Hey Yo: A Celebration of the "Bad Guy" Scott Hall
There’s a wrestling moment I’ll never forget, one burned into my memory for all time. It didn’t, ultimately, mean anything at all. It had no storyline implications and wasn’t a clever bit of wrestling craft or artifice.
Instead it was something almost unicorn rare in the world of wrestling, a world that is generally half-a-decade out of step when it comes to pop culture trends.
It was cool.
Scott Hall was in the ring with his NWO buddies, infuriating a late 90s crowd that had been trained to express their discontent by throwing things at the ring. I’d been a part of those crowds and always loved their wild energy, even if the splatter of beer didn’t always discriminate between intended victim and innocent bystander. There was more than a little friendly fire when an inebriated ex-jock way overestimated the power of his own jelly arm.
On this occasion, however, a miracle occurred. The cup of beer flew over the hundreds of fans packed into the ringside area and managed to hit Hall directly in the face. I mean square on, soaking the big man in backwash and Bud, a connection so clean he couldn’t possibly pretend it didn’t happen.
Hall could have tried to no-sell it or fecklessly holler at a crowd that would know it had won that particular battle. Instead, he sneered, and ran his hands through his beer-soaked hair, slicking it back like he was Elvis. Even covered in beer, Hall was cooler than you’ll ever be in the best moment of your life, so cool he could appear shirtless in cutoff denim—and somehow make that shit work.
There have been better professional wrestlers than Scott Hall. But if there was a cooler one, I’d love to hear about him.
When history is written, almost everyone is left in the margins, products of their time not worthy of being memorialized for all time. There’s nothing personal in that assessment and it’s not especially harsh. There are thousands of pop stars, professional wrestlers and actors—and the entertainment world churns out baseline level performers with remarkable efficiency.
Think about the 1970s. Harley Race, Jack Brisco and a few others have emerged from that era as enduring legends. But the midcard wrestlers, even the ones working the grandest stages, are largely forgotten. That’s the nature of disposable entertainment. Your average wrestler working in 1986 simply retired, hit the nostalgia circuit and was replaced by a younger version of the same archetype.
Scott Hall was not your average professional wrestler.
Not only did he (as Razor Ramon) and Shawn Michaels recreate the entire sport in their image with an iconic 1994 ladder match at WrestleMania X, he and Kevin Nash reinvented the way the industry worked on the business side too, forcing wrestling to implement a guaranteed contract and making millionaires out of a lot of the boys who would once have been left destitute after their days in the ring were up.
Hall and Nash weren’t always popular figures behind the scenes. Their paycheck was the product of their push and spot on the card and they protected those things with a ruthlessness that struck some as less than comradely.
Within his crew, it was very different. There were few friends better than Hall if you were in his circle.
“He wore (a Syxx) shirt every week and had the rest of the nWo (Hulk,Dusty, Macho Man) always shout me out on live TV while I was out with a broken neck,” Sean “X-Pac” Waltman shared on Twitter. “Just one example of what a good friend he was.”
The “Kliq” was a union of sorts in an industry that had no tradition of collective action, working together in a famously cutthroat shark tank to share information and make the most money they could from the bosses, even if it was at the expense of some of the other boys competing for the top slots.
And, yet, their insistence on being paid fairly and treating the industry like a business created a world where those who followed could rely on a steady and hefty paycheck no matter how their booking fluctuated and allowed them the freedom to take time off to recover from injury and road weariness. They made wrestling a better place for the wrestlers, a rare claim indeed.
Hall and Nash realized their earning potential wouldn’t be at its peak forever and looked to maximize money whenever they could, a path that ultimately changed their business for the better. For everyone. That’s a powerful legacy.
As I wrote this Monday evening, Hall was removed from life support and passed away at 63, surrounded in person by family and in spirit by millions. But the Bad Guy? He’ll live forever in wrestling lore.
Five Matches to Watch
Razor Ramon vs. Bret Hart (Royal Rumble 1993)
Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid (WWF Monday Night Raw, 5/17/93)
Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania X)
Hall/Nash/Mystery Opponent vs. Luger/Sting/Savage (WCW Bash at the Beach 1996)
Hall/Nash vs. Giant/Lex Luger (WCW SuperBrawl VII)