Scott Hall - One More for the Good Guys...

There will never be another quite like Scott Hall. From the moment he came on the screen you knew that anything might happen. He was rowdy, unapologetic and talented. He could work the mic and get the crowd going in whatever way he wanted. He could make you cheer him or boo him with a single move or phrase. The man was one of the best, 

This is the moment that Scott Hall changed wrestling forever. He was one of the WWF's top performers as "Razor Ramon" and when his contract expired he got a very competitive offer from rival promotion WCW. Vince refused to match the offer so on May 26 he wrestled his last match for WWF. The next night he came walking out of the crowd at a WCW event.

At the time this was like seeing Wolverine stroll into the Justice League headquarters and light a cigar! The WWF had made no mention of Scott leaving the company because Vince planned to have another wrestler perform under the Razor Ramon gimmick, so to the average fan Scott was still a WWF guy. Fans went crazy!

This moment lead to the formation of the nWo and the first real battles of the Monday Night Wars. MNW lead both companies to improve their programming and gave us WWF's Attitude Era, Sting vs Hogan, Degeneration X and so much more. It elevated the entire wrestling world, including ECW.

And it all started right here...with Scott Hall.

In 1999 I snuck backstage at a WCW show in Memphis. It was a wild time but without question the biggest moment of the night for me was walking into a room with Arn Anderson and Scott Hall. My knees got weak and I mumbled a greeting, asked a quick question and then made my way out. He was much, much more intimidating in person. Seeing him next to Kevin Nash regularly gave the false impression that he was a normal sized guy. He was not. 

Scott was a veteran of the ring with many notable matches, but no doubt his most famous and influential was the ladder match against Shawn Michaels:

For my money, Scott Hall's greatest contribution was the attitude he brought to the ring and how it connected with the fans. He was the bad guy, rule breaker but he did it in a way that made the fans love him. Scott Hall with Kevin Nash made it cool to root for the "bad guys." Prior to the Outsiders there had been fans who intentionally bucked the trend and would applaud the heel in a match, but not on a grand scale. The bad guys got booed and the good guys got cheered...until Scott Hall showed how the game could really be played. ​