Pro-wrestling legend Scott Hall was recently interviewed by Yaz Jung to discuss his Razor Ramon character in WWF, and how being a tough guy doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll succeed in the business. Highlights can be found below.
How being a tough guy doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll succeed in wrestling:
“In MMA, if you’re a badass, it’s because God and your parents just made you a badass… …But Pro-Wrestling is different. Sometimes the tough guys beat up the other guys, but sometimes, you’re tougher than the guy you’re wrestling, and you can wipe the floor with him, but he sells more merchandise, the fans like him, the Office likes him – so they’re gonna go with him.”
How he pitched Razor Ramon to Vince McMahon:
“I told him – Vince, if you want me to be a G.I.* Joe (type character) I’ll be the best damn G.I.* Joe I can be – but have you ever seen Scarface? – Say Hello…to the Bad Guy..”
On advice that McMahon gave him:
“Vince always told guys to use their face, that’s where the money is … You have to keep an eye on the camera, so in my entrance, I’d usually go and look right to the hard-camera side. You could see in the nWo days — I’d just look right at the camera and go, ‘I’m the s***!’”
Talks the Fallaway Slam being his signature maneuver:
“There was another move, the Fallaway Slam, that some people started calling ‘Hall-away Slam.’ But I actually called it ‘the sack-of-s***’ cause I was working with [WWE Hall-of-Famer] Carlos Colon at the time in Puerto Rico. I told him ‘duck the clothesline, then crossbody,’ I caught him and just thinking of cool moves to do, just — boom — I threw him back over my head. We got back to the locker room and he told me, ‘Amigo! What the hell? You threw me like a sack-of-s***!’ So that’s how I named it, but it’s great to see the young guys still using it.”