Allen Ray Sarven (born July 18, 1963) is an American https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestler, better known by his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_name Al Snow. He is best known as a wrestler for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_Mountain_Wrestling, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Championship_Wrestling, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE. Snow has also held various backstage positions for professional wrestling promotions. Snow worked as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Agent_(professional_wrestling) for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_Wrestling (TNA, later Impact Wrestling) from 2010 to 2017 and has owned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Valley_Wrestling since 2018 (first as majority owner, and a minority owner since 2021).
Sarven attended a professional wrestling tryout camp held by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Anderson and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Anderson_(wrestler). 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".
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. In 1993 he competed in the WWF as a jobber losing to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Jannetty and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Undertaker under the name Steve Moore. He gained a reputation as "the best-kept secret in wrestling". Sarven was also being courted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cornette for his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_Mountain_Wrestling federation. ECW booker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kane_(wrestler)) as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Duo_(professional_wrestling) and defeated the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_%27n%27_Roll_Express for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMW_Tag_Team_Championship. Sarven began working for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE (WWF) when he signed a contract in August 1995. During his tenure in the company, Sarven wrestled under numerous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms#Gimmick, such as Avatar, which saw him come to the ring unmasked, putting on a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucha_libre#masks to wrestle, then removing it afterwards. The gimmick was based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Night_RAW, defeating Bryan Walsh. About a month after his debut, he was scheduled to be the third man for The Underdogs at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1995) but for reasons unknown, was replaced by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcore_Holly. After this, he started teaming with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Credible. His two final matches as Avatar were against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Eudy & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Waltman. He was also to partake in the 1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rumble_(1996) match but once again, due to unknown reasons, never appeared. His final match in February was against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kane_(wrestler). On February 20, 1996, Sarven wrestled as Shinobi, a "ninja assassin" hired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cornette to dispose of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Michaels, who defeated Shinobi in quick fashion. Avatar returned for one last appearance against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bradshaw at a house show on March 17, 1996, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Square_Garden in a losing effort.
Sarven received his first mainstream exposure with the WWF as Leif Cassidy, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_team partner of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Jannetty in February 1996. The duo were promoted as The New Rockers, a throwback to the original https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockers team of Jannetty and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Michaels. Eventually, Jannetty left, and Sarven was reduced to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(professional_wrestling) for mid-carders in January 1997. In the late 1990s, WWF and ECW began to cross-promote their organizations to counteract the success of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling (WCW); Sarven was one of the wrestlers sent to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Championship_Wrestling (ECW). His last appearance in WWF in September 1997 was a loss to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Ali_Singh at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_One_Night_Only.
Sarven found success back in ECW, billed once again as Al Snow. Sarven developed a new character gimmick after reading about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abnormal_psychology and finding a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannequin head on the street near the ECW Arena during a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Play Day parade. He got the idea to portray an individual with a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia disorder using the head as a prop for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection. In this role, Sarven received a lot of fan and management support for his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J.O.B._Squad storyline, which promoted him as being https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_breakdown by his years as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(professional_wrestling) for the WWF.
In the storyline, Snow, upset at his lot in life, asked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Foley what he had to do to get anywhere in wrestling. Jack said to Snow that to become famous he had to "get a little head" (meaning he had to be willing to sleep with/have sex with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms#Book). Snow, however took this literally, and thus he started coming to the ring with the mannequin head (with the words "Help Me" written backwards on its forehead, an action Snow himself began to do) whom he talked to as if it were a real person, which prompted ECW crowds to chant "We want Head", an intentional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_entendre. ECW promoters handed out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_polystyrene_foam mannequin heads at wrestling shows, and audience members started waving them and shouting, "Head! Head! Head!" in time to "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathe_(The_Prodigy_song)" by The Prodigy, his entrance music. The entire audience would then throw the heads into the ring before the match started. The biggest match of his ECW career came when he wrestled for the promotion's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECW_Championship, losing to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Douglas at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestlepalooza_(1998) in 1998.
On April 7, 2018, it was reported Snow purchased https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Valley_Wrestling. Snow was heavily featured in the docuseries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestlers_(TV_series), a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix released series focused on OVW that was released September 13, 2023.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Snow#cite_note-42 Following the series release, OVW had their first Thursday night sold-out show in eight years.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Snow#cite_note-43