As the wrestling world was collectively processing the death of Scott Hall earlier this week, his speech from being inducted as Razor Ramon at the 2014 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony was widely shared and quoted. “Bad times don’t last, but Bad Guys do,” was part of a story we were telling ourselves, that like Jake Roberts, Hall’s time living with DDP in the early 2010s helped him achieve sobriety. We thought that while much of Hall’s life had been spent fighting through those bad times, at least the Bad Guy’s last several years were good ones.
Sadly, a report on Hall’s death in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter makes that a tale we can’t console ourselves with any longer. Dave Meltzer’s report, which includes accounts from Hall’s friends Sean “X-Pac” Waltman and Jared Saint-Lauren (aka MLW’s MSL), instead reminds us there’s no cure for addiction, and recovery is only a remission some addicts are fortunate enough to get.
Waltman told Meltzer that Hall was able to put together some clean time over the past decade, but the last couple years had been “really bad.” Hall’s friends and family felt his death was imminent, but were unable to do anything about it — something to which many who’ve loved an alcoholic or addict can relate.
The two-time Hall of Famer was in “bad shape” at WrestleMania 37 last year, when the nWo were inducted. That was also the case during an appearance at Stockton Comic Con last October, and presumably a reason he’d not made other recent bookings. Recent years were described as a “constant cycle” of Hall “spiraling out of control” until a friend like Kevin Nash got him focused again.
When Hall fell and broke his hip several weeks ago, it’s said he laid on the floor for days as he couldn’t move or reach his phone. When friends couldn’t reach him, they called DDP to go check on him. It was Page who got him to the hospital.
Waltman said:
“The pandemic did him in. It was hard enough for him as it was, but he was isolated in his house with no social interaction. He was down to 210 pounds. We called Dally [Dallas Page] and he went over. It was really bad.”
A wrinkle of this story that does line up with this week’s remembrances of Hall is that wrestling, and working with younger wrestlers, seems to have been what got the Bad Guy through his bad times. Saint-Lauren told Meltzer:
“I lived down the road from him. We got in the habit for a few years of hanging out every day. He was living alone in that big mansion and wasn’t really seeing his family. So we ended up in a routine of going to the gym together every day, getting lunch and just kind of bullshitting unless I had an indy booking to go to. Scott was a very complicated guy I think. I met him at a point in his life where he just didn’t care about himself anymore, but he still loved the business so much and really just loved helping others succeed.”
It’s heartbreaking information. As a recovering alcoholic & addict who works with others struggling like Scott did, it’s a reminder of the deadly nature of this illness. For anyone with one of us in your life, perhaps it’s a reminder you’re not alone in your pain and frustration.
It’s hard to process, though. All we can do is hope that Hall is now experiencing something like the peace he felt in the ring, and cherish the memories of what he made us feel when he was in one.