Throughout his career, Scott Hall has been at the absolute highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. For all of his success in numerous promotions, he has also succumbed to the tragedies many others before him (and several after) did, namely substance abuse problems. Part of it was the time and part was down to circumstance. While many know his stories, for the first time ever, Hall sits down and discusses them all from the perspective of the most important person to discuss them: himself.

Like most of his contemporaries, Hall got interested in a pro wrestling as a child, watching it on TV with family. You probably know the “Once I saw it, I was hooked” speech. Not saying it isn’t true; just seems to be the consensus for many wrestlers. Anyway, from there, he eventually went onto bouncing in clubs in his native Orlando and lifting weights. Again, like many others, a chance meeting with a pro wrestler at a gym led to him eventually getting his foot in the door. In this case, the meeting was with one Kevin Sullivan. It’s surprising how many wrestlers Sullivan has helped along the way, especially when you consider he has never been very good.

From that point on, chances are you probably know Hall’s story if you’re around my age or so. Hall treaded water in the AWA and the WCW for a few years, going through a handful of gimmicks: Starship Coyote, Big Scott Hall and the Diamond Stud (or “Studd”, depending on the week). Along the way, he made some important contacts, with Dusty Rhodes buying him his first pair of boots, forming a great tag team with a young Curt Hennig, and being managed by Diamond Dallas Page, a pairing which eventually led to DDP becoming a wrestler himself. It’s interesting to watch his progression through these parts of his career, not only in terms of his personality shining through, but how dramatically his workrate in the ring improved. Hall was very generic in the beginning, albeit with the right look. If you’ve never seen Hall prior to his WWF run as Razor Ramon, it can be very jarring. Not only is he a bit of a different worker, but holy hell, was he massive. Hall’s always been a big, muscular guy, but his physique prior to his WWF run was insane. The guy looked like he was carved out of granite.

From there, Hall touches on his WWF and WCW runs, with stories from friends and family filling in the gaps. You get the usual talking head segments throughout the set, but the nice thing is it’s kept to a small group who were significant to his career, with Triple H being the only guy still on WWE’s active roster to contribute, as opposed to younger guys just giving soundbytes as fans or observers. It keeps everything a little more personal, with everyone talking about him being guys and gals who genuinely know him.

Now, I say “touches on” when talking about his runs in those promotions, as things are a bit glossed over. Not a lot of detail is given during his runs, and I think part of it is these are stories are pretty well-known by this point, thanks to previous sets like The Kliq Rules and nWo: The Revolution, to name a couple, not to mention his well-documented career in the big two companies across various books, magazines, websites, etc. Normally, I would complain about this, but what is given in it’s place is far more interesting. Hall has lived on hell of an interesting life, and he goes into great detail over the various points of his life, never sugar-coating anythign and being incredibly honest about who he is and what he’s done. One of the biggest stories, and one I found very surprising (it may be more common knowledge and I just somehow never heard it; I don’t know) is Hall, during his early days as a bouncer, was unfortunately responsible for the death of another man. While outside the Dollhouse, a strip club in Orlando that is still in business today, Hall and his then-girlfriend were confronted by an armed man outside the club during the late 80’s. Hall apparently tried to wrest the gun away from the man, and in the commotion, wound up shooting him in the back of the head at point-blank range, killing him instantly. Hall wound up getting arrested on 2nd-degree murder charges, but was quickly acquitted when all evidence pointed to it being an accident in the middle of a case of self-defence, which was exactly what had happened.

Understandably, this has been a thorn in Hall’s side his entire life, with Hall breaking down at the very beginning of the documentary before trying to tell the story. His mother and brother state this is likely what has caused him so many problems in his life, and it certainly does explain a lot. That is not something many people live through, and I can’t imagine a single person not being permanently traumatized by it.

Along those same lines, we get another story from around 2011, several years after Hall officially left TNA and went into semi-retirement, where he was booked on a small show for Top Rope Promotions. Hall, who by this point was abusing drugs and alcohol worse than at any other point that I can recall, showed up in such bad shape, he was barely conscious and in such bad shape, he had to be assisted all the way to the ring for his spot in longtime friend (and Kliq junior member) Justin Credible’s match, apparently having suffered a massive seizure the day before. It is horribly tragic to watch, to the point even his brother said he couldn’t watch it.

That eventually led to a call from DDP and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, another man with a known record of substance abuse problems and a friend of Hal, and having him come in for DDP’s rehabilitation program that has been so successful, with Jake himself being a success story (he is several years sober now and looking healthier than he has in a very long time). Again, there is some footage here I had never seen, with DDP and Jake calling him at home, with Hall answering the phone, completely plastered on vodka. Hall agreed to come stay with DDP, having deteriorated so badly he had to use a walker to get around while also ballooning up to over 300 pounds.

While Hall’s story is indeed tragic, even with all of his success (and there was plenty), Hall eventually turned around, got himself in terrific shape and sobered up thanks to a combination of WWE-sponsored rehab, DDP’s program and regular sessions with a therapist. Triple H, who intentionally avoided him during his rehab phase at the request of those treating Hall, wound up so impressed with the turn-around, Hall was invited back to WWE on a legends contract and finally took his place in the Hall of Fame in 2014. In the time before, during and after this period, Hall also became a regular guest at the NXT Performance Center, passing on his knowledge to past and present NXT stars as well as telling his own stories in hopes the next generation of stars wouldn’t repeat his mistakes. He also managed to help his son Cody train for the ring, who has turned into a pretty solid performer in his own right. It’s all very heartwarming and a nice end to what could have been one of wrestling’s truly horrible tragedies. At the same time, it’s very honest, and doesn’t at all come across like some of WWE’s more homogenized and/or self-involved, self-congratulatory sets (*cough* Eric Bischoff’s recent DVD set *cough*).

The documentary is wonderful, and quite frankly, so is the selection of matches. While not every single one is a classic, there are some great selections on here, covering the entirety of his career. We get a handful of rare AWA matches with him working singles as well as in tag teams with Hennig and Dan Spivey and a couple of fun matches in WCW as the Diamond Studd. Most of the set is WWF stuff, as you would probably expect. Given that he was putting in the best performances of his career during that time, however, it’s more than fine. We get his televised debut, the Wrestlemania X ladder match (of course, even though the Summerslam 1995 rematch was actually a lot better), his win over Rick Martel for his first Intercontinental title and his shockingly terrific match with Diesel from Summerslam 1995 for the very same championship, to name a few. Most of the WWF matches feature his Kliq buddies, but given how good their matches were together from 1993-95, again, it’s forgivable. There are also a bunch of WCW ones, including the Outsiders’ first WCW World Tag Team title win over Harlem Heat and a fun Nitro match with Scott Steiner.

Also included on the set are the entirety of his Razor Ramon introduction vignettes and the blooper reel for those same vignettes, which is actually a lot of fun, thanks to Hall being able to laugh at himself and his excessive use of the F-bomb when he knew he had screwed things up. There are also some bonus stories, with one of my favorites being his often-forgotten flirtation with ECW that he agreed to do for no money just so long as he got to wrestler Credible in a singles match. And, if you opt for the Blu-Ray instead of the DVD (the former being what I got to review), you get some bonus matches, including a rare WCW match with him teaming with Oz, aka Kevin Nash, a full 5 years before the Outsiders. Also included is a never-before-seen non-televised WWF match with Jim Powers, his match with Ted DiBiase from Summerslam 1993, which ended up being DiBiase’s last televised match in the US, and a surprisingly good ladder match with Bam Bam Bigelow from Nitro, ruined only by the pointless ending. You also get Hall’s full induction into the Hall of Fame, including video package, induction by Kevin Nash and acceptance speech, which ended with possibly the greatest Hall quote of all time.

There’s way more included in both the documentary and the matches than what I’ve mentioned, but even if I covered it all, I wouldn’t be doing the set justice. They have packed a ton of information and entertainment into a 7 ½-hour set, and Hall himself is just a remarkable storyteller. I found myself hanging onto his every word over the course of the set and was genuinely shocked by many of the stories he told before being able to really smile as I watched Hall’s transformation from bottom of the barrel back to his rightful place as a legend. This set is a must-have for old and new fans alike, and I would recommend it to fans of all ages and interest levels. One of my favorite sets to come along in a long time, and I suggest everyone get it as soon as possible.

“Hard work pays off. Dreams come true. Bad times don’t last…but bad guys do.”-Scott Hall

MAIN FEATURE (DOCUMENTARY):

A Life-Changing Event

Back in Orlando

A Storybook Life

Moving to Florida

Second-Degree

Getting His Start

AWA Experience

It Ain’t New York City

Razor Is Born

Another Level

Humble Superstar

A New Situation

Making Things Bigger

Falling Apart

A Dark Place

Fighting On A Daily Basis

Just What I Needed

One Place To Go

Bad Times Don’t Last

Back in the Family

DISC 2:

DEBUT VIGNETTES:

— From The Gutter

— El Jefe

— Chicas Are For Fun

— Taking What You Want

— Cleaning The Table

— Beach Bully

— Making A Wish

— Forget The Past

— Razor Ramon Outtakes

STORIES:

— Just As Big As The Wrestlers

— The Oz Mask

— Scott Ramon

— Let Them Be Kids

— Don’t Ever Leapfrog Again

— Weekend in ECW

— Wake Up Call

— WrestleMania 31

MATCHES:

American Starship vs. Inferno #1 and Inferno #2

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling • December 25, 1984

Scott Hall vs. Michael ‘P.S.’ Hayes

AWA Championship Wrestling • November 19, 1985

$100,000 Battle Royal

AWA Championship Wrestling • November 28, 1985

“In This Corner” with Scott Hall

AWA Championship Wrestling • December 20, 1985

AWA Tag Team Championship Match

Scott Hall & Curt Hennig vs. The Long Riders

AWA WrestleRock • April 20, 1986

The Diamond Studd vs. Tommy Rich

WCW Clash of the Champions XV • June 14, 1991

The Diamond Exchange vs. Brian Lee & Chris Sullivan

World Championship Wrestling • December 7, 1991

Razor Ramon vs. Paul Van Dale

Superstars • August 8, 1992

WWE Championship Match

Bret “Hit Man” Hart vs. Razor Ramon

Royal Rumble • January 24, 1993

Razor Ramon vs. The Kid

RAW • May 17, 1993

Intercontinental Championship Match

Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon

Saginaw, MI • September 1, 1993

Intercontinental Championship Match

Razor Ramon vs. Rick “The Model” Martel

RAW • October 11, 1993

Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship

Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels

WrestleMania X • March 20, 1994

DISC 3:

Intercontinental Championship Match

Razor Ramon (w/ Walter Payton) vs. Diesel (w/ Shawn Michaels)

SummerSlam • August 29, 1994

Intercontinental Championship Match

Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett

Royal Rumble • January 22, 1995

Intercontinental Championship Match

Razor Ramon vs. Goldust

Royal Rumble • January 21, 1996

The Outsiders vs. Sting & Lex Luger

WCW Hog Wild • August 10, 1996

WCW World Tag Team Championship Match

The Outsiders vs. Harlem Heat

WCW Halloween Havoc • October 27, 1996

Scott Hall vs. Scott Steiner

WCW Monday Nitro • October 20, 1997

Scott Hall vs. Chris Jericho

WCW Monday Nitro • November 3, 1997

WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match

Scott Hall vs. Sting

WCW Uncensored • March 15, 1998

The Outsiders vs. Goldberg & Sid Vicious

WCW Monday Nitro • November 22, 1999

Scott Hall vs. The Rock

SmackDown! • March 7, 2002

Scott Hall vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

WrestleMania X-8 • March 17, 2002

BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVES:

The Diamond Studd & Oz vs. Z-Man & Big Josh

WCW Power Hour • September 28, 1991

Razor Ramon vs. Jim Powers

Cincinnati, OH • May 18, 1992

Razor Ramon vs. “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase

SummerSlam • August 30, 1993

2-on-1 Handicap Match

Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett & The Roadie

In Your House • May 14, 1995

Ladder Match

Scott Hall vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

WCW Monday Nitro • January 25, 1999

Razor Ramon Hall of Fame Induction

Hall of Fame • April 5, 2014

WWE: Living on a Razor’s Edge – The Scott Hall Story on Amazon.com

WWE: Living on a Razor’s Edge: The Scott Hall Story (BD) [Blu-ray]

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Dustin Nichols Dustin Nichols is a freelance writer, and you can keep track of all of his work on his Facebook page, which can be found at www.facebook.com/DustinNicholsWriter. Oh, and if you like bodybuilding, check out my mom’s official site by clicking the banner below: More Posts Follow Me:

