In the latest case of professional wrestling taking center in the mainstream world, ESPN's E:60, a newsmagazine styled show, profiled the life of former WWE star Scott Hall on Oct. 19. Hall, a former WWE star who was front and center during the wrestling revival in the '90s sat down for an expose about his decent into alcoholism and drug addiction.
Scott Hall
Wikimedia Commons
Among the people interviewed for this segment are Hall's best friends Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman as well as people like Stephanie McMahon and Hulk Hogan, all of whom weighed in with their opinions on Hall's fall from glory. Some friends, such as Waltman, said they have been preparing for the 52-year old Hall's death for the last year and a half. With this interesting look at Hall's life, here is a look at the Top 5 moments of his professional wrestling career.
5. Debut in WWE as Razor Ramon
Most fans knew Scott Hall from his time in the AWA, where he was a strong cowboy, or his short lived time in WCW as the Diamond Studd. Hall finally showed up in the WWE as Razor Ramon, The Bad Guy. Based on Scarface, WWE fans embraced him as the newest bad guy, someone who was just as gimmicky as other wrestlers of the era but with more of an edge. It was a new time in the WWE and Hall helped usher in what would become the precursor to the Attitude Era.
Click here to see Razor Ramon's first promo in the WWE
4. Razor Ramon Jobs to the 1-2-3 Kid
Over his career, Scott Hall always seemed to be ready to help his friends. One friend was Sean Waltman, who came to the ring on an episode of Monday Night Raw as a young wrestler known as The Kid. Hall, a main event wrestler at the time, lost to The Kid and suddenly the 1-2-3 Kid was born. It was an amazing moment because jobbers don't lose to stars, and in this match, the WWE proved anything could happen.
Click here to see the match between Scott Hall and Sean Waltman
3. The Kilq Breaks the Fourth Wall
This never took place on television, and was at a house show in Madison Square Garden, but a viral video of the event took off and shook up the WWE. Not many people at that time knew about the inner workings of wrestling so when Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Triple H and Shawn Michaels embraced in the ring after a match, they broke the fourth wall. They were not friends in storylines but they joined forces here to say goodbye. Hall and Nash left the WWE and Triple H was the only man punished for the display.
Click here to see the Madison Square Garden incident
2. Beats Shawn Michaels in Ladder Match at WrestleMania X
Out of all the matches in Scott Hall's career, this was the crown jewel. It was on the biggest stage in wrestling, WrestleMania, and it was against one of the best wrestlers of all time, Shawn Michaels. It was also one of the first big time ladder matches and easily one of the best. Razor Ramon beat Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental title in this match and officially arrived as a main event star.
Click here to see highlights of the Wrestlemania X ladder match
1. The nWo Invasion of WCW
The one moment that will always define Scott Hall's career was when he jumped the rails on WCW Nitro and claimed he was invading and planned to take over. Some fans actually believed Hall was coming from the WWE to invade WCW, but what occurred was a new angle in WCW where Hall, and later Kevin Nash, started the biggest movement in professional wrestling history. Hall was the catalyst that led to wrestling's most famous era and will always hold that place in wrestling history.
Click here to see Scott Hall as part of the nWo invasion in WCW
Author Shawn S. Lealos has been a professional wrestling fan since the rock and roll days of the 80s. Shawn watched all the promotions, but held an affinity for the more rugged ones in the Mid South and Dallas focused World Class regions. He still watches wrestling today, enjoying the WWE, TNA and ROH, watching all three on television weekly.
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