| "Just because people think I've gone a little cuckoo for my Cocoa Puffs, I don't see why anyone would want to stop hanging out with me. It's not like I'm bashing people over the head with Head. Okay, I admit, that's exactly what I'm doing..But so what! I've seen other people turn on people! I've seen people turn on their country and not get ostracized by society! What about Oliver North? What about Dan Quayle? Why can't I be respected like them?" Al Snow
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| ECW celebrates Palm Sunday. That weekend the ECW Arena held palm Sunday masses in which Al Snow passed out to the crowd palm branches which led to the crowd chanting "palm! palm! palm!" and "We got palm!". After the mass the crowd threw their palm branches at the alter followed up by another chant of "We gave palm".
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| Al-Snow name analysis
 Your name of Al-Snow is a dual influence: at times you can be extremely happy, expressive, full of fun, and good-natured; yet at other times you find congenial association impossible, being controlled by self-pity, moods, and depression. If you could express only the constructive qualities and restrain the negative qualities of your nature, you would always be good company. These contrasting qualities make it difficult for people to understand you and can lead to friction in your personal life. You are deep, philosophical, and refined, but your extremely sensitive nature causes you to become depressed over any real or imagined slight. You feel and sense much more than you can fully understand, and could become psychic if you delved into the occult. The problem then would be controllable thoughts, feelings, and reactions.You find it difficult to be patient, practical, and systematic, preferring to act impulsively as the spirit moves you. Indulgences could result in skin rashes, liver problems, heart trouble, or lung and chest congestion.
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| Cult Hero Al Snow and HEAD Back in February of 1998 I was minding my own business at the ECW Arena when what did I see referee Jim Molineaux get knocked down in a match between Al Snow and my good friend Tracy Smothers of the FBI. So i wonder down to ringside sporting my WWF Hat & Referee shirt to see if I could officiate in any way. Then for no reason Al Snow hit everyone with that damn head. He hit me twice with it, then when I tried to get out of the ring he grabbed me and hit me with his finish the SNOW PLOW. I could not walk right for a week after that. JUDGE JEFF JONES As for HEAD, I tried kicking it to her while she was in ECW, and I almost considered buying her some shampoo as a love offering, but Al would give me these really piercing evil eyes everytime I tried to make eye contact with her. What a jealous bastard.......
---JOEL
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Wednesday, February 24, 1999
SLAM! Wrestling Guest Column
Jobbers get no respect
By JEFF THE REF -- For SLAM! Wrestling
Goldberg: the man, the myth, the legend. Have you ever reflected back and pondered just how this came to be? Goldberg is without a doubt one of the most prominent names in the world of professional wrestling today. I mean, lets face it. To go 174-0 is simply something that you just don't see in wrestling at all. Ok, maybe Andre the Giant could be the one exception, except when you consider the fact that his 15-year unbeaten streak in the WWF was a total hoax. On the other hand, we ALL got to witness Goldberg's remarkable winning streak unfold before our very eyes.
Now, if my memory is correct, doesn't it take two people to make a wrestling match: 1 to win and 1 to lose? Just who were these 174 wrestlers that ended up losing to Goldberg? Well, these losers are what are referred to in the wrestling industry as "jobbers." If it were not for jobbers being paid night after night to constantly "throw" wrestling match after wrestling match, would wrestlers the likes of Goldberg be where they are today? Certainly not. And just where are these jobbers today? Mostly forgotten and shown no respect on camera from "the guys upstairs" in any federation. I would hope that all wrestlers that are the likes of Goldberg are thankful to these jobbers and appreciate that where they are today financially and popularity wise has EVERYTHING to do with them "doing the job" for them.
Al Snow of WWF & ECW fame has the words "Pin me, Pay me" written on the back of his t-shirt. He keeps it no secret that before taking on the Al Snow persona, he use to do the job on a regular basis, mainly as Leif Cassidy in the WWF. What's that? You don't remember Leif Cassidy? Maybe that's because Cassidy won just about as many wrestling matches as his other WWF persona's, Avatar and Shinobi. What's that? You don't remember Avatar and Shinobi either? Well, if somebody out there were to do the math and figure out just what the win-loss record of Snow's other identities added up to be, you would find that it would resemble about 4-900! However, Al Snow's persona's are hardly a unique case in the world of wrestling. Hundreds, if not thousands of wrestlers have followed in this man's footsteps and done the job night after night for the sole purpose of boosting the career and increasing the popularity of his esteemed opponent. And how do they do this? By doing exactly what Al Snow's shirt says: first they get pinned, then they get their paycheck for being pinned. Plain and simple. Or is it.........?
By doing the job to others, these wrestlers are giving up more than they may realize. They are giving up fame, for one. Nobody remembers or cares for the guy that loses night in and night out. And when that wrestler becomes a free agent, a high percentage of losses is hardly something that a wrestler is going to want to put on a resume to share with other organizations. Which brings me to the second major item that these wrestlers are giving up: money, and lots of it! With the exception of the very short list of notable marquee names that Goldberg has conquered (eg. Hogan, DDP, etc.), I would argue that all of the contracts put together of the remaining 165 or so wrestlers that he has beaten don't add up to the kind of money that Goldberg is swimming in. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating slightly, but you get the picture. The guys that win are the guys that make the money. I highly doubt that Barry Horowitz is raking in the big bucks, even with a man as wealthy as Ted Turner as his boss.
Speaking of Mr. Horowitz, remember when he beat Skip of the Bodydonna's back in his WWF days? After years and years of consecutive losses, Barry finally won one! And THAT was the defining moment of this guy's career! On that day, jobbers from all around the world held hands and rejoiced together that one of them had finally been booked to win a match! Jobbers finally received some respect that they so desperately deserved for all of their years of service to the industry. This match opened the eyes of everybody that took for granted that jobbers like Horowitz were only capable of doing one thing: lying down. So once again, wrestling became interesting again. From there on in, wrestling fans could no longer be sure just who was going to the job in any given match. We could no longer be certain that Yokozuna was going to beat Iron Mike Sharpe (even though he did), or, to give a more recent example, that Goldberg was going to beat Scott Putski (even though he did).
The JOB Squad: the WWF's answer to showing a couple of their more prominent jobbers that they are respected and appreciated in this industry by unifying them all together into one cohesive unit. By providing this group with increased on-camera time, the WWF is in a way saying "thank you" to all the jobbers out their in all federations for helping turn regular wrestlers from all around the world into superstars, icons, movie stars, and in once case, Governor. If Moondog Spot were to run for political office, he would not be receiving any votes from the public because of his popularity as an ex-WWF wrestler. While Jesse "the Body" Ventura may have political smarts, having dabbed into the field in the past, he did not win his campaign solely on this merit. He won due to his extreme popularity from becoming a pro wrestler.And how did he become so extremely popular? You guessed it: by others doing the job to him!
So the next time you see a jobber getting speared by Goldberg on NITRO, don't point and laugh at him. Don't make jokes about him to your buddies beside you. And especially don't take for granted that he is simply going to lay down and get pinned. He just may surprise you!................and hey, if he doesn't pull off a surprise victory, at least take pride and comfort in the fact that you were the one wrestling fan that actually believed in "the man they call Jobber."
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| AL SNOW: Buried for his first year as Leif Cassidy. "Sent down" to ECW, where he came up with the gimmick of Head. (Paul Heyman at one point suggested they rename him "Psycho" Sam Attic. Psychosomatic! Get it? Har, indeed.) Came back up to the WWF, where the gimmick flopped, and then they tried it a second time and it succeeded. Tried to form a new JOB Squad; flopped. Feuded for the Hardcore championship, and succeeded (with the help of the Big Boss Man) in making garbage wrestling dull and irrelevant. Three years, and he's been goofy-gimmicked to death and beyond. credit:Chris Bird
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