The veteran superstar, Al Snow, has featured on The Steve Austin Show, where he discussed Matt Hardy’s winning formula found in the Broken persona, as well as the industry as a whole.
The detailed podcast is well worth a listen, given the opportunity, as Al Snow goes into some detail, with disagreements about the style and purpose of professional wrestling. Below are just some of the highlights that are worth noting.
The main concept that Al Snow disagrees with centers around the professional wrestling industry. Snow states that many in the industry say that “wrestling has changed” and is focused primarily on putting on a performance. From his perspective, Al Snow disagrees and explains that wrestling has always been and should always be about competition and fighting for a championship, and to be the best. Why else would you have titles to compete for?
“Give the audience what they paid to believe, which is that it’s a real competition, that the outcome has gravity to it, that the guys are prizefighters no different than a boxer or an MMA fighter in that they actually try to win, not just put on a physical performance. And the wrestlers worldwide have gotten so far away from that concept that makes you wonder.”
The 6-time Hardcore Champion explains that modern day professionals use this excuse to cover up weak psychology or execution.
It isn’t clear exactly who Al Snow is referring to, whether his words are a sweeping statement which covers the entire industry, or if he is singling out a mid-card selection; but as a trainer, he’s extremely passionate about the topic either way.
Later in the podcast the two legends discuss kayfabe, with Matt Hardy being used as the ultimate example.
“Matt Hardy got over so well when he did his ‘broken’ thing in TNA was because he never broke character. He never gave the audience anything other than what he sold them. He sold them a ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy every time he was in public.”
Snow’s comments go against the flow of someone like Austin Creed, who uses a behind-the-scenes approach to engage the audience in his own YouTube channel UpUpDownDown. Creed hosts videogame tournaments on SmackDown Live and RAW, where both heels and faces appear outside of their in-ring persona. Although Snow didn’t comment on this specifically, it is easy to see how something like UpUpDownDown can break kayfabe.
Al also praises Matt Hardy for utilising several easy to grasp and clear points within his persona; this enables anyone to describe him in a clear-cut setence, rather than a confusing and convoluted paragraph.
“You need that character that they can relate to because they can’t physically relate to what we do in the ring. But now, and that was the thing, I think, with Matt. For years, he was solid. He was always kind of just in the background with Jeff, but you couldn’t define him. You couldn’t turn to somebody and go, ‘there’s this guy, Matt Hardy, and he’s A, B, C, D, E.’ But now, you can turn to them and say, ‘wow, there’s this guy – he’s crazy! He talks with this weird accent. His hair’s all messed up.'”
Opinion/Discussion:
Is Al Snow correct in what he’s saying? Has Wrestling changed, or is it an excuse used by those who haven’t seen the success they expected?
