Scott Hall Talks About Working For Vince & Eric, The Kliq Incident, Hulk Hogan In The NWO, TNA
Scott Hall recently spoke with Wrestling101. Here are some highlights:
How DDP YOGA has changed his life: "I've known Dallas for a long time, over 20 years, and it's been great what he's done for me. Dallas is a truly unique individual, he legitimately and sincerely cares about other people. He really enjoys helping other people and here at the crib four or five times a week people will come in, we'll move the furniture out of the way in the living room, spread the yoga mats out and Dally either personally leads a group of people in a workout or they throw one of the DVD's up on the TV and they workout to one of Dally's DDP Yoga videos.
"He's not charging anybody anything, he's not motivated by money, he genuinely gets high, he gets this fix off helping people. It's really great to be around this positive environment, because for some reason I was just secluding myself and staying in dark places. Now I feel as though I've ventured out into the light and working on my tan. I never had any problems professionally, it was personal life that was a problem for me, professionally I couldn't have scripted a better life."
The infamous Kliq incident at MSG: "I had already given my notice, I gave 90 days written notice to Vince (McMahon) that I didn't want my contact to run over. I didn't say I was leaving, more on the line of lets talk about new terms and then later Kevin Nash gave his, Kev left a week after me. I figured I'm leaving anyway but I'm still wrestling in the semi main event every night, Kev is in the main event.
"It was Diesel and Shawn in the main event and I was wrestling Triple H because Goldust was injured, so they moved Triple H up to that slot, he was brand new to the company and was still kind of doing that rich boy thing and we saw he was a really talented guy and we liked him straight away. We snapped him up really quick because we needed a designated driver.
"As far as the infamous curtain call it wasn't planned, I had my match with hunter and it was one of the best matches I had in my career. Pat Patterson was the booker at the time and he pulled me and Hunter aside, gave us some ideas and we followed them and the match was great. There was an intermission when they set up the cage for Kev and Shawn's match and Vince told me to meet him in his office in Madison Square Garden and when I was in there talking to him Shawn came strolling in and said after the match he wanted Hunter and myself to come out, and Vince went along with it.
"We had permission, it wasn't some kind of outlaw renegade move to hurt the company, which is what everybody seems to say. For me, I felt the responsibility to go out there and say good bye to the fans at MSG, and thank you for supporting me all of these years. That is the last time the four of us have ever been together at one time."
If he knew ahead of time that Hulk Hogan would be the third person in the nWo: "Talking with Eric Bischoff, the idea was that we wanted Hulk to do it but at that time Hulk had creative control written in his contract, meaning he didn't have to do anything that he didn't want too. Hulk having been a hero his whole career we weren't sure he would embrace becoming a villain and in fact the night of the PPV Kevin and I went to the ring against Macho Man Randy Savage, god rest his soul, Lex Luger and Sting, and Hulk was on his way to the arena on a private jet because he had been in California filming a movie.
"We had never met Hulk, we had never spoken to him over the phone or anything, Bischoff couldn't reach him because he was in the air, so we weren't sure if Hulk was even going to do it. We're in the ring, Hulks not at the building yet and the back up plan was that if Hulk doesn't come then Sting was going to turn, but I was really happy when Hulks music played because I don't think it would have been anywhere near as successful without Hulk."
Returning to WWE in 2002 with Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan: "At that point both of my kids were living with me, I was divorced by then and I had custody of the kids and I was digging being the stay at home dad, we had a nice house out in the country, my daughter was into horses and my son was into paint ball guns.
"When Vince called he said he had been talking to Kev and Hulk, and he said he wanted 'The Bad Guy', and we worked out a deal where I just worked 10 days a month and I was well compensated. I remember talking to Kev and Hulk before we went there and then we flew up for a meeting with Vince and we all stayed at the same hotel and he had a conversation over dinner that night talking about if we thought Vince was really going to push the NWO thing, because he didn't create it and that's basically admitting Eric Bischoff is smarter than him.
"Knowing Vince like I did for those years I just never thought that he's going to use his TV to promote someone else's idea and sure enough he didn't. The angle that was given to us when, Kev, Hulk and I walked in with a big meeting with Vince at Titan Towers in Stamford, Connecticut was that at WrestleMania X8 he wanted me to wrestle Stone Cold Steve Austin with Kev on the outside and Hulk was going to wrestle The Rock. He wanted Hulk to pass the torch to The Rock and for me and Kev to screw Stone Cold, sounded great to me.
"That was months prior, the night before the PPV we are summoned to Vince's hotel suite and he wants to discuss finishes for the show the following day. I was thinking I already knew the finish, but now he said he wanted Hulk to pass the torch to Rock and he now wanted Steve to go over, he asked if I minded and I said absolutely not.
"At that point I had been being a good boy as well, I wasn't drinking because I thought it was a great opportunity and at that point I remember looking at Kev and Hulkster and said I'll meet them in the bar. My kids were living with me, but I didn't have a female in my life that I really cared about and I was just so frustrated and so lost and again no coping skills, here comes a stressful situation and I'm disappointed and I don't know how to act. At the time I was like f**k this I'm so out of here and Kev was going at least turn up for the show, at least go to the show, I was going to go and produce the best match I could but I wasn't going to hang around any longer than that, Kev said we'll see what happens but it was just downhill from there.
"If my fake life isn't pleasing for me and my personal life is a struggle then why am I travelling all over the world, I might as well be at home in Florida fishing. That's what happened there, it was a great opportunity but I've never been just all about the money, if I'm creatively not satisfied then I don't want to play."
How he would compare Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff as bosses: "It's no secret that Vince McMahon comes from a long line of wrestling promoters, his grandfather was a promoter, his father was a promoter and Vince is a promoter, his children are involved in the business, his son in law Triple H is basically running the day-to-day operations of the WWE now and I think he deserves to.
"The way I'll express it is Vince is like your boss, Eric Bischoff is younger, he's a different kind of cat and he was really hungry at the time when we met him because WCW had not been successful before. He took a gamble laid down some big money and got us in and it worked, then he was able to have more leverage, make more decisions and grow his empire, it was kind of mismanaged in the long run but at the time it was great.
"To me Eric is like a guy, he's like a dude, where as Vince is the boss. I've had many 'f**k you' conversations with Eric, he was just like one of the guys he wasn't like a boss."
His experiences with TNA: "I was on the very first TNA PPV ever, which was from Birmingham, Alabama and at that time Jeff Jarrett's dad Jerry Jarrett was the owner and the boss and I have known Jerry from early on in my wrestling career and I had worked for his wrestling promotion in Tennessee, I have a lot of respect for Jerry Jarrett, he is a really smart guy and I like being around smart people. I jumped at the chance to be near Jerry Jarrett and it was real fun, I only signed a short term contract, something like three shows.
"The company then changed hands and I only went back a few times after that to do some stuff with Kev and Sean Waltman. I know Dixie carter who runs TNA now is a wonderful lady and she is passionate about wrestling and I hear that Hulk and Eric have more control over the company now which I think is a good thing because those two guys are proven winners."
Current wrestlers that stand out: "As far a current stars go, I like this kid Fandango, I think he is funny, I think he is a great athlete and I wish him nothing but success. I like the Prime Time Players, particularly Titus O'Neil, the guy is a stud, a great athlete and I expect big things out of him. I'm a Ryback fan, he has the potential to be a huge star, no disrespect to him but at the moment he is a little bit inexperienced, a little bit green is the term we use in the industry.
"In my opinion the glare of the spotlight can either make things blossom or that bright light can wilt things, you either blossom or you shrivel up and you die.
"I've only started watching wrestling again in the last couple of months but I think the business is in good hands, there are some great young hungry guys out there who are going to carry the business forward into the next decade. I know with Triple H running the company he's a smart guy and he loves the wrestling business, so I think the WWE is in good hands."