Former WWE Superstar Al Snow was a recent guest on Powerbomb: The Podcast. Snow opened up about his new venture as owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Highlights appear below.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On Owning OVW & Promoting Boxing Events:
I took over ownership of OVW and created a parent company, an umbrella company called Gladiator Sports Network where we use the form to operate OVW and also Top Notch Boxing, so we do boxing events as well. It’s been exciting. I’ve done and accomplished a whole lot in a very short amount of time and I’m looking forward to doing it even more in the coming year. We’ve had two boxing events this past year, one in July and one in October. We’re looking to do more in the coming year.
How Al Snow Ended Up Involved With OVW:
Danny Davis, who was still primary owner of the company, was ready to retire and one thing led to another. I moved back to Louisville, Kentucky and we had a couple conversations. My involvement in the previous times I was with OVW, I always truly enjoyed, and I knew what OVW has done in the past, and I know what can be done in the future, and I was very excited to try to be a part of it again, and it just went from there. It took off. I enjoyed [backstage work] very much and in OVW, I’ll get to do that again and this is my chance to build a legacy. I’m not gonna be able to wrestle forever. I really went a lot longer than anybody was ever possibly expecting I would go and lasted a lot longer than anybody ever expected, but my in-ring career, at some point, is gonna have to come to an end, and this allows me to continue to be a part of the business that I absolutely love.
On Wanting Fans To Get A Return On Their OVW Investment:
Everything they’re doing, everything they’re asking me to do, is an investment in time, effort, and money in them. Everything they’re asking the fans is for their time, effort, and money in them. I want to see the talent, themselves, invest time, money, and effort in themselves to warrant and be worthy of that time, money, investment by me, and more importantly, by the fans, as well. At $10 a ticket, a family of four, that’s $40. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot of money, but for the average person $40 out of their monthly budget just to go watch some kind of entertainment is a lot and I want to make sure that they get their money’s worth and that investment was worthwhile to them, and that they can come in, they can lose themselves, enjoy the show, forget about some of their troubles, the pressures, and the strife of life, and just have a good time, and walk out that door, and can’t wait to come back again. That requires the talent to be willing to be willing to make an investment in themselves, so that can be ensured that that’s gonna happen.
Future Plans For OVW:
We do have a lot. I’m working on rebuilding the school. We’re just now starting to have classes again, this week. We’re gonna have a major announcement coming up very soon, in regards to the school. Quite honestly, it’s groundbreaking. It’s never been done before in wrestling, with the school. It will be the way of the future and it will open up opportunities for people that truly want to pursue, and be passionate, and be professional, and are serious about a career in professional wrestling. It will open up doors and opportunities for those people to be able to pursue. It’s a very important announcement.
As far as OVW itself is concerned, continuing to try and attract new talent, and try to put on bigger and better shows, larger events, and we’re going to broadcast with our television partner, several times this year, broadcast live special events. The goal is to go live every Wednesday night on TV, and we have begun streaming pay-per-views on the Fite TV Network with their special events. We went live on Fite TV and also [unintelligible] simultaneously this past year and we’re gonna do that more often. We’re also creating our own OVWA/ASWA channel. ASWA is the national wrestling academy, which has affiliate schools all over the world (17 right now). It’s a WWE type Network. We’ll put that up and you can watch the weekly shows, you can go back and watch the library. We’ll produce special programming that you can only get on the channel, so I’m trying to raise up the level and continue to grow OVW and bring it back to its prominence.
On His Expectations For OVW:
We’re going to continue to bring in new talent. We’re gonna continue to develop young talent. We’re going to try to put on the best TV show we possibly can. We’re gonna upgrade the presentation and production of that television show, so that it has more of a look and feel of a major league promotion. We’re going to expand our live events schedule to where we’re doing at least two live events, in addition to television every week. We are going to continue to grow the brand digitally and around the world with our channel and with partnerships as well. There’s a big announcement that will be coming up in regards to that. Like I said, there will be a very major announcement – a historic announcement coming up very soon. We’re just waiting to get all the ducks in a row and then we’ll put that out there. I’m trying to, in my little corner of the world anyways, make wrestling fun, and go back to selling what it is that wrestling sells, which is primarily – I think it’s kind of been forgotten – who the wrestler is and why they’re doing it. Ultimately, if you’re a professional wrestler, you’re only in that ring to do two things and that’s to try to win and try not to lose. Who are you? Why should I like you? Why should I cheer for you? Or, why should I not like you? Why should I want to see you lose and not win? Those are important aspects – especially the whole idea of trying to win and not to lose – I think, has been bastardized and been lost over time. That’s so important because the only consequence that can be done in that ring, as far as what one person can do to the other, can possibly lead is for one person to lose and one person to win. When you destroy that idea, when you physically act out in a way that doesn’t work in conjunction with that then you kill the consequence and you kill the emotional connection. If you kill the emotional connection, you kill the heat. If you kill the heat, you don’t sell tickets and ultimately, at the end of the day, that’s what a talent’s real job is: to motivate people to leave the house and pay to see them.
On Giving Back Through OVW:
[OVW’s February 8th show will be a fundraiser for Little League Baseball] For our 1,000th episode we donated $1,000 to the American Cancer Society for their Real Men Wear Pink campaign. We donated $1,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Association. Every Wednesday we have a special program for big brothers and big sisters. Big brothers and big sisters can bring their little brother or little sister and little brother and little sister get in for free every Wednesday night. We’re trying very hard to give back to the fans and to give back to the community because without the fans and without the community there is no OVW. OVW was Louisville born and Louisville bred. It’s not some big monster corporation from somewhere else. It’s right here in the backyard creating stars that at some point in time, you’re probably going to see at some major promotion somewhere around the world.
Readers may listen to the Al Snow interview in its entirety below:
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