Al Snow says WWE, AEW and other pro wrestling companies do not owe fans explanations for their creative decisions, arguing that the industry created its own problem by revealing too much backstage information.
Speaking on The Brand podcast with Jeff Lane, Snow accused wrestlers, administrators and creative teams of inviting fan judgment before complaining when audiences question their decisions. His argument expanded upon previous comments about post-show media scrums breaking wrestling’s illusion and AEW’s backstage problems.
Snow called it hypocritical for people in wrestling to expose the business while resenting the scrutiny that follows.
It’s so funny to listen to the hypocrisy and the dichotomy of people that are within the business getting upset over the judgment and the questioning of what’s going on backstage when they constantly are revealing backstage information and giving that information to people to now feel justified in that judgment.
That makes no sense.
Snow said fans criticizing creative decisions and talent releases do not know the full picture.
I’m watching more and more of these online outlets of information that are constantly bringing up how fans are critical of creative decisions, critical of certain pathways, certain decisions or certain talent releases, and they don’t know anything in regard to it.
They have no skin in the game. None. None whatsoever.
He questioned why wrestling companies should owe the general public an explanation.
AEW is not a publicly traded company. I don’t know about MLW or NWA. I know NWA is completely private.
As such, why would any of those owe an explanation to the general public? Even WWE only owes an explanation to its stockholders, not to you who are sitting on the couch watching and standing in judgment of what they’re doing.
Snow said discontent is part of wrestling’s storytelling process and can be used to build toward a future payoff.
You’re never going to please everybody. Part of the real art of the wrestling business is to make an audience want something, to desire a resolution, and build that discontent to drive viewership and attendance to greater levels so that you can make money and pay it off and give that level of satisfaction at a time and place of your choosing.
Snow argued that wrestlers and companies cannot completely pull back the curtain and expect fans not to judge what they learn.
You make a choice. Either pull the curtain somewhat back to satisfy them or do what you’ve done, which is pull it all the way back and then piss and moan about the very fact that they now are judging what you do.
You can’t have it both ways. Yet we constantly think that we can.
Snow said fans buy tickets or tune in to be guided through the story by the performers.
My job as a wrestler, everyone’s job in the wrestling business, is you pay your money for us to tell you what to think, feel and believe, what to like and what to dislike.
We get to tell you, and then we educate you and direct you to where we can capitalize on those emotions to their greatest extent to motivate you to want to watch it more. Bottom line.
Snow compared the relationship between a wrestling company and its audience to passengers trusting the captain of a ship.
When that’s the case, we’re the ones running the ship and you bought a ticket to go on the cruise. You don’t get to tell the captain, “Hey, you need to take another route because I think this is boring or I don’t enjoy the view.”
You are stuck on the boat and you just have to go until you get to the destination that they make you want to go. Period.
But if you are on the boat and you’re part of the crew or you’re one of the captains, shut up and quit bitching and complaining about the passengers who are telling you what to do, because as you’re driving the boat, you’re on the PA system telling them everything about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
God, it’s funny. It’s exasperating.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit The Brand podcast, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.
