The Evolution Of Life
06-09-2006, 03:45 PM
From the Wrestling Guys radio show:credit:BJ Bethel
Al came on to talk about the problems with Wal Mart and his action figure. He heard about it originally through his mom, who lives north of Dayton. He figured it only made news here through the local paper, because he was a local guy and wasn't too big of a deal. Things changed when Bob Holly's wife caught the end of a CNN story, which all she heard was Snow's name mentioned, and Head. She prompted Bob Holly to call Snow, who was afraid he was in an accident or something. This was when it was clear this was pretty big. Its been covered in CNN, USA Today, and all across the national media since.
Snow talked about the Head character, and said that he has had some problems before, but nothing this big. The only problem came when he was on a poster for an ECW show in Memphis, and he was shown holding the head by its neck, which prompted women's groups to believe he was choking a woman. Snow said that the Head has no sex, and he refers to it as neither a man or woman, and will never change from that. He then went into his character, described the psychological problems he had, or how they would be defined if they were real, and talked about that for a while.
Then Marty and Sean, the hosts, asked to talk to Al's wife to see if he's a beats her or not lol. This is when things got funny. Snow said he had to pull the tape off her mouth first, and did some other stuff. The guy has got quite the sense of humor. She finally came on and said Al didnt hit her or anything. Al came back on after a few minutes of talking to Mrs. Snow, and finished up the interview.
They talked about how he is now getting a bigger push, and such.
In the February 20000 issue of the WWF magazine "THE BITE" columnist of the month was Al and he responded to the two Kennesaw State professors whom of which had his action figure pulled from Walmart shelves after allegations that spousal abuse was suposeingly represented.
photo from magazine
Dear Katherine Kinnick and Sabrena Parton:
I just wanted to take a moment from my ever-increasingly busy schedule and write a brief letter to express my sincerest appreciation.
A genuine"Thank You" for the controversy which the two of you ladies generated over my action figure. While this brought an enormous amount of national media attention to the shameful, but all too common, problem of abuse, at the same time, it brought myself and HEAD a tremendous amount of national attention as well.
Since the story hit,you will be happy to know that my evil,decadent action figure has been sold-out at the other major chains still carrying it, and the price for it on the Internet has been driven up to collector's item heights.
What disturbs me, though, is to see two such learned women , both assistant professors of communication at Kennesaw State University, expounding your opinion of my character in a public forum, like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when your evaluation was made by dramatically jumping to conclusions and assumptions drawn from just the packaging of my action figure.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that how an injustice like the Salem Witch Trials began?
I certainly hope you are not teaching such judgmental practices to the students in your communication classes.
It is my opinion that should your son or daughter grow up to be tragically involved in any form of abuse, then that behavior will stem more from what they have viewed from mom and dad anything they have seen on TV or by playing with my action figure.
It is my hope that in the future you will do more thorough research on your subject matter before making any more opinionated public statements.
But, I digress from my original intent, which was to thank you on behalf of the World Wrestling Federation, myself and, of course, HEAD. We couldn't have done it without you girls, but then again......
photo of a fan letter to Al
Linda McMahon Interview for Court TV
To set this up WWF Wrestlers were wanted to be witness's for the murder trial of Lionel Tate who while baby sitting Tiffany Eunick,Lionel used wrestling moves on Tiffany which killed her,the court wanted wrestlers such as the Rock to talk about what wrestling was about,the WWF got the wrestlers out of going to court,what they did get was an interview with Linda Mcmahon in which they asked her questions about WWF programing
At one point in the interview a question about Al came up
Question: OK,If we are thinking this is a relatively benign play acting pracess,why are the toys,so aggressive in nature?Why do you have wrestlers with womans head locked,hammer locked under their arms,and she squeals"Help Me!...Help Me!",and Bruiser and Buster,and guys with wheel chairs and straighter,the image they bear is less then benign.
Linda: Let me ask you,the action figure you just talked about,the guy with the head under his arm,do you know what that is?
Interviewer: To be honest,I'd have to pull it out of the bag
Linda: But do you know the story behind it?,do you know what it is about?,you are making an assumption,you have to know what the story line is about
Interviewer: How many ten year olds are going to understand the story line?
Linda: Why would they buy the action figure if they didn't know and understand that this is a mannequin head?,it's like a puppet,this guy talks to this mannequin head,he sets the mannequin head up on a chair and talks and gets advice,he listens,she tells him things he doesn't get from anyone else,it's part of the story
They both start talking at once
Interviewer: But he's got the head under his arms and it's saying"Help Me!...Help Me!"
Linda: What if he has a Puppet on his hand and another Puppet on his hand,and he all of the sudden starts making them fight?....it's no different,if you understand our story lines and you watch your not intrigued to buy unless you know what it is your buying.
From the Complaint Station at Walmart website
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe that it is pure mindlessness to remove the Al Snow action figure because a feminine organization from Atlanta, GA has misinterrupted the Head prop as a decapitated head when it's just a model head used in beauty parlors.
This group (which shall remain nameless because it's a ploy to get their name popular) portested at a local wal-mart about the figure and told them that Al Snow's storyline is that he killed a woman and cut off her head and carries it around.
THE REAL story is that he found the **MANEQUIN**'s head in a trash can and it appreciated his wrestling skills and communicates to him how to wrestle.
Wal-Mart needs to shrug off this utterly false and MADE-UP complaint and sell the Al Snow action figure.
Al came on to talk about the problems with Wal Mart and his action figure. He heard about it originally through his mom, who lives north of Dayton. He figured it only made news here through the local paper, because he was a local guy and wasn't too big of a deal. Things changed when Bob Holly's wife caught the end of a CNN story, which all she heard was Snow's name mentioned, and Head. She prompted Bob Holly to call Snow, who was afraid he was in an accident or something. This was when it was clear this was pretty big. Its been covered in CNN, USA Today, and all across the national media since.
Snow talked about the Head character, and said that he has had some problems before, but nothing this big. The only problem came when he was on a poster for an ECW show in Memphis, and he was shown holding the head by its neck, which prompted women's groups to believe he was choking a woman. Snow said that the Head has no sex, and he refers to it as neither a man or woman, and will never change from that. He then went into his character, described the psychological problems he had, or how they would be defined if they were real, and talked about that for a while.
Then Marty and Sean, the hosts, asked to talk to Al's wife to see if he's a beats her or not lol. This is when things got funny. Snow said he had to pull the tape off her mouth first, and did some other stuff. The guy has got quite the sense of humor. She finally came on and said Al didnt hit her or anything. Al came back on after a few minutes of talking to Mrs. Snow, and finished up the interview.
They talked about how he is now getting a bigger push, and such.
In the February 20000 issue of the WWF magazine "THE BITE" columnist of the month was Al and he responded to the two Kennesaw State professors whom of which had his action figure pulled from Walmart shelves after allegations that spousal abuse was suposeingly represented.
photo from magazine
Dear Katherine Kinnick and Sabrena Parton:
I just wanted to take a moment from my ever-increasingly busy schedule and write a brief letter to express my sincerest appreciation.
A genuine"Thank You" for the controversy which the two of you ladies generated over my action figure. While this brought an enormous amount of national media attention to the shameful, but all too common, problem of abuse, at the same time, it brought myself and HEAD a tremendous amount of national attention as well.
Since the story hit,you will be happy to know that my evil,decadent action figure has been sold-out at the other major chains still carrying it, and the price for it on the Internet has been driven up to collector's item heights.
What disturbs me, though, is to see two such learned women , both assistant professors of communication at Kennesaw State University, expounding your opinion of my character in a public forum, like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when your evaluation was made by dramatically jumping to conclusions and assumptions drawn from just the packaging of my action figure.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that how an injustice like the Salem Witch Trials began?
I certainly hope you are not teaching such judgmental practices to the students in your communication classes.
It is my opinion that should your son or daughter grow up to be tragically involved in any form of abuse, then that behavior will stem more from what they have viewed from mom and dad anything they have seen on TV or by playing with my action figure.
It is my hope that in the future you will do more thorough research on your subject matter before making any more opinionated public statements.
But, I digress from my original intent, which was to thank you on behalf of the World Wrestling Federation, myself and, of course, HEAD. We couldn't have done it without you girls, but then again......
photo of a fan letter to Al
Linda McMahon Interview for Court TV
To set this up WWF Wrestlers were wanted to be witness's for the murder trial of Lionel Tate who while baby sitting Tiffany Eunick,Lionel used wrestling moves on Tiffany which killed her,the court wanted wrestlers such as the Rock to talk about what wrestling was about,the WWF got the wrestlers out of going to court,what they did get was an interview with Linda Mcmahon in which they asked her questions about WWF programing
At one point in the interview a question about Al came up
Question: OK,If we are thinking this is a relatively benign play acting pracess,why are the toys,so aggressive in nature?Why do you have wrestlers with womans head locked,hammer locked under their arms,and she squeals"Help Me!...Help Me!",and Bruiser and Buster,and guys with wheel chairs and straighter,the image they bear is less then benign.
Linda: Let me ask you,the action figure you just talked about,the guy with the head under his arm,do you know what that is?
Interviewer: To be honest,I'd have to pull it out of the bag
Linda: But do you know the story behind it?,do you know what it is about?,you are making an assumption,you have to know what the story line is about
Interviewer: How many ten year olds are going to understand the story line?
Linda: Why would they buy the action figure if they didn't know and understand that this is a mannequin head?,it's like a puppet,this guy talks to this mannequin head,he sets the mannequin head up on a chair and talks and gets advice,he listens,she tells him things he doesn't get from anyone else,it's part of the story
They both start talking at once
Interviewer: But he's got the head under his arms and it's saying"Help Me!...Help Me!"
Linda: What if he has a Puppet on his hand and another Puppet on his hand,and he all of the sudden starts making them fight?....it's no different,if you understand our story lines and you watch your not intrigued to buy unless you know what it is your buying.
From the Complaint Station at Walmart website
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe that it is pure mindlessness to remove the Al Snow action figure because a feminine organization from Atlanta, GA has misinterrupted the Head prop as a decapitated head when it's just a model head used in beauty parlors.
This group (which shall remain nameless because it's a ploy to get their name popular) portested at a local wal-mart about the figure and told them that Al Snow's storyline is that he killed a woman and cut off her head and carries it around.
THE REAL story is that he found the **MANEQUIN**'s head in a trash can and it appreciated his wrestling skills and communicates to him how to wrestle.
Wal-Mart needs to shrug off this utterly false and MADE-UP complaint and sell the Al Snow action figure.