Legends With JBL Report: Hall & Nash Talk Jump to WCW, nWo, Hall’s Demons & More

-Join me for another episode of Legends with JBL on the WWE Network as soon as WWE RAW goes off the air. The guests this time are WWE Hall of Famers and 2 of the founding members of the nWo, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

-JBL welcomes us and immediately talks about the greatest moments in pro-wrestling history and includes the jump of Hall and Nash to WCW. He says their jump was helped kick of the WWE Attitude Era and touches on The Kliq. He calls them two of the most influential figures in wrestling history.

-He starts by asking if they had any idea how big their jump would be. Hall jokes he was confident it would change the business forever, and then talks about The Curtain Call. He says it was Shawn’s idea and when he left he wasn’t sure if he would ever work in front of a sold out crowd again. JBL goes back to The Curtain Call and how Vince was okay with it and showing the crowd a little more behind the curtain. Hall says the crowd chanted “you sold out” and he admits that he kind of did. He had his name chanted all over the world and yet he was going to Vince looking for more money. He mentions he got a favored nations deal and that he told Nash that if he jumps to make sure he got a bigger deal so that Hall would get bumped up as well. Nice!

-JBL brings up how they left for different reasons and Hall says that he was never a mark for himself. He considered himself the Tito Santana of his era as the upper babyface. They went through him to get to Diesel and Shawn, and if they didn’t go through him they dropped back down the card. He felt his pay had leveled off, and he asked Vince for a little more of the merchandise. Vince shut him down, so next he asked if he could work some dates in Japan. Vince didn’t allow that either as he felt he would need him whenever he was over there.

-Nash had a son, and he felt he needed to get paid as well. They then discuss the old contracts that weren’t guaranteed. All they were guaranteed was $1500 a year and then the rest is whatever you made from working. JBL thanks them the guaranteed contracts because it obviously helped his bank account as well.

-Hall talks about his debut on Nitro and puts over Larry Zbyszko. It seems it was Larry’s idea to have Hall come through the crowd since he doesn’t work there. He also said Hall shouldn’t beat the guys up because it is supposed to look like a shoot.

-Right after Vince sued them so Hall and Nash had to give depositions. Nash says they knew Vince would see the videos so it was like a performance to them. They actually have video footage and Hall and Nash are awesome as they give their testimony. That leads to the debut of Fake Razor and Fake Diesel. Nash talks about how Bischoff was trying to come up with names similar to Razor and Diesel, and Hall was nearly called Lazer.

-The Fake Razor and Diesel led to Hall and Nash getting a pay raise. The private jet picked them up and when they got to the restaurant they were handed new deals for more money so they wouldn’t jump. Some of the guys thought Hall and Nash were still being paid by the WWE and they went along with it.

-Nash is with Bischoff watching the return of “Razor” on a monitor in the back during Nitro. RAW was taped so in their mind there was still a chance they jumped, taped RAW, and came back to WCW. They mention how Rick Rude pulled that off, and Nash says Rude was a genius because he shaved his heard. So the fake Razor and Diesel debut and obviously it wasn’t Hall or Nash. Hall actually mentions that Kane played Diesel which doesn’t get mentioned often and Hall says he felt flattered as people were auditioning to play him.

-They talk about The Kliq and how when JBL started the dressing room was split between The Kliq and BSK. Nash says that Dibiase and Bigelow weren’t fans and wanted Vince to break up the group. They jump back more and discuss Nash being Oz and Vinnie Vegas in WCW. Shawn saw him as Vinnie Vegas and wanted him to be his bodyguard. So Nash faxed that he was done and he was heading North.

-Nash didn’t know Shawn and before meeting, Nash had to meet Vince at his house. He says Vince is larger than life, but also just one of the boys. They take Nash to meet Shawn and first thing he notices is that Shawn is bigger than he expected. His first night Nash realized he had made the right decision business wise and then he and Shawn became best friends.

-Moving on to Mania X and the ladder match between Razor and Shawn. JBL puts over how great the match was and even though the spots have gotten crazier it is still the best ladder match of all time. Hall talks about how Shawn was suspended as IC Champ and he refused to send the IC Title back. This was before they had multiple belts, and after Martel put him over they gave him the spare one they had. They started having ladder matches at house shows and Lanza reports to Vince that they are tearing the house down so the decision was made to have the match take place at Mania.

-They discuss the famous picture of The Kliq with Taker, Austin, Godwins, and Paul Bearer that was taken on the back of a tour bus. That was the business in a nutshell there and they were proud that those guys (and the others not in the photo) were able to get the WWE through dark times. Nash brings up how he gets labeled as not being a draw and he says that nobody was able to draw at that time. JBL jumps on that and Nash says that people don’t realize that when he was made the champion he probably hadn’t had 100 matches in his career yet. Hall jumps in and says that Pat Patterson was calling the shots and in the tag matches they played to Diesel being a monster so once he hit someone the match was over.

-We jump back to back to Hall and Nash heading back to WCW. JBL puts over that Bischoff was able to take WCW and turn into the top promotion in the world. Nash says that people will say things about Eric, but he is the only man on the planet that was able to beat Vince McMahon for a period of time. He brings up how it was Ted’s money and Eric had the idea of putting Vince out of business. They were on the jet (Nash, Hall, Hogan, and Bischoff) and Eric blurted out he was going to put McMahon out of business. The other 3 told him to pump the brakes and Nash says Hogan was the first one to speak up as he told Eric that you can drive a stake through Vince’s heart and you still won’t kill him.

-Hall’s take is that he always knew Vince was the boss and Eric was just a guy. WCW was a television company that produces a wrestling show and WWE was a wrestling company that produced a television show. They talk about how the crew on Nitro would also shoot things like NASCAR and they weren’t used to shooting wrestling for TV.

-JBL brings up the nWo parody of the Horsemen and he thought it was hilarious. He talked to Arn about it and it seems the thing that pissed Arn off was the beer. Nash says that Arn told him that his wife felt like they made him come off as a drunk. Nash says he asked Arn for the cooler before the segment.

-They talk about the business and different storylines. He brings up Mae Young giving birth to a hand and can’t believe things ended up going that far. Now today he is amazed that John Cena can go out there was a white meat babyface with no shades of gray and rock it. He talks about how fans say that Cena isn’t over, and Nash says that there isn’t a 5-14 year old kid in that arena without a Cena shirt. He puts Cena over for doing it longer than anyone.

-Nash talks about how kids come up to him now as fans because of The Network. He says people bitching about not getting paid by The Network are wrong as it is making them all immortal. They were already paid for that work once, and now they can stay out there for new fans to see.

-Hall says all the guys booing Cena and Reigns have the Network so in the end already winning. Nash says he lived what Reigns went through and how the fans loved him and then once he was anointed all bets are off. Nash says that he was lucky that when they turned Razor it came after the 1-2-3 Kid deal. The fans started cheering him because they were rejecting Lex. He says that had the faces were Red, White, and Blue to support Lex and all Hall could think was that he character was from Cuba. Tremendous!

-WrestleMania 31 is discussed and Nash says they are all old school guys and that they always bring their gear. That was the one time Nash forgot his knee brace and he thought he may get hurt when Billy hit him.

-That leads to discussion of Hogan being the 3rd guy. Hall says they weren’t sure if Hogan was going to come out, so the backup plan was supposed to be Sting. JBL brings up that Sting doesn’t remember agreeing to that and Hall says that Bischoff came up to him and said if Hogan doesn’t come out then it will be Sting. It seems the plan was that the ref was going to tell Sting at a certain point if it became clear Hogan wasn’t coming. Nash talks about how Hogan was at Sullivan’s house in Daytona and wasn’t at the show yet. When he showed they knew it was a lock, and Hall says he was so happy to see Hulk heading down the ring. Nobody was more WWE than Hulk, and it would not have worked with anyone else. Nash says they wouldn’t be sitting here if Hogan didn’t agreed to be the 3rd Man.

-They talk about why they don’t help with things like creative or talent and Nash says because they haven’t been asked. Hall talks about wanting to work with the kids in NXT and that leads to a discussion about his son. JBL thinks he is in the Performance Center, but Hall says he is in New Japan and though he is green, he is part of their top storylines. Hall says he isn’t ready for NXT yet.

-Hall talks about his demons vaguely and says that he isn’t where he wants to be, but he isn’t where he used to be either. JBL brings up DDP and they have fun ragging on him in a loving manner. Hall says DDP is obnoxiously positive, but he is their boy and Nash says Page was the right guy to play the role he did during the nWo run.

-They talk about legacy next and Nash says they were guys who as a group watched out for each other. He brings up a story about Survivor Series 1994 and how he and Razor worked the majority of the match, yet Shawn got paid twice as much. So they called JJ and they put him on speaker and Nash was sent $15,000. He said that broke barriers as guys didn’t discuss what they made with each other.

-No Bull Segment: Favorite Movie: Nash: Roadhouse (bad movie), Shawshank Redemption (all time); Hall: Scarface and Cool Hand Luke. Most Embarrassing song on playlist: Nash: “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Hall: Marvin Gaye-“Let’s Get It On”; Greatest Performer in Wrestling History: Both say Shawn Michaels; Great Faction (not counting nWo): Hall says Horsemen and Nash says Freebirds which makes Hall change his mind and go with The Birds as well. Hall says he patterned The Wolfpack after The Birds; Favorite Match (not involved): Hall picks Savage/Steamboat Mania III, Nash goes with Slaughter/Patterson blood bath at MSG. Greatest Life Accomplishment: Hall is happy to have a second chapter to his life and he has a relationship with his kids; Nash is just happy that he is sitting here. They both joke that if they knew they would have lived this long they may have taken better care of themselves.

-That wraps things up and thanks for following along. As always this was a tremendous show and has quickly become a highlight of the WWE Network.