15 Things We Learned From Scott Hall On The Steve Austin Show

4. Leaving The AWA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEPJgkB4zHU Austin asks what led to Hall leaving the AWA because he was earmarked to replace Hulk Hogan as their franchise big star. He says that he never forgot that comment from The Freebirds and he was always aware of the promotion's status being on the downslide. He was scheduled to get the AWA World championship but decided he didn't want to be the captain of a sinking ship. When he went to Verne Gagne and gave his notice, Verne was indignant and said that nobody leaves him - except pretty much every WWE star from the 1980s that had fled to Vince, of course - and that he could make Hall a star. Scott replied that it was too cold in Minnesota and he could sit on the beach and sell suntan lotion making two grand a week. Gagne told him he was rich, and Hall said he wanted to be rich too but that the AWA wasn't where he wanted it to happen. He also points out that the AWA style was very vanilla with no memorable characters, and he had grown up on the Florida style and wanted to be a prt of that. Mike Graham called him after Lex Luger left and he immediately went back to Tampa.