Source: You’re Welcome with Chael Sonnen
Professional pro wrestling legend Scott Hall appeared on You’re Welcome with Chael Sonnen this week. Scott spoke about his WrestleMania X8 match against ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, being the Tito Santana of his era, and the infamous Madison Square Garden Curtain Call.
When asked whether he had any heat with Austin, as he was not Austin’s first choice for an opponent at WrestleMania X8, Hall said that there was not.
“[Austin] felt like he should have been wrestling Hulk [Hogan] and it would have been fine with me. I would have certainly wrestled The Rock and I would have been cool with that, but I didn’t make those decisions, Vince [McMahon] did. Vince made the decision to have Rock wrestle Hulk and he looked at me and Kev [Nash], and he goes, ‘I’ll have one of you, probably Scott, wrestle Steve with the other guy on the outside’.”
Hall acknowledged that both he and Austin struggled with personal issues during that period and their matches suffered as a result.
“Steve was going through, outside the ring, really bad times and he told me later, like, he was going through what ended up being a divorce from his wife at that time, Debra, and stuff. And for me, the only thing I had to look forward to was the ring because my personal life wasn’t doing that great, so my fake life was what I was holding onto. My real life wasn’t doing that good, so the stuff in the ring wasn’t that pleasing. Those weren’t my best matches or Steve’s either. We actually talked about it recently. We get along and communicate a lot better now than when we were wrestling.”
During the podcast, Hall claimed that he never buried anyone out of fear over his own spot; however, he admitted that he has buried talents who could not perform in the squared circle. Hall stated that he was the Tito Santana of his generation, an upper middlecard babyface who acted as a gateway for heels.
“I actually found myself in what I call ‘the Tito Santana spot’, like, the upper middle babyface, as Razor [Ramon], where they’re building heels to either work with Diesel or then later Shawn Michaels, so as you squash the other guys, now you move up the ladder. Now you’re going to have a match with Razor and I was the guy where, if you had a good match with me, you moved up, and if you didn’t, you moved down. I was kind of like the Tito Santana of my era.”
According to Hall, the Curtain Call was Michaels’s idea and it was okayed by McMahon beforehand. Hall stated that he was having a meeting with McMahon during the intermission of the show that night when Michaels interrupted.
“I’m in there talking to Vince and he goes, ‘well, you go down there and get that son of a b—h’s money’.” Hall continued, “and then Shawn Michaels bursts in and he goes, ‘hey, I want Razor and [Triple H] to come out after my match’ and Vince went, ‘is it important to you?’ and [Michaels] went, ‘yes’. [McMahon] goes, ‘well, make it happen’. So that’s what we did.”
In addition to these topics, Hall discussed whether Vince Russo is to blame for WCW’s downfall, Larry Zbyszko’s involvement in Hall’s WCW entrance, and much more. credit winc)
