Former WWE Star Al Snow Speaks Out After Rescuing Child Caught in Riptide

Al Snow has been hailed a hero after saving a young boy caught in a riptide.

The former WWE star—legal name Allen Ray Sarven—spoke about the incident in a Friday interview with TMZ, just a day after he pulled the child out of the ocean. Snow told the outlet he was at a Destin beach along with a friend when he started hearing people screaming.

“I looked over and I saw a little boy. He was trying to swim and trying to reach where his raft, or his float — the water was pretty rough, especially in one particular area,” he recalled. “And I think the riptide had caught him because every time a wave would come in, it would start to pull him further and further out. And I could see he was starting to panic. I heard the mom screaming, ‘Somebody help him.’”

Snow said he saw a lifeguard begin to take action, but she was so far away that she likely wouldn’t have made it on time. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

“I was pretty far away but I started running through the water and trying to get over there,” he continued. “I made it, thank God, and I caught him just by the arm just as a wave started pulling him even further out. If I hadn’t grabbed him I think he probably would have went out to sea. I think that would have been it. I pulled him in and told him to hold on.”

The 58-year-old, who worked with the WWE from 1998 to 2004, said he and the child walked away without any injuries, but the possibility of death crossed his mind. Snow told TMZ that at one point during the incident, he began thinking about Shad Gaspard, the WWE wrestler who died after getting caught in a rip current last year.

“Honestly, for a moment, I thought of Shad Gaspard, for a second, because a wave took us both under right then,” he said. “I was able to stay up and hand him off to the lifeguard. I made my way back across to my friend and we went up on the beach. I felt like I was about to collapse, I was exhausted.”