Al Snow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Allen Sarven | |
|---|---|
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| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Leif Cassidy Steve Moore Shinobi Avatar The Five Star Ninja Doctor Albert Snow Al Snow |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) |
| Billed weight | 238 lb (106 kg) |
| Born | July 18, 1963 Lima, Ohio |
| Trained by | Jim Lancaster |
| Debut | May 22, 1982 |
Allen Ray Sarven (born July 18, 1963 in Lima, OH) is a professional wrestler better known by his stage name of Al Snow. He is best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment.
Contents |
[edit] World Wrestling Federation
In the mid-1990s, following a notable run in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, Sarven began working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) when he signed a contract in August 1995. Sarven wrestled under numerous gimmicks in the WWF, such as Avatar (a superhero gimmick with Sarven wearing a mask) and Shinobi (a generic Ninja-style gimmick). He also competed in and lost a match against Marty Jannetty under the name Steve Moore. Sarven received his first mainstream exposure with the WWF as Leif Cassidy, the heel tag team partner of Marty Jannetty. The duo was promoted as "The New Rockers", a throwback to the 1980s team of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty. Eventually, the storyline was dropped, and Sarven was reduced to jobbing for mid-carders. In the late 1990s, WWF and ECW began to cross-promote their organizations to counteract the success of WCW; Sarven was one of the wrestlers sent to ECW.
[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling
Within this new environment, Sarven found success as the character Al Snow. In this role, Sarven received a lot of fan and management support for his J.O.B. Squad storyline, which promoted him as being angry with and driven mad by his years as a jobber for the WWF. He would come to the ring with a mannequin head that he talked to as if it were a real person, which prompted ECW crowds to chant "We want head", an intentional double entendre. His popularity was enhanced with his choice of entrance music, "Breathe," performed by The Prodigy. ECW promoters handed out styrofoam mannequin heads at wrestling shows, and audience members started waving them and shouting, "Head! Head! Head!" in time to his entrance music. The entire audience would then throw the heads into the ring before the match started. Once in his ECW career he wrestled for the ECW Heavyweight title, losing to Shane Douglas at Wrestlepalooza 1998.
[edit] World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
Just two days before he was booked to win the ECW Heavyweight Championship, Sarven was recalled to the WWF, where he continued his gimmick of talking to "Head," creating some of the more memorable humorous skits of the "Attitude" era, injecting comedy relief into many shows. He was a face during this period. In early 2000 he began to team with Steve Blackman as an "odd couple" tag team called "Head Cheese" (so called because of Snow's attempt to get Blackman, a Wisconsin native, to wear a Green Bay Packers "Cheese" hat).
Snow received some mainstream publicity in 1999 when Wal-Mart pulled his action figure from their shelves after Sabrena Parton, a professor at Kennesaw State University, complained that "Head" was a "decapitated woman's head" that sent an inappropriate message about violence towards women. Parton was quoted as saying "My sons are 6 and 11. What kind of message would this toy send them about brutalization of women?"[1] Snow used the story as part of a storyline in which the controversy caused him to suffer from depression; in one skit Snow called his mother (kayfabe), observing that the stores wouldn't sell his action figures, but would sell shotguns and ammunition. This would also end up leading Snow to dump Head and his ECW persona, eventually overhauling his gimmick.
Later Snow would side with real life friend Mick Foley, but turned heel by betraying him due to joking issues about him of Foley's book, Have A Nice Day; he would later turn face again due to fan reaction. During 2000, he won the European Championship. During the WWE brand extension, he was drafted to Smackdown!, where he teamed up with Maven. After taking time off again for another season of Tough Enough, Snow returned as a member of the Raw roster, eventually becoming a commentator for Sunday Night Heat alongside Jonathan Coachman. When the Coach sided with Eric Bischoff, Snow aligned with him, turning heel. The two feuded with Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler, and briefly replaced them at the Raw announce table. When the 4th Tough Enough came to SmackDown, Snow went there and turned face once again.
Snow was often the butt of Mick Foley's jokes during Foley's tenure as WWF Commissioner in 2000. Foley also pokes fun at Snow in his autobiography Have a Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, although they are close friends in real life.
In 2006 Snow returned to wrestling full-time as a member of the new ECW brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. His first appearance in the new brand was in the WWE vs ECW battle royal at the "WWE vs. ECW Head to Head" special, where he was accompanied by Head and ended up losing the match. On the June 13, 2006 debut of ECW on Sci-Fi, Sarven participated in an Extreme Battle Royal, which was won by Sabu. Over the next six months, he was used sporadically, mostly as a jobber losing to people such as Test and Kevin Thorn.
On January 18, 2007, Snow was released from his wrestling contract with WWE along with several other superstars, though he will remain with the company as a trainer at OVW. He has since retired in the South Florida area, where he runs a karaoke business with his wife. At the February 3rd OVW TV tapings, Al Snow was named the new OVW Troubleshooter by Danny Davis, in response to Danny Basham's WWE release.
[edit] In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
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- Snow Plow (Scoop brainbuster)
- Moonsault
- Snow-Plex (Wheelbarrow suplex)
- Snow Bomb (Sit-out ura-nage spinebuster)
- Asai moonsault
- Diving leg drop
- Trapping headbutts
- DDT
- Clothesline
- Dragon sleeper
- Superkick
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- Jim Cornette
- Skandor Akbar
- Jerry Lawler
- Jonathan Coachman
- Pepper the dog
- Head
- Pierre
- Nicknames
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- The Clown Prince of Hardcore
- The Snowman
- Doctor Albert Snow
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
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- BCW Can-Am Tag Team Champion (1 time, with Denny Kass)
- GWA
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- GWA Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- GWA Tag Team Championship (5 times) - with Mike Kelly (5)
- GWA BodySlammers Tournament (1994)
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- JAPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Midwest Championship Wrestling
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- MCW-ICW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- MCW Midwest Tag Team Championship (2 times)
- MCW Midwest Territorial Championship (1 time)
- MCW-ICW United States Tag Team Championship (6 times)
- Midwest Territorial Wrestling
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- MTW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- MTW Tag Team Championship (2 times, with Ray Roberts)
- Motor City Wrestling
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- MCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- MCW Tag Team Championship (1 time, with Denny Kass)
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- PWI ranked him # 329 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
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- SMW Tag Team Championship (1 time, with Unibomb)
- USA Pro Wrestling
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- USA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- USA Xtreme Wrestling
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- UXW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- World Wrestling Alliance
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- WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Mickey Doyle (1)
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- 1996 Most Underrated Wrestler
[edit] Personal life
Al is divorced from wife Pam and has two children, Jake and Brittany.
Sarven is well trained in martial arts, mat grappling, free style, hardcore, and shoot-fight wrestling. He was a trainer and cornerman of professional wrestler/mixed martial artist Dan "The Beast" Severn when Severn participated in four Ultimate Fighting Championship tournaments. He was even booked once as "The Ultimate Fighter" Al Snow during a match between him and Chris Benoit.
