Scott Hall Torch Talk 13
Wade Keller: You've been in the WWF with a full time schedule. I'm not sure how tough things got in terms of drugs and drinking went in the WWF, but how do you compare the pressures of life in the WWF with their schedule compared to WCW? A lot of people want to find a solution for all of these guys, friends of yours, with Curt Hennig probably at the top of the list who didn't make it through. They look for solutions and want to find a way to say, how do we do something we love, but not lose so many of them. When looking at the way the WWF runs things and the way WCW ran things, and the way WWE runs things now, do you have any ideas to offer up on how to make this a safer business for Curt Hennig and Eddie Guerrero types in the future?
Scott Hall: I heard that Vince is testing again. I was actually flipping channels the other day and saw that guy, Chris Masters, and (laughs) he's definitely off the sh--. It just killed his whole gimmick. Once you make your gimmick your body - that's one thing I never did. I never shaved, I never posed, I never did any of that sh-- because time will go by. You cannot make your body your gimmick. Unless you're a freak like Lex or something like that.
But I heard he's testing now, but he ain't testing everybody.
Keller: Why do you say that?
Hall: Look at Batista. Look at (John) Cena. Look at some of these guys.
Keller: You don't think there are some guys who are just genetically one in a thousand, one in a million, that if they eat right and work out, they can look like that?
Hall: Oh, I do believe that. I do believe there are genetic freaks out there. I definitely believe that.
Keller: Do you know from your experience being around guys taking juice and being around gyms, can you tell the difference between a genetic freak who's just a one in a thousand, one in a million, and someone who's not and getting away something?
Hall: I can't comment on anybody that's taking anything, but I do believe there are guys who don't take sh--, don't work out, don't do sh--, and look great. They're strong and your worst nightmare. There are guys who can bench four, five hundred and don't do anything.
I wanted to tell you this story. Remember when they had the Head Shrinkers. It was Rikishi, but they called him Fatu then, and it was Samu, Sammy. I remember one time were in Europe somewhere and the locker room was upstairs and there was a balcony where you could look down on the ring. When we went to Europe, in Germany they even treat you better. Like, you think you get treated sweet in the U.S. - you got to Europe, man, and the fans are just unbelievable. One time, I remember me and Shawn Michaels had, like, adjoining rooms in a hotel. We had balconies. It was thousands of marks standing in the street. Shawn walked out and they go booo. I walk out and they go yeaaaa! Shawn walked out and they went boo. We just did it to f--- with them. It was like, what the f---. So we were in Germany one time. When we went to Europe, we went hard. I mean, we parties, we turned it up another couple notches. I am such a huge fan of Sammy's. He was laying on the couch sleeping. He's like a natural 300 pounder. He don't stretch. He don't workout. He don't do sh--. He's laying there, sleeping on this couch in the locker room. Him and Fatu are wrestling The Smoking Gunns. Now, the Gunns are already in the ring. So they're playing the Shrinkers' music. They're saying, "Sammy, Sammy, come on, come on." F---, he gets up and says (in a groggy voice), "What the f---." He lets his hair down and walks into the ring and then in the first minute he did the hangman spot. You know what that is? Where you go over the top and you twist your head between the top and the second rope and you hang there. It was like, what the f---. We all were peaking through this little crack where we could watch the ring from the balcony. It was like, look at Sammy. I always thought he was always something really special. They never did anything with him. But he's one of them guys, too, who never cared. He didn't give a f---. But, to me, god he was a superstar. He is a superstar if he ever wants to be.
Keller: I want to go back to the question, since it's an important one. What does this business do or what can it not do to cause so many guys to end up dying while they're active wrestlers or so soon after they leave the big group - but often times it's while they're still with them?
Hall: Okay, let me post this to you, Wade. I'm not dismissing it or making light of it in any way, because it's a tragedy, and a lot of those guys are my dear friends, but I think, how many people die of drug overdoses or that kind of stuff anyway? But because they work as a cashier or a car salesman, they're not on TV? You know, I think it's part of something that's going on in America anyway.
Keller: But isn't there something about wrestlers going on the road, away from their family. long stretches of time, in an atmosphere where business gets done in the bar and there's wear and tear on their bodies, and there's pressure to keep up a certain look with the schedule, and for a lot of guys, they're in pain, they need to recover, so they take steroids for their body and to rebuild muscle, they take pills to get to sleep, and they take some pills so they can get up in the morning.
Hall: Yeah, I'll never forget one time. I never was a pain pill guy. They just don't do anything for me. But a lot of guys used to take Vics (Vicodin) and Percs (Percosets) and sh-- before the matches, drink coffee, three or four cups of coffee, a couple Percs, a couple Vics, go to the ring. Davey Boy (Smith) was the one who told me, "When you come back to the ring, before you even take your sh-- off, then you take your downerse. You f---in' get them in you while you're still sweatin', but by the time you get your clothes on, you get a f---in' buzz on. It was goin' on. The thing is, too, I'll never forget one time, and this is wrong of me to do, but I did it - I was wrestling Dean Douglas, Shane Douglas, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. That's a pretty f---in' big market. But we had just flown in that day. So we flew across the ocean. You check in, you get a bite to eat, you're f---in' out of your mind, Jet Lagged. We go to the show and I'm wrestling him. I was fairly over in London. I had been there many times. It was his first time there. So this is the Royal Albert Hall; this is where the Beatles played and sh--. This is a cool arena. It's not that big, but I mean it's the sh--.
So we're wrestling and all of a sudden he goes, "Go home, go home. So boom, we went home. So we all get back to the locker room and I said, "Are you hurt? Are you hurt?" Because, I mean, what the f--- are you saying go home for? You must be injured. He said, "No, man, I'm just really tired. That was a long flight and sh--." What was wrong of me to do was, I should have pulled him aside and sh--, but I just blew up in front of the whole locker room and went, "You, mother f---er, this is how I feed my family, you f---in' prick. This isn't Boise. This is London, England, mother f---er. You f---in' tired, take some f---in' pills like everybody else. You're f---in' tired? I don't wanna hear it, mother f---er. I tell you what, you better be ready to go tommorrow." I just went off on him. It went on a lot more than that, but that was kind of the jist of it. I said, "Take some f---n' pills like everybody else. What do you mean you're tired. F--- you." The thing is, too, because Vince is a cyborg, because Vince doesn't sleep, he doesn't think anybody else needs sleep. So, I mean, that was the mentality. It was f---in' go. Work. Shut the f--- up. F---in' take pills and keep goin'. So we all did it.
You're asking me, what's my solution to it. I don't know. Take wrestling off TV. There is no (easy solution). Drugs are part of our culture. My son's 15. His mom caught him smoking pot in the house the other day. I mean, I wanted to tell him, "You knucklehead, at least go outside. What are smokin' in the house for, you dummy! Don't do it in the house. You're mom is a *****." (laughs) The thing is, too, what are you going to test for. If they test, all you gotta have is the script. What the f---. Every town, there's a doctor who's a mark. So you can get scripts for everything. Everything's legal. You got scripts for it. You're not dirty. The only thing Vince didn't let us do was smoke pot and do coke or steroids. So we just took pills and drank.
Keller: How seriously do you think Vince takes this issue. Obviously, there is something about the schedule over the years, and it's been better at times and worse at times...
Hall: Oh, they barely work at all now compared to how it was in the day. When Razor worked there, we were on the road forever. Now they only work 10, 12 shows a month. We used to work 25 shows a month.
Keller: How seriously do you think Vince took it over the years that taking pain pills to get up and taking sleeping pills to get to sleep, and variations of that, to stay on the schedule were a reality. Did he know that? Did it not bother him? Did he think it was healthy to take that approach?
Hall: Well, didn't I tell you my Brian Nobbs story? They did a bunch of vignettes of me. I'm in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Nobbs got fined ten thousand dollars for being dirty for smoke. It was his fourth dirty piss test. So I'm standing behind Vince. He's got his suit on with the f---in' shoulder pads in. He used to put pads in his shoulders of his suit. Nobbs is going, "What the f---! You f---in' fine me ten thousand dollars. Why can't I relax in my room, you mother f---er! How the f--- am I supposed to calm down? I'm on the road 300 days a year. What the f---? Vince went, "I guess you're just gonna have to drink more and take more pills." I was standing behind Vince and I'd just come to work for the company. I hadn't even had a match yet. All they did was shoot videos of me. I remember going, wow. Cause, see, I wasn't in that drug culture then. I wasn't a pillhead then. I wasn't a hardcore drinker then. I remember going, "Wow, this guy's the devil." Cause that impacted me. Those are exactly the words he said. It's burned into my brain. I went, wow, this mother f---er don't give a f---.
Another thing I remember, too, is I never had a straight job. I worked at strip clubs and I've been a wrestler. And there's really not that much difference between the two industries. You're a piece of meat. Vince don't give a f--. Oh, you're hurt? Take this. Another thing, too, there's a lot of pressure. You can't really blame the office. What really happened was, in the locker room, you gotta remember, if you're working an angle with the guy, his family is dependent on the income just like yours is. So if you're in a long program with some dude and your ankle's hurt or your knee's hurt or your back hurts or your neck hurts or somethin', but you're in Chicago on a sellout, it's like, f--- man, what do you mean? What they used to do was say, "Can you just go out there and do anything? Just go to the ring. Just go do anything." See, the agents would pressure you to do that, because then your pride is going to take over. So you go, well, f--- that, I'm not going to go out there and look like a f---in' goof in Chicago. But, see, what your opponent would do, or your friend, would say, "Here, take this. You won't feel a f---in' thing. Take these. Then you'd be all geeked down on those and go, f---, I've gotta catch a six a.m. flight, so (someone goes), "Here, take these, it'll make you go to sleep." Don't get me wrong. Nobody ever held me down and pushed pills in my mouth. You know, nobody ever did that to me. Nobody ever poured booze down my throat. I chose to do it. But I was also surrounded by other guys who were doing it and it was accepted. You gotta remember, too, that our bosses are former wrestlers. So when you're sitting in the lobby bar of the hotel sitting around, the agents are sitting there drinkin', hitting' on broads, too. So, it's kinda weird. It was cool and it was weird. It was such a fantasy world that I'm actually having a little trouble adjusting to the real world because I'm so used to anything goes. That's why I have conflict with the law and sh-- like that. I go, "What do you mean?" Who do I make it out to? We used to laugh sometimes. We'd be driving down the highway and we'd laugh and go, "Wait a minute officer, who do I make it out to." Like we had eight-by-tens. "Excuse me, you must not know who I am. Who do I make it out to."
Keller: Back to the Vince comment. That was quite a few years ago at the beginning of your career, and that was before guys were dying from complications that had a lot to do with pain pill addiction and probably a concoction of other things. Do you think that you probably at that point, and I'm trying to defend Vince a little bit here even though it was still a shocking thing to say and out of line pretty much indisputably, I can't imagine him saying something like that now knowing how many people have died.
Hall: It's the truth. I will stand by it. I'll stand in front of a f---in' judge and say that's what Vince said to Knobs. You can probably get Knobs to say the same thing. Now, am I saying that Vince advocates drug use and alcoholism. No. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, what Vince was saying was, "Look, you damn fat f---. You got caught for the fourth time smoking dope. It's costing you ten thousand dollars. F---ing knock it off." So Vince's message was quit smoking dope because it's illegal. If you get caught with marijuana, it's bad for business. If you get caught with some pills, DUI, ehhh, not good for business, but DUI, not so bad. You get caught with an illegal drug, bad for business. That's all Vince cares about, is business. If I owned the company, it would probably be the same way.
Keller: It's not good for business to have your wrestlers dying frequently enough that it draws attention to itself with the mainstream media, with advertisers, and investors. That's where it does affect business, if you want to just boil it down to just business. Vince came out with a DVD last month and he talks about how all he cares about is what's good for business. He said he feels good when he fires people because the only time he fires people is when it's good for business to fire them, and my job is to run my business. But, it is bad for business to not have a healthy crew. It is bad for business to have guys dying. If you want to strip away the humanity, there is a consequence to the business when that happens.
Hall: Well, true, true. That's a statement, so it's not really a question. At the same time, I don't think you can hold Vince responsible or Eric of whoever is running the show for the way society is these days.
|
<--- Lotame Behavioral Tags --- >
<--- Lotame Behavioral Tags --- >
