On March 14th, the wrestling universe lost one of its biggest stars and brilliant minds with the passing of Scott Hall. Hall was probably most famously known as Razor Ramon during his time in the WWF (WWE). He was the catalyst that set off the one of the greatest eras in professional wrestling during the late 1990s, known as the Monday Night Wars.
Scott Hall had a long career in professional wrestling that started in 1984 where he broke into the Florida territory under one of his favorite wrestlers Dusty Rhodes. He worked different NWA territories until he got his first big break in the AWA.
While in the AWA, Hall found friendship in the late Curt Hennig. The AWA was on its way out, but Hall was definitely a star in the making. He Curt became tag team champions while working for the AWA. After 1989 Hall left the AWA and went to WCW where he did jobs and never got any traction.
Scott went international for a little while and found success in New Japan and Puerto Rican promotion WWC, where he became their World Champion. He eventually made it back to mainland USA. Where he went back to WCW and becomes The Diamond Stud. This time managed by Diamond Dallas Page, Hall was not just a jobber. He defeated the likes of Tom Zenk or Tommy Rich.
The Diamond Studd never made it beyond the lower mid-card and even had some tag team action with Vinny Vegas (Kevin Nash) who would later comeback to the company and change wrestling forever with Hall. Scott then went to the WWF in 1992 and became the superstar that we now know and love.
The character of Razor Ramon was born in the WWF. Modeled after Tony Montana from Scarface the 6’6 guy from Florida was now a star. Always on the upper mid card, Razor made some memorable matches in the WWF. In 1993 he won the vacant Intercontinental Championship which had been stripped from friend Shawn Michaels. He and Michaels would go on to feud over who was the real champion and the settled it at Wrestlemania.
Shawn, Hall along with Kevin Nash, X-Pac (123 Kid), and Triple H were in a backstage group known as the Kliq. The Kliq was influential and had the ear of Vince McMahon. Seeing that ceiling of his value was the upper mid-card in the WWF, Hall sought other opportunities. WCW was changing and was looking to directly challenge the WWF as the premier wrestling promotion in the country.
Hall ended up going to WCW on a lucrative contract that offered less days and guaranteed money, a practice that the WWF did not do at that time. He convinced Kevin Nash to also come over and the world of professional wrestling was never the same. WCW was already running head to head on Monday Nights against WWF Raw but this is the flashpoint where we officially get what is now known as the Monday Night Wars.
Hall and Nash for weeks wreaked havoc on the WCW roster teasing a type of invasion. The angle was hot and only became hotter when Hulk Hogan joined what was now called the NWO (New World Order).
The NWO changed the way we look at wrestling and has left its footprint on the business that we can still see. Less imaginary characters and more people being pumped up versions of themselves. Not a lot of goofy nicknames but and props. Bad guys and good guys were replaced with shades of grey.
This caused the WWF/E to step their game up and kicked off the famous Attitude Era. Hall was also instrumental backstage and recognized as one of the most gift minds the business has seen. The same guy who asks Sting has he ever seen the movie “The Crow”, we know where that went. He was won multiple titles across all the organizations and made his mark. Scott Hall aka Razor Ramon will be missed.
Written By
Keith B. Holt
Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr
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