OVW President and Owner Al Snow recently spoke with the That 90’s Wrestling Podcast about the basics of running a wrestling company, and how it compares to a studio making a comic book movie.
Talks running a wrestling company:
“You’ve got to understand that as a wrestling company, think of it like this: running a wrestling company is same as making a comic book movie. Why do I say that? Because you’re making a product that has a fan base that already knows the character and knows their strengths, their weaknesses, knows their wants, their needs, their hopes, their dreams, their desires. They know all of the story.
Compares it to movie studios producing comic book movies for a broader audience:
“But there’s an even broader, bigger audience that doesn’t know any of that because they don’t read comic books. Right? So do we just make a comic book movie that only appeals to the comic book fans? Do we spend millions, literally millions of dollars producing this movie? Or do we try our best to make one that now bridges the gap and then appeals to both sections so that we can have a successful product? You know, we can make a profit and make it as profitable as possible.”
On Jim Cornette possibly joining AEW:
“The idea is great, but how many people in that broader audience knows that Jim Cornette is so hated by this fan base? And would it serve to that broader audience? And is there a way to bring Jim Cornette in to where now you can educate that broader audience once he arrives to it? Now they join in that hate of Jim Cornette as well. Or are you now just simply pandering to that small portion of the audience? They did the same thing in ECW at one point, you know, with Cornette coming in there. It was short lived. I mean, it was a very short run. But, you know, for that small percentage of the audience, that was awesome. And I’m sure there’s a way that you could have Jim come in and be an on-air character. And again, much like what they do with comic book movies, if they bridge that gap to where an audience that’s never read a comic book, or never read that particular comic book about that particular character, can come in, sit down, and get engrossed in the movie, and care enough to think, my god, that was a really good film and I got my money’s worth for paying to see it.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)