Al Helps St.Jude Hospital in Lima Ohio Telethon On Saturday, June 24, 2000, Al Snow made an appearance in Lima Ohio for the St. Jude Telethon. The telethon is an annual event in Lima, in fact, this was the 26th one. It was held at the Allen County Veteran's Memorial Civic and Convention Center. It was broadcast live over WLIO, NBC 35 in Lima, from 7 PM to 3 AM. St. Jude is a hospital in Memphis, TN that helps research and treat childhood cancer. Ric: Ric Bratton Al: Al Snow Ric: Al Snow! Al, how are ya? Al: Fine. I made it. They were looking for me back here, but I was actually sitting in the audience with my family. Ric: We have Al and the family out here, and I thought you were backstage, I'm sorry. So we gave you a nice, long introduction so we could get you out here. Al: Just seeing how professional you are on TV, to see if you could stretch it. Ric: Well I'm 0-for-1. Al is here to sign some autographs. Al: Gettin' into the debate about pop and soda. Ric: That's right. You were down there, you wanted to leave, but you couldn't. Al: I was transfixed in my seat. Ric: Do you call it soda? You don't call it soda... Al: No, I call it pop. You know, you have that debate in other cities throughout the United States. Ric: *laughs* And guys in the WCW probably drink soda. Al: No, they drink Coke. Ric: They drink Coke? Al: Yeah, because of Atlanta and all that. Ric: Oh, they have to do Coke? That's good. Al: Well not Coke, Coke. Coca-Cola. Ric: I know, I know where we're going with this, Coke....a Cola. Well we've got Coke for you, so you can drink Coke tonight. Al: That's good, 'cause I need it. I'm very tired. Ric: You were wrestling last night, just got back in Al: No, not wrestling, I was sports entertaining. Ric: Yeah, I love this, and I hope we have time later to talk about this. It used to be, you had to refer to it as an athletic competition. And now, Vince McMahon has made millions and millions of dollars by relabeling it 'sports entertainment.' Al: Yes, and I put the entertainment into sports. Ric: *laughs* I actually have, in my closet at the station, the closet is actually my office, I don't want to refer to it as an office. Al: Not the back door closet? Ric: No, no, this is a prominently displayed, Al Snow and head collectables item. Which I understan is really collectable now, because you caused some controversy with that. Al: Oh, the action figure. Ric: The action figure, that's right. Al: Which as the two women in Atlanta refer to it, the training manual for future spousal abusers. Ric: Hey, meet this guy and you know 'wait a minute, there's not a guy that's more gentle or more caring about family and kids than Al.' I don't want to ruin the image, but that's... Al: Well yeah, I like to hold a phone book up to my wife before I hit her, cuts down on bruising. *smiles* Ric: Oh geez, don't... Al: I'm just trying to do my public service. Ric: Thank you very much, thank you very much. Al: I just want you to know too, we brought T-shirts, assorted WWF T-shirts, Al Snow T-shirts. Ric: Oh, great! Al: What else did we bring? *laughs* Oh, ball cards. Ric: You got all that here? Great... Al: I got it all here, all in a nice, tidy little box. Ric: I want to tell you how tough the world of professional wrestling is. I tried to get a hold of Al several times, and he was in Hawaii. Al: *laughs* Yes, I was in Hawaii. Ric: I thought maybe you were in Owensborough, KY doing a show or something. Al: *laughs* No, no, I was in Hawaii doing some advertising appearances for some stores there, K-Mart and Liberty House. And got a little tan. Ric: Got a little tan... Al: I feel bad though, everyone came out here, and they're all dressed like you. And you look sharp as a tac, and I got a tank top and a pair of jeans on, I feel terrible. Ric: We'll I'll tell you, if anyone was gonna wear a tank top rather than me, it's probably Al. Al: I don't know, you've been going to the gym, I heard. Ric: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's been Shawn that's been to the gym. Al: Driving past the gym. Ric: Yeah, driving past the gym. Al: Know a guy named Jim. Ric: Yeah, and I can get the Golden Buckeye here in a couple years, and I'm waiting for that to kick in. Al: I physically can get it right now. *laughs* Ric: We'll talk about injuries later. It's called sports entertainment, but you guys get knocked around. Al: Yeah, I'm still looking for that fake part of it as much as possible. I want it to be as fake as I can get it. Ric: Yeah, you want to irrtate a wrestler, talk to them about fake, and fake blood, and all this other stuff. You don't wanna hear that stuff. Al: Doesn't irritate me. I'm pretty easy going. I have nothing but love for everyone. Ric: Yeah, right. I did some ring announcing with the World Wrestling Federation back, years ago. And backstage with these guys, you can call it backstage now, 'cause that's what it is. I mean these guys are in great pain. I remember Greg Valentine had like a 3 hour flight ahead of him, and he was gonna have to like stand up the whole way 'cause he couldn't bend over to get into his seat. I mean you guys get banged around. Al: Yeah, yeah, we sure do. I'm glad to be here, glad to help out. I actually got to visit the St. Jude hospital a year or so ago in Memphis, and it's a terrific charity. For those that are out there that are blessed with children, an especially doubley blesed with children that are healthy, this is an incredible opprotunity for them to help out those that really need it.     And the kids really, truely need it. Going there just absolutely touched my heart, to see them. Ric: You know, it's mixed emotions when you go there. You see kids who are sick, kids who could end up dying of the disease. But you see such hope, such optimism with the patients, the parents, and in particular, the medical staff at St. Judes. Al: Oh, the medical staff is incredible. I would put them right up there on a saints list, to do the work they're doing. And it's just amazin to go there, and to actually tour the facility. The work that they do, and the fact that they do this to help these children is incredible. Ric: It's an incredible story, and I hope we have a chance to relay that to everybody tonight. Those people who have given in the past. Al: And I think more people should come down here and actually sit in the audience, because we're going to have a good time. We have plenty of seats, and we don't have enough butts for the seats! We need to put more butts in the seats! Ric: And it costs nothing! Al: It is completely free, ratise (???), one of the few times in life. If it's free, it's me. You know that Ric. I'm here. Ric: I've heard that, yes. You can get Al's autograph, Dave's, the Miss American United States queens that are here. And we're going to let Al go down, sign some of the autograph items he brought here. And we'd love to see you down at the Civic Center. Al: Sure. Ric: Al, it's been a pleasure. We'll get you back up here and talk some more. Al: Sure. You know, if you want, you can take my car and go around and pick them up at their houses and bring them back here. Ric: We can do that, give us a call and we'll go pick them up. Al Snow, everybody. Credit for this transcript goes to HEAD Staff Field Correspondent-Brian Mears Check out Brian's Homepage