 |
By NICK TYLWALK
Special to SLAM! Sports
A weekly
SLAM! Wrestling
Editorial Column
|
|---|
WWF return a test for Hall
Down the Ramp
By NICK TYLWALK --
For SLAM! Wrestling
It's survey time.
How many of you want to see Scott Hall remain problem-free and
the nWo angle succeed?
(Sound of cheers and applause)
How many of you want to see Scott Hall stumble and fall making the WWF look foolish for signing him?
(Sound of boos and jeers)
It looks like one more for the 'good guy'.
I don't know if Scott Hall really is a 'good guy', as
I've never met the man. I can say that Hall's return
intrigues me more than any other part of nWo, the
Sequel, and I suspect many of you feel the same way.
There's just something fascinating about watching a
man play out his last chance at redemption in front
of the whole world.
And make no mistake about it - this is Hall's last
chance. We've already seen the WWF act quickly to
dismiss performers with drug or alcohol connections,
and neither the son of a beloved performer (Brian
Christopher) or the rising star (Eddie Guerrero) had
Hall's reputed history. The rumor
circulating that the writers are saving Kevin Nash to
face Austin at WrestleMania if something goes wrong
(and that's only four weeks away) suggests they've
already considered that possibility.
At the risk of sounding too cynical, the nWo is pretty
much finished if Hall is taken out of the equation. The thought of a
two man unit terrorizing the WWF is pretty laughable
even if those two men are Nash and Hulk Hogan. His
comrades will land on their feet. It's already been
theorized that Hogan has one more face run left in
him and Nash is Nash: he'll survive. Hall's failure
will leave himself as the big loser and that's a lot
of pressure to for someone to deal with.
Still, it's hard to fault the WWF for putting him in
this position. If his buddies are like money market
accounts -- where you put your money in and know what
you're getting -- Hall is like a dot-com IPO: high risk
with a potentially high reward. Nash, by his own
admission, knows only three moves and Hogan's best
days are far behind him. Where Hogan-Rock might sell
some pay-per-view buys because of the names involved,
Hall-Austin might actually be an entertaining match.
 |
|
Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hollywood Hogan -- the New World Order -- cut an in-ring promo at No Way Out.
|
Without knowledge of what goes on behind the curtain,
I won't pretend to know if Hall is receiving the
support he needs to succeed. His best friend is by
his side though that wasn't enough to stop some problems from erupting in the past. I'll admit
that I chuckled during No Way Out when the first beer
joke was made but then they just kept coming during
Raw and Smackdown. Is that kind of atmosphere
which will give Hall the back-up he needs? I'm no expert
but I'd say no.
There's always the hope that just the simple
realization that this is the end of the line will be
enough. On the other hand, it's often been said that
wrestling contributed to Hall's problems. After
several years out of the wrestling spotlight, he's
stepping right back into the glare working a program
with Stone Cold. The attention could push him either
way.
Like the people in my hypothetical survey, I'm a Scott
Hall fan. I want to think of the toothpick and the
promos instead of the news we've all read about Scott Hall in WCW. Six
months from now, I want to be looking at the Real Scan
Scott Hall figure on my desk, wearing a "Hey Yo!"
t-shirt and writing a column about his triumphant
return to the WWF. I definitely don't want to be
writing a follow-up column about his downfall,
comparing him to Darryl Strawberry and others who
couldn't overcome their problems no matter how many
second chances they were given.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the
survey says.
Previous Columns
Jan. 11 ... Nick who?
