supposed fake business is and exactly what it's going to take. Jason: A Little while before WrestleMania you ran for Commissioner and came up a little short to William Regal. Al: A little short, yeah yeah good pun. Jason: Do you feel the state of Florida was involved to some extent? Al: Yeah and much like Joel Lieberman I think we need to demand a recount. I think that Joe and Al, another Al who got shafted, Al Gore, you know I mean come on guys, Florida, what are you doing down there? Jason: They definitely blew it I will say that. One of the former gimmicks you had that I absolutely loved was when you were working with Blackman as a team. Steve Blackman in a nursing home doing stand up comedy is still one of my all time favorites. Al: Mine too. Jason: What I need to know is, will Blackman ever find a personality? Al: Only if he tracks it and kills it. Yeah, we don't call him Captain Charisma for nothing guys. Doesn't he though look mysteriously and hauntingly like the old GI Joe and Kung Fu grip toy? Jason: You know what's funny our producer says that every time he sees him. He says Steve Blackman is a GI Joe doll. Al: That's right I just want to yell "Go Joe" every time I see him. SA: Now Al on the note of Blackman, I see him in the ring with a couple of great moves, did you teach him any of those dance steps he was doing a couple of weeks ago? Al: Yes, I'm surprised somebody hadn't hit the ring and tried to hold his tongue down. He looked like he was having a seizure. Talk about giving white people a bad name. Jason: He definitely did that. Al: Oh my lord, he set our entire race back as far as rhythm and harmony centuries. SA: During your career what gimmick have you enjoyed the most and on a side note were you devastated when the World Wrestling Federation broke the New Rockers up, you and Marty Jannetty? Al: I was definetly not devastated. Life went on. I enjoyed them all. To me anything I get a chance to go out there and use any type of vehicle to entertain an audience is all that matters to me. It's just a character, it's not me, it's not who I really am, so it's not a matter of "I'm not going to do that because that's embarassing". It's not embarassing me, it might embarass the character but it doesn't matter. SA: Who was it that decided to turn Al Snow into a hardcore wrestler? Was it Al Snow yourself or in your stint in ECW with Paul Heyman, who had a role in turning you into a hardcore legend? Al: I was a hardcore wrestler before hardcore was hardcore. What it was called back when I first started in the wrestling business was called stipulation matches. Street fights, No Holds Barred. Jason: Hey thanks for the plug. Al: Hahaha, They were all you know, lights out matches, they were all called something else. They weren't just called hardcore matches. Really the idea of being a hardcore fan was not a guy who knew the inside wrestling business. A hardcore fan was a guy who would watch anything that was on. He'd go to any extent, drive miles just to see a show, no matter how bad it was he just wanted to watch wrestling, that was a hardcore fan. Jason: Now Al as we speak, where's Head? Al: Head's taking a nap right now. It was a little early in the morning and they usually don't roll out of bed until noon so anytime before that, you think Tazz is cranky, good lord. That's about as bad when I have to constantly run them thru security x-ray at the airport. They start screaming at me about their afraid they're going to get brain cancer, you get the point. Jason: One political question here not talking about presidential races however, is WCW being purchased by the WWF good or bad for business in your eyes? Al: It's good for business and bad for business. Any kind of business no matter what it is, you know the old saying you put 1 lawyer in town and he'll starve to death, you put 2 there and they'll both make money, and that applies to any business. Competition is the very heart and soul of American business and I think it's instrumental that especially for the wrestling business because part of the big boom we enjoyed was from the competition between WCW and the WWF. There is my understanding that they plan to develop WCW to stand on it's own 2 legs and to be a competitor against WWF. SA: The week that just passed, we had a big week in the World Wrestling Federation, RAW, Smackdown, the usual things, the premier of Tough Enough, now Sunday is a culmination of a great week for the World Wrestling Federation with King Of The Ring and Al, if you're a betting man and we hope that you are of course, who do you put your money on to win the King Of The Ring Tournament? Al: Boy oh boy oh boy. I'd have to say Kurt Angle. SA: You're going with Kurt huh? Al: Yep SA: You know what, it's my partner's favorite wrestler in the World Wrestling Federation, no offense to you. He's a big fan of Kurt Angle. Al: I am too. Jason: They've got to give him the strap back Al. Al: Oh, they've got to. Jason: It's killing me. Al: It's tearing me up inside too. Right now I'm thinking about going into the bathroom and hanging myself in the junker. Jason: What's the future for Al Snow at this point? Al: God only knows. Hey, who knows I may be the Ray Bourque of WWF. Took him 20 years to get the Stanley Cup, it may take me 20 years to get the World Wrestling Federation Title. Jason: But at least you would have the title at some point and we're hoping you get that kind of push. Al: You and me both brother, believe me you and me both.One of these days. If not I'd be happy to continue to do Tough Enough. Jason: I think Austin's ducking you personally. Al: I think a lot of guys are ducking me. It's not too hard to duck me though when I'm locked away in a room somewhere. Jason: Now Al with Tough Enough, we saw it on Thursday Night at 10pm, is that going to be the time slot on a regular basis? Al: It will be on MTV on Thursday night at 10pm every week, now thru September. It will follow UPN Smackdown every Thursday night. Jason: Which is perfect for me because I don't watch anything on TV after 10 o'clock. Al: Believe me and again I'm not saying this because I was on the show because I really don't know how they're going to put the show together, but from the little bit I've seen, if you thought the special was terrific last night, the show just continues to get better and better and better every week. SA: On the note of Tough Enough Al, is this going to be just a 1 season thing or does Vince plan on making this a seasonal type of show? Al: I think that if, Tough Enough which I do believe will be a monster success, I think what they're going to end up doing is having this on a regular basis. You know, this is not just a TV show. It really isn't, it serves actually 2 purposes, 1 to entertain the public, but 2 it's the perfect vehicle for the WWF to find the next generation of WWF Superstars and that's really what they're doing. They really, sincerely are out there looking for the next generation of WWF Superstars and this is a great venue to do that in. It just so happens that they're also incorporating the fact that their are a lot of TV cameras in there so they can make an entertaining TV show. Jason: It really is a great show and if the rest of the season is anything like the first show it will definitely succeed. Al: Believe me you guys haven't seen nothing yet. Just of the stuff I know happened, because I didn't even know where the house was at the time. Just from the stuff I know happened, you guys will be very entertained as the weeks go on. It's just the personalities of the characters, the cast as they interract in the house and as they react to the reality as opposed to their pre-conceived fantasies of what it is to be a wrestler are very interesting to watch. Jason: Well Al we really want to thank you for coming on the show today, we appreciate the time and we'll be looking forward to the Tough Enough series throughout the year and hopefully we'll see you on WWF TV sometime soon. Al: Jason you're a fantastic guy. Jason: Thanks a lot Al and we'll talk to you down the road.