Scott Hall - What Could Have Been?

[MonticelloCards]

Scott Hall - What Could Have Been?

by Michael Barton
[email protected]

Scott Hall is now 51 years old now, and he was hanging on by a thread until he was recently released by Total Nonstop Action wrestling. His story is one of the more interesting in the professional wrestling business, and I would like to share some of my thoughts on a man who has had a very good career, but never lived up to the potential first seen in his AWA days. There are a lot of interesting things to discuss and break down, and I would love to hear from anyone after reading this about your thoughts on "The Bad Guy".
Scott was trained in the old Championship Wrestling From Florida territory by Dusty Rhodes (with an assist to Rick Martel and Barry Windham), and broke in with Dan Spivey. Put together as a tag team known as American Starship, Hall and Spivey found little success together, and eventually parted ways because Spivey did not like working the Kansas City territory at the time. Hall was pushed as a singles competitor, having matches with Nick Bockwinkel and Larry Zbyszko. It was these matches along with a developing friendship with Curt Hennig that eventually got Hall into the AWA, where his first nationally televised push started.
As "Big" Scott Hall in the AWA, he was a babyface in the promotion, and I was immediately drawn to him. While many say his gimmick was patterned after Hulk Hogan, I saw a bigger version of Magnum T.A. Neither comparison is a bad thing. He spent some time teaming with Hennig, then received a big push in title matches with Stan Hansen and Rick Martel. Eventually, he lost momentum in the company, and finally moved onto the NWA, getting in thanks to Jim Ross, who saw the potential the young wrestler possessed.
His NWA run was nothing spectacular, and he was eventually losing matches on a regular basis. He had a short stint in Carlos Colon's WWC, with a short lived world title run in 1991. Then he came back to what was then known as World Championship Wrestling.
Hall came in as The Diamond Studd, managed by Dallas Page. He spent some time near the top, but eventually lost steam in WCW as he did earlier in the AWA. It was after he left and signed with the WWE that he got his first long term run with a company and found his greatest success as Razor Ramon.
There is some controversy over who came up with the gimmick, but Scott claims that he did and McMahon and Pat Patterson called him a genius for it (mainly due to the fact that they thought it was completely original material, having never seen Scarface). A complete vignette package was made, and Razor Ramon was born.
The gimmick was successful, and Hall appeared to be on his way to greatness. When the Ultimate Warrior was fired by the WWF, it was Hall who got the opportunity and had a run with Hart, but never was able to win the belt. After this feud, Hall was involved with the famous angle where Sean Waltman (as The 1-2-3 Kid), pulled a shocking upset of Hall on the May 17, 1993 Monday Night Raw. This mini feud eventually led to Ramon gaining respect for the Kid, and helped turn Ramon babyface after insults by Ted DiBiase. He wrestled DiBiase and defeated him in DiBiase's last WWF match.
Hall won his first intercontinental championship in October of 1993, defeating Rick Martel. He would go on to feud with a number of different wrestlers, but his biggest feud was - without question - the one with Shawn Michaels. Michaels had been suspended by the WWF while he was intercontinental champion, and upon his return, the feud started over who was the real champion. This feud led to, what many consider, one of the greatest matches of all time, the ladder match at Wrestlemania X. This match was given the almost impossible 5 star rating by Dave Meltzer, and received another accolade as Pro Wrestling Illustrated's match of the year for 1994. Hall would eventually lose the title to Diesel (Kevin Nash), but would go on, over the course of the next few years, to hold that title on 3 more occasions.
This was the time I sincerely thought Hall would eventually have a run as world heavyweight champion. His career was at it's apex, but it was never meant to be. The first signs of addiction and alcoholism were beginning to cost Hall opportunities for the first time in his career. He received his first suspension due to drugs in 1996 by the WWF. Not long after returning from his suspension the now imfamous MSG incident took place. Hall and Kevin Nash were coming to the end of their contracts, and had decided to leave the WWF and go to WCW. After a tag team match with Shawn Michaels and Triple H, the four wrestlers broke kayfabe and hugged each other in the ring. It was this incident that led to the burial of Triple H for a time, and saw Scott Hall and Kevin Nash begin an angle that made professional wrestling more popular than it ever had been. It was also during this WCW run that addiction to alcohol would lead to the ruin of Hall.
Scott Hall showed up on WCW Monday Nitro in May of 1996, appearing to come out of the crowd as if he was not employed by WCW and talked about being an outsider. Not too long after, Hall was followed by Kevin Nash, and they claimed a hostile takeover of WCW was about to happen. I think mostly everyone is familiar with the entire NWO time in WCW, so I see no need to go into it in depth. But there is a part that's very important to the Scott Hall story, and needs to be addressed.
Around the time WCW was tanking, so was Scott Hall in real life. His partying ways were becoming an activity that took a serious toll on his ability as a wrestler. His behavior at this time was becoming very erratic, and it was clear to those close to him that he needed help. WCW, in turn, did what was probably the worst thing in the world to do, and had Hall use his drinking problem as an on air gimmick. He would stumble out with a drink in his hand at odd times, and his matches were purposely sloppy to enhance this supposed angle. The problem with this is that he was having a real life issue with drinking and drug abuse, and by WCW running this angle, I feel as if it only enabled Scott to continue his destructive ways. I know I may be in the minority on this one, but his problems were used for shock value, and to help a company that was on the verge of becoming the largest company in professional wrestling history to go out of business. I remember watching the events unfold on TV every week and wondering how showing an active alcoholic making an absolute ™™™ of himself would benefit anyone. On a side note, I am a friend of Bill W. in my own life, and I viewed this as a slap in the face to anyone who had ever encountered alcohol and addiction issues in their personal life. It was also one of the key ingredients that led me to stop changing channels during the wars, and spend 90% of my time watching Raw instead. Hall's stint with WCW would finally come to an end in 2002, and I am almost certain that the only reason he agreed to all of this was because the paychecks were so big, he had no other choice.
Hall has been involved with wrestling in many organizations since, including a return to the WWF after Vince McMahon purchased WCW and had the NWO invade his company. But his behavior and serious personal family issues were weighing hard on him, and he had this innate ability (as all people who are active in addiction and alchoholism tend to have) to be completely irresponsible, and not be able to perform the most basic functions of everyday life, such as showing up to work. Things were so bad at one point, that in 1998 his then wife wrote an open letter to WCW and admonishing them for using his real life problems on television as a way to make money. He has come and gone so many times since his WCW days, no showing or showing up in no condition to work regularly. I know what that is like, because at one time I was exactly the same way. Today I am proud of living clean and sober, and I do not hide it from anyone. And I will admit, I thought for a moment that he had turned the corner when he reappeared in TNA on the January 4th edition of Impact. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part, because I wanted to believe that the man had suffered enough, and would be able to at least put together one more short term run before it was all over. Sadly, just as I see people go to jail or relapse and are on the street homeless now, it still is not Scott's time.
The last Impact before Slammiversary, I knew the hammer was about to drop. Hall came out looking absolutely wasted, his eyes half open during his segment. This was after his most recent arrest for disorderly conduct at a local Florida bar, an incident that TNA management found out about just as we did - by hearing about it on the internet. Hall has been fired by TNA, and I hope, for his sake, that no one employs him again until he finally hits rock bottom and begins to get his life in order. There is already an outcry from many fans to have TNA rehire him, and that would be the worst thing in the world for him right now. It would just be more people enabling him to continue his activity. Sadly, I am sure some promoters who do not care about anything but making money will give him work.
I have seen people lose everything to this illness, including their lives. Recently, a 35 year old friend of mine thought he had one last run in him. He was found in a rundown hotel room dead of an overdose. Another one landed himself in prison for what will probably be the rest of his life after killing a woman in a drug induced rage. It is a hard thing to battle, but it can be done. I am living proof.
Scott Hall had everything at one point in his life. He had a successful wrestling career, a family, wonderful children, and I'm sure more money then I will ever be able to make in a year. Now, he is at a true crossroads. He can either become another wrestler who we lose way too early to the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, or he can get some help. I am hoping for the latter, but I am also realistic. What could have been with Scott Hall? No one really knows. He has had a very good career. But I think it could have been a great career if his demons had not gotten the best of him.

[aug06]

Very good write up, He was always one of my top 5...maybe even 3 wrestlers of all-time. It is sad to see what he did to himself, I just dont want to see him on the list of wrestlers that dies way before their time.

[Rookiecard78]

nobody will ever really know but probably his achol addiction

[Jdbuzz44]

Its sad...Scott Hall is an amazing performer...and always fun to watch. During 94-96 "Razor Ramone" era....he was one of my favorite wrestlers. Then he just blew me away in 96-98 during the golden time of the NWO. Its just sad to see his demons always catch up to him....

Also..sucks that we most likley will not see a TNA autograph release.....good thing he has an Autograph in the 1999 Topps Nitro release

[MonticelloCards]

Yes, from what I have heard recently, it was a joint decision between him and TNA President Dixie Carter for him to take care of his personal issues. He may indeed be back, but no one knows for sure. The only thing I do know is that he has a really good career that I think could have been great!