Former WWE superstar Al Snow is being celebrated as a hero after saving a child from a potentially deadly riptide. The incident occurred at Santa Rosa Beach in Destin, Florida, where Snow had been enjoying an otherwise normal day at the beach. According to the wrestler, he was out in the water when heard yelling and screaming, and that's when he noticed a young boy struggling to reach his raft. Because of the waves and rough current, it was clear that the boy was in serious trouble with the water starting to pull him away.

"I think a riptide had caught him, because every time a wave would come him, it would start pulling him further and further out, and I could see him starting to panic," Al Snow explained to TMZ Sports. The 6-time WWE Hardcore Champion noticed a lifeguard on the beach heading toward the water, but given the distance, Snow knew she wasn't going to make it in time. It was then up to him to spring into action, though the former wrestler insists he did what anyone else would have done.

"I was pretty far away, but I started running through the water and trying to get over there," the 58-year-old says. "I made it, thank God. And, I caught him just by the arm just as a wave started to pull him even further out. If I hadn't have grabbed him, I think he'd have probably went out to sea. I mean, that would have been it."

Snow instructed the child to hang onto him tightly while he made his way back to shore, but things were scary for a moment. When a big wave pulled both of them back under the water, Snow couldn't help but think of what happened with fellow WWE alum Shad Gaspard last year. Shad, one half of the WWE tag team Cryme Tyme, had been swept out to sea by a riptide along with his son during a trip to the beach. He instructed responding lifeguards to first save his son, to which they complied, though Shad died after submerging with his body recovered days later.

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

While he has performed in several wrestling organizations, Snow might be best known for his run in WWE in the 1990s and 2000s. At one point, he carried around a mannequin head named "Head" which he spoke to as if it were a real person. He would once lead his own stable called the J.O.B. Squad and managed to win the Hardcore Championship six times along with the European Championship and the Tag Team titles with Mick Foley. He wrestled against Triple H, who's currently recovering from a cardiac event, on the Owen Hart tribute show in 1999.

The wrestling star can also be seen in various movies. This includes 2012's Dorothy and the Witches of Oz with Christopher Lloyd, who's recently been starring in live-action Rick and Morty videos. Snow has also appeared in titles like Rudy, The Legacy, and Lake Eerie.

Snow hasn't performed on WWE television in years, but his presence on the beach that day didn't go unnoticed. The former pro wrestler says a couple recognized him from the days when he used to write "help me" backward on his forehead as one of WWE's kookiest characters of the Attitude Era, a time when personalities like The Rock and Undertaker flourished. It must have been surreal for the fans to witness Snow's act of bravery in the way they did. This story comes to us from TMZ Sports.