Scott Hall, or Razor Ramon as many wrestling fans know him, was always one of my favorite characters. He was supposedly playing a Scarface knockoff. Maybe it's my hatred for that movie, but I don't see it that way. Apparently the persona was supposed to be Cuban, but Ramon just seemed cool. Nationality was irrelevant as Ramon was "oozing machismo" as the announcers would say. (I can still hear my dad mimicking that line.)
Scott Hall is still cool as a 53-year-old man who is in a very real life and death battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. But the E:60 video expose I watched about Hall seems to implicitly suggest that Hall's addiction to wrestling is just as detrimental to his health. I can understand that completely, I am only a fan and I can't quit the stuff myself. Imagine what it is like to be on the other side.
Wrestling falls under a lot of scrutiny for the early deaths seen in the business and the fact that there doesn't seem to be a very good system in place to take care of these men and women after they retire. I don't disagree entirely, but I have some serious issues with the way football players are cast off once they've retired. (More on that someday, perhaps.) As I get older I see a big problem with wrestling--and the major difference between it and other performance-based professions--is that wrestlers are playing a character but they have to be that character in perpetuity. There is never a down time for a wrestler and the more real they can be in the ring as a character, not an athlete (though wrestlers are ridiculously underrated or entirely unrecognized as real athletes), the better.
So wrestlers have to pretend all the time and that must be confusing. Talking about it confuses me. Thus, an intelligent, insightful man such as Scott Hall isn't sure if he is performing or not. Is his character now a man who can't quit the business or the excesses in which the business invites him to partake? As long as people are still willing to pay to see him (and do exposes on him), I guess it probably is. He knows he is genuinely dying from the choices he is making, but that's who he has been for a long time. Is that a character, or is that the person he actually is?
I don't know, but I'm scared for him. Both as a lover of wrestling and a fan of Razor Ramon as well as someone who does not want to watch Scott Hall, the human being, suffer and hurt those who love him.
What I've Learned
October 9th: The Cowboys were the first NFL team to racially integrate.
October 10th: The LA Rams were truly the first NFL team to racially integrate.
October 11th: Steven Spielberg was to direct Cape Fear while Martin Scorsese directed Schindler's List.
October 12th: Nothing that I can remember.
October 13th: You can't donate blood when you have a cold.
October 14th: A Glasgow Grin is something Scottish criminals do that leaves their victims with scars like the Joker's from The Dark Knight.
October 15th: Britain's current Queen Elizabeth is not . 22nd:a direct descendant of Queen Elizabeth I.
October 16th: The St Louis Cardinals farm system is located in Florida (explained to me by my six-year-old nephew).
Oct. 17th: The circle by our house is called Pinehurst Circle, not Chevy Chase Circle nor Connecticut Circle.
Oct. 18th: Stephen King has a new book coming out.
Oct. 19th: 72% of black children are born to unwed mothers compared to 29% of whites children.
Oct. 20th: The food with the highest ANDI score is kale.
Oct. 21th: Muamar Gaddafi was killed by Libyan rebels.
Oct. 22nd: At the age of 25 Scott Hall killed a man when he was a bouncer in 1983.
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