Al Snow

Allen Ray Sarven (born July 18, 1963) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Al Snow.

He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling and WWF/E.

Snow has also held various backstage positions for professional wrestling promotions.

Sarven wrestled in various independent promotions throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, capturing both tag team and singles titles, but failed to make any big breaks.

He made his debut on May 22, 1982.

Sarven defeated Lancaster on May 5, 1985, for the Midwest Championship Wrestling title.

In the late 1990s, WWF and ECW began to cross-promote their organizations to counteract the success of World Championship Wrestling (WCW); Sarven was one of the wrestlers sent to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).

In 1993 he competed in the WWF as a jobber losing to Marty Jannetty and The Undertaker under the name Steve Moore.

He gained a reputation as "the best-kept secret in wrestling".

Sarven helped train future Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Fame member and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn.

During this time he would sometimes wrestle as Shinobi, a ninja-style masked gimmick.

He wrestled in the November 19, 1994, tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but he lost to Chris Candido, the eventual winner of the tournament.

From 1995 to 1997, Snow operated a professional wrestling school called "Body Slammers" in Lima, Ohio, hiring D'Lo Brown as an assistant trainer.

It has since branched out with one of his trainers running "Bodyslammers" in Ottawa.

After a tour of Japan, Sarven wrestled a match in Michigan against Sabu, an Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) regular, who suggested he try ECW.

After making his debut against The Tazmaniac and losing via pinfall on February 4, 1995, Sarven faced Chris Benoit as Al Snow, in a 15-minute match that was hailed as one of the best of the year.

Sarven was also being courted by Jim Cornette for his Smoky Mountain Wrestling federation.

ECW booker Paul Heyman agreed to let him work for both companies.

Sarven soon found that he was not being utilized by ECW and went to Smoky Mountain full-time.

In Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Snow teamed with Unibomb (Glenn Jacobs, later to be known as Kane) as The Dynamic Duo and defeated the Rock 'n' Roll Express for the SMW Tag Team Championship.

Both wrestlers caught the attention of the World Wrestling Federation and were signed by the end of 1995.

Sarven began working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) when he signed a contract in August 1995.

During his tenure in the company, Sarven wrestled under numerous gimmicks, such as Avatar, which saw him come to the ring unmasked, putting on a mask to wrestle, then removing it afterwards.

The gimmick was based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers whose popularity the company wanted to capitalize on at that time.

During his particularly short run under this gimmick, Sarven's WWF debut as Avatar took place on the October 23, 1995, episode of Monday Night RAW, defeating Bryan Walsh.

About a month after his debut, he was scheduled to be the third man for The Underdogs at Survivor Series but for reasons unknown, was replaced by Bob Holly.

After this, he started teaming with Aldo Montoya.

His two final matches as Avatar were against Sycho Sid & 1-2-3 Kid.

He was also to partake in the 1996 Royal Rumble match but once again, due to unknown reasons, never appeared.

His final match in February was against Isaac Yankem.

On February 20, 1996, Sarven wrestled as Shinobi, a "ninja assassin" hired by Jim Cornette to dispose of Shawn Michaels, who defeated Shinobi in quick fashion.

Avatar returned for one last appearance against Justin Bradshaw at a house show on March 17, 1996, at MSG in a losing effort.

Sarven received his first mainstream exposure with the WWF as Leif Cassidy, the tag team partner of Marty Jannetty in February 1996.

The duo were promoted as The New Rockers, a throwback to the original Rockers team of Jannetty and Shawn Michaels.

Eventually, Jannetty left, and Sarven was reduced to jobbing for mid-carders in January 1997.

His last appearance in WWF in September 1997 was a loss to Tiger Ali Singh at WWF One Night Only.

Snow worked as a road agent for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, later Impact Wrestling) from 2010 to 2017 and has owned Ohio Valley Wrestling since 2018 (first as majority owner, and a minority owner since 2021).

Sarven attended a professional wrestling tryout camp held by Ole and Gene Anderson.

There he met Jim Lancaster, promoter of Ohio's Midwest Championship Wrestling, who agreed to train him.

Lancaster later described Sarven as "a leader in the ring" who "had drive and natural ability".