It’s easy for us to look at a professional wrestler or anyone in sports or entertainment and think they live a glamorous life. For many, it’s anything but and Scott Hall was a perfect example.
We got used to watching him make it cool to be a bag guy and anti hero over the years while accepting his personal demons as something to expect and brush them off because he always seemed to bounce back.
We label it as them enjoying the fruits of their labors whether it’s rock stars, wrestlers, or whoever.
It’s typical of what people do in general, and because of that we often don’t know the trauma and struggles that lie under the surface.
For Scott Hall, there was a traumatic experience that happened in 1983.
Acting in self defense
On January 15, 1983, Hall, 25, was bartending at “Thee Original Doll House”, a gentleman’s club in Orlando, Florida when he got into an argument with a customer over a woman.
The customer left the bar and found Hall’s car in the parking lot and proceeded to smash out his windows. A security guard pointed Hall toward the man and Hall spoke of this in an interview on ESPN’s E:60 special.
Special thanks to prowrestlingstories.com for the transcript.
“As I closed the distance, I remember what he was wearing, what I was wearing, what it smelled like.
“I mean, it’s burnt in my brain. Like, I drilled him, he went down, and his shirt went up, and he was reaching for the [firearm], so I reached for it too. We wrestled around with it. I took it and shot him in the head.
“You know, a guy pulled a weapon on me, and I took it away and shot him, point-blank. A guy’s dead, and I’m the reason. This is bad.”
Hall was arrested and spent three days in jail before going on trial for second degree murder. The case was eventually dropped due to lack of evidence, but the events of that night and the following results left him scared.
He even contemplated suicide, but after being raised as a Roman Catholic, but he was afraid committing suicide would send him to hell like he was taught and that fear saved him from that fate.
He was eventually diagnosed wit PTSD due to the situation, and he tried to repress through self medicating and throwing himself into working out and then wrestling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xIUXqyrqSY
Finding a way
Hall eventually began the healing process, and it started with forgiving himself for everything he’d done, but around 2013 things had escalated and he was told he was going to die.
He beat the odds then, but Sean Waltman was concerned for his safety as Hall was reportedly looking to buy a gun.
Waltman shared his concern and Diamond Dallas Page called him and had Jake “The Snake” Roberts on the line with him. Hall accepted the invitation to move in with Page, and he’s stated Page’s efforts and invitation turned his life around.
From prowrestlingstories.com:
“To anyone that will listen, I honestly tell them that there are people that can help you. Find some professional that you connect with and go for it. Ignoring the problem, the real problem did not work for me, nor do I recommend it to anyone else.”
Hall’s life had it’s ups and downs, but he managed to find a way through it with some help and became an advocate for healthy living and was a proud inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame with his famous words:
“Hard work pays off. Dreams come true. Bad times don’t last, but bad guys do.”
Hall had his faults like anyone and he succeeded in overcoming them in what is a true success story.
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