Al Snow's ECW Odyssey

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can view the video here: https://youtu.be/Tb_cvqydyjU

On May 3rd 1998 ECW presented Wrestlepalooza from Marietta Georgia. In the main event the ECW world champion Shane Douglas would defend his title against not a man who many would immediately think of when the subject of ECW alumni comes up, but a man who managed to turn his career around in the promotion, despite his run lasting less than a year. That man is Al Snow, and this night would be his final televised appearance before he would be leaving the promotion, to take his new found character to the WWE, but lets take a look at how Al made the best of his time in the land of extreme.

Al Snow returned to ECW in August of 1997 having wrestled a few matched there in 1995, coming off what many would consider a fairly dubious run in WWE. He played several different gimmicks, masked wrestlers Shinobi and Avatar, and would have a run as Leif Cassidy. Maybe the most success he would have was in a short lived team with Marty Jannetty as the New Rockers, and when I say 'most success' I still don't mean much. By the end of his first run Al was mainly an enhancement talent getting over stars over, and that frustrated him. He noted in an interview many years later that he should have been more grateful for the opportunities he had to be on television at all, but at the time he couldn't see it that way. Around this time WWE had begun a working relationship with ECW, where Paul Heyman could take talent that WWE wanted to hone their skills. This was a few years before WWE had any real developmental system of their own. This gave Al the idea of going to ECW and trying to get a new gimmick over enough that WWE would have to give him a better shot, and so he requested so be sent to Philadelphia. In his final months in WWE as Leif Cassidy, Al would come to the ring aggressively, but also with a faraway look in his eye. On his final night he would hint at suffering some kind of breakdown, which he wanted to play on when he got to ECW.

Al Snow would make his televised ECW return at the 1997 Hardcore Heaven pay per view to wrestle Rob Van Dam. Ironically given Snows frustrations with WWE, Rob Van Dam was at the time playing up his Mr. Monday Night- pro WWE persona, even coming out with WWF logos airbrushed onto his singlet to draw heat from the crowd. Al would walk to the ring with a bizarre look on his face, as if he wasn't all there, while Joey Styles on commentary notes that he is at this point fifth teen years into his career. Snow would lose this match, then go on to lose in his next television appearance a week later, challenging Shane Douglas for the ECW World title.

In Al's own words in a 2017 interview, it took him quite a while to get the unhinged aspect of the new character into his matches. He said that the idea behind it was that he had been wrestling for so long ad not achieved what he considered success, and so had gone crazy, but it wasn't coming across in the ring. in October he would wrestle a non televised match against the Great Sasuke, and would spot a prop on a parade float that also kept in the ECW arena that inspired him. That prop would be a styrofoam head. Adding to this what Al had read in a book about schizophrenia, Al came up with the idea of the head talking to him. He also credits Mick Foley with some of the inspiration too, as in his WWE days he would travel with Mick, who would play around with the styrofoam head that his Mankind mask was kept on.

In storyline though, things would be a little different. Al debuted a styrofoam head on non televised events through the Summer of 97, and the house fans seemed to be getting into it, so much so that Paul Heyman saw him as a future babyface. Unfortunately for Al, he would suffer a shoulder injury and was taken off the November to Remember pay per view. instead of wrestling however, ECW would air a segment on the event where Al sat backstage yelling at a mannequin head similar to the one he would take to WWE. Al was sat in the dressing room with the other wrestlers around him, yelling at the head, blaming it for telling management that he was hurt and couldn't wrestle. What makes this segment even better is that all the wrestlers who are getting changed around him are ignoring this as if it is standard behaviour in the ECW locker room. The other thing to note is this might be the debut of the Job Squad concept, as Al would wear the same shirt the faction would wear in WWE later on.

On the December 13th episode of Hardcore TV, we would see Al yelling at someone in a car. He explains that every time he asked management how he could get over, they told him "give us some head." Apparently not understanding what they meant by that, Al would take them literally. The camera would peel back to reveal that he had been arguing with Head, who was strapped into the drivers seat.

On the next weeks show, Al would being Head to the ring with him. Joey on commentary would play down any dirty jokes you might be thinking, putting over that Al was deeply disturbed. Despite this Al would make short work of defeating Paul Diamond, and Al Snow was clearly onto something with this new character. In the following weeks Al would be shown backstage arguing with Head, but the next major development would happen on the January 17th episode of Hardcore TV, when Al would enter for his match with Roadkill, and the crowd all had styrofoam heads, and would rave along to Al's entrance music. As Paul Heyman noted in the Rise and Fall of ECW documentary produced by WWE in 2005, he would buy styrofoam heads by the hundreds and hand them out before Al's entrances, and it would make for an amazing visual on camera.

This is just my own theory, but looking at what else was going on in ECW at the time, I feel like Al was getting over because he provided something different, far less intense than the main storylines at the time. ECW alumni were engaging in a bitter war with the WWF, while Shane Douglas and the Triple Threat had a stranglehold on the World Title, so a man bickering with a mannequin head offered not just comic relief, but something less aggressive for the fans to get into.

Throughout early 1998 Al would rarely if ever lose on ECW television or at house shows, which would lead him to his biggest opportunity yet, the main event of Living Dangerously on March 1st 1998. On a night most well known for Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow crashing through the ring mat, ECW would have two more matches with a gaping hole in the ring. One of these was billed as a 'dream tag team partner match, in which Lance Storm and Chris Candido were allowed to choose their own partners. Candido picked the World champion Shane Douglas. Storms partner was kept a surprise until right before the match. Even after the opening bell they are still pretending to not know who Storms partner is, even pretending that Sunny would be the partner in the ongoing feud between Candido and Storm. This would be a swerve as Sunny would turn on Storm, leading to Al Snow entering to be Lance's partner. By the way this was presented, it seems like Al was supposed to be a surprise, but you might have already noticed that every fan in the pictures I'm showing was waving a styrofoam head, killing the surprise a bit...In a match that lasts just under five minutes, Snow would throw Shane Douglas into the hole in the ring made by Taz and Bam Bam, then hit him with a Snow Plow to pin the world champion amidst a sea of heads.

On the following weeks edition of Hardcore TV Shane Douglas would waste no time in issuing a challenge to Al Snow to prove that he is in fact the better man, setting the stage for the next pay per view, Wrestlepalooza. On March 21st, in a fairly uncomfortable segment Joey Styles would conduct an in ring interview with the champion, who snapped when Styles made a head joke. When Francine tried to talk sense into him, he grabs her by the wrist, and even shoves down his Triple Threat stablemate Candido. Cleary the pinfall loss to Al Snow has gotten to Shane, and he appears to be going off the deep end himself. In the main event that night the Triple Threat would defeat the team of Lance Storm, Chris Chetti and Jerry Lynn, but the Franchise still wasn't any happier. He would goad the fans until they threw the styrofoam heads at him, and Al would run in to attack Douglas. Clearly Snow is inside the head of the Franchise. Pun intended...

Right before the match on the night of Wrestlepalooza they air a backstage promo by Snow, and we see a lesser known side of him. Al isn't playing up the gimmick or talking to Head. He's essentially not in character. He talks very seriously about his sixteen years in wrestling. He implies that Shane Douglas got ahead because he was a good looking guy, but Al thought he was always better. This is after all, the biggest match of Al's career to date.

Shane Douglas enters the ring looking like a wounded animal, with a heavily braced arm that he injured at the previous years November to Remember while defending his ECW title against Bam Bam Bigelow. That injury would keep him out of the ring for a few months, but it would continue to bother him well into 1998. As Douglas climbs through the ropes he is pelted by styrofoam heads from the crowd. Normally the champion would enter last, but this night was given to Al. As the lights go down and Al's music hits the crowd erupts.

Despite the build leading up to the match, earlier in the night they teased that the match wouldn't even happen. An hour into the show Joey Styles invites Shane to the ring for an interview. While introducing him, Joey notes that following tonights match Shane will require surgery for his arm, and he is also suffering from a fractured cheek bone and a cracked bone in the roof of his mouth, so naturally Paul Heyman sent him out to talk... He notes that he also has been around for sixteen years, and he has also seen his peers surpass him. He notes that he too was in the WWE, and refers to the night he became the shortest reigning Intercontinental champion in history. For context, Shane is talking about In Your House 4 in October 1995. Shane, then known as Dean Douglas would be handed the intercontinental title by forfeit by the former champion Shawn Michaels. Not the only time Shawn has forfeited a title but thats a topic for another day.

Shane the turns his attention to WCW and has another go at Ric Flair, who he has buried any chance he can for decades now. He then reminds us of his injuries and swears to still win tonight. He is then interrupted by Taz, a man who has made no secret of the fact he wants a shot at Shane's ECW World title. The Franchise would spend the rest of 1998 avoiding defending the title against Taz, but would eventually have nowhere to run, as Taz would finally get his shot at Guilty as Charged in January 1999, and here Taz would defeat Shane for the title. Two weeks after Wrestlepalooza Taz would get sick of Shane avoiding him, and would introduce his own world title, called the FTW championship. On this night however things would get heated as Taz would attack Shane, openly admitting he was doing it to ruin the nights main event. Taz would lock in a head and arm choke that it would take several officials to break.

If you just listen to this match it's a weird one, as the fans are constantly rubbing the styrofoam heads together making a loud squeaking sound as if the match were taking place surrounded by crickets. From the opening bell Snow goes after Douglas' injured arm, locking in an armbar as Shane yells out in pain. The two key story beats going into the match were Shane's injuries, and the mind games that Al had been playing to anger the champion. Watching this match you don't get much of any of this conveyed, as the two have a fairly slow paced match. Shane even at one point uses his bandaged arm to hit Al with a clothesline. A few weeks ago on this channel I talked about a masterful performance by Nigel McGuinness where he would use his injured arms for offence, but would at every turn remind us of the struggle he was going through. This was not that match. After interference from the Triple Threat, Shane would win after 13 minutes, but unfortunately the finish wouldn't go to plan. Al would go to the top rope and attempt a sunset flip, however I'm not sure if he slipped on the rope or didn't rotate enough, but the move didn't go as planned. from here Shane was supposed to block Snows pin and cradle him for his own, but by that point it just looked awkward in a way thats hard to describe in words. By the end of the match the ECW locker room had emptied and surrounded the ring, and after Shane won they came into the ring and raised both on their shoulders, and Shane and Al would shake hands.

This moment in particular angered Dave Meltzer in his review of the match, giving it one and a quarter stars. He was very negative on the show in general calling it one of the worst pay per views of the year. For the record the show would eventually place 5th in the 1998 worst major show award behind November to Remember and three WCW events. Dave particularly took aim at a specific detail near the end of the match, as Shane's manager Francine would enter the ring to distract Al, for which he would hit her with the Snow Plow. Dave pointed out that it made no sense for Shane to show respect for to Al minutes after what he did to Francine. A classic match this wasn't, but thanks to the popularity of Al it was the crescendo of his ECW run.

On the following weeks Hardcore TV, Al would be interviewed by Steven DeTruth. A very solemn and dejected Al would listen to head, and leave without saying a word. Al would continue to wrestle in ECW for another month, but by now he had also drawn the attention of Vince Russo, who was in WWE creative at the time. On May 18th, the former Leif Cassidy would appear on Raw for the first time as Al Snow. Throughout the night Jerry Lawler would be seen with a person under a sheet who he promised to reveal. Later in the night he would claim that he had brought someone to protect him at the announce table, and unveiled Al Snow, with Jim Ross even commenting about that he was back "from his exile from ECW". The story here was that Jerry had apparently promised Al a meeting with Vince McMahon, but the pairing would turn sour right away when Lawler couldn't make the meeting happen immediately.

From here Al would go on to have a WWE career that I can best sum up as 'never, ever boring'. You knew when Al Snow was on your screen you were going to be entertained. Al would initially lose his pay per view debut at the 1998 King of the Ring in a tag match, teaming with Head against Too Hot, the early heel version of Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor, who would later become Too Cool. Al would lose when Christopher pinned head with the use of a bottle of Head and shoulders shampoo, because for those three seconds the Head had shoulders, and special referee Jerry Lawler counted the three. I promise thats a real thing that happened, that was overshadowed by something else that night...

Al would eventually find a home in the Hardcore division, becoming a six time champion. Al's hardcore title matches were especially known for leaving ringside and ending up in bizarre places. He would fight the Road Dogg in a blizzard, Hardcore Holly in the Mississippi River, and Boss Man in a bar across the street from the arena. At Unforgiven '99 Al and the Boss Man would take part in the infamous Kennel from Hell match, which consisted of two steel cages with disinterested dogs involved because of a bizarre storyline involving Al making a new friend, a small chihuahua named Pepper. Another highlight of Al's career was his run as European Champion, where he would represent a different country each week with slightly incorrect props. For example when he attempted to represent Greece, carrying a photo of John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, mistaking the country for the 1978 film. Theres a reference you probably weren't expecting...

 After his in ring career ended Al became a trainer on Tough Enough, and despite the wackiness of his in ring character, was portrayed as very serious about training the prospective superstars. in 2018 he bought former WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, which promotes shows weekly on Fite TV. As of 2021 he no longer owns the company but as I understand he still runs it. Also if you've ever seen wrestlers or fans in the crowd wearing those collar and elbow shirts, Al was the co-founder of that brand too.

When the subject of the attitude era comes up, it's easy to focus on the much bigger stars, but in each of the major companies there was a diverse undercard of characters that deserve as much credit. If Al Snow hadn't taken a chance by going to ECW to reinvent himself, who knows if he would be one of those fondly remembered stars like he is today.