Al Snow Says He Never Approached Wrestling From A Comedic Perspective

Al Snow portrayed a gimmick in Extreme Championship Wrestling and WWE that saw him carry around a mannequin head. The former WWE Hardcore Champion — who would regularly speak to the model head — was asked when he discovered comedy as a tool during his years as an active in-ring performer. 

"I never really approached what I did in wrestling as being comedic," Snow said on "The Angle Podcast." "I thought it was just an effort to be entertaining. And everybody goes, you know, I was a comedic wrestler, and really, I wasn't. The character was that I was insane. And what was funny, or what I like to call dark humor, was you laughing at the fact that I had an altered view of reality and was willing and capable of just doing about anything that made sense for me because the character was insane. 

"I had lost touch with reality, so it put me in a lot of funny circumstances [and] entertaining situations. And my reactions, of course, were suited to the character, but they came across as comedic."

Snow — who previously said a car ride with WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley led to the creation of his insane gimmick — was then asked when he started noticing the crowd reacting to his character and realizing he had something going with the persona.

"Right out of the gate," Snow said. "And really, it's not so much when you're developing, let's say a persona, we call it in the wrestling business a gimmick, it's twofold. One is for the performer. It's actually who that person is just with the volume turned way up ... I have a tendency to be a little sarcastic, and I can be sardonic and a smart a*s. 

"And at the time when I started doing the head, it was a vehicle or an avenue for me to — I had a lot of frustration professionally that it became a way to vent that. And for the audience, it gave them a character and persona that they could now relate to and could describe and to believe in. And you could turn to your friends and go, 'Hey, there's this guy that talks to a head. He's completely insane.' And in a sentence or less, you knew who I was, what I was about, and why you wanted to watch me."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Angle Podcast" with an h/t to Wrestling INC. for the transcription.