8 Real Reactions Of WCW Wrestlers Being Punished On Air
6. Last Call Scott Hall
By 1998, the dreaded pentagram of alcohol and drugs had once more conjured Scott Hall's personal demons, to the extent that it was visibly affecting his ability to work.
After numerous drink-related arrests, Hall's wife Dana finally impelled his employees, WCW, to do something about her errant, troubled spouse. In typical WCW fashion of the time, they botched the request entirely.
Rather than take the struggling Outsider off the road, or reach into their deep pockets to provide some sort of professional help, the company instead deemed the best solution a public punishment. Hall continued to appear on Nitro, only now his alcoholism was written into his character. He'd frequently turn up for matches 'drunk' (and it's possible those inverted commas didn't always apply), often with a beverage in hand.
Things came to a head when Eric Bischoff, in an awful 'worked shoot' angle, came to ringside in a desperate plea to his out of control worker. His intervention was met with an emetic interruption. Sadly, such were the extent of Hall's outside issues at the time, it wasn't entirely possible to tell if he was acting throughout his weeks of inhumane humiliation.
His wife's reaction was very clear: Dana wrote an open letter to "anyone who cares" at WCW, calling the angle "deplorable, disgusting, and inexcusable". She said "wrestling has just become 'real'" in her husband's case.