TNA's viewership numbers have improved briefly after "The Final Deletion," and Al Snow thinks the company is righting the ship.
After years of mismanagement, network and time slot changes, TNA seems like it's slowly picking up steam following the infamous "Broken" Matt Hardy segments. In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, former WWE and ECW talent Al Snow talked about how bringing in new talent is a big part of that.
"TNA is on the right track. They’re bringing in new and different talent, and that’s the biggest thing. Everyone was talking about Cody Rhodes leaving WWE and how that was terrible, but it’s not at all. You need to put yourself in a position where you can leave on your terms. I recommend talent if I see somebody out there that I think can do business and do what a wrestler’s job really is," Snow said.
Snow elaborated and expanded on what he considers a common misconception -- the job of a professional wrestler.
"There is a lot of misunderstanding over a wrestler’s job–a wrestler’s job is not to wrestle. A wrestler’s job is much like a movie actor, and it’s the hardest job you can do. A wrestler has to motivate people to leave their comfortable chair in their house, drive to a building, pay a significant amount of money to sit in an uncomfortable chair around people they don’t want to sit around, to watch you do your job. That’s a tough, tough job to do," said Snow.
Snow was also asked about Paul Heyman being the lasting star of ECW. According to Snow, he's not surprised that the workhorse Heyman is still under the bright lights.
"Paul Heyman was ECW. Paul Heyman manufactured and created ECW, and Paul is a master of reinventing himself–that’s how he has lasted as long as he has," Snow said. "You only serve one of two purposes in professional wrestling. Unlike any other form of entertainment, there is no third option. You’re either the thing that sells tickets, and that’s the thing that motivated everyone to show up at the building that night or tune in on television or buy that pay per view, or you are one of the things that helped that thing sell tickets, motivate people to watch the television show, etc. There is no third option, and Paul E. has been able to adeptly function in those two roles for his entire career.”
