Scott Hall passes away

[I Bent My Wookie]

Fucking hell. I'll say watching WCW in 1997 and watching the old school WWF tapes I could get that Scott Hall when I was aged 4 was the coolest guy on the planet. 

I'm glad he managed to get a few years after sorting himself out and got back on good terms with people to be able to be celebrated the way he deserved to be but jesus, a standard surgery and he's gone. 

God bless Razor. 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Heartbroken, for how well he done getting over his demons and being at his happiest to have that taken away so so tragically from a simple hip surgery 

I really really regret not going up and paying for an autograph from him at the first For The Love Of Wrestling convention 2 years ago, my nerves got the best of me that day just merely seeing him and Big Kev up close 

I think at some point this week, once I can process it, I’m going to dig out as many of his matches as I can to watch in tribute

RIP Chico, thank you for the memories

[Jazzy G]

39 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Heartbroken, for how well he done getting over his demons and being at his happiest to have that taken away so so tragically from a simple hip surgery 

I really really regret not going up and paying for an autograph from him at the first For The Love Of Wrestling convention 2 years ago, my nerves got the best of me that day just merely seeing him and Big Kev up close 

I think at some point this week, once I can process it, I’m going to dig out as many of his matches as I can to watch in tribute

RIP Chico, thank you for the memories

It's like when Candido passed away getting his broken leg fixed. Absolutely tragic. A horribly difficult couple of days. I'm glad he managed to overcome his demons, but it's a dreadful way to go. RIP Bad Guy. 

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by jazzygeofferz

[Keith Houchen]

Scott Hall was “My guy”. Cool as fuck as Razor, cool as fuck after Razor. I don’t know if the addictions made me relate to him more but I found his sobriety a help. I remember him saying “All I know is that I’m not going to get drunk today but let’s see how tomorrow is” and for some reason it hit home more than anything from Alcoholics Anonymous and resonated with me. 
 

I’ve got over four years clean and sober now, in the early days I mentioned him in a tweet and in between him replying to birds with their arses out, he replied to me with “Stay Strong, Barry” and honestly, it’s one of the things I think about when I crave a drink or a hit. 
 

So thank you, Bad Guy. I’ll stay strong and you stay cool as fuck. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

5 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Scott Hall was “My guy”. Cool as fuck as Razor, cool as fuck after Razor. I don’t know if the addictions made me relate to him more but I found his sobriety a help. I remember him saying “All I know is that I’m not going to get drunk today but let’s see how tomorrow is” and for some reason it hit home more than anything from Alcoholics Anonymous and resonated with me. 
 

I’ve got over four years clean and sober now, in the early days I mentioned him in a tweet and in between him replying to birds with their arses out, he replied to me with “Stay Strong, Barry” and honestly, it’s one of the things I think about when I crave a drink or a hit. 
 

So thank you, Bad Guy. I’ll stay strong and you stay cool as fuck. 

I text my mate this morning to see if he was working so I could break the news. Scott Hall was his favourite wrestler along with Shawn and thought he’d be upset. When I did speak to him, I said I know it seems silly to get upset when a celebrity dies that we didn’t know, but it’s actually not. Because these were the heroes we grew up with. So whilst we didn’t know them, we felt like we did. They would help shape the men we become. Doing the Razor walk, doing his scared fingers, reminiscing about angles and matches.

In my typical fashion I’m not explaining this very well,but I’m what I’m trying to say is these famous people left an impact even if we never knew them. And you sharing that tweet above @Keith Houchenand the impact it had on you is an example and thank you for sharing that with us. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

I don’t fully know why, but this one has crushed me.

Wrestlers can be terrible humans (Scott Hall might have been once, I don’t know) but he was self aware enough to know where he’d failed and was desperate to not just beat his addictions but improve as a man.

In an industry that institutionally seems to encourage peoples worst habits, that takes such intelligence and bravery.
 

You can’t ask for anymore from a man than for them to want to be better, even when there’s no real pressure on him to be so.

He deserved better. The bad guy deserved a good retirement.

Genuinely gutted.

Rest well, Razor.

[bAzTNM#1]

Horrible, horrible news. What a cool guy he seemed.

It's amazing how much he changed his body and image from 1989 ( "Gator" Scott Hall ) to 1991 with the Diamond Studd. You wouldn't think they were the same person.

Rest in Peace Bad Guy

Edited March 15, 2022 by bAzTNM#1

[stewdogg]

How you lot wish you could all be HOOK, I wish I was Razor Ramon. A genuinely handsome son of a gun with a great look who looked like he would beat the shit out of you while wearing pink or yellow pants (always matched with elbow/knee pads and boots). I’m sure he lived an absolutely amazing life, sure he was a cock at points but isn’t everyone? I absolutely loved everything about 1993 involving him, form the excellent Royal Rumble match with Bret to losing to the kid, making up with and protecting the kid to winning the IC title. Glorious. RIP Razor. 

[air_raid]

This one is incredibly tough to take, in a way we should be grateful for the extra years he ended up enjoying when so many people wrote him off many years prior, but it’s so sad that a guy that gave so much to wrestling and had even more to give, and a huge part of my childhood and getting into wrestling, is gone.

Like most wrestlers from the early 90s my introduction to Razor Ramon was looking at SummerSlam 92 trading cards round my mate Simons house. He looked imposing, if greasy. Not long after I borrowed Survivors 92 from Simons sisters video shop, and while the “Flair & Razor” team came across a little chalk and cheese, there was definitely something about him. Though obviously a newer character, he towered over Macho Man and had a believability as a hardcase. His post match threat to “Perfecto” left such an impression on me, that I can quote it verbatim :

“Razor Ramon was double crossed one time before. Ask that chico what happened. If you can find him.”

After some of the other nonsense I’d been exposed to like Hogan and Warrior debating which one of them was going to live forever or Demolition Ax threatening to cut Andre down like a literal tree, this was the darkest, most sinister and yet subtle thing I’d heard a wrestler say. Of course with child’s logic and the commentary of Jesse Ventura fresh in my mind, I thought this meant he’d done something terrible to Tito Santana. I was relieved to find out El Matador was alive and well, though when I picked up the WrestleFest 93 tape, I did see he’d been a victim of The Razors Edge. Razors finish was another reason The Bad Guy got over with me ; right from Survivor Series everyone sold it as lethal, and it was. For years I thought nobody had even kicked out of it, until only a couple of weeks ago I saw Ian’s favourite, “Kona” Crush, kick out after a somewhat delayed pin attempt, from an “international markets only” episode of Superstars. Getting the big guy up was a sight, I can tell you.

In late 93 I was surprised to hear through the youth club rumour mill that Razor had both turned “goodie” and won the Intercontinental title which at that point still made him top tier in my child’s mind, having been converted by Mania VI. It felt a bit out of the blue, according to Simon he’d just lost a humiliating match to that Lightening Kid we’d read about in Superstars Of Wrestling (later Power Slam). But hey, this was a world where the Narcissist “came out of the sky on a helicopter, powerslammed Yokozuna and pinned him and he’s the WWF Champion now” - times were changing pretty fast. Razor was cool, but I didn’t know if the character would work as a goodie. I watched the Rumble 94 (sponsored by Atmosfear, the video board game) and my fears were blown away. When I thought IRS of Money Inc had actually beaten Razor, I was irate. Like, Warrior losing to Slaughter, Roddy Piper “You’re not going to let this stand??!?” levels of distraught. He won in the end, and that was the match where I knew I was in Razors corner, he was one of the goodies. When I saw my hero Bret Hart shouting “give me a call at the hotel Razor” to him on his tape, that confirmed it. Picking up Razors tape when I didn’t even know he had one out, during a family caravan holiday, was brilliant even though it was murder waiting to get home to watch it. Watching the Adam Bomb match start I thought “How does he win this, he couldn’t possibly give him the Razors Edge.” Of course he fucking could. He was such a massive part of the “New Generation,” I always remember King of the Ring 94 being such a turning point in production (Bret had new music) and Razors little spotlights shaped like razor blades swooshing around were so cool. Did he have shit on the market? You bet, and while I couldn’t afford what people were asking for a Jakks of Razor, I did eventually get ahold of his purple Hasbro to go with the original. I wish I’d seen him wrestle during these years, to the point I started a thread about it not long ago.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and after years of thinking “Why haven’t they given Razor a crack at Bret/Diesel/Shawn” and assuming he’d be Intercontinental champ forever, he was gone. There’s no point recounting his historic jump and the impact it made on the business, everyone knows all that and as I draft this I bet it’s already been posted about, but from a personal point of view I obviously still loved him in The Outsiders. It was a bit weird hearing him announced from Chuluota instead of Miami (when you could actually hear Penzer of course, fucking WCW) and “The Outsiders Edge” was a crap lazy name for his move but he was still Razor, and the nWo was a big reason I used to leave my “tape machine rolling” on Cartoon Network every Friday night. Scott was an absolute treasure on Nitro whether he was wrestling or not - his “scary fingers” walk up the aisle to confront Larry Zbyszko during the famous “That’s not La Parka!!” match is etched into my brain. That whole run is magic, Tony Schiavone yelling “Get in the ring!!” at Fall Brawl when Larry squares up to Hall, right before he gets schoolboyed by Luger, will also live with me forever. The nWo were the assholes and whenever they had a comeuppance, it was most satisfying when it happened to Hall. I was gutted when the Outsiders were split up, delighted for one night when the six man “elite” nWo formed at Goldbergs expense (though that was a lie in the end) and gradually the wheels fell off from anything coherent or interesting for Hall to be involved in, right when injuries and demons started robbing us of huge chunks of his career.

I shouldn’t ignore the WWF return but honestly, it was a washout. The presentation of No Way Out and the build to Mania made me think short term the nWo might be presented as a main event threat, but between the boring trunks, headband and exaggerated Stunner sell, it felt like a weird composite of a bad CAW and a cartoon of the real Scott Hall. We did at least get one decent promo, paraphrasing (to Stone Cold) ;

“I hear… from you… that you’re the toughest S.O.B. in the WWF. Prove it.”

Simple, but effective. I was dying for Scott to be allowed to beat some decent guys from their bloated roster but no, Spike Dudley was all we got. The handicap match was great, otherwise, it’s all best forgotten. As a smarky type at the time, I was disengaged with the reunion in TNA in 2010 as I didn’t want the 90s talents getting spots at the expense of younger guys who’d earned their place at the top of that roster. It wasn’t Val Venis or Nasty Boys levels of “what’s the point” and maybe I’d have appreciated it more if the rub had gone to someone other than Eric Young, but either way I wasn’t “there for it” as the kids say.

Reflecting on Halls career, I can’t help but be impressed by how warmly the original Razor Ramon run is remembered considering he was only on the books for four years. His influence on the industry is actually still understated, because for every fan that knows how his jump and the nWo changed the business, I bet there are 2 or 3 that don’t know he gave the Crow inspiration idea to Sting, with words like “be like Taker, but not like Taker” on top, changing Stingers career, changing WCWs landscape and indirectly leading to WCWs most lucrative PPV of all time, Starrcade 97. His mind for the business was brilliant, just my two favourite stories from his brain while inebriated in a car with his buddies, telling Kev “Man, why are you doing that leapfrog? You’re the biggest guy in the company, let them run into you.” And telling Shawn “That kick is your most over move, that should be your finish.” He was self aware enough, as Chris Jericho is fond of telling, to know when the other guy needed a win more than him. When he had a two match feud with Hector Garza on Nitro between PPVs, he let Garza upset him the first time so there was a little intrigue next time and a reason to fight again, and for him to take Garza more seriously. That was Scott Hall, equally adept at being dangerous or playing the clown. He was a guy that at the time we all thought we appreciated, but only in retrospect do we see how multifaceted his talent was. Much like Jake Roberts, if his skill with the nuances could have been harnessed for creative, the wrestling landscape would have been a better place. He was never a World Champion in the big 2 but he’s beloved and lauded more than many who were. The cliché of “he didn’t need it” is maddening, and there’s an argument that maybe he deserved it. Sadly the best time for this to have happened, WCW in early-mid 98, was right when his personal life kept taking from his wrestling career. Such was Scott.

As a man… He had demons, and he was capable of being absolutely horrible to people that didn’t deserve it at times. But as Scott himself was fond of saying, the last perfect person that walked the Earth, they nailed to a cross. He was generous professionally as you’ve read, he seemed to care about his fans in the years that he was gifted back, and he really cared about his friends. Even when he had his own problems to deal with, he wore Syxx’s T-shirt every week on Nitro when Sean was out with his neck injury, to let him know he was thinking about him. He never lost his sense of humour, repeating his famous “can’t wait to kick out of your finish” jibe to James Storm when he arrived in TNA, just like he’d said to the Dudleys 8 years earlier. There’s more, much more, that you can read in various places. As I’ve learned over the last couple of months even a story as oft told as Scott Halls has so much more to it than is commonly known.

It’s simultaneously too long and less than I might have written and no doubt less eloquent and fitting than others will manage, but maybe that IS the most fitting tribute of all ; imperfect prose mourning the profoundly and proudly imperfect. It’s from the heart and with actual tears in my eyes I say goodbye…. to the Bad Guy.

[Guest]

What a different life he may have led if not for the PTSD that came from the manslaughter incident. Just glad when he got help later in life he got many years to get his flowers from fans and workers alike. A fantastic mind for wrestling in the small tweaks of advice he would offer to help others. He is as much a perfect example of “show me a wrestler” as hogan was in his Razor days. Colourful, big guy, charisma oozing out. 

[bAzTNM#1]

If anybody looked like a wrestler, it would have been Hogan and Scott Hall. Definately agree.

Edited March 15, 2022 by bAzTNM#1

[digitalversicolor]

Absolutely gutted, keep getting a bit choked up at my desk. Hard one to come to terms with, one of my absolute favourites growing up and I was always rooting for him to beat his personal problems and get the accolades he so rightfully deserved.

Which he eventually did, and it's good he got the last eight or nine years of his life to take in all of the love and respect from fans and colleagues alike. Just the coolest wrestler ever.

RIP Scott/Razor.

[WyattSheepMask]

I’d read that he was to be taken off of life support, but it hadn’t happened by the time I went to bed. I knew that by this morning he would’ve gone but that’s still some horrible news to wake up to.

My best mate & I met through a love of wrestling, and for 20 years we’ve greeting each other with a “hey yo”. Whenever we’ve gone to gigs, we’ve always done The Razor Double Fists Pump to psyche ourselves up, and we’ve defused many a situation with the “oooh scary” fingers. I’ve no doubt that when people have seen us doing that they think we’re a pair of idiots, but Scott Hall is as much a part of our friendship as anything, and that’s never going to change

[DavidB6937]

Razor was as much a part of my childhood as Bret or Hulk or whoever else around that period, mostly because of the Year In Review 1993 tape which I'm surprised still worked by the time I threw them all out. Of course then I picked it up on DVD as well because why not. I can pretty much play back that entire tape in my head but the Razor/Kid stuff was definitely some of the best on there and to see how their careers and friendship developed over the years after that.. yeah, that's something special. And to me some of the best booking WWF ever did.

Much like many others, I'm stuck between being absolutely heartbroken to see him go, and smiling at all of these clips and memories and knowing he had a number of chances to see how much everyone loved and appreciated him.. something which seemed near impossible at some points. So I'm incredibly thankful he managed to get back on track and live a slightly longer life but sad it couldn't have been more. I just hope he did know how much of an impact he had on so many people.

[westlondonmist]

The loss to The Lightning Kid where he was expected to crush this jobber, I didn't know Waltman at the time was a fairly well known name outside WWF and WCW, is something I remember so well as a kid. I cheered hard as the cocky bad guy git his comeuppance, the win was out of the blue, something I hadn't seen before and Ramon was furious. Pure brilliance, Ramon was already over but it instantly put a new guy over. Wrestling booking perfection. 

Wrestling soon wasn't cool, you'd get the piss ripped out of you for liking it and I soon stopped watching. The Outsiders added that coolness with their invasion of WCW, changed the landscape of wrestling and suddenly wrestling fans started emerging at school. I could watch it again, not feel ashamed of saying I was into wrestling. I think I'm probably not alone with this experience.