7. Was Asked To Portray Real-Life Alcohol Problems On TV
As his WCW career progressed, it became clear that Scott Hall was spending a lot more time partying than he was anything else. Seemingly disinterested with the shambles that the company was degenerating into, Hall turned to booze more often than not. Struggles with alcohol were nothing new for the man, but WCW management pitched one angle that certainly was. In mid-1998, WCW started to encourage Scott Hall to act drunk on television. Booze wasn't exactly new to the industry, Steve Austin regularly downed beers over in the WWF, but people were uneasy with the character Hall was being asked to portray. This was largely due to his real-life troubles with drinking, and the feeling was that encouraging him to be drunk was only making things worse. During one segment, Hall threw up on Eric Bischoff. His speech was slurred, and he was rarely seen without a drink in his hand. Around this time, his body shape started to change, and the man suddenly didn't look as physically impressive as before. This was an extremely poor decision from WCW, who should have been trying to discourage Hall from drinking.