FSM Archive - The Training Ground with Scott Hall

FSM: Your son Cody is just breaking into the business. How does his plight compare with what it was like at the start of your career?
Scott Hall: There's upsides and downsides. The downside I've seen for Cody is that there's not really any company in the United States that runs every night of the week, except WWE. When I was coming up, there were regional territories all around the world, especially in the United States, where I could work five or six times a week. I wasn't getting paid huge in the smaller territories, but I was getting time in the ring, and that was more valuable to me. Cody doesn't have that, as most guys only work the weekends in the U.S.

The upside for these new generation cats is the technology. When Cody is in the ring, I have my phone recording the match. We can watch it back immediately, and post it on YouTube in minutes. So he's able to reach the audience in a way I couldn't as an up and coming wrestler, even if he doesn't get to practice his craft as much.

In pro wrestling, on most occasions you have to look intense in the ring. But inside, is it important for a wrestler to remain relaxed?
I think if you're more relaxed, then your character translates better on television. If you're trying too hard, then it looks like it. I think the audience is very sophisticated. I keep telling Cody, "Don't act! Don't keep acting like your hurt... just try to dial everything down and make it more organic."

What advice would you give a young wrestler looking to improve their performance?
Well everyone's different, of course, but you don't get better by hanging around guys who know less than you. I was blessed that a lot of guys smarter than me took an interest in me. At that time, we travelled from airport to airport in rental cars, but now, the top guys travel in these huge tour buses, and God bless them, it's way easier on your body, but that lifestyle damages the camaraderie. I don't think that unit of guys is as close as we were in the WWF.

don't even know if that's an issue - I just bring it up because the way I want my son to break in, and the way I'd recommend it to other wrestlers coming up, is to be in the car with guys who know more than you. That's not as possible with these tour buses.

Right now, I'm speaking to you from Cody's apartment here in Atlanta; we've got a small place here, and everything's in his name. He's a 22-year-old kid, but I want him to learn responsibility, and how to handle things. We live really humbly here, and I want him to learn that. He hasn't always had to live humbly; things were good for us for a long time, and now he's learning to appreciate all those things when they come later for him, by paying his dues this way now.

You mention the success you had in the 1990s, and not everything has gone right for you since. How can successful young wrestlers attempt to cope with success?
It's funny you ask that. I was talking to a friend today about Mike Tyson, and we were discussing how to handle success. I know Mike is Mike, and I'm who I am, but we're all rough around the edges. Throwing a lot of money at somebody doesn't change who they are - it just changes their cash bracket.

Success can be weird, especially if you have psych issues about how you don't deserve it. Now, that said, if the worst problem you've got is that you can't handle success, then your life is pretty good.

Going back to the role of veterans backstage, what good advice did you get when breaking in?
That getting over is an art form. Some guys are great workers, but aren't over; some guys can't work, but are over, and they can draw money. It's up to the matchmaker to put the guys who can work with the guys who can make the money. It is an art form when done correctly.

For example, when I started in the AWA, I was doing this cowboy gimmick. It's the '80s and I've got this big Village People moustache going, but things are good, and we're running shows on ESPN. I remember Jimmy Snuka - a major player at that time and one of the coolest cats around - comes over to me and says, "When you cover the man, cover him proud bro, cover him proud." What he meant was for me to pin my opponent with my chest up and my face up, to let the people see me. Don't worry about the 50 or 100 at ringside, worry about the millions watching at home on TV. Little detail things like that can really make a difference. Always think about the last image you're leaving the fans.

There was something that WWE did back in the day that I thought was real cool: you'd have your match against some enhancement guy, and squash him. They'd then show my signature move, maybe the Razor's Edge, but then they'd do another slow-mo of the toothpick into the lense, so that they got my character over. Now today, I'm making a living signing autographs and telling stories, and people come up to me and ask me to throw a toothpick in their face. They don't ask me to slam them to the ground with The Razor's Edge. (laughs)

The WWE Performance Centre actually has training rooms with video cameras, so the trainees can get used to performing in front of them. How important is it to know where the cameras are?
It's crucial. It's not hard, though - just go down and look at where they are. I always got to the building early and looked for myself. After a while, you know where the cameras are, and can even spot them in a crowded arena. Even still, it's easier to just ask someone; there are people sat in that crew whose job it is to answer any questions you might have. So if you go to them and ask them where the hard camera is, they're going to tell you exactly where it is. And yes, it's important to be facing the hard camera.

The Performance Centre is about 50 minutes from my home in Florida, where Cody grew up. His sister actually goes to college at the University of Central Florida that's connected to it. That's a real nice thing they've got going there - state of the art. I haven't seen it yet, but we had already decided to move to Atlanta to do this wrestling thing. I still think what we've got going on is great. What we're doing is different, and I think maybe better; we're going to different towns all the time, and I think you learn a lot that way. Those guys [at the Performance Centre] have a lot of hi-tech stuff at their disposable, but they're also in the same building all the time, with the same guys in front of the same people. There's more to life; how good can you get, how loose can you get, when you know you're just going to be there all the time?

When Cody goes on the road now, I go to the bigger shows, but I don't go with him all the time. When he comes back from the smaller ones, it's now him telling me stories about time spent on the road. I think he's getting a really great education. I mean, he sort of heard horror stories about the road, too, and he's been on the road with me before. When he was a little kid, he travelled with me, Kevin and Kid (Sean Waltman). He's seen the dark side of life on the road, which I hope will help him make better choices. But he's only 22 years old, I want him to have fun, too, as well as being safe and make good choices.

You seem very passionate about him having a varied grounding in pro wrestling. How important is it to you for him to get all these difference experiences?
It's super important to me. I mean, my number one role is as his Dad; my work as his wrestling coach comes far down the list. But sometimes I want to talk to him about wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, and I have to remember that he's just starting out; I'm hitting him with a lot of stuff, but I have to remember that he's not yet digesting a lot of the information I give him. He's only had 23 matches, so I can't hit him with a lot of main event psychology stuff, because he's not ready for it yet. I don't want him to think I'm critiquing his match, so now I just remember that I'm his Dad, and so when he comes back, I just say, "That's great. I'm proud of you. Nobody got hurt" and thank the other guy, because the main thing I want him to know is that it went great. Then, a day or two later, we dissect it as a business; I put my coach hat on, and take my Dad hat off for a moment. I start talking about the way I see it, dissecting it in the same way I imagine they do at the Performance Centre. I know the people who run that company, and I would imagine that they're doing business that way. I hope they are.

You talk about psychology. Can you define that, as you see it?
Everything is about the opponent for me. A lot of times in my career, I was asked whether I was the good guy or the bad guy, and I was like, "Well, it depends how popular the other guy is." If he's not very popular, then I'm the good guy. I hope he is popular, as I prefer to be the villain, and then I'm in control, because like any play or movie, nothing happens until the villain gets involved. Otherwise, if it's a story about the hero, it would be "Oh, I had a great day", which is kinda boring. People want to see the hero have a bad day, and then see how he responds to that adversity. So without your villain, you have nothing. A good heel can make for great wrestling, especially on the independent scene, and internationally.

got some advice from a guy named Ron Starr years ago. We were partying in a hotel in Puerto Rico after a show, and I was still rocking that look I had in the AWA, still doing the cowboy gimmick. I'm the babyface. He goes, "Man, if I was you, I would be a heel, and go round all the different territories in the world, beat up all the other guys until you get to the main good guy, who usually owns the company, and then after he beats you, off you go to start somewhere else."

And that's what I did. I had a great run in Puerto Rico against Carlos Colon.

What impact has training Cody had on how you view the sport?
I'm so excited again; I'm hungry all over again about wrestling. You get stale; I've seen it happen to me, and I've seen it happen to friends of mine. Sometimes you have no more challenges, because if there's anything you could do, you've already done it. But now it's so cool for me to be able to talk to Cody, and the better he gets, the more I can teach. When I tell him things now, I can see a lightbulb go off in his head, as he's starting to get it.

Nobody breaks into wrestling to work their way to the middle. Everyone wants to be in the main event, and be the big star - at least, that's what I told Cody when he was growing up. So we're trying to teach him main event style, and we're trying to give him the resources he needs. We may not be in Orlando with all the resources of WWE, but all Cody has to do is pick up the phone and he has Kevin Nash or Sean Waltman as his uncles, if he's struggling with things. He can get in touch with the likes of Roddy Piper, or even younger guys like Lance Storm. When Cody talks to me about the stuff these gentleman are sharing with him, it's kinda the same stuff I've been saying, so I'm glad we're all on the same page on how to do this thing at a high level. But Cody admits that it's different to hear this stuff from somebody else, because I'm not Razor or the nWo guy to him, and I don't want to be.

But I'm really digging it; I'm really happy that I'm clear-headed enough to enjoy this, and embrace it.

How did you being working with Cody in the first place?
Our relationship has been pretty rocky. Cody and Cassidy's mother and I don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but at least we have two wonderful kids from that marriage. So there were times that we weren't really close, and his mother didn't want me around. I always told him that when he was older, we could live together.

So he called me one day. You've got to remember that, as he kid, everywhere he went with me, people would go, "Ah, you're that wrestling guy", and in the glory days, it was a mob scene. Don't get me wrong, it was super flattering, and I don't mind it at all, but it's different when you have young kids with you. They just freak out! My kids would get scared because people would rush, and while they're coming with love, they're still coming with a lot of enthusiasm. And because he was a big kid, there was a lot of "Will you be a wrestler? Will you be a wrestler?!" and I was just like, "He's busy being a little kid."

But then, all these years later, Cody calls me and says, "So, Dad, when are you going to teach me how to wrestle?' and I said, "Whenever you want." He goes, "Well, I want a cool job", and I'm like, "It is a cool job!" (laughs)

I just play this over and over in my head while I'm lying down. I barely sleep anymore because I don't want to waste any time. My life is so good right now. Things just keep falling in my lap; it's like a Disney movie, with strippers. (laughs)

Now that your health has improved, is there anything you'd like to say to your fans in the UK?
I invite all the pretty women in the UK to come out and say hi to me, and for all the fat ones to come and say hi to Kev. (laughs)

That brings me to my plea to Brian Dixon, the heavyweight promoter in the UK. From some of the guys like Fit Finlay and Dave Taylor, I know Dixon is a big shot. I think that's the natural progression for Hallman Entertainment to do some more appearances in the UK.