Al Snow On How Walmart Canceled Him 'Before Cancel Culture Was A Thing'

In an interview with Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston, wrestling legend and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) owner Al Snow recalled the circumstances that led to one of his Jakks Pacific action figures being banned by Walmart in 1999. "I was getting canceled before cancel culture was a thing," said a gleeful Snow, who likened the incident to a modern day social media story.

"Two women, who were of all things, assistant professors of Communications at a college in Georgia ... went into a Walmart and without any study, without any homework, without any research, jumped to a very wild and completely innocuous conclusion that the action figure that I had, which included a Barbie doll head that was popped off that had 'HELP ME' right across it, was a decapitated women's head, and then wrote a letter to the Atlanta Constitution. And of course, because wrestling was so hot at the time, the Atlanta Constitution printed it, without doing any actual research themselves ... and then of course, Walmart saw it, panicked and then it led to where the toy was banned across the nation in every retail outlet, which just led to them selling out that much quicker."

The Snow action figures that came out afterwards (2000-05) from Jakks either had no accessories or an accessory that didn't match Snow's gimmick, such as a dumbbell or a water bottle. In 2007, Snow's figure in series 13 of the highly acclaimed Jakks Classic Superstars line would come with the blank Styrofoam head he used in ECW rather than the Barbie mannequin head.

The irony of the situation is not lost on Snow, who said "Walmart will not sell (the figure) as they feel its an endangerment to the community; now granted, you can still go to Walmart, buy a hunting gun with ammo and a hunting knife to cut up your victim but you can't buy pregnant Barbie or my action figure."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit NBC Sports Boston YouTube with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.