UKFF TOP 50 Wrestlers ... EVER!

[Devon Malcolm]

*looks at Ian's write-ups for his list*

 

*looks at his own write-ups for his own list*

 

[A Screen Up]

Absolutely terrific work as per usual, Ian. The Cena one has been my favourite so far.

 

Slightly off-topic - if this thread gets put in gold (which it should), would it be the first time a thread has been put in there off the back of one poster's efforts?

[King Pitcos]

I really want that light blue Rise Above Hate t-shirt.

[PunkStep]

Is it even available? I haven't seen him wear it at all, so it's strange that he's wearing it on the Fruity Pebbles box.

[King Pitcos]

Seems to be an exclusive thing for the Fruity Pebbles promotion.

[cobystag]

Slightly off-topic - if this thread gets put in gold (which it should), would it be the first time a thread has been put in there off the back of one poster's efforts?

 

Not really cos wouldn't this be considered similiar to HG's UKFF UK50 in which members vote and then he does the tallying up and write ups? And several of the UK50's are in Gold.

[A Screen Up]

Slightly off-topic - if this thread gets put in gold (which it should), would it be the first time a thread has been put in there off the back of one poster's efforts?

 

Not really cos wouldn't this be considered similiar to HG's UKFF UK50 in which members vote and then he does the tallying up and write ups? And several of the UK50's are in Gold.

 

I'm talking about the sheer quality of Ian's posts; it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good if it was just a quick list and a run-down. There have been at least half a dozen post of the year contenders in this thread.

[T_S_S_A]

Great reading so far, really enjoyable and nostalgic too.

 

Also, it introduced me to the yellow Bossman/Akeem shirt which I have just ordered off Amazon and will, most likely, wear excessively.

 

Thanks Ian!

 

Never Forget!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

19. Mick Foley

Prime Years: 1990-2000

Info: Foley's story has been told many a time, via books and WWF video packages. Footage of his backyard wrestling matches, including the time he jumped off his pals roof onto a matress, while filming the home movie "The Loved One" even made it onto an episode of Raw. Everyone

[A Screen Up]

Brilliant to see this back on track.

 

I wasn't familiar with a lot of the wrestlers' careers from 50-30 and although they were certainly interesting to read, I prefer the retrospects when I'm familiar with the wrestlers. Hopefully I should know the top 20 well!

 

Cracking thread, mate.

 

Any wiz's know how I'd go about making this into a PDF so I could put it on my phone? Not a big worry if not as it'll no doubt go into Gold.

 

Edit - Never mind, I found some website called Google.

[Trevor]

Great work yet again Ian, shades of Chilli Dog here

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The Dustin Rhodes entry is sitting in my recycle bin as I type this

[WWFChilli]

The Dustin Rhodes entry is sitting in my recycle bin as I type this

 

I just really like Dustin Rhodes

[Fox Piss]

I didn't put Mick in my top 5 but i should of done. Just going through RAW 1998 and the guy is gold being Dude or Mankind. Really a unique promo teller and I'd say he had unique wrestling style much different to say Terry Funk.

 

His feud with Taker in 96 is a peach.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

18. Scott Hall

Prime Years: 1991-2002

Info: Scott Hall was a huge name in the 90s. He was pro wrestlings king of cool, and seemed to have the whole wrestling business listening to his every word, whether it was controlling locker rooms in the WWF or being one of the highest paid wrestlers in WCW, Hall always had a say in how things went. These days, he’s on his last legs and even TNA don’t want him around. Hall points to the time he was charged with second degree murder after shooting someone in the head in self defence while bouncing at a night club in 1983, as the point where his life span out of control. It at least offers an explanation as to why Hall’s career has had a way of deteriorating no matter how many chances he’s had over the last two decades.

 

It took about 7 years for Scott Hall’s career to get off the ground, and show the promise people originally had for him when he broke in as a 6’6”, 300 pound baby face in Florida. After breaking as Starship Coyote in the American Starships (as the partner of Dan Spivy), it was only a few months later that Verne Gagne’s AWA came calling. Pairing him up with Curt Hennig, the clueless Hall credits most of his success to the training of super worker Hennig. Hennig and Hall had a three-month run as the AWA World Tag Team champions, but the star of the show was obviously Curt. His career wasn’t going anywhere after they dropped the tag titles, and eventually left the AWA. Scott spent the next few years doing very little in the way of making money. He became a regular for Florida Championship Wrestling, taking overseas bookings in Puerto Rico, Germany and Japan, and even did TV jobs for his eventual home, World Championship Wrestling. Before signing for WCW, Scott expressed his desire to quit professional wrestling all together … BUT THEN … a guardian angel appeared, wearing jeans, cowboy boots, a curly mullet and smoking a cigar …

 

Diamond Dallas Page had a big hand in transforming handlebar moustached and Tom Jones haired Magnum Scott Hall into what he called The Diamond Studd. In the place of his former look, was a George Michael beard, slick hair, toothpick and a new finishing move he called the Diamond Death Drop (the Razor’s Edge). It was a vast improvement on his previous appearance, and The Studd was a decent midcard act. His most famous bout from his run as the Diamond Studd came in the nutty Chamber of Horrors multi-man cage match at Halloween Havoc 91. As 1991 ended, The Studd was again getting tired of the lack of direction his character was having and underwent elbow surgery to get out of the spotlight for a while. Upon his return, WCW began grooming him to replace Larry Zbyszko in The Dangerous Alliance. On the night of WrestleWar 92, though, Hall handed in his notice and informed them he had opted to take a job with the World Wrestling Federation.

 

Scott Hall was introduced to the national audience, in typically slick style, with the introduction of some classic vignettes, which began airing on WWF programming in mid-92. Initially, the Razor Ramon character was penned in to be based on the Fonz character from Happy Days, until Hall brought up the idea of basing it on Tony Montana from Scarface. The Bad Guy shot out of the blocks as soon as he arrived on the scene, having a hand in the title decision in the big rematch between Randy Savage and Ric Flair, and siding with The Nature Boy and his old friend Mr. Perfect. Razor was a part of the double main event at Survivor Series, where he teamed with Flair to take on the Flair Family traitor Perfect and Randy Savage after the Ultimate Warrior was fired. Razor continued his run of high profile matches, when he took on WWF World champion Bret Hart in a losing effort at the Royal Rumble. With the return of Hulk Hogan, debut of Lex Luger and new heel Yokozuna slotting into the main event scene, Razor slipped down the card into a no man zone, taking on Bob Backlund on the undercard of WrestleMania. Razor’s fortune’s changed in a defeat to a jobber called ‘The Kid’ on Monday Night Raw. Scott Hall says that most of the wrestlers asked him backstage, if he had been given his notice, after losing to an unknown. Razor and the Kid was a hot feud at the time. Defeat in the opening match defeat for Bret Hart in the first round of the first ever King of the Ring PPV, was blamed on a lack of focus from the loss to the newly named 123 Kid, and other heels had a field day with poor Razor. The Money Inc duo of IRS and Ted DiBiase laughed at Razor for losing to a young rookie like the Kid. Razor’s response was to cost DiBiase a match with the Kid himself. After this, The Kid and Razor became an onscreen pairing, taking on Money Inc around the country and in singles matches at SummerSlam, where Ramon did his bit by beating the Million Dollar Man in his final bout in the WWF.

 

A drug suspension meant Shawn Michaels was stripped of the Intercontinental title in late 1993. To fill the void, Razor took the honours in a fine bout with Rick Martel (after they were the two last men in a Monday Night Raw battle royal). More often than not, Razor held the IC title over the next few years. 1994 provided he best year in the ring ever. Razor hooked up with his old AWA running buddy Shawn Michaels, in matches up and down the country, perfecting the game in preparation for their famous Ladder Match at WrestleMania X. There’s many who still considering it the best in company history. For the time, it was out of this world. Razor came out on top by retaining his Intercontinental title. The following month, his next foe was set upon him, in the form of Michaels 7 foot bodyguard Diesel. Diesel beat Ramon for the Intercontinental title on the April 30th edition of WWF Superstars. Diesel was made to look like a killer in matches with real life pal Razor, and the two had a belter at SummerSlam 94 when Diesel did the honours and Razor reclaimed the IC title. The remained of 1994, Razor and the 123 Kid would regularly tear the house down in tag bouts with Michaels and Diesel, including one classic on an edition of the Action Zone. At the start of 1995, Razor and Jeff Jarrett became regular sparring partners over the IC belt (swapping it a few times). As good as it was for Jarrett, it seemed like a step down for Ramon giving his previous feuds.

 

During this period, there was allegations that he was a real life ‘Bad Guy’ when he formed a real life stable backstage, along with Diesel, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, The 123 Kid and Shawn Michaels known as The Kliq. Every time a wrestler was released or decided to quit in 95/96, whether it was Shane Douglas, Rad Radford, Skip or Bam Bam Bigelow, fingers were pointed to one or all five of the Kliq as the reason. More often than not, the were feuding with each other as well. Razor again paired in a feud with Shawn Michaels over the Intercontinental belt. A Ladder came into play once more, as Shawn and Ramon repeated their efforts in another belting match at SummerSlam 95 (only for HBK to come out the winner). Following on from the Ladder bout, Razor started a really dull feud with Dean Douglas, in which somehow the Dean got him hands on the IC title for a few hours, until Razor thankfully relieved him of it. It went from bad to worse for Ramon personally, when he came the object of Goldusts desires in a very strange feud which Scott Hall detested. Razor seemed to have no qualms about dropping the strap and the feud altogether at the Royal Rumble. I like his reasoning was that he didn't want to get wanked off by a bloke. Which is fair enough. Prior to the Rumble, though, his mate the 123 Kid did the unthinkable and turned on Razor in a match on Raw. The Kid proved to be his final real feud in the WWF, leading to a rather silly Diaper Match at an In Your House. With WCW offering out guaranteed contracts with fewer dates, Razor handed his notice into Vince McMahon and opted for a job in his old stomping ground. After putting over Vader (following a drug suspension which made him miss WrestleMania), he set off for pastures new …

 

As Scott Hall entered through the crowd and sauntered onto Monday Nitro, live on May 27, 1996, there seemed to be a definite change of pace to the promotion. Worked shoot angles weren’t quite the order of the day just yet. When he declared “war” on the WCW, everyone who wasn’t smartened up believed that the WWF was invading WCW. A rumour strengthened by Kevin ‘Diesel’ Nash showing up on Nitro a few weeks later. The next few months more than delivered the goods both from an artistic and financial standpoint. The Outsiders of Hall and Nash ran over anyone and everyone in the WCW, even before Hulk Hogan’s unthinkable heel turn at the Bash at the Beach to form the New World Order. They were the stars of the show, for sure and for most of the next three years, held the World tag team titles. Hall especially looked like he owned the place, and was the main creative force behind the nWo coming up with the “2 Sweet” and “4 Life” lines and creating the subgroup the Wolfpac. Hall also came up with the idea for Sting to transform into a crow inspired character to battle the nWo. Business for WCW had never been higher, and Hall was a big part in that machine. It was in early 97 when the wheels began to fall off. Nash announced on TV that “Scott Hall is taking care of business more important than wrestling”. Hall was in and out of WCW more the remainder of his run there. He did make his return in 1997, in time to win a 60 Man, three ring battle royal to earn a shot at the WCW World title. Hall was back on form it looked like. He had a cracking feud with part timer and commentator Larry Zbysko, which kept crowds entertained across the country during the commercial breaks on Nitro. Cashing in his title shot at Uncensored, Hall had a fine match with the Stinger, before laying down for the Scorpion Death Drop.

 

Following this rich run of form, Hall again took time out. When he came back to work, he turned on his long time partner Kevin Nash in a made to shock angle and left for another few months. Ideas battered around by the WCW brain trust as a sick Scott Hall was sitting at home, couldn’t have been less helpful. In an angle, Scott’s wife described as “deplorable, disgusting, and inexcusable”, Hall imaginatively portrayed a Barney Gumble style piss head, who’d be sick on the floor, trip over the bottom rope and all sorts. WCW was completely running our of ideas now, but at least Hall was on TV again. After the Drunken storyline was done with, Hall, Nash and Hogan reformed as the SUPER ELITE RED AND BLACK WOLFPAC version of the Order. Hall worked with Goldberg in a decent ladder match with a tazor on the hook (stemming from a stun gun wielding Hall costing Goldberg his first loss). Hall was rewarded with the United States title the following month, beating Rotten Roddy Piper is a crap bout at SuperBrawl 99. We’d again have to wait a while before we saw Scott Hall in a WCW ring again. The dreaded “personal problems” turned up again, and Hall sat out for the next 6 months. The next time we saw Scott, it was a new day in WCW, with new people in charge. Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera set out to change WCW’s fortunes. And Hall and Nash were a big part of that plan. Hall in fact held the United States title, Television title and captured the Tag Team titles (with Nash) at the same time in the moves of November and December. Hall was more of the focus of the new WCW, as he’d previously been, regularly main eventing Nitro and getting 20 minutes on the microphone. They even ‘Got The Band Back Together’ in the form of the New World Order 2000, along with Jeff Jarrett and Bret Hart.

 

It didn’t take long for troubles to start up again, though. Hall was sent home of the final Thunder of the year, for showing up in “no condition to perform” and doing a ‘Survey’ in an attempt to bury Goldberg to the fans in attendance. He was suspended until January. The time off didn’t do him any good at all, because when he did come back he was even worse. Hall was sent home for good after his behaviour on a tour of Germany, where he had a nuisance of himself throughout the whole trip and even threatened road agent Terry Taylor before passing out until they arrived home. Hall did the honours in a Triple Threat match at SuperBrawl 2000 and was never seen in WCW again. Although he was fired in October, Kevin Nash kept Hall’s name alive on TV. Actually, WCW did as well, putting Hall’s contract up for grabs in a matches featuring Nash. When WCW eventually got sick of Nash using Hall’s name on the air, they started bleeping out his name (which made Nash do it further). It was all quite surreal.

 

A brief wakeup call was apparently on the cards following his release. Scott decided to get his life and career back on track. He worked two well received dates with ECW, but the group was in no position to be offering contracts to someone of Hall’s name value in late 2000. The Bad Guy, then set off on a tour with New Japan, which restored his reputation someone in the business. Reports of him not drinking and reading on tour buses with Scott Norton were a good sign that he had finally overcame his problems. With the sale of WCW announced to be going through, Eric Bischoff announced on WCW Live that he had intentions of bringing Scott Hall back if he could prove to be an asset worth taking the gamble on. Unfortunately, the WCW sale fell apart and the WWF became the only game in town after acquiring the ashes that remained of the once great company. For the next year, Hall remained on the right track, even willing custody of his children and remaining employed by the New Japan office. Things hadn’t been this good in years. When Kevin Nash’s contract ran out in January 2002, the World Wrestling Federation opened negotiations with the Outsiders and Hulk Hogan to come in under the old New World Order gimmick. The three seemed only to happy to do so. It was a well deserved reward for 18 months of being a good boy.

 

He didn’t get off to the best of starts. He arrived off his face at a TV taping to film vignettes and promo spots, telling young wrestlers he was going to kick out of their finishers and stuff like that. It wasn’t a good sign. The New World Order’s return couldn’t have came off much better, though. Hall, Nash and Hogan generated a monster buyrate for the No Way Out PPV and Hall slotted nicely into a feud with one of the promotions top stars Steve Austin. Only Austin wasn’t as chuffed with the idea of working with Hall. Hall usually got the better of their exchanges on TV, injuring Austin’s knee in an angle on Raw (to which Austin tapped up the wrong knee the following weak some say to discredit the attack by the nWo). By the time WrestleMania came, Austin was penned in to put Hall over, only for Austin to refuse, which lead to Hall ended up staring at the lights. Later on in the night, Hall and Nash’s leader Hollywood Hogan ended up back in the baby face camp, and with that Hall and Nash’s stock suffered. Recruiting their old pal X-Pac and later n the Big Show, seemed to get the New World Order somewhat in the right direction. Hall usually performed the jobber to the stars roll in matches against Austin on TV, though. It was during a tour of the United Kingdom that Hall really went off the rails. Ironically, Hall and Hennig’s big time careers ended together, as they started, when they were deemed the worst offenders on the infamous ‘Plane Ride From Hell’. They were both released the following week.

 

It looks like it’ll be Hall’s final chance as well. Since 2002, he’s been in and out of jail (more than once spending Christmas and New Year in the slammer) and hospital. As far as wrestling goes, he was a TNA original, working dates for the promotion in 2002 and 2004, but the stints were nothing more than brief. He returned to the company in 2007 for a few weeks as well, only to no show the Against All Odds PPV where he was set to main event alongside Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe. Surprisingly, TNA again gave him another chance, debuting on January 4, 2010 and hooking back up with Nash and Sean Waltman in the copyright friendly Band. Again, things seemed to be looking good for Hall, with him getting back in relatively good shape for the first time in years and being rewarded with a tag team title run with Big Kev. While holding the straps, though he was arrested for disorderly conduct in a bar in Florida, which lead to his arrest and subsequent release. Since then, he’s health has deteriorated further. Nothing for evident than the clip of him straight from hospital, drugged up stumbling around an independent event. This coming off the WWE not allowing him to attend the Hall of Fame, in case of an incident like that.

 

It’s a sad story, considering the super cool stud hundreds of thousands of fans around the world held signs up for and chanted along with in the 90s. At the time of writing, he’s living in a care centre, under constant supervision, after having both a defibrillator and a pacemaker implanted into his heart and needing pills to stay alive after his lungs and heart have taken so much of a beating. His best friends all say they know the call is coming one of these days. Hopefully forced retirement is the best thing for him. Even with all the bad shit that’s happened to him over the last 15 years, to be none of it over shadows the bloke who climbed the ladder at WrestleMania X. He was fucking good. When he does get let out of the care centre, he likes to hang around with Meat, Parts Unknown, Mister Saint Laurant, Santana, X-Pac and Larry Zbysko, so its not all bad. Could be worse

 

Did he have shit on the market?: Scott was apart of a wrestling boom period, and was a popular act in the WWF, so he was always there and there abouts. Never hugely marketed, due to him never staying in the same place for two long and being part of stables that shifted gimmicks as a group, but he had some good stuff out.

They Said? "The Bad Guy was a huge part of WWF and WCW. He revolutionised the biz. Coolest motherfucker in the world as well (when he wasn't a fat drunk). Should have been the world champion loads of times. Just awesome”.