PW Torch Scott Hall Interview

[Nefercheperur]

Es geht interessant weiter.


Wade Keller: I've heard stories from the road about the Nasty Boys, such as Brian Nobbs getting on the bus naked with the wives on the bus. What are some of those stories?

Scott Hall: I'm the last person in the world to say something bad about anybody's behavior because I'm certainly no saint and I've certainly made a lot of bad decisions and bad choices. I'm not going to say nothing bad about nobody. As far as I've known, they've always been gentlemen and family men and I don't want to go there, Wade. I don't want anybody talking sh-- about me, so I'm not going to talk sh-- about anybody else.

Keller: I actually wasn't looking for stuff that they wouldn't laugh at. I was thinking of funny pranks they've pulled.

Hall: They're the Nastys. (Imitating the Nastys) "Hey, what the f--- you doin! Hey, hey, waaaa!" I heard the story one time. Hulk (Hogan) tells me one time he's in this really swanky cigar place in L.A. And he's got the Nastys with him. He said f---in' Swarzenegger' s there. So, this is an ultra f---in' private f---in ' cigar club. So they're in there. Here comes Arnold. Arnold and Hulk are hey, how are you, how are you? Nasty goes, "Oh, oh! Arnold! Whoo! Show me your muscles. Ohh! Whoo! Do some poses you f---n' musclehead!" (laughs) Nobbs was the f---in' crazy one. Jerry Sags was crazy, too, but it was really Nobbs. He was the voice of the whole operation. Hulk said, oh my god! They were rubbing his hair, f---in' with his hair and sh--. That's how they were with everybody. That's how they approached life. I think it's kind of funny. I don't know what Jerry's up to now. I know his wife has a really good job. He's got three, four kids. I think she works in a hospital. He's doing his deal. Nobbs is still sporting the mullet mohawk. I heard he signed a syndication deal to do some trailer court justice. There was a thing I saw on (Jay) Leno. They were doing this thing at the NATPE Convention. The audience had to vote to you buy or sell. So they showed Nobbs, and he had some hot little bimbo with him. Nobbs was going to be the judge, and the hot chick was the bailiff. Okay, buy or sell? They bought it. Nobbs, he shows up every once in a while on Hulk's show, and he wears the t-shirt like "Trailer Park Justice." He was supposed to be the judge. I don't know if it ever took off from there. I hope it does. I with him the best.

Keller: Do I remember a story about there being an incident in Europe where you and Terry Taylor got into a personal spat that got out of hand.

Hall: Oh hell yeah! Although, I just spoke to him the other day. Kid (Sean Waltman) called him. Kid told me Taylor likes me. The thing is, too, I've always respected Terry Taylor's knowledge of the business, but at the same time, one time I jumped on his sh-- and I said, "You know what, Taylor? F--- you, man. All you've ever done was copy Ric Flair and Terry Funk. You have no identity of your own. F--- you." So one time we're on this flight to Europe, and I'm a ***** . Apparently anytime I have a flight over seven or eight hours, I really turn into an ******* . So, we're flying to Europe and I'm sitting in first and he's, like, in business or whatever. And he's talking to these young guys. I tell them, "Don't listen to him." I just opened the curtain and said, "Terry Taylor's a stooge. He never drew a dime his whole f---in' career. Don't listen to him. He's a f---in' stooge." So one time he got up to go to the bathroom and I poured a whole bottle of water on his seat. I said, "Sit down, ***** ." The flight was full. "Sit down, mother f---er." Take a seat. We had some heat. It was all me. It was my immaturity. I was going through some personal sh--. I was drowning in alcohol. I talked to him the other day. Well, Kid calls me. I don't know if you know Chief Jay Strongbow, but Chief is a f---in' super guy. He always called him canary. That's what I told Taylor. One time I said, "You know what, you're such a f---in' mark. You wouldn't bob your head for 250 grand a year." Because when he was the Red Rooster, that stupid f---in' gimmick was actually getting over. Kids in the audience used to bob their heads. I said, "You're suck a f---in' mark, you wouldn't bob your head for 250 grand a year. You're a f---in' mark. You'd rather be a Ric Flair wannabe."

So the other day me and Kid are riding down the road eating some sushi. Kid calls him on his cell phone. He goes, "Hey, Canary." Blah blah blah. He hands the phone to me. So I go, "Hey, I was talkin' to some of the New York boys. Guess who asked about you?" He goes, "I already know this joke." "Guess who asked about you? Nobody!" He said he heard it a hundred time. We had some heat, but it was just my immaturity. He works for TNA and he's an agent and I think he probably does a pretty good job. If I owned a wrestling company, I would want Terry Taylor working for me. Let me put it that way. I think he's really astute and presentable. He's the kind of guy you could send to meetings and that kind of stuff. I think he communicates really well. I don't know. I just never thought he was money [as a wrestler]. I always thought he was mid-card. I never saw him as a star. I remember (Curt) Hennig telling me, "The worst thing they can call you is a good hand." That means you're good to have around and you can wrestle anybody, but you're never going to get rich. So I always thought Taylor was, like, a good hand.

Keller: You had a cameo in a Ric Flair insane asylum skit.

Hall: I did?!

Keller: Yeah. They had you in the background in a very weird time in WCW booking, and Flair was booked as going insane. They had him in an insane asylum. You had this Alfred Hitchcock-like cameo in the background.

Hall: (laughs) I was probably there for a shoot! It was probably a rehab and I was there for a shoot. (laughs) I don't remember it at all, bro. I wish I could comment on it. I don't remember it at all. I probably belonged there.

[Nefercheperur]

Keller: What did you think of the time where they had you coming out to the ring with drinks in your hand, acting drunk and stumbling, really making a public spectacle out of issues you were really going through?

Hall: It was no secret to anybody who knew me that I was battling my demons - and I still continue to to this day. I remember when (Eric) Bischoff said that's what he wanted to do. I remember looking at Eric and at that time, we had already built up a pretty good rapport. The sh-- was hot, we were the sh--. They were used to wrestling in front of half-empty arenas and every place we went was sold out. So I remember telling Eric, "I'll do whatever you want because you're the boss and I love getting them fat checks. I think it's in poor taste." So they had me doin' it. I us;ed to mix Gatorade and other sh-- and put an umbrella in it. I never drank before I went to the ring ever. After the show, I was drinkin' like a son of a gun and anybody who knows me knows that ain't no secret. But we did it and we did it with some success. I've actually had people tell me that they were kind of impressed with my acting ability because it takes a little bit of skill to act f---ed up because you can't f---ed up and still perform. Somebody told me they were impressed with how I acted like I was hammered.

It actually came down when I was still seeing Emily and her uncle, Brad Siegel, was the president of TNT. It came down through the chain of command and Eric told me, "You're not doing the drunk think anymore." Because Siegel heard from his supervisors - maybe (Ted) Turner, I don't know who the heck he heard it from - but somebody said this is ridiculous. You're mocking a serious disease. There are people who struggle with this as a disease and you're making light of it. So, they just all of sudden, I went from being hammered all the time to bang, I wasn't drinking anymore. Not on camera. I wasn't drunk on screen anymore. That was the way that went. I was against it. I felt that it was personal to me. I am struggling with it. I didn't want to broadcast it.

Keller: What do you think was the motivation for having you do it? Did they think it would make good TV? Was it mean-spirited? Was it meant to embarrass you?

Hall: I would never say that Eric ever did anything mean-spirited to me. Eric, in my opinion, always wanted to do things a little bit shoot because he's an Internet guy, a dirt sheet guy, he likes that kind of stuff. So to me, Eric would say, "It's no secret that people know you've been in rehab, you've had a problem with drinkin', blah blah blah, so we're going to do this." So that, in my opinion, was the reason for it. I don't think Eric did it to embarrass me or humiliate me in any way. I think he thought in his mind shoot stuff sells. I just thought, no, Eric, it's a fake business, so no. Just send the checks. We used to laugh and say, "Send the check, monkey."

Keller: Kevin Nash talked about how WCW was like rock bands at their worst in WCW and it was one big party. How much did you enjoy that atmosphere and how much of it just kind of seemed like a storm you wanted to get out of?

Hall: What are you talking about? Wild party mode?

Keller: When I say partying, it's a euphemism for drugs, popping pills, drinking, smoking pot, doing cocaine, whatever mixtures people put together, and every Monday night was a party. How much of that was a blast and how much of it became this cauldron that you actually kind of wanted to escape from?

Hall: One thing I discovered as I grew older in the industry is that I can remember the hardcore people all hang out with the hardcore people. I can remember sitting in the corner of the bar. It'd be people like me, Kev, maybe Taker, Yoko, Davey Boy, some of the heavy duty partyers. We'd all be sitting in the corner and we didn't want no p---y, we didn't want no nothin'. We'd rather just sit there and put ourselves over. Then you'd look across the bar and all the young guys would be dancin' and laughin' and hittin' on the broads and having some drinks and sh-- like that. I'll never forget one time looking at Kev, we're all drinking shots of Jack. I go, "Kev, can you remember when it was fun?" He went, "No, I can't. I can't remember." We were just doin' it because, well, it's what we did. It's like, I don't know. The thing is, too, a lot of people want to blame it on wrestling and sh-- like that. Sometimes I think about it myself. I wonder if I pumped gas for a living, I probably would have been a womanizer and drank too much then. I don't know, cause I didn't do that. It is kind of fun, kinda cool to walk into a bar and have people put you over and everybody wants to buy you a drink and everybody's saying, "You're great! You're great! Can I have your autograph and buy you a drink." I mean, I don't know. I'm not blaming wrestling for my poor decisions, but it was a party. A never-ending party for me and the guys I hung out with.

I asked Kev yesterday when I spoke to him. I said, "Kev, can you name ten guys in the industry who didn't, like, get wasted?" He went, "Nobody that mattered." I said, "Is that just because we didn't hang out with the guys that didn't party, or was it because that's what you really think?" He goes, "That's what I really think." One thing I learned, and I told you this last time, is the best advice and the worst advice I've ever gotten in the wrestling business is Curt Hennig in 1985, he told me, "A lot of business gets done in the bars. Because, you know, wrestling's a relationship. You gotta trust the guy. If you're a babyface, you gotta make sure if you sell for this guy, is he gonna give me a good comeback or am I going to get buried? Back before the guaranteed money, everybody had to worry about looking bad because, f--- that, it hurts my money, it hurts my value, and all that kind of sh--.

Curt told me a lot of business gets done in the bars. That's when you get a few drinks in you and you break down and talk to the guy and go, "Hey, you know, when you did that one thing to me in there, why'd you do that?" "Oh really, I didn't know you didn't like that. What would you rather I do?" "Well, think about this." It sounds so immature to say this. I'm sure all my therapists and psychiatrists and AA counselors would tell me it's immature, but that's the way we did business. We sat around, we took pills, we smoked dope, we did whatever. We sat around and talked about how to rock the house the next night.

Keller: Does the business create that or does the business draw people who are predisposed to live that lifestyle in the first place?

Hall: Wow, that's like a hard question to answer. Who knows? Are people who are addictive and crave the spotlight and are they drawn to that? Or does that lifestyle bring it out in them? I can't really answer that. I think that maybe it's a little bit of both. I mean, you gotta remember, for me, all my dreams were coming true. I got to travel all around the world and get treated like a big deal. That's pretty darn fun, man. I've been Israel and had people f---in' screaming for me. One time we were staying in Israel and we were staying at the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza right on the beach. There was thousands of people there and they had security there with machine guns around us. They had the area roped off so it was just the boys in one part of the bar. And all the marks were standing on the other side. And we would just point and go, "You. No no no, not you. That one." And we'd have them bring that girl over here. That kind of treatment goes to your head. It went to my head. F---, it makes you feel pretty good.

[Nefercheperur]

Keller: How seriously do you think Vince took it over the years that taking pain pills to get up and taking sleeping pills to get to sleep, and variations of that, to stay on the schedule were a reality. Did he know that? Did it not bother him? Did he think it was healthy to take that approach?

Hall: Well, didn't I tell you my Brian Nobbs story? They did a bunch of vignettes of me. I'm in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Nobbs got fined ten thousand dollars for being dirty for smoke. It was his fourth dirty **** test. So I'm standing behind Vince. He's got his suit on with the f---in' shoulder pads in. He used to put pads in his shoulders of his suit. Nobbs is going, "What the f---! You f---in' fine me ten thousand dollars. Why can't I relax in my room, you mother f---er! How the f--- am I supposed to calm down? I'm on the road 300 days a year. What the f---? Vince went, "I guess you're just gonna have to drink more and take more pills." I was standing behind Vince and I'd just come to work for the company. I hadn't even had a match yet. All they did was shoot videos of me. I remember going, wow. Cause, see, I wasn't in that drug culture then. I wasn't a pillhead then. I wasn't a hardcore drinker then. I remember going, "Wow, this guy's the devil." Cause that impacted me. Those are exactly the words he said. It's burned into my brain. I went, wow, this mother f---er don't give a f---.

Another thing I remember, too, is I never had a straight job. I worked at strip clubs and I've been a wrestler. And there's really not that much difference between the two industries. You're a piece of meat. Vince don't give a f--. Oh, you're hurt? Take this. Another thing, too, there's a lot of pressure. You can't really blame the office. What really happened was, in the locker room, you gotta remember, if you're working an angle with the guy, his family is dependent on the income just like yours is. So if you're in a long program with some dude and your ankle's hurt or your knee's hurt or your back hurts or your neck hurts or somethin', but you're in Chicago on a sellout, it's like, f--- man, what do you mean? What they used to do was say, "Can you just go out there and do anything? Just go to the ring. Just go do anything." See, the agents would pressure you to do that, because then your pride is going to take over. So you go, well, f--- that, I'm not going to go out there and look like a f---in' goof in Chicago. But, see, what your opponent would do, or your friend, would say, "Here, take this. You won't feel a f---in' thing. Take these. Then you'd be all geeked down on those and go, f---, I've gotta catch a six a.m. flight, so (someone goes), "Here, take these, it'll make you go to sleep." Don't get me wrong. Nobody ever held me down and pushed pills in my mouth. You know, nobody ever did that to me. Nobody ever poured booze down my throat. I chose to do it. But I was also surrounded by other guys who were doing it and it was accepted. You gotta remember, too, that our bosses are former wrestlers. So when you're sitting in the lobby bar of the hotel sitting around, the agents are sitting there drinkin', hitting' on broads, too. So, it's kinda weird. It was cool and it was weird. It was such a fantasy world that I'm actually having a little trouble adjusting to the real world because I'm so used to anything goes. That's why I have conflict with the law and sh-- like that. I go, "What do you mean?" Who do I make it out to? We used to laugh sometimes. We'd be driving down the highway and we'd laugh and go, "Wait a minute officer, who do I make it out to." Like we had eight-by-tens. "Excuse me, you must not know who I am. Who do I make it out to."

Keller: Back to the Vince comment. That was quite a few years ago at the beginning of your career, and that was before guys were dying from complications that had a lot to do with pain pill addiction and probably a concoction of other things. Do you think that you probably at that point, and I'm trying to defend Vince a little bit here even though it was still a shocking thing to say and out of line pretty much indisputably, I can't imagine him saying something like that now knowing how many people have died.

Hall: It's the truth. I will stand by it. I'll stand in front of a f---in' judge and say that's what Vince said to Knobs. You can probably get Knobs to say the same thing. Now, am I saying that Vince advocates drug use and alcoholism. No. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, what Vince was saying was, "Look, you damn fat f---. You got caught for the fourth time smoking dope. It's costing you ten thousand dollars. F---ing knock it off." So Vince's message was quit smoking dope because it's illegal. If you get caught with marijuana, it's bad for business. If you get caught with some pills, DUI, ehhh, not good for business, but DUI, not so bad. You get caught with an illegal drug, bad for business. That's all Vince cares about, is business. If I owned the company, it would probably be the same way.

Keller: It's not good for business to have your wrestlers dying frequently enough that it draws attention to itself with the mainstream media, with advertisers, and investors. That's where it does affect business, if you want to just boil it down to just business. Vince came out with a DVD last month and he talks about how all he cares about is what's good for business. He said he feels good when he fires people because the only time he fires people is when it's good for business to fire them, and my job is to run my business. But, it is bad for business to not have a healthy crew. It is bad for business to have guys dying. If you want to strip away the humanity, there is a consequence to the business when that happens.

Hall: Well, true, true. That's a statement, so it's not really a question. At the same time, I don't think you can hold Vince responsible or Eric of whoever is running the show for the way society is these days.