WWE wrestler describes life inside and outside ring By Kelly Everett Collegian Staff Writer Steve Austin's "Stone Cold Stunner," The Rock's "Rock Bottom" and X-Pac's "X-Factor" -- he's survived them all. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler and MTV Tough Enough star Al Snow came to the Bryce Jordan Center to speak to a freshman seminar class from Penn State Altoona Friday. Walking into the room, a little late and a little disoriented, Snow's bright red shirt which read "I do it 'till I'm Raw" set the mood. Snow said he chose the name Al Snow after being nicknamed "Snowman" in high school. "I used to walk around with no coat on in the winter and everyone called me 'Snowman' -- I just shortened that up for WWE." Standing six feet tall and weighing 234 pounds, Snow said that when he's not in the ring, coaching or travelling, he's at the gym. "I work out about two hours a day, four to seven days a week," he said. Along with being a six-time Hardcore champion, a European champion and a Tag Team champion, this WWE superstar found himself in a new role -- a trainer for the MTV reality-based series Tough Enough. Snow said he hopes the show will attract more people to wrestling. He said he likes being a trainer as much as he enjoys being a professional wrestler. "This business has given me a lot but I want to give back to it, and I do that by helping others learn to be good wrestlers," he said. Along with his wrestling and coaching obligations, Snow also has a wife and two children. "Yes, I am a legal breeder. I bring my wife and kids along with me when I travel," he said. Snow has a 14-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son, who is 6-foot-1 and still growing. "I don't know where he came from, but I'm definitely raising a baby Bigfoot," Snow said. He started his wrestling career in 1982 and said he made no money the first 13 years until he finally got a break. "My big break came after a smart-ass comment in an interview," he said. Snow confessed to reading many books on multiple personalities and deciding to make a Styrofoam mask that he could talk to in the ring. "I'd go nuts in the ring, I'd talk to the head and yell at the head and try to beat it up -- the crowd loved it," Snow added about his experiences. Snow reminded the class wrestling is a business, and oftentimes it's a hard business. "The highs are really high but the lows are even lower," he said. This is exactly what David Parry, assistant professor of philosophy at Penn State Altoona, wanted his students to hear. "I wanted to show my students the level of dedication and expertise it takes to be in this industry," he said. Parry is the wrestling club advisor at University Park. He has been following professional wrestling since the 1960s. Parry said he understands what goes on behind the scenes of the WWE matches. "These pro wrestlers are more like starving artists. I want my students to have an appreciation for wrestling as an art," he said. Laura Stasenko (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said she really enjoys the class and she has learned a lot about the history of wrestling. "Coming to University Park to meet Al Snow and see the WWE match is the best part of this class," she said.

Penn State Intercom......November 14, 2002 Jordan Center entertainers educate marketing students By Gary W. Cramer Public Information Understandably, the attention of most of last Friday night's audience was drawn to the on-the-mat and ringside histrionics of such personalities as Kane, HHH and Lance Storm as they taunted and seemed to beat the living tar out of each other at The Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus. However, students who were in the know about behind-the-scenes events during the wrestlers' visit to campus with the rest of the World Wrestling Entertainment's RAW cast and crew could testify to how the center has grown into an extra, quieter role than provider of top-notch events in recent years -- an educational role. This fall semester marks the fourth time Jordan Center general manager Bob Howard has taught Recreation and Park Management 497B, an undergraduate course that focuses on arena management and event promotion issues. Using the center as a living classroom, Howard and his staff give students an in-depth primer on the operations of similar arenas elsewhere, as well as convention and trade centers, stadiums, multi-purpose civic centers, theatres and amphitheaters. The Jordan Center also runs an active internship program on a year-round basis that has been very successful at seeing its participants get jobs in the field. Howard said that Penn State is one of just a few universities with a course devoted to the industry he knows best. Graduates in the field need to know about crowd management, event planning and implementation, controlling costs, production contract management, merchandise, First Amendment law, search and seizure law, food and beverage matters and much more. Nearly 50 students got an overview of one professional's 20 years in the field on the Thursday morning before the scripted RAW "Tour of Defiance" chaos erupted in the center's arena, when Ed Cohen, World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) senior vice president of live event marketing and event booking, met with Howard's 22-member class and visitors from the Penn State Marketing Association. As another educational bonus, on Friday, just before the RAW show, WWE wrestler Al Snow, host of MTV's "Tough Enough," met with assistant professor of philosophy David Parry's visiting Penn State Altoona class, which is devoted to the business and cultural sides of the professional wrestling industry. "You are the future of our industry," Cohen, who studied business at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, told Thursday's students. As one of WWE's first few employees in 1982, at a time when arena management was probably not taught at any university in the country, he quickly learned that growing the wrestling industry from its often scoffed-at status in those days meant attention to the three basics of the live entertainment industry: attraction, attraction, attraction. He also stressed the importance of sound business relationships with local managers like Howard to the eventual transformation of WWE from a regional concern limited to the northeastern United States (then known as the World Wrestling Federation) into a 350-employee company that is the major player in the modern, multimedia wrestling industry. Last week marked the 11th visit by WWE to University Park in front of crowds that can top 12,000. "I think the best thing we have, besides giving people something they want, is our credibility (as events managers)," Cohen said. "What I've noticed since I started in the business is that, unfortunately, some people hide behind the technology (that's used now). Accessibility is the key to everything you do in life. In our world, everything is boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and you have to be available. I know when I call Penn State and begin with that 814 area code, I'm going to get an answer right away, or within a half hour." With a live event already going on somewhere in the country nearly every night of the year, Cohen said growth for the company is coming in the form of new efforts to expand into other countries. But where arena events are concerned, he said keeping the domestic audiences enthralled by the WWE's characters and ongoing storylines means keeping an eye on traditional competition, such as fairs, festivals and other sports. "There's always competition in the markets to evaluate. If Kmart is having a sale on fertilizer, that could be competition for us." Gary W. Cramer can be reached at gwc104@psu.edu.