In Defense of... 01.11.06: Scott Hall (Part 1 of 2)
Posted by JP Prag on 01.11.2006
Hey yo.
In Defense of…
By JP Prag
Issue #37
Scott Hall (Part 1 of 2)
Intro
Hello people who may have seen me in a hometown near you, and welcome back to In Defense Of…! It's true, it's damn true. I am home! I just got back Monday night after nearly two month straight on the road. And I'm home for… let's see here… including yesterday… 14 days! All right! Now I might be able to do all those little things I've been meaning to do. You know, like clean my bathtub, vacuum the rugs, and take my dishes out of the dishwasher. What? Did you think it was all glamorous?
Even though I've been gone so long, I think I've managed to put out some pretty good cases, and last week was no exception. We started and finished our case for the most hardcore man in wrestling: New Jack! Oh man, what a character!
And with 66.7% of the vote, New Jack has been found:
NOT GUILTY!
Did you read that, New Jack! I did it! I did it, brother! I got you a not guilty vote! Fire all your lawyers, because I'm the only man you need. And although I may not have a law degree, and you could not legally pay me to represent you in court, and I would never take on a record like yours without getting paid, umm… let me go take the LSATs and get back to you in a few years. In the meanwhile, you should go read my other article: Hidden Highlights!
Hidden Highlights is the most positive article in the IWC! JT and I bring you a great piece that is all about changing the way we watch and enjoy wrestling. Keep your eyes peeled for all the subtle bits that make wrestling great, and check it out each and every Sunday morning.
Now, perhaps this is your first time clicking on In Defense Of…? Maybe you didn't read about New Jack, the McMahon-Helmsley Era, Mike Awesome Leaving ECW, Sid Vicious, the Undertaker, the Sport of Professional Wrestling, Lex Luger, WCW Thunder, the Brand Extension, Goldberg, Vince not buying out WCW's contracts, Earl Hebner Screwing Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes: Head Booker, The Finger Poke of Doom, Kevin Nash, the Elimination Chamber, or even Eric Bischoff. It might be that you like to have a drink or two or twelve before you go to work. Well, for those new to the concept, this article has a pretty simple premise:
Certain people, events, organizations, and storylines in wrestling history have gotten a bum wrap. Some writers have presented overtly critical comments and outright lies as fact, and others have followed suit. Well no more! "In Defense of…" has one reason: to bring the truth to the wrestling fan!
And that's what I intend to do.
Me? I'm the One and Only JP, and I really need to watch some things on my TIVO. JT would prefer it if that were SmackDown! so I can catch up and comment on his work. We'll see!
Some dame walked into my office and said…
Oh where to even begin. Well, how about Christy who said:
I would like to see you defend Scott Hall against all these assholes that don't understand that alcoholism is a disease. They say "well why doesn't he just stop?" Well, its not that simple. Furthermore, Scott Hall is a great and legendary wrestler and a good man.
And since I'm such a slowpoke, she also said:
Hi, I spoke with you a while back about doing a defense of Scott Hall.... You said you'd take the case and I was just wondering if you had any idea when that might happen. I think considering he was just remarried to a good and decent woman this time and he is working really hard to get his life together, I think it would be a really great time to do this. Let me know. Thanks a lot.
That was four months ago! She must be so mad by now. I hope you are still reading Christy! Meanwhile, in between those four months, I heard from a few more people including Bobbi who said:
Now.....since you did such a great job on Kevin....how about helping us out and taking on Scott Hall? There are so many people out there that focus on Scott's personal life and the alcoholism that has a hold of him....they forget what a great wrestler and influence he is to people. Everyone condemns him....they don't understand that alcoholism is a illness.....one that thousands of people struggle with every day.....its not like Scott can just wake up one day and say...."Ok....I'm not drinking anymore". Several of us have tried to educate people, even referring them to gov links on alcoholism...but to no avail.
Please take Scott's defense....he needs SOMEONE to defend him.
And let us not BDSTW FOM who made a guest appearance in Hidden Highlights this week as well:
Defend Scott Hall
Everyone knows his track record…
Plus everyone who has ever sent me something interesting (Feroz, I'm definitely using that tidbit you sent along during the Vince not buying out WCW's contracts case), nice, or mean about Scott Hall over the past several months.
And I'll just throw Andrew Strom in here as well because he loves Hall and is nWo 4-Life!
Why this?
Those folks have said it all. Scott Hall is a man mired in personal problems, ones that far overshadow the long and illustrious career he has had. He is one of the greatest wrestlers to have never been world champion with accolades dating back two decades. He's been involved in match of the year candidates (and winners), angles that revolutionized wrestling, and responsible for the catch phrases of our day. Yet this is all buried under unfair criticism and a lack of understanding about a dieses (yes dieses) that plagues this man forever.
Scott, though, has a long history to explore well before his problems surfaced.
The History of the Edge (not that kind)
In a rare In Defense Of… moment, Scott Hall was born with that name on October 20, 1958 in Chuluota, FL (about 4 ½ hours north of Miami, so its odd that he is sometimes listed as being born there). Being in a military family, Hall moved around a lot as a child, eventually finding his way to Munich, Germany and attending the All American High School. Returning to the states for college, Hall graduated from St. Mary's College in Maryland with a degree in Pre-med. According to IMDB Hall had "hopes to become a children's doctor", but had also begun training to be a wrestler.
Luckily for us, Hall continued to follow his ambitions in wrestling and trained under "Gentleman" Chris Adams. You might also remember that Adams trained Steve Austin (and Steve took his wife as thanks). Also according to Wikipedia:
Adams is best known for being the trainer of Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1989, and bringing the Superkick to American wrestlers. Adams was also among the first wrestlers to use the Sharpshooter, which he called the Superlock (around 1985). He is also famous for using backflips and somersaults to catch his opponent off-guard.
And from our friends at Obsessed with Wresting:
Chris Adams was a National Judo Champion in England before getting into the world of professional wrestling… He was a three-time national champion in that sport and a member of the British Olympic Judo team… Chris Adams was trained by European legends Tony Sinclair and Shirly "Big Daddy" Crabtree….
So as you can see, we are talking about a man of considerable skill and ability who trained Hall, and would not let Hall get away with being anything less then spectacular in the ring.
After training, Scott Hall made his pro debut in October 1984 for Florida Championship Wrestling and began a program with Dusty Rhodes (Wow, Dusty sure seems involved in helping to bring along a lot of the best future talent, yet people still dump all over him for his choice of talent. But that's a case for another day.). In 1985, Hall moved over to the National Wrestling Alliance and became "Starship Coyote" in the Coyote tag team. This held on for a short time until Hall moved over to AWA, going from "Magnum" to just "Big" Scott Hall, and forming a team with Curt Henning.
On January 18, 1986 Hall (who looked a lot like Magnum TA with a fluffy mullet top and a big bushy mustache) and Henning defeated Steven Regal and Jimmy Garvin for the AWA World Tag Team Championships. Just two years into the industry, and Hall already had his first major championship (AWA was a major major championship at the time). As a matter of fact, according to Wikipedia:
The "Perfect Combination," as they were dubbed by a Pro Wrestling Illustrated article, had many hard fought matches against Buddy Rose & Doug Somers during this time. They eventually lost the belts to "Playboy" Rose and "Pretty Boy" Somers by count-out on May 17, 1986.
The "Perfect Combination", eh? I wonder where Vince came up with the idea to call Henning "Mr. Perfect" after luring Henning away from the AWA for the WWF (despite everything Vince has ever said about WCW and Eric Bischoff, he did the exact same things to the AWA and other regional promotions. By the way, Vince, you better be careful. If there is any truth to the rumors that you are hiring talent just so they don't go to TNA, you are in direct violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Act and several other statutes. Again, that's all for another day). But that was not the only thing Vince took credit for that was not his.
After leaving AWA, Hall spent some time about the independent circuits in Puerto Rico and Florida (becoming Latino along the way) and CWA until making his way to the early WCW in 1990. As "Scott Hall", he did not have a successful run, but in June 1991 the "Diamond Studd" was born (first as bodyguard to DDP, and later DDP became his manager). And during his reign what move to Scott Hall debut? Why it was the "Diamond Death Drop" aka the "Razor's Edge" aka the "Outsider's Edge".
So you see, Vince and the then WWF did not come up with most of what Razor Ramon was. Scott had already picked up the machisimo gimmick from his time in Puerto Rico and Florida and had already developed his famous finisher… IN WCW!!!.
When Scott Hall made his way to the WWF in 1992 as Razor Ramon, it was not the gimmick that Vince created that got the man over. It was the man Scott Hall had become from all of his training and experience. And when Scott Hall returned to WCW in 1996 to form the New World Order, he was not just playing Razor Ramon without the name. Razor Ramon the gimmick was nothing without Scott Hall. The fans got into Scott Hall, the man behind the character. Eight years of experience created Razor Ramon, not the other way around. To claim he was just using his fame that Vince and the WWF gave him to get over in WCW is asinine. Scott Hall blazed his own trail, and his own self got over.
In the WWF, Scott Hall became a four-time Intercontinental Champion, including his ladder match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania X. Although not the first ladder match in history, it was the one that put that type of match in the limelight. Voted match of the year by PWI in 1994, ladder matches became a staple of American wrestling because of the enormous effort of these two competitors.
Razor Ramon also had memorable feuds with Owen Hart, Psycho Sid, Goldust, and Jeff Jarrett, putting over all of them (among others, more on that later) along the way.
In 1996, after the infamous "Klique Farewell" at a house show at the MSG, Scott Hall made his reappearance in WCW as the start of the invasion that would become the Outsiders and the nWo. Let us never forget that it was Scott Hall who started off the invasion of WCW, that Eric Bischoff entrusted him to be the first man, and that he set the tone for everything the nWo would do for the next two years.
He and Nash as the Outsiders would dominate the tag team scene and with Hogan control WCW (in a storyline sense). He engaged in feuds with the Giant, Randy Savage, Lex Luger, and Goldberg, winning 7 Tag Team Championships, a Television title reign (the last true Television Champion, if you don't count Dugan's run when he picked the title out of the trash), and a 2 time US Champion.
But Hall would constantly be screwed out of the World Title. In the WWF he had fought Bret Hart for the title (once) and lost that match. In WCW, he actually won the World War 3 Three-ring battle Royal which should have made him the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade 1997, but that was pushed off for the Hogan/Sting match (eventually getting his shot at SuperBrawl 1998). Hall would rarely ever get to fight for the championship, and often had his won title-shots forgotten.
After being let go by WCW in 2000, Hall made a short stint in ECW before heading to Japan and NJPW, putting over talent there. His personal problems (we'll get to it) mired that, and Hall was without direction before returning the WWF in 2002 for the rebirth of the nWo.
His stay in the WWF lasted a mere five months, and Scott made his way to the newly formed TNA for a couple of months. After some time off, he returned to TNA for the autumn before leaving wrestling for a couple of more years. At the end of 2004 through January 2005, Scott Hall made his last wrestling appearance in TNA (or anywhere for that matter) at the time of this writing.
What an amazing, storied history and impact Scott Hall has had on wrestling. We'll get into some particular detail next issue, but for now we have a "big" thing to discuss.
Curse of the big man
Because Scott Hall is such a large guy (6' 6", 260-280 lbs), Hall often gets lumped into the "Big Man" category that we have talked a lot about. And much like counterparts in Kevin Nash, Undertaker, Goldberg, and Sid Vicious, Hall has a much larger repertoire then he uses on a day-to-day basis. First, let's have a look at JD Dunn's Countdown to Wrestlemania - Wrestlemania X:
Intercontinental Title, Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels (w/Diesel) vs. Razor Ramon.
Probably don't have to go into much on this one. The thing that stands out for me is that Razor Ramon's music is just Stone Cold Steve Austin's music played really slow. Razor ducks under the ladder prompting shock and awe from the announcers. Diesel gets tossed early on by the referee. Or what, he gets disqualified? Shawn gets clotheslined over the top like a rag doll. He dropkicks the ladder into an unsuspecting Ramon. We get the first real uses of the ladder as a weapon as Shawn drives it down into him and finally just throws it down on Razor's back. Michaels gets depantsed and Vince wusses out on saying Shawn has made an "ass of himself." Think about that one compared to today. Shawn splashes him off the ladder and goes up but Razor recovers just in time to push the ladder over. Shawn bounces off the ropes like a super ball. He sets up the ladder in the corner but gets whipped into it and falls all the way to the floor. Great googly moogly! This sets up the catapult into the ladder spot. UN-BE-LEIVABLE! UN-BE-LEIVABLE! Razor goes up but Shawn jumps off the top rope and pushes him off. UN-BE-LEIVABLE! (Those are Vince-isms if you're wondering). Razor slams him off the ladder but falls down himself. He sets it up again but Shawn dropkicks the ladder forcing Ramon off it again. Michaels hits Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere and nails a piledriver. He goes up but Ramon just does get up and pushes the ladder over. Shawn has no time to yell to Diesel, let alone make a wish. He falls crotchfirst on the top rope and gets entangled allowing Razor to climb up and get the belts at 18:47. One of the greatest matches to ever come out of North America. It's lost a bit of its luster thanks to the Hardyz, Dudleyz, and Edge/Christian TLC matches, but it still ranks right up there with the best of them. *****
I think JD hits it right on the head. If you watch this match today compared to TLC2, you would not think it was that innovative or amazing. But this was leaps and bounds above most of the wrestling quality that the WWF was showing at the time, and showed what Scott Hall was really capable of.
So sure, in later WWF matches and WCW matches, he mostly did the paintbrush, abdominal stretch (with cheating), fall-away slam, sleeper, chokeslam, and the edge, but he had plenty of other moves and abilities in his arsenal. But it's the same story we always tell: he did not need to do them. Scott Hall, as Razor Ramon, was a heel that the fans forced to turn face. In WCW, he was a heel that got bigger face pops then most of the face roster. The man was over, and did not need to lay everything on the line every night. He could to an easier (physically wear-and-tear) match any night of the week and still send the fans home happy. They came to take the survey and see the spray-paint; they did not care if he could pull off a top-rope plancha (which he could).
Of course, in the ring Hall was still trying to have some fun. But that did not mean he did not know how to do his J-O-B.
Only himself?
Being a Klique and nWo member, Scot Hall constantly gets berated for only looking out for himself and his own interests. Well if that's true, then why has he put over the following people:
Jeff Hardy
In his last wrestling appearance to date, Scott Hall put over Jeff Hardy at TNA's Final Resolution on January 16, 2005. Knowing he was on the way out, he still chose to show up at PPV and give Hardy some additional credibility to fight in TNA's upper card.
Sean Waltman (The Kid)
In one of the most famous upsets in history, on May 17, 1993 the premiering Kid defeated Razor Ramon (who had already fought Bret Hart for the title) by roll-up. This, and ensuing feud where Ramon learned to respect Waltman and turned face, basically launched Waltman's career and gave him years of exposure.
Chris Jericho
On Monday Nitro on November 3, 1997, Chris Jericho defeated Scott Hall by a surprise roll-up (he's really susceptible to that move). At the time, Jericho was just a cruiserweight wrestler with some notoriety. This gave Jericho something he could brag about for years, and a huge win for his WCW career.
Hector Garza
In what I consider the biggest upset in Monday Nitro history, on September 9, 1997, Hector Garza defeated Scott Hall (with Syxx) with a roll-up (there it is again!). A cruiserweight with no fanfare whatsoever was put over by Hall of his own will and volition. If that does not prove how much this guy tried to help other guys get over and be given a fair chance, then nothing does.
And making other people look good also made Hall look good in the long run. So good, that he got some recognition for it.
Got awards? Why not!
There are lots of awards to look at, but the PWI awards are always of interest. According to accelerator3359.com (I love old website), Scott Hall has had:
PWI Achievement Awards: (3 wins, 2 1st RUs, 2 2nd RUs, 2 3rd RUs)
- 1986 Most Improved Wrestler, 1st Runner-Up
- 1992 Most Improved Wrestler
- 1994 Match of the Year (Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels)
- 1994 Wrestler of the Year, 2nd Runner-Up
- 1995 Feud of the Year, 2nd Runner-Up (Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett)
- 1996 Match of the Year, 3rd Runner-Up (War Games)
- 1997 Tag-Team of the Year (The Outsiders)
- 1998 Feud of the Year, 1st Runner-Up (nWo Hollywood vs. nWo Wolfpac)
- 2001 Comeback of the Year, 3rd Runner-Up
That's a lot of high up their awards, yet this is not what Scott Hall is remembered for. His contributions to wrestling seem meaningless compared to his personal troubles.
RECESS!
And that's just the wrestling stuff for now. We, of course, have the biggest issues to tackle yet!
When we return… oh come on, do I even need to say it? It's all about Scott Hall's personal problems, alcoholism, and the impact of his actions (and inactions) on his wrestling legacy. And probably some numbers, too, cause that's how I roll.
So tune in next week for our last call of In Defense of… Scott Hall (Part 2 of 2)!!
Of course, be sure to check out Hidden Highlights in the meantime. Don't forget to send JT and I your Hidden Highlights for RAW, SmackDown!, Heat, Velocity, Impact, or any other show you saw this week (that includes house shows and indy events, you know)! Oh, and Wrestlemania, too!
Until then, the defense rests!
Know a particular person, event, organization, storyline, etc… in wrestling history that needs a defense? E-mail the One and Only JP at lookforme@mikefine.com, and I'll be glad to hear your case.
