Al Snow Says Wrestling Is Trying To Capture An Existing Audience Instead Of A Casual Audience
Al Snow was recently interviewed by Wrestling Epicenter’s Interactive Wrestling Radio. You can see highlights below, and the full interview at this link.
The birth of AEW:
“Wrestling has always been very cyclical. I think we’re seeing the cycle come back around again. People are hungry for and are looking for an alternative. WWE has always been the leader. When they’re doing very good, everybody else is doing very good. When they’re not doing so good, it opens up the opportunity for potential competitors. That is where ECW came to prominence and was not considered just a regional deal. It was becoming considered a number 3 in national promotions which was unheard of. It, quite often, began to dictate style wise to the other programs in the dictates of how they produced and directed the show and psychology… Everything. People were looking for something fresh. Wrestlers are nothing more than a product. They are peanut butter. People don’t buy a new car every few years because they need one. They do because the car companies bring out new models with different features. But, Randy Orton has been in WWE since when? He’s great, amazing, he’s a worker in every sense of the word. But, at some point, the fan tires or wants to see something different. Even if they just go away for a while and come back much like what Taker does. And now, we have that opportunity again. We are poised to potentially have that interest. The only thing that worries me is back then, you had a lot of talent that had a lot of experience from a different generation back then. Now, the talent has experience but not in the same manner. That could play itself out. The other problem is, it seems to me anyway, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, New Japan… I would assume AEW is as well…Even WWE is to some extent as well. They’re all trying to capture that existing wrestling audience. Back then, Vince McMahon was all about trying to capture the casual audience, Mr. and Mrs. Walmart. That is where success was found. It seems everyone is after the same pie and trying to cut a piece of that same pie instead of trying to create a way to capture the casual audience. “
