Welcome to a brand new feature here at WhatCulture! My name is Nick and I will be your flag bearer, your torch bearer, your Paul Bearer (may he rest in peace). I will take you by the collective hand and lead you into the secret garden that is the world of professional wrestling (we may even take sidetrips into the world of cinema, television and music- thats the magic of
writing here at WhatCulture!- you can be whatever you want to be, my children). Anyway, the title of the article suggests that I will, in fact, be playing the Devils Advocate in regards to a number of topics within the world of professional wrestling. The format will be interesting though- Im going to tackle a topic, play the Devils Advocate (IE disagree with the majority of what people think), hopefully raise some good, thought-provoking points, and then give my actual opinion. This way, I get to raise actual points that I have thought about, maybe upset some people, but then bring it back around so Im not the bad guy. Im very smart.
I dont wanna die, but Im not afraid to because, whats left, man? What do you do when they quit chanting your name? -Scott Hall For the inaugural article, I wanted to write about Scott Hall. Scott Hall has always been one of my favorite wrestlers. I first started watching wrestling in 1998, when I was 11 years old. I was the happy medium between a WWF and a WCW fan, so I knew all about both companies. 1998 was when the nWo was at its peak, and a big reason for their success was Scott Hall. The former Razor Ramon was probably the most reliable nwo-ite, in terms of work-rate and mic skills. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Scott Hall was the best wrestler to never win a world championship(sorry, Jake). Scott Hall had everything it took to be a superstar- he had wrestling talent, mic skills, passion (at least for a whilethen he just wanted money), etc. He truly was the epitome of a superstar. He had the intangible It factor that you hear so much about. And then he lost it. Hall had it all, but decided that he wanted more. He turned to alcohol and drugs, and literally became a shell of his former self. Numerous attempts at comebacks fizzled out after only a matter of months. He put on weight, showed up to wrestling shows under the influence of anything and everything, and broke the heart of his thousands of fans every time he tried to put the band back together. Hall was even featured in an episode of
ESPNs E60. It was a remarkable documentary and I highly urge you, if you havent already, to watch it before continuing to read this article. Back? Ok, good. As the documentary shows, Scott Hall had it all before deciding to succumb to his proverbial demons. Ive followed Halls career since I became a wrestling fan, and there has never, in my mind, been a more tragic example of The Wrestler. Fortunately, for Scott Hall, his family and all of his fans, he has good friends. Diamond Dallas Page has been promoting his Yoga For Real Men for years. Lately, though, hes taken to helping fellow wrestlers fix themselves, so to speak. Jake The Snake Roberts was his first pet project, and the results have been impressive. Jake was very similar to Hall in that he had it all, lost it all, and is trying to get his life back. DDP has helped a lot. Jake has been sober longer than he has been in years, hes lost a lot of weight, and he seems to realize that he doesnt have to be who hes been for recent years. It was inspiring. So when I heard that DDP was going to move Scott Hall into his house, and try to do for him what he did for Jake, I was ecstatic. Maybe this time Scott can get better. Maybe this time Scott will learn. Maybe this time Scott can embrace life instead of just wait for death. Then I heard that DDP was starting up a Kickstarter for people to donate money for Scott Halls medical bills. And I was all, uhhhwhat? This guy, who has made millions of dollars over the years, needs $80,000? He needs fans of his to give him money to pay for hip surgery? Uh, what about all of his friends? What about HHH? What about Kevin Nash? What about Shawn Michaels? What about DDP himself? He makes $80,000 in royalties at least for WWE. $80,000 is something that Scott Hall made in his rookie year, probably, and now he needs strangers to give him money? There was a lot of uproar over this. Fans across the world shared those sentiments. They couldnt believe that this man wanted their money for hip/tooth surgery. People called him a bum, a failure, and an embarrassment. Why was it our responsibility to help Scott Hall? We already gave him our money. T-shirt sales, action figures, games, pay per views- a lot of us have already given Razor Ramon thousands of dollars. And now, when hes no longer in the spotlight, when he cant charge $10,000 per appearance because most promoters know hell probably show up drunk, now he wants our money? Is this guy nuts? Many fans would say forget about Scott Hall. Scott Hall made his own decisions. Scott Hall made his own mistakes. Scott Hall is a grown man and he needs to deal with his life choices. Scott Hall is not my problem.
Theres gotta be some reason that Im here. I shouldve been dead a hundred times. -Scott Hall Except, he is. And, luckily, a lot of other people felt the same. Scott Hall reached his goal (which wasnt even his idea, it was DDPs), and then some. Fans have donated much more than the $80,000 needed for Scott Halls surgery and, honestly, that is something that has made me more proud to be a wrestling fan than anything else in the world. What that said was that yes, we do still believe in our heroes. Yes, we do still believe in redemption. Yes, we do still believe that the prodigal son can come home again. Most importantly, yes. We do believe in Scott Hall. We want to see him succeed. We want to see him thrive. We want to see him be happy. We want to see our hero find some semblance of peace. I believe thats why DDP put this project together. Yes, he and any number of Scott Halls friends could have easily given him 80k, and not thought twice about it. What I think DDP wanted to do was show Scott Hall, the man, that though we like Scott Hall, the wrestler, we want Scott Hall, the man, to live. We want him to win. We want Scott Hall to realize the man he can be. Scott Hall is a father. Scott Hall is a husband (ish). Scott Hall is a son and a friend. Scott Hall, the wrestler, is not our problem. Scott Hall, the man, is. Because, as optimistic as it sounds, I believe it is human nature for us to want to help each other. When someone we know, such as Scott Hall, is hurting, we hurt too. It sounds stupid, but its true. We dont know Scott Hall, really. We only know what television has shown us. But, unfortunately, television has shown us that Scott Hall is/was a broken man. Luckily, he has friends who want to help him. Luckily, he has us. Scott Hall is a wonderful example of the passion of wrestling fans. Yes, a lot of us are dumb, typical wrestling fans. But a lot of us are like you and me. Were passionate and compassionate. We care about the people behind the characters that we cheer or boo. This is why most fans will say that while they hate John Cena the character, they respect John Cena the man. Its why, when CM Punk dropped his infamous Pipe Bomb two years ago, he instantly became a star. Its not because CM Punk, the character, said something cool and called HHH a doofus. It was because CM Punk, the man(Phil something), was venting about his actual career and offering his actual thoughts. Some, not all, but some wrestling fans can differentiate between fact and fiction. We can like Razor Ramon and think hes one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. But we can also see Scott Hall and realize, like many of us, that hes a hurting, broken, tortured man who maybe has never realized that people care about him, people love him, people want him to live, even if he doesnt want to live, himself. Thats what I believe. Thats why, if there is anything, anything, I can do to help Scott Hall, I will do it. Even if its just an article that some random people will read. I want Scott Hall to know that hes a great wrestler. But even more than that, I want Scott Hall to know that he isnt a bad guy. He doesnt have to be The Bad Guy anymore. He doesnt have to be Razor Ramon any more. He can be Scott Hall, the father/the son/the friend/the man. And maybe thats the realization that he needs to have. Maybe thats the peace hes been looking for. Scott Hall doesnt have to be The Wrestler anymore. Scott Hall can just be the man. And we, as fans of the man, will do anything we can to help him.
I just laugh as a defense, so I dont cry. -Scott Hall