Two-time WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend Scott Hall, also known as Razor Ramon, has passed away.
Hall had been hospitalized on March 1 with a broken hip. Following surgery, he experienced complications from a blood clot that left him on life support. His family arrived at the Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia, and removed him from life support early on Monday morning. Hall passed away a few hours later and was announced on WWE Raw.
He was 63 years old.
Scott Hall began his career in 1984 with the National Wrestling Alliance, first performing in Florida in a high-profile feud with Dusty Rhodes. Early in his career, he would move to Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association. Gagne had plans to position him at the top of the card and book him similarly to how Hulk Hogan had been booked before leaving for the WWF. Hall, however, did not like wrestling in Minnesota and considered the AWA to be a “sinking ship,” so he departed in 1989.
After three years of bouncing around between promotions, including NJPW, WWC, and WCW, Hall made his debut in the World Wrestling Federation in 1992 as Razor Ramon, a character based on Al Pacino’s Tony Montana character from “Scarface.” As Ramon, Hall would find great success in the New Generation era of WWF. Hall was a perennial Intercontinental Champion, holding the title four times, and was frequently positioned near the top of the card.
While in a feud against Shawn Michaels over the Intercontinental Championship, Hall would participate in one of the most influential professional wrestling matches of all time: the Ladder Match at WrestleMania X. Hall and Michaels competed in an absolute classic that set the standard for the Ladder Match for years to come.
In 1996, Hall, battling substance abuse issues, was suspended by the WWF for drug use. Hall would leave the promotion to go to World Championship Wrestling for a better contract. Showing up unannounced on WCW Monday Nitro on May 27, 1996, Hall positioned himself as an “outsider” coming to take down WCW. Joined by Kevin Nash, who had just departed the WWF after performing as Diesel, they teased a mystery partner that would help them take over the company. That partner would wind up being Hulk Hogan, and the trio formed the original nWo.
The nWo was a driving force behind WCW’s early dominance in the Monday Night War, making WCW the must-watch program on Monday nights. Hall’s issues with substance abuse would impede his progress in WCW. While he would win the United States Championship, the Television Championship, and was a 7-time Tag Team Champion, alcohol and drug abuse would eventually lead to his release in early-2000.
Hall would return to mainstream wrestling in 2002 with WWF/E in a return of the nWo storyline alongside Nash and Hogan. His tenure, highlighted by a match at WrestleMania X-8 against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, was short-lived. After the infamous “Plane Ride From Hell,” he would be released in May 2002.
Hall bounced around in different independent promotions in the following years, including a long, part-time tenure in TNA, but injuries, legal issues, and substance abuse would eventually lead to his retirement from professional wrestling.
Hall would later reveal that he had killed a man with a handgun in self-defense in Florida in 1983, an event that would haunt him all his life. Hall attributed the fallout from this awful memory and the resulting post-traumatic stress disorder to his substance abuse issues.
In 2013, Hall was part of a documentary that detailed his journey to get sober and healthy at Diamond Dallas Page’s house, alongside Jake “The Snake” Roberts. In 2014, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as Razor Ramon. In 2020, it was announced that he would go into the WWE Hall of Fame a second time as a member of the nWo. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that induction took place in 2021.
On behalf of the entire staff of Wrestleview, we extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and fans of the legendary “Bad Guy” Scott Hall.