Last night, ESPN’s E:60 series aired a horrifying 17-minute feature on Scott Hall’s rise and demise in pro wrestling.
In his own words and through the eyes of friends and family, the story delves deep into Scott Hall’s drug addictions that he just can’t shake, his waning health, and, saddest of all, his likely impending death.
At one point, Sean Waltman even said, “I’ve been preparing for Scott’s death for the last year and a half,” and that’s coming from one of his closest friends.
Even more humiliating and embarrassing than that is the segment of the feature that showed Scott Hall at a small Indy show just hours after having heart seizures. The footage that aired showed a barely there Hall getting wheeled into the “arena”, then thrown out into the ring while hopped up on pain pills by a heartless promoter who simply didn’t want to give out refunds.Â
The promoter defended his actions, saying, “I made a business over a moral decision” since “I’d only known Scott Hall one day”. Stay classy, asshole.
Before the piece wrapped up, they did show that Hall is now mentoring his son Cody, who is training to become a pro wrestler. That was the only glimmer of light that Hall seemed to have left in his life, a life that should serve as an alarming and cautionary tale.
One glaring omission of the feature was that it didn’t discuss or link the deep-rooted issues that addiction-prone pro wrestlers like Scott Hall can be saddled with based on the bumps they take and the schedules they have that can lead to altered mental states due to both drug and pill abuse and suffering multiple concussions/injuries along the way.
Aside from that, this was an honest look at many different facets of the pro wrestling industry and a heartbreakingly broken man who just can’t shake it all off.Â
That’s all from me — CB.
