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The night WWE legend Scott Hall killed a man
"Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Professional Wrestling's New World Order Changed America," the upcoming book written by Marc Raimondi which documents the rise of the legendary nWo faction and the impact it had on the broader world, publishes on Tuesday, June 24. The following is an excerpt detailing the rise of Scott Hall, aka two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee Razor Ramon, who emerged as a central figure in wrestling's New World Order.
Hall was at work the night of January 15, 1983, tending bar at the strip club Thee Dollhouse in Orlando, Florida. He was bracing himself. Hall knew an altercation — 'of course it was over a girl' — was imminent.
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It was early in his shift when Hall got word that the husband of the woman he had been seeing was outside in the parking lot. The man had busted all the windows out of Hall's car, and was fixing to get a piece of Hall next.
Hall, a well-built, 6-foot-5 bodybuilder, went outside to confront the man and knocked him down immediately with one punch. The man, named Rodney Perry Turner, reached for a firearm and a struggle ensued.
Hall took hold of the gun first — and shot Perry Turner in the head. He died instantly. Hall, then just 24 years old, was charged with second-degree murder. The case against him was later dismissed when sworn testimony was not enough to prosecute.
'I drilled him, and he went down, and his shirt went up and he was reaching for the gun, so I reached for it, too,' Hall recalled.
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A bar employee told the Orlando Sentinel at the time Perry Turner had threatened to kill both Hall and Perry Turner's wife, Carol, when he found out Hall and Carol were dating.
Two months earlier, Perry Turner had fatally shot another man. Perry Turner claimed he was attacked after the man made a pass at Carol. Perry Turner was never charged, as the killing was ruled justifiable.
'I should have sought counseling right then, but I didn't know anything,' Hall said. 'I was a kid.'
Hall was raised in a military family. He has referred to his father as a 'big shot' in the U.S. Army. Hall's parents and grandparents had issues with alcohol, an addiction that definitely did not skip a generation.
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'We come from a long line of hard-drinking rednecks,' Hall said.
Hall went to high school in Germany where his dad was stationed and moved just about every year before his family settled in Florida when he was a teen. Hall's father was a pro-wrestling fan, and Hall himself wanted to be a wrestler ever since he was eight years old when his dad took him to a hair-versus-hair match. Hall took a piece of the losing wrestler's hair home with him.
'And I just was hooked since then,' Hall said.
Hall had spent time working the regional circuit as a wrestler in the 1980s, including a stint in the AWA like Hulk Hogan. Hall had a run with Curt 'Mr. Perfect' Hennig as the AWA tag-team champions, and Verne Gagne then wanted to position Hall as his No. 1 babyface. Hall absolutely looked the part. He was tall and handsome with light brown hair and a bushy mustache. With a wide chest, big arms, and bulging trapezius muscles, Hall looked kind of like a jacked-up Tom Selleck.
Razor Ramon makes his entrance at WWF Wrestlemania X8.
(George Pimentel via Getty Images)
'When Verne started pushing him to be his top guy, I know other people were going like, 'Oh man, same size as Hogan, better body, better-looking,'' Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer said. 'But when it didn't work, it was kind of like, 'Oh, he doesn't have charisma.''
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Things just didn't click for Hall as a generic good guy. The fans didn't get behind him. After taking a hiatus from wrestling, Hall found his way to WCW in 1991. He knew he had to change things up, because regular old Scott Hall, as impressive as he looked with his shirt off, wasn't working.
And Hall really committed to changing things up. His new character was called The Diamond Studd. He was a cocky ladies' man with slicked-back black hair, a toothpick between his teeth, and dark sunglasses. The bushy hair and mustache were long gone. The Diamond Studd wore a five o'clock shadow and didn't skip trips to the tanning bed. The leaner Studd looked nothing like 'Big' Scott Hall from the AWA.
The Diamond Studd was managed on screen by Diamond Dallas Page, who previously had accompanied the very popular Fabulous Freebirds to the ring. Like Hall, Page had a background in the nightlife industry, managing several Florida clubs. Hall and Page got along well, in the ring and outside of it. And Hall started to have some success in WCW with Page by his side.
Hall had size, good looks, and could work an entertaining match in the ring. There might not be a blueprint for wrestling stardom, but he checked a lot of boxes. Still, Hall wasn't being positioned past the early matches on WCW cards. The main event wasn't even in sight.
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That didn't matter to Hall so much. He was grateful just to have the job of his dreams. But Hall and his wife, Dana, had just had their first child, Cody. Making more money to support his growing family would have been nice. So Hall started having conversations with Pat Patterson, McMahon's right-hand man.
nWo members Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan face off with Lex Luger, The Giant and Booker T during WCW Monday Nitro in February 1997.
(WWE via Getty Images)
'Some guys were higher up [in WWF], but everybody was a star,' Hall said. 'So I said, 'I don't have to be a main eventer, I still want to wrestle.' Because even the lower-paid wrestlers are getting paid, and I had no education. So I thought, this is what I still want to do for a living. If I have to be a bottom guy, I'd rather do it for the best company.'
'Bottom guys' in wrestling — or low carders and midcarders — are kind of like the fighters you see on the preliminaries of boxing or UFC events. They're talented enough and have a big enough following to earn a spot on the event, but don't have the skill level or star quality to make the main event. Their main role is to lose to wrestlers tabbed as stars as those would-be stars make their way to a headlining role.
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Hall would never be a 'bottom guy' again. He was pushed near the top of the card immediately in the WWF with a new character: Razor Ramon.
Hall, as Ramon, became an arrogant, well-dressed, and villainous Cuban American from Miami. It was basically a rip-off of Al Pacino's suave but brutally violent Tony Montana character in "Scarface," which had gained a renewed cult following a decade after its release. McMahon had never seen the movie and when Hall came to him with the idea, he thought Hall was a genius.
For weeks on WWF television there were taped vignettes trumping up his arrival. Hall wore gold chains with an open, button-down shirt revealing his chest hair. He spoke with a fake Cuban accent, called people 'chico,' and borrowed phrases from "Scarface," adding his own spin, like 'say hello to the Bad Guy.'
Hall was neither Cuban nor even Hispanic, just like Hogan wasn't actually Irish. In wrestling, everything is about the performance. And Hall was more than believable enough as Razor Ramon.
