Scott Hall Talks Being "Uncomfortable" After WWE Return, Giving Sting His "Crow" Gimmick, Drug Abuse
Recently on the Steve Austin Show – Unleashed!, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and Scott Hall sat down for a two-part interview. Austin and Hall discussed the nWo's WWE run, Hall's substance abuse problems, Hall telling Sting about 'the Crow', and Kevin Sullivan.
According to Hall, the nWo run he had with Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan in WWE began with a call from Vince McMahon saying that he had been in talks with Nash and Hogan to bring the nWo to WWE and that they could not do it without 'the Bad Guy.' While Hall agreed to come back to WWE for the nWo angle, Hall said he felt uncomfortable in WWE and that right away, the trio knew they were not going to be pushed.
"[Pushing nWo in WWE] is admitting [Eric] Bischoff was smart and it ain't going to happen, not in [McMahon's] world. And that's kind of what happened with Sting at [WrestleMania] last year. 'By the way, we won the Monday Night Wars.'"
Austin told Hall that he always felt bad for the way their WWE feud played out because Hall was taking Antabuse [Disulfiram] during their feud.
"Hell, half my gimmick was beer, and so you were getting beer all over you and that effected you," Austin stated.
"Yeah, I remember one time, late at night, we shot some stuff where you had taped me to a chair and stuff like that and spun me around and we were in a beer cooler and it was getting on my skin," Hall recalled.
Hall indicated that his substance abuse problem probably would not have gotten so out of hand if never left WWE.
"I knew I was going to get this money [in WCW], and, in the long run, that didn't turn out to be that good of a situation for me. I went there and I went with Kev, so I had a dear friend there, but I always looked at Vince like a father figure, where he's kind of looking out for you. I don't think I would have struggled and made continually bad decisions like I did had I been under Vince's watch because I think they would have stepped in. It wouldn't have been like, 'man, you can't talk to me because I've got lawyers and I'm all lawyered up and I've got agents – go through them.' But Vince doesn't operate that way. He'd have pulled me aside and said, 'listen, get it under control or go talk to this doctor.'"
Also, during the interview, Hall said that he gave Sting the 'Crow' gimmick at his first WCW show after the Razor Ramon run.
"We were in Macon [Georgia] and he was combing his hair and he was growing it out because dying it blonde was kind of frying it, so he was growing it out brown and I didn't know Sting. And I'm slicking my hair back and he's putting his face paint on and I said, 'so you're growing your hair out, huh?' and he said, 'yeah!' and he's wearing the neon tights, and I said, 'are you still going to wear the happy guy tights?'. He goes, 'yeah!' and I said, 'did you ever see 'the Crow'?' and he went, 'no.' And I said, 'well, it's like this dude, he's kind of a dark character, with the white face and the dripping things and the raincoat.' And I said, 'I ain't telling you to rip off Taker, but rip off Taker.' And so he went and researched it and whatever and pitched it to Bischoff and they went with it."
When Austin asked Hall who was writing the television programming for WCW when WCW was winning the Monday Night Wars, Hall stated it was Kevin Sullivan and went on to put over Sullivan.
"I'm a big Kevin Sullivan fan. Now, I was around him in Florida and what I like about Sullivan is he's one of them guys, a little itty bitty guy, who works like a giant, doesn't bump at all, works crazy strong. But he puts heat on heels, so we killed everybody. We spray painted everything and everybody. And it was all happening by accident, but it was working."
In addition to these topics, the two talked about the Madison Square Garden Curtain Call, how Hall came up with the Razor Ramon name, and much more. Click here to check out the interview.
Source: Steve Austin Show – Unleashed!