Razor Ramon was one of the most colorful characters of the Pre- Attitude Era 1990s. Originally brought in a heel character fans began cheer him. The success of this gimmick was a result of hard work of a veteran wrestler who had come into his own. Razor Ramon had a real name it was Scott Hall. The success of the Razor character was only the beginning after that he would go on to help change the wrestling business as we know it. That is why this year Hall will be the newest member of the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2014.
Scott was a 6ft 7in guy who broke into the business in 1984 in Championship Wrestling from Florida where he learned from legends like Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham and Hiro Matsuda. After leaving Florida he went to work in Jim Crockett Promotions for a brief stint and in 1985 he made his way up to Minnesota. That is where he began working for the American Wrestling Association (AWA). The territory was owned by the legendary Verne Gagne, who wanted to push Hall to be big as Hulk Hogan. Hogan had recently left to the WWF and Gagne saw a big guy with huge muscles that he wanted to mold as a replacement.
Hall worked in the AWA as the tag team partner of Curt Hennig, who most WWE fans know as Mr. Perfect. They won the AWA tag team titles and competed against teams like Buddy Rose and Doug Somers. Hall got to really polish his wrestling skills working with Hennig who was a 2nd generation star. After parting ways Hall had a singles run where he had AWA title shots against Stan Hansen and Rick Martel but never captured the title. Gagne wanted to give Scott the strap but Hall declined because seen that the territory was on the way down and did not want to be known as the guy with the title when the territory died.
In 1989 Hall left the AWA and bounced around to different territories. He went down to Puerto Rico in 1990 and worked for Carlos Colon’s WWC. He even captured the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Title. In 1991 Hall made a move to WCW where he a previous stint. He was brought in this time as the Diamond Stud was managed by Diamond Dallas Page. Hall actually started to get a little push and the Stud character was enough to catch the attention of WWE who brought him in 1992. That’s where Razor Ramon began take flight.
Razor was unlike any WWF character before him. The company introduced him through a series of vignettes that featured this tall Cuban style character that spoke like the famous Tony Montana character from the movie Scarface. Armed with his gold chains and trademark toothpick Hall made his debut on Superstars of Wrestling and destroyed a jobber. Razor broken in as a heel and aligned himself with Ric Flair by interfering in his title match with Randy Savage. He would then team with Flair and face Savage and his tag team partner Mr Perfect who replaced the Ultimate Warrior in the match. Warrior was recently fired from the WWF. That firing opened up a big opportunity for Hall who went on to face Bret Hart for the WWF title at Royal Rumble in 1993. Although he lost the match to Hart, Razor was still in the main event.
Throughout 1993 Hall had a big year as he began a slow face turn starting with his feud with the 1-2-3 Kid and later Ted DiBiase. He then won a 20 man battle royal to win his 1st of four Intercontinental Championships. Which lead to a match with the man whom the title was stripped from Shawn Michaels. To determine who the real champ there was was a legendary ladder match held at Wrestlemania X. That ladder match to this that still stands as one of the best matches in Wrestlemania history. During his time in WWF Hall made friends with Michaels, Kevin Nash (Diesel) and Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid) and later HHH whom became known as the Kliq.
After 1996 Hall made a move that would change the wrestling world forever. He left the WWE to rival promotion WCW and became a part of the now infamous NWO (New World Order). The NWO changed the face of wrestling and greatly heated up the already intense Monday Night Wars. The addition of Hall and later Nash and Hulk Hogan gave WCW an 84 week advantage in the ratings battle with the WWF. Hall bringing that “Bad Guy” image that was ultra cool to teenage fans helped take the wrestling business to new levels.
Hall stayed with WCW until the companies close in 2001. Although he was not always present due to personal issues he was having. Hall made a brief return to the now WWE in 2002 when the NWO was rebranded but also left shortly after. He made a few appearances in TNA over the year and returned to WWC in 2007 for a brief stint. Hall is now semi retired and still makes appearances on the indie circuit. He has now focused the career of his son Cody Hall. Scott is a legend and well deserving of his Hall of Fame honor.
Written By
Keith B. Holt
Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr
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