Train Wreck or Genius: Will the Real Scott Hall Please Stand Up

Whether you know him as Razor Ramon, "the bad guy" or even "that drunk idiot at Iron Sheik’s Roast," Scott Hall has been one of the most influential and toxic wrestlers of the last 25 years. Whether he's buying a case of beer or providing inspiration for the next great angle or character, Scott Hall has been a part of many of our lives for some time now. And it's time we paid him his due by looking back, at "the bad guy."

If you could bottle and sell dysfunction, Scott Hall would be a millionaire many times over. Say what you want about Kevin Nash and what he did or did not do to WCW, if the stories are true, you can thank him (and perhaps Vincent Kennedy McMahon—more on that later) for Hall at least still being alive.

From a failed marriage (twice to the same woman) to multiple arrests to numerous rehabilitation stints, Scott Hall seems destined to live life as if self destruction were his mantra.

Yet despite this often outlandish behaviour, to say his in-ring resume and influence on wrestling is impressive might be an understatement. His crowning jewel is, of course, what many refer to still as the best ladder match of all time—his contest with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 10.

But whether he's in the ring or out of the ring, one thing seems clear: Scott Hall generates a lot of interest.

Scott Hall debuted with Danny Spivey on October 13, 1984 in Jim Crocket Promotions' Charlotte territory officially under the banner of "American Starship. Spivey was "Starship Eagle" and Hall was dubbed "Starship Coyote." They didn't exactly "take off" as they had hoped, so Hall soon began focusing on singles competition and quickly received a significant push.

In the course of his early matches, he became friends with some of the biggest names in the business at that time, including Nick Bockwinkel, Larry Zbyszko and the future Mr. Perfect, Curt Hennig. Hall headed for the AWA.

In what can only be described as a very unique move, he was crowned one half of the AWA World Tag Team Champions with Curt Hennig in a match that never, ever took place.

The back story here is that Steve Regal (who was one half of the tag champions along with Jimmy Garvin) had spontaneously left the company. Verne Gagne (the promoter) was left in a precarious position in terms of how to execute a transfer of belts. Gagne "claimed" a 58-minute match took place during which new champions were crowned. And thus, Scott Hall had secured his first of many championship belts without actually having to step in a ring. Odd to say the least.

And in just as odd a fashion as the way in which they won the belts, they dropped them to Pretty Boy Doug Somers and Playboy Buddy Rose by countout because of interference by Col. DeBeers.

That's not a typo.

Even though throughout the wrestling world (and most importantly, within the AWA itself) belts were not supposed to change hands on a DQ or a countout, that's exactly what happened. No explanation was ever given. I would be willing to bet no wrestler on the planet has ever acquired and subsequently dropped a major championship under such odd circumstances (anyone?).

After s short stop in Florida, Hall then took on the name The Diamond Studd and headed for the NWA/WCW. On top of that, he was now being managed by Diamond Dallas Page. While he had moderate success there, it became apparent that in order to reach the next level of success, he had to go to New York. And in 1992, he signed on the dotted line and was set to debut with the WWF.

Little did he know how much his stock was about to rise. And whether it was a stroke of brilliance or pure luck, Scott Hall pitched his now infamous Razor Ramon character to the boss and his first mate, Pat Patterson. This was met with rave reviews, and not only did his rise to fame begin, his reputation for being a pretty smart guy "for a wrestler" was set on course.

Immediately he was launched into a feud with Randy Savage—not a bad dance partner to start out your WWF career. The angle would also involve established names such as Ric Flair and The Ultimate Warrior.

Soon he would be involved in one of his more memorable angles in May 1993, when the 1-2-3 kid (at the time simply named "The Kid") would upset the "toothpicked wonder," sending him into a state of near insanity.

Now remember, at the time, the idea of a jobber beating an established star was quite rare and proved to be a captivating moment for the company. Ramon would go on to beat Rick Martel (as a result of those two being the last two participants in a battle royal held on October 4, 1993) and win the previously vacant Intercontinental Championship.

Ramon's success, however, would come to a halt (the first of many incidents during his career) in April 1996 when he was suspended for drug use and subsequentely prevented him from wrestling Golddust at Wrestlemania XII.

A month later he showed up on TV and jobbed to Vader. His final in ring appearance with WWF was the now infamous MSG Incident, with fellow Kliq members Kevin Nash, HHH and Sean Michaels.

He was on his way back to rival WCW to kick off wrestlings most significant (and perhaps most influential) angle to date. The premise was simple, yet the impact was unparalleled.

On May 27, 1996, Scott Hall showed up on an episode of Nitro dressed in street clothes and sitting amongst the fans. The cameras, of course, spotted him and the questions began. Why was he here? What was he doing? What right did he have to be at a WCW event?

See, at the time, the Internet was in a bit of a growth period. It was not quite in its infancy, but certainly not as readily available as it is today. So the average fan didn't have access to a massive number of Web sites and news boards. They simply knew Hall as that guy who works for Vince. And by gosh, they had some questions for him, none more important than just why Razor Ramon, a WWF guy, was here at a WCW event talking about taking over their company.

Scott Hall (no longer going by his prior moniker Razor Ramon) would soon be joined by sidekick Kevin Nash and thus came the formation of "the Outsiders" (of course playing on the idea that they weren't a part of WCW, and thus, were outsiders to the company).

They would go on to challenge Sting, Lex Luger and Randy Savage to a 3-on-3 match at the 1996 Bash at the Beach. The Outsiders stated that they would not reveal their mystery partner until the match. And we all know what came next. The "turn heard round the world" occurred and for the first time since his very early years, one Hulk Hogan became a heel, and the "New World Order" was born.

The nWo would go on to be one of THE most revolutionary angles ever to be launched in history. The angle itself was very much representative of the competition that was going on between WCW and WWF at the time. This blurring of reality made for riveting television and ratings shot through the roof.

And lil old Scott Hall was the man who got the ball rolling. Proving that he had a great mind for the business was nothing new for The Bad Guy. Not only did he come up with the idea for his own gimmick, but he was also the brains behind the "Goldberg streak" as well as (I consider this his coup de grace) the metamorphosis from old Sting to "Crow" Sting, a gimmick that is still getting Borden over to this day.

Again, the ideas that Hall was coming up with weren't necessarily straight out of the box. As with his own character and the revitalized Sting character, he borrowed from the world of movies and television, and he has readily admitted this. And in my mind, the important thing is that he took a successful idea in one area of the entertainment business and made it work in another area of the entertainment business.

I often say that there are very few original ideas left anymore, so in the case of Hall it was about taking a good idea in one setting and turning it into a great idea in another.

Most would be quick to agree that the wrestling business itself has been borrowing ideas from music, television, books, art and any place it could find a good idea for some time now. Which is no different than music borrowing from art, life or from personal experience. The important thing is that Scott Hall was developing a mind for successful ideas, and when he was on his game, he was coming up with some pretty significant contributions.

At what had to be arguably one of the lowest points in Hall's personal and professional career (and in my opinion, one of the worst angles in history given the sensitivity of the topic in terms of its seriousness), Eric Bischoff would make the questionable decision to put Hall's personal issues with alcohol front and center by making it part of a wrestling angle.

In the run-up to Hallloween Havoc 1998, Scott Hall was made to look like the drunk that he often was in vignettes. In a totally tasteless moment, Hall actually vomited on Eric Bischoff. In another clip, Nash and Luger would follow Hall along to a bar where he proceeded to ingest copious amounts of alcohol. This had to be one of the lowest points for Hall, as well as the WCW.

Hall and Nash would reconcile shortly after their Halloween Havoc match during which Nash would powerbomb Hall twice, then subsequently leave the ring. Hall would play a crucial part in the ending of Goldberg's famous streak when he, disguised as a security guard, used a stun gun to help disable Goldberg, allowing Nash to get the pin and to become the new WCW Heavyweight Champion of the world.

In terms of the significance of the angle perspective, it effectively killed any momentum that Goldberg had been building and in the process, solidified the reputation Kevin Nash had been developing as a total selfish nightmare with the book. Wouldn't you know it, Scott Hall was smack dab in the middle of an event which shifted the wrestling business once again.

Hall would toil in the mid-card in matches with Roddy Piper, Bret Hart and Booker T. Leading into 2000; however, Scott Hall's demons were once again getting the better of him and in the process, he was stripped of his half of the WCW World Wrestling Tag Team Championship. Finally, on February 20, 2000, Hall made his last appearance on WCW as he has never worked for the company again.

Over the next few years, He would make appearances for a variety of companies, including ECW/NJPW, a return to WWE, TNA, WWC and JCW. His appearances would often find him repackaged in some way as nWo or using his Razor Ramon gimmick. He would begin developing a habit of not showing up to events and signing short-term contracts, only to fall off the face of the earth for extended periods of time (if he was able to complete them at all).

Given his unreliability, many companies were very skeptical about hiring him, and rightly so. His inability to control his alcohol abuse was reaching epic proportions and hindering his ability to be taken seriously as a performer.

He did have what could have shaped up to be a bright spot during a run with TNA in 2007. His storyline found him on a quest to confront Nash. The idea being that Hall was angry that his "friend" had not helped him during his time of need, and that he resented him for it.

These two had battled each other many times, and had also fought side by side against the legends of the sport. Apart, Hall and Nash were both average. But when they were paired together, there was something unique and special about them. And it was interesting to watch (regardless of everything going on around them). The storyline unfolded and it appeared that Nash and Hall were back together (with sidekick Samoa Joe) and on course to face off with what was being called the "Angle Alliance" team of Kurt Angle, Tyson Tomko (spare us all) and the Phenomenal One, AJ Styles.

Sadly, before we got a chance to see if they still had any magic left, Hall proved to be a no-show yet again. Eric Young took his place and the match went on without him. No one cares who won, but we do remember that Hall disappointed everyone yet again.

For a guy who had been given chance after chance, Scott Hall was finding a way to make a fool out of his friends at every turn (Nash had on many occasions, gone to bat for his friend assuring the powers that be that Hall wouldn't disappoint). But to no one's surprise really, things played out as they had many times before.

He'd make news in October 2008, but again, not for anything he did inside the ring. The Iron Shiek was being roasted by some fellow wrestlers and funny men. Someone made the classless decision to include a joke about someone and their career "falling faster than Owen Hart." I won't even explain the reference because if you aren't up to speed on wrestling enough to get it, you probably shouldn't be reading this in the first place.

Going back to the story though, in classic Scott Hall fashion, a clearly drunken Hall took the opportunity to cause a huge scene in which he called out the funny man for his behavior. Unfortunately, while many did find this attempt at humor to be in terrible taste, the matter in which he chose to make his feelings known was not well received by all, and he was escorted from the event.

Scott's heart may have been in the right place, but his insides were filled with liquid foolishness, which drew negative attention to him at a time when perhaps it should have been focused more on the low life who uttered the comment.

His last in-ring notoriety occurred as Hulk Hogan debuted with TNA. Once again, Nash and Hall were paired together and the angle teased a reunion with Hogan. The blonde and feeble one would go on to rebuke their advances, leaving them to re-christian themselves as "The Band." The same night, x-pac (aka 1-2-3 kid, aka Sean Waltman) also performed for the crowd. They would eventually fight for "official" contracts within TNA and subsequently were in a series of matches involving Eric Young, RVD and Jeff Hardy.

On May 14, 2010, he was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer. The bartender at the watering hole in question had called a cab and arranged for a ride home. Hall then decided that it would be a good idea to punch out a window. Sadly, during his booking he actually listed himself as an unemployed professional wrestler, even though at the time he was technically under contract with TNA.

Just as some mild success had seemed to find him again (he had just become one half of the tag team champions with his oft partner in crime Nash), on June 15, 2010, Scott Hall was released from his contract with TNA, thus ending his latest attempt at life in the sports entertainment business.

Will we ever see him perform at a high level again? My guess is, hardly.

Hall has lived at a frantic pace. He's likely ingested more alcohol in his lifetime than the OSU campus has collectively gobbled down at tail gate parties during the Big Ten football season over the past five seasons.

Wrestling itself is a rough lifestyle. The travel, the bumps and the temptations have made for a litany of bright young superstars gone too soon. Yet somehow, Scott Hall is still with us. But how does his story end?

The one bright spot from this event was that Scott Hall was checked into a rehabilitation center on the dime of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Many are suspect as to why he offers this service to former employees at his own expense (the negative can say it's a small diversion from his constant battles against the steroid controversy and the early deaths in wrestling) but to give him the benefit of the doubt, this could be the one thing that saves a guy like Scott Hall from an untimely demise.

Since his stint in rehab he's been seen creating more episodes of his online semi successful show, "Last Call With Scott Hall." It's a very unscripted, sometimes r-rated opportunity for him to talk with other professional wrestlers, to rant and vent, and recently, even to allow himself and friend x-pac to do commentary on prior matches they had together some time ago. Two wrestlers, with major issues, trying to re-live their greatest years. But at least it's being done outside the squared circle.

When you think about some of the wrestlers that we still see hanging on in the ring today, maybe Scott Hall is finally the one heading in the right direction.