wrestling / Video Reviews
Leighty’s Retro Review: WWE Photo Shoot: Scott Hall
-As the wrestling world continues to mourn the loss of Scott Hall, I found myself checking out the section created in his memory on Peacock. Photo Shoot is a series that didn’t last long and I did a few reviews, but somehow missed this one. No better time that now as it’s another way to remember and celebrate The Bad Guy. Let’s get to it!
-This episode is from Season 1 and is the 10th episode overall.
-Run Time: 26:22
-The opening made me smile as the first thing we hear: “Hey yo! Say hello to the Bad Guy, Scott Hall.” This is perfect!
-Photo of the nWo (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Giant, and Dibiase): Hall laughs and marks out over how young they look. He points out they are sporting the rare early nWo shirts as they don’t say New World Order anywhere. He called Show, G and says that if he liked you, he protected you with the chokeslam. He thinks Show is too kind at times and if he didn’t like you, he would plant you. “These are happy memories for me.”
-Photo of Hall and Nash running the announcers off The Nitro set: “Look how happy me and Kev are.” He talks about Larry Z in the picture and calls him a big deal when they wrestled. He was nothing, but had a good look and Larry worked with him. They show some footage of them working together in the AWA which is cool. Larry helped Hall when he didn’t have to, so he got a chance to pay it back to him years later. He would use commercial breaks to pick on Larry to get the crowd to rally behind him and it worked as it got Larry two PPV matches when his career was over.
-Photo of nWo in Japan with Fake Sting and Chono included: Hall mentions Chono is cool and his buddy. He calls Norton a white rhino and mentions even the fake Sting was over as things were so hot for the company.
-Hall “puking” on Nitro: Hall admits he was struggling in his real life, but was never drinking before shows. “I was performing at a high level. I still had abs.” That made me laugh! He admits to drinking a lot after shows, but never before them. He says the angle was kind of sad. He used cream of mushroom soup for vomit as we see him vomit on Bischoff. He says it was Eric’s idea as he liked being part of the show.
-The Diamond Studd and Oz: Hall says nobody was making wardrobe for him and Kev’s was office production. He laughs at the gear he is wearing. We get video of them making their entrance and it’s insane to think these two would go on to change the business forever. Hall talks about The Oz character and crushes the rubber mask they got from a dollar store. “At that time Kev made twice as much as me and worked half as much.” Awesome!
-Razor Ramon in a white suit in Miami leaning on his white car: THE DEFINITION OF COOL! Hall says these are happy times for him and was the first time in a long time they brought back vignettes. he pitched the gimmick and wanted an old Caddy with leopard interior and boom, it was there. He tells us Vince was more hands on back than then he is even now. We see great footage of Vince on the street directing Razor. Give me all that type of footage! Hall admits to ripping off Scarface, but “I’m 6’6″ jacked ripping off Scarface and Pacino is 5 foot nothing.” It was a long day, but to him it was in a effort to make him look cool, so he was all about it.
-Razor handing his gold to and threatening a ringside attendant: We see his debut (08/08/92) and he whispered the threat to the guy. He was told to make sure he speaks up when he does it again. “Something happens to this, something going to happen to you.” Hall says it is star maker stuff and he isn’t kidding. Mr. Perfect always said to babyface the production guys, so Hall took that to heart. He loved that the company was a team vibe and it was way more fun to work together to make everyone look good.
-Razor throwing a toothpick at Shawn Michaels: Hall laughs as they crossed paths in Kansas City, then AWA, and now WWE. He jokes that at one time he had more skin on skin contact with Shawn than he did his wife. “Probably why I am divorced.”
-Razor standing next to Mr. Perfect: He laughs at Curt standing on his tiptoes to make himself look bigger. He learned from Curt to stand on your tiptoes when taking a picture to look bigger. He talks about Perfect spitting out the gum and he thought it was cool, so he stole it, but instead used a toothpick. Hall laughs at the time Shawn blew a bubble and he used his toothpick to pop it.
-Razor and Lightning Kid locking up on RAW: Vince didn’t want to do the angle the same way and came up with the idea. Hall says he treated him like a SQUASH guy and then one moonsault later history was made. Heenan’s sell of it was amazing! Hall says it feels good to be part of successful business and he had no clue that Waltman would be one of his dearest friends to this day.
-Razor and Walter Payton at SummerSlam 1994: This was the debut event at United Center and it was Razor against Diesel. Hall mentions he had to fly to Chicago to do promos with Walter. We see outtakes and it’s fun. He had to leave to wrestle, but Walter just wanted to mess around and have fun. He tells a story of Walter putting on a Bears’ jersey and he asks him for one of those sweet jerseys and Walter shoots back he wants a Razor shirt. Hall says deal and they swap. It blew his mind to know Walter Payton was wearing a Razor Ramon shirt.
-Razor posing with two IC Titles on a ladder: WrestleMania X Ladder Match and Hall says they went longer than expected. It’s the reason the 10 man tag was bumped off the card, but small sacrifice. Razor says the famous picture was Shawn’s idea as he told Hebnar to tell Razor to climb the ladder and pose with both belts. Razor says he would have laid there and left, so that picture reminds him of his boy not being selfish.
-Shawn and Razor fighting on a ladder in Pittsburgh: Yes, it’s the rematch at SummerSlam 1995. Razor points out this was the first time two ladders were involved. He jokes that at Mania X there was only one ladder in the building and if it broke, they would still be looking up at the titles. He covers Shawn’s tantrum over the belts being hung wrong in the rematch. He covers the end of the match and how Shawn botched the finish as he fell off the ladder without the belt coming undone. Shocking I know, but Shawn threw another tantrum at the botched ending.
-Aerial shot of the filming of the RAW opening on Titan Tower: We see Razor and Taker taking an elevator to the top floor and Taker staying in character. He says it was a long night on the roof, but you can’t complain because the guys and girls with the cameras and lights where there before they got there and would be there long after they left. Smart man!
-Razor backing down Mr. Fuji: Hall calls him Uncle Fuji and calls him a master at being a ribber. Perfect and X-Pac were disciples of Fuji. Nobody wanted to get in a rib war with Fuji as it would be expensive and elaborate.
-DDP (in WWE): Scott says at times DDP comes across too happy, but he means it all with love. He loves Dallas!
-Fake Razor: Hall laughs and says he has never met the guy. He credits this guy for getting him a pay raise even though he just had a contract with WCW. They were so worried Hall and Nash were backing out they threw more money at time as they basically big against themselves. He thought it was cool as he felt like Elvis having impersonators.
-Austin Stunning Hall at Mania X-8: He asked someone how to take the Stunner and he was told to drop to his knees. He did that the first time and it sucked, so he he went with just bending down with him and bouncing back in the air. Hall was right as that way just looks cooler! He notes he went out of his way to take a bigger bump at Mania just to pop the crowd.
-The Kliq at Hall’s Hall of Fame Induction: Hall smiles and gets emotional as it was the first time in 15 years they had all been together. They are his best friends in the world and he has worked with all of them. He notes that Hunter was the new boy to the Kliq and his last WWF match was against Hunter in MSG.
-DX vs nWo WrestleMania 31: Hall laughs again and tells the story of why it took so long for them to hit the ring. They were at the curtain and didn’t know that it led to another hall where the final curtain to hit the ramp was at. It gave them two pops and it happened by accident. Hall directed traffic in the back and told Road Dogg he was coming for him and Billy and Nash needed to go at it as the big guys. That left Kid with Hulk as Hall notes they loved Hulk and wanted to feature him and knew Kidd would bump his ass off. Fun story and shows that even then Hall was still all about business.
-Hall at RAW 25: He notes it didn’t seem like 25 years and it was great to be back there for the fans. He gets emotional watching it and says it is cool to be at this part of his career. He is proud that he was on the first episode of RAW. “These are highlights of my life I will never forget.”
-Hall ends it was “Say goodbye to the bad guy.” I wasn’t ready for that!
-Wait, one post credits scene and Hall says he isn’t leaving. “I’m going to pee and will be back for more pictures that make me look cool.”
-This made me smile throughout. Just a nice 30 minute walk down memory lane to remember a legend in his own words. Definitely take the time to check this one out. Thanks for reading and once again, Rest In Peace good sir!