The Hardys Reflect On Working With Scott Hall Early In Their WWE Careers
The wrestling world was hit with a major blow last week when it was announced Scott Hall passed away at the age of 63 after being taken off life support. Triple H, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and many others took to social media to express their sorrow over the loss of such an influential person to the wrestling business.
The Hardy Boyz also expressed their sorrow for the passing of Scott Hall on the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. Matt Hardy detailed how hurt he was by the news and also spoke about the impact Hall had on he and his brother Jeff's career during their first-ever appearances in WWE.
"It was very sad how it just came out of left field, this happened, he had surgery and these heart attacks," Matt said. "Once again, a very drastic and stark reminder of how tomorrow isn't promised and that's how I try to live my life every day now. You have to really enjoy each and every day and every moment you have. Our expression is to live for the moment and there is a lot of truth to that because no one is guaranteed tomorrow. Especially as you get older, I think about that a lot for all of us, but the thing with Scott Hall was that it was out of the blue and such a strong and real reminder that nobody is guaranteed tomorrow, and just enjoy every moment of life and also be good to people as well.
"Scott was very cool to us, we had a lot of good fun stories with him. I'll never forget the second day I was with WWE, obviously the first day Jeff wrestled him, he was 16 years old and it was under very strange circumstances where the match was very frustrating with Scott Hall because the guy he was supposed to wrestle said he couldn't take his finish. He was a little frustrated wrestling with Jeff and that ended up working in Jeff's favor because he formed a little bond with him after that.
"The next night, I was wrestling with him and I remember he said, 'when I'm in the corner, poke me in the eyes, give me three or four chops, I'll turn around and give you some,' and I got two really good ones in that rang out loud in the arena. I hit a second one and he stopped me right then and there and turned me around and said, 'easy kid, you had two really good ones, I couldn't let you outshine me out there though.'"
As The Hardy Boyz continued to show their love for Scott Hall, Jeff Hardy continued to speak about how much impact his time working with him as a jobber had on his career. The Charismatic Enigma expressed his level of sorrow for the situation and revealed he's not sure how to express the level of impact he had on the Hardy Boyz.
"My way with words can be confusing at times, I'm still trying to figure out the right things to say social media-wise as far as how big of an inspiration and influence he was on our careers," Jeff said. "Even that first match, and that hard-ass WWE ring back in the day, you had to be like Andre the Giant to make it move, it was terrible.
"Him being real stiff and roughing me up, I totally second-guessed my love for pro wrestling. 'I don't know if I'm cut out to do this.' I didn't like it, I didn't like that match at all, it really hurt. It wasn't fun, and then the next day, I wrestled 1-2-3 kid Sean Waltman and he totally refilled my soul as far as wrestling goes.
"Then moving forward Scott Hall was so kind because he thought I looked like Vanilla Ice, and the Kliq started calling me Ice and I'll never forget one time he told Pat Patterson, I was like 16 or 17 too, 'let's get this kid on the road, get him seasoned.' I'm not even legal yet. There's something very special to what he saw, he saw my future through whatever it was and he believed in us every step of the way, and that's rare, man.
"It was meant to be that night that that guy didn't want to wrestle him and naturally, I was all about it. I was so nervous, I thought it was live TV, and this is when they were filming three or four RAWs in one night and Matt was on live TV that night. Anyway, it was wild, man, it was not fun and he was so apologetic because my knee hit the post and he kicked me in the head. It was rough, but yeah, I'm still trying to figure out the right way to express my love for him and deep sorrow for him leaving this earth."
WWE Hall of Famer Booker T was also someone who spoke about the passing of Scott Hall and mentioned how a "Scott Hall Memorial Ladder Match" at WrestleMania has a nice ring to it. The Rock also joined the massive amount of people sending love to Hall, detailing an experience he had with him backstage on SmackDown where he told Razor how influential he was on his career.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.