Former Wrestler Scott Hall Remembered for His Impact on Small Arkansas Town
At some point in life, if we're lucky, we live long enough to see an icon of our childhood pass away.
Tonight that happened for me with the passing of former professional wrestler Scott Hall.
Hall had his trouble with addiction over the years, but he appeared to have beaten the ghosts of his past and had his life on the right track. However, he broke a hip about a month ago, and complications from hip replacement surgery led to multiple heart attacks.
Kevin Nash, who founded the infamous nWo with Hall, let the world know when the end was near with a long Instagram post that began,
"Scott's on life support. Once his family is in place they will discontinue life support. I'm going to lose the one person on this planet I've spent more of my life with than anyone else. My heart is broken and I'm so very f---ing sad. I love Scott with all my heart but now I have to prepare my life without him in the present."
Later, Sean Waltman, known during his time in the nWo as Syxx and also X-Pac from Degeneration X, let everyone know Hall had passed.
The summer of 1996 was a memorable three months packed with positive moments stacked on top of one another as the latest class of Warren Lumberjacks and our friends from nearby towns made the most of our final days in the sleepy town before heading off to college.
We got together for basketball games in my neighbor's drive, put together Street Fighter tournaments, and put in a little time in Panama City Beach watching the movie Twister more than I'd care to admit. But one thing that really defined that summer were the Monday Night wars between what is now the WWE and a former company known as WCW.
What most people don't realize is in the early days of the Monday Night Wars, there were no wars. There was only one company that mattered and it was because of one man and one moment.
From the second Scott Hall, known to everyone at the time as Razor Ramon, walked through the crowd, hopped the guard rail, stole a microphone and entered the ring declaring what appeared to be war on behalf of the WWF, we were hooked.
WCW had Macho Man, Hulk Hogan, Sting and Lex Lugar, but nothing mattered until Hall invaded a rival company and turned the wrestling world upside down. For the next three years, professional wrestling became one of the biggest pop culture mainstays in America.
What followed was a summer of Nitro parties as the guys got together to watch as Hall and Nash showed up each week making threats and promises while roughing people up, including then announcer Eric Bischoff, whom few of us knew was the executive behind the scenes orchestrating the single most influential story line in the history of wrestling.
Beginning with the Great American Bash, in the same living room at my neighbor's house where we watched Arkansas upset No. 4 Tennessee in Neyland Stadium and Scotty Thurman drain the high-arching three to take down Duke in the NCAA tournament championship game two years earlier, we packed the room with a cover charge to help my neighbors cover the cost of renting the pay-per-view and snacks.
And it wasn't just the usual guys. Their girlfriends and their girlfriends' best friends all showed up too.
While Hall had started must-watch television, behind the scenes, Hulk Hogan, who many felt had run his course with his red and yellow gear and take your vitamins and say your prayers persona, had begun to doubt himself. It was Hall who convinced him to learn how to be what Hall did best, become the "Bad Guy."
Hogan took time to address the passing of Hall at his bar in Florida Monday night and to acknowledge Hall's influence on his "Hollywood" Hogan character that saved the former WWF champion's career.
Hall taking that first step laid the foundation for the future arrival of the iconic Goldberg. It allowed Sting to step away, hang out in the rafters of arena after arena slowly building his most popular character, "The Crow" version of Sting.
As my neighbor and I moved to college, Monday nights were still must-watch TV. However, as time passed, WWF stepped up its game in reaction to what Hall had started in WCW.
Dwayne Johnson shed his Rocky Maivia persona, and with the help of the Nation of Domination, found his way to becoming "The Rock." Hunter Hearst Helmsley shed his blue blood persona to become HHH and join Shawn Michaels as part of Degeneration X.
Stone Cold Steve Austin dropped "The Ringmaster" and with a single promo cut on Jake "The Snake" Roberts, established "Austin 3:16" as he lit a rocket under his career by becoming "The Texas Rattlesnake Stone Cold Steve Austin."
Soon the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian and the Dudleys took the ladder match first made famous by Hall's Razor Ramon character against Shawn Michaels a few years earlier and turned in some of the most dangerous and unforgettable moments in wrestling history.
The Golden Age of Wrestling, highlighted by WCW's nWo invasion angle and WWF's Attitude Era only happened because of Scott Hall stepping over that barrier in May of 1996. He ended all the cheesy job-based characters and good guys and bad guys.
He took the image that he built as "The Bad Guy" and became a heel who could be cheered. The cool factor he brought that carried over to Kevin Nash laid the foundation for Stone Cold and The Rock to become cheered as gray area/borderline heel characters.
If he doesn't do that, those characters may not have existed in a world where you're either a super wholesome babyface or a stereotypically evil heel.
Hall found a way to make Hogan cool again. It's possible no one else could have convinced Hogan to do the unthinkable and take one of the biggest babyfaces of all time and make him the ultimate villain running around hitting people across the back with belts and spray painting nWo on their backs.
Those nWo shirts were everywhere and still are today. When my doubles partner for USTA tennis matches and I would compete, we'd do the nWo "Too Sweet" high five after taking a difficult point or winning a match.
A small locally owned pizza place in Conway kept itself in business for a good extra year or two longer by showing wrestling pay-per-views in the restaurant every other week as WCW and the WWF fought it out.
For such a bad guy who had so many demons, Hall did a lot of good he may have passed away without knowing. Those demons haunted him late into his life.
"Scott always felt he wasn't worthy of the afterlife," Nash wrote near the end of his Instagram post. "Well God please have some gold plated toothpicks for my brother. My life was enriched with his take on life. He wasn't perfect but as he always said "The last perfect person to walk the planet they nailed to a cross " As we prepare for life without him just remember there goes a great guy you ain't going to see another one like him again."
I don't know if Hall will be in Heaven waiting to entertain us when we get there, but what I do know is that so many of us were blessed while he was here.
For all those kids crammed into a living room in Warren, Arkansas, thank you for helping make our last summer together even more memorable Scott Hall. I hope you now finally have some peace.
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