Scott Hall began wrestling in 1984, competing in small
independent promotions. He briefly entered the NWA
before moving to the AWA in 1985. He won his first major title
of note there, winning the AWA World Tag Team Titles with Curt
Hennig.
He moved around various leagues without much success until
1991, when he signed with World Championship Wrestling. He
became known as "The Diamond Studd" and was managed by
Diamond Dallas Page. The most "famous" thing he did
in his WCW stay was competing in the notorious Chamber of
Horrors match at Holloween Havoc '91. The character never
really caught on, and in May 1992 he quit WCW and signed with
the World Wrestling Federation.
For the WWF, Hall abandoned the Studd gimmick and became known
as "Razor Ramon", AKA "Da Bad Guy". He was
the stereotypical Cuban hoodlum--greased hair, toothpick, fake
Cuban accent. He immediately became one of the most hated heels
in the promotion and soon began climbing up the ranks--an early
pairing with wrestling legend Ric Flair certainly didn't hurt
the cause. His first title shot came at Royal Rumble '93, when
he faced Bret Hart. He didn't win the match, but he was now
permanently established as a contender.
He soon became friends with Shawn Michaels. When Hall called
in a favor to get Kevin Nash hired by the WWF, the three of
them comprised the core of the infamous Clique.
One of the more memorable moments in Hall's WWF tenure was his
embarassing defeat to "The Kid" (Sean Waltman,
currently known as X-Pac) on an episode of WWF Raw. The
Kid had been portrayed as a jobber for his first few weeks in
the federation, and so when he pulled out the shocking upset it
made Waltman an instant hit. This would eventually lead to Razor
turning babyface, as he developed "mutual respect"
with Waltman, leading to their friendship. (Waltman would also
become a member of The Clique).
The other memorable moment of Hall's stay was his historic
Ladder Match with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania X for the
WWF Intercontinental Championship. Razor won the match to
retain the IC belt in what most consider to be one of the
greatest wrestling matches of all-time.
Hall would win the Intercontinental title a total of four
times, but never became WWF Champion--that
role was taken up for much of his stay by Shawn Michaels and
Kevin Nash (as Diesel). He failed two drug tests in early
1996, at which time he was notified by the WWF that he'd be fired
if he didn't clean up his act. He was offered a bigger salary by
WCW, so he gave his 90-day notice and left the company.
On May 27, 1996, during the first two-hour taping of WCW
Monday Nitro, Hall came through the crowd and declared that
"we are taking over WCW." The next week on Nitro, Hall
appeared with Kevin Nash (who had also recently left the WWF)
and said much the same thing. They claimed to be able to beat
anyone in WCW, and the two of them were challenged by Sting,
Lex Luger, and Randy Savage to a six-man tag match at Bash at the Beach '96. Hall and Nash claimed
their third partner would be revealed later.
The match arrived soon enough, and who showed up but Hulk
Hogan, turning heel for the first time since 1982 and joining
Hall and Nash (known together as The Outsiders) in forming the
New World Order. Both Hall and Nash would go on to great
popularity as a result of this angle, although he and Nash were
forced to take somewhat of a backseat to Hogan. The Outsiders
would win the WCW Tag Team Titles on numerous occasions, winning
them for the first time from Harlem Heat at Halloween Havoc
'96 and holding onto them for over a year (and for the better
part of the next eighteen months in total).
His drug problems resurfaced several times over the next few
years, as he took a leave of absence in 1998 to deal with his
out-of-ring issues. He became a parody of himself upon returning,
pretending to be drunk and stumbling all over the ring. This
didn't last long, thank god.
Hall won his first WCW singles title at SuperBrawl IX in
early 1999 when he defeated Rowdy Roddy Piper to win the WCW
United States Title. Later that evening, however, a WCW staff
member accidentally ran over Hall's foot with their automobile
and Hall was forced to vacate the title.
Seven months later, in October '99, Hall returned to WCW and
reunited with Kevin Nash. He would go on to win the US Title
and the TV title at different points over the next few months. In
February 2000, nagging injuries finally caught up with Hall and
he went under the knife for back surgery. He was released from
WCW in October of 2000.
He made several guest appearances in Extreme Championship
Wrestling in late 2000, but never formally joined that
organization. After wrestling sporadically on the
independent circuit for some time, he was signed to a contract in early 2002 with the WWF to help revive the nWo angle.
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