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Scott Hall is doing great

May 24th, 2010 1 comment
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Hey, yo: Survey sez "One more for the good guys!"

If I were one half of TNA’s World tag-team champions, I’d probably drink, too. Scott Hall was partying like it was 1995 recently, which for Da Bad Guy only means trouble.

Reports the Orlando Sentinel:

Professional wrestler Scott Oliver Hall was arrested earlier this month on charges of disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer following an incident at a Seminole County bar, sheriff’s records show. Hall, 51, was at the Hitching Post Bar in Chuluota on May 14, when the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office was called in for a disturbance complaint about 1:43 a.m., an offense report shows. The deputy found a bartender standing in the door telling Hall to leave, but Hall was yelling and cursing at the bartender and other patrons there, according to the deputy’s account. The deputy also said Hall appeared intoxicated with slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. When the deputy advised Hall he was being placed in custody for disorderly intoxication, he tried to prepare him for the handcuffs, but Hall refused, the documentation states.
  
“Scott refused this directive, and instead, thrust out his chest, walking closer to me, stating, ‘I ain’t going down for this [expletive deleted],’ ” the report states. “This is [expletive deleted]. You know it’s [expletive deleted].” The report goes on to say that Hall continued to refuse, but the deputy managed to secure his left wrist with a handcuff and then pulled his right arm behind him. “Due to Scott’s inordinate size, 6’05″, 295 pounds, I utilized two sets of handcuffs in tandem,” the deputy noted in the report.
  
Let’s see: unruly pro wrestler, police, handcuffs, resisting arrest…almost sounds like a Vince Russo angle. The only thing missing is a black limo and/or Hummer.
 
Climbing the ladder: Years before their famous WrestleMania match, a young Hall and Michaels helped steal the show on this January night in Memphis in 1988.

Two of the people I respect most in wrestling, Jerry Jarrett and Dutch Mantell, have both told me that Hall’s story is one of the greatest wastes of talent in the history of the business. And frankly, given the numerous drug addicts and hopeless causes in wrestling, that’s saying a lot. Physically, the guy for years had the tools to have good bouts with most wrestlers and stellar matches working with the likes of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels-in fact, the Ladder Match between the former Razor Ramon and the Heartbreak Kid at WrestleMania X is usually on the short list of the greatest bouts ever held on WWE’s biggest stage.

Personally, I have some fond memories of Razor and Michaels working together in Memphis, producing some of the best bouts in the territory in 1988 in a series of bouts at the Mid-South Coliseum with Hall and “Nightmare” Ken Wayne challenging the Midnight Rockers for the AWA World tag titles. In those ’80s bouts, Michaels was showcasing some of the heel persona and timing that would help establish him as a singles star in the early ’90s.

Others have said at one time Hall had a good mind for the business and could be pretty creative when asked for input. In fact, he’s widely credited with suggesting that Sting adopt the Crow-like persona that made him the most intriguing character in wrestling in late 1996 and throughout 1997.

Although a key factor in WCW’s resurgence in the mid-’90s when he and Kevin Nash jumped McMahon’s ship for greener pastures in Turnerland, Hall also represented everything that eventually doomed the company. Against better judgment, he was thrust into TNA’s spotlight in January as part of the not-NWO reunion, despite the fact that he looked haggard, incoherent and bloated. In the ring, he’s been sad to watch, a shell of his former self.

Instead of being fired, earlier this month Hall was awarded one half of TNA’s World tag straps, along with Nash, via a fluke win eerily reminiscent of the Big Sexy/Hogan WCW title finger-poke switch in Atlanta that is generally regarded as the beginning of the end for WCW. Ironically enough, when asked about his profession by police after the incident, Hall replied, “I’m unemployed.” (Shades of the Big Lebowski.)

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