Review for WWE The Scott Hall Story: Living On A Razor's Edge

Scott Hall is one of the most talented wrestlers to ever step foot in the squared circle. He's also almost one of the wrestling world's most tragic stories that thankfully never reached the obvious conclusion. Watching this documentary was almost like watching the rise and fall and rise of someone who many people had written off as a lost cause. Some websites even had macabre deadpool jokes with Hall always being the one they were surprised to have survived another year.

Thankfully that is the case.

This documentary follows Hall's early upbringing, his moving around due to his father being in the military and his initial love of wrestling. They discuss the incident when he shot someone dead in self defence and I am glad they did not gloss over that too much, but you can see just how traumatic this was for Hall. This is brought up many times as the main reason why Hall had issues and you can understand that something like this could have such a massive effect on anyone's life.

We see how he got into the wrestling business working in the AWA, WCW and then to the WWE as Razor Ramon. His time in the AWA was great to see, especially seeing his time working with Curt Hennig (Mr Perfect). When he gets into WCW, it is actually surprising how much his Diamond Studd character was like the Razor Ramon character even so far as to look, have the the tooth pick and 'Bad Guy' nickname. This is ironic considering when he went to WCW later on WWE filed a gimmick infringement lawsuit?

It was his debut as Razor Ramon in the WWE that showed the world just how good he was. Whether it's his promos or his fantastic matches he was one of the best. We see the infamous 123 Kid match which is one of the most memorable moments in wrestling history. During this time he hooked up with The Kliq and this became a very volatile group and also the impact that they had.

Of course they discuss the Ladder match against Shawn Michaels at
Wrestlemania X which was built wonderfully as a story and ended with one of the best matches of all time. This shows just how great Hall was in the ring and with Michaels it was just magical. I have seen this match so many times and have it on so many sets, but I still can't get enough of just how perfect this match is.

Despite his popularity, including a wonderfully emotional moment with some children on the Jerry Springer show, Hall felt his money in the WWE had not reached the pinnacles of a Hulk Hogan or any other big star. He asked for more money and this was declined. It was this that led to him going to WCW. It would be harsh to say he left for the money, but he did, though when you hear about the kind of work schedule that he and Kevin Nash who left also, had to do during this time you can understand why they took the guaranteed money in favour of the WWE's mystery payments that they would get based on how much a house drew and how much they were over at the time. Both, and Vince McMahon himself, regrets the decisions, but Vince admits he simply could not compete with Ted Turner's chequebook which was seemingly vast at the time. Of course this lead to the Madison Square Garden Curtain Call, which is only mentioned briefly.

Upon appearing in WCW, Razor Ramon, now as Scott Hall along with Kevin Nash and the Third Guy which turned out to be a Heel Hulk Hogan formed the nWo. And this group skyrocketed the ratings of WCW to beat WWE in the ratings. The lawsuit over the 'Razor or Scott' character is discussed as well as his infamous 'Hey Yo' catchphrase, which he says he took from the film Rocky 2.

It is at this point we start looking at the dark side of Scott Hall's life. His marriage begins falling apart, ironically this is due to the fact that he home more. The discussion of his 'demons' and the problem with WCW was because he had guaranteed money, he could practically do what he wanted. This was not a good and even Eric Bischoff admits he should have done something more about it.

His final run in WWE is looked at, but at that point he was miserable and everyone, Hall including admits it wasn't the best time for him to be in the business. Following leaving the company, his life spiralled out of control, being arrested multiple times. During this time, Kevin Nash tried to help him so many times getting Hall to rehad, which always lead to a relapse.He even admits this happened twelve times.

They show the sad footage of him at an indy show where he could barely move and watching it is just heartbreaking. This, followed by a possible suicide attempt, was the rock bottom for Hall which lead to the wonderful saviour that was Diamond Dallas Page. With his help, he was able to raise money for Scott to get his hip fixed and then a routine of getting him back into shape and most importantly: Clean.

(Note: If you want to see more of his work I would definitely recommend the documentary The Resurrection of Jake the Snake)

This is wonderful to see and I still feel that WWE should have DDP on staff as someone to help when people are in this situation.

This all lead to Scott Hall's induction into the WWE Hall of Fame which was thoroughly deserved and when you watch this set and you watch his journey and just what he has contributed to the business you can see this.

The two disks is filled with extra features. These include all of the original Razor Ramon debut vignettes and a great outtake reel too. All of these are wonderful to see how they began to introduce the character. There are eight minutes worth of extra interviews which are great and really all of them could have been included in the main feature including a look at his friendship with Kevin Nash, looking at Nash's work as Oz, which needs to be seen to be believed. There is also an amazing look at Hall making an appearance in ECW which I had never seen before and was interesting to see.

The wealth of the extras are matches and boy do they push the boat out to include every great match Scott Hall was ever in. There are 28 matches in total and all are pretty good. Highlights include from the AWA we have a perfect tag match with him teaming with Curt Hennig against The Long Riders. This just showed how great both men were as a team and as individuals in the ring.

From WWE they of course include the Wrestlemania X Ladder match which I never tire of watching. However, they also include other matches just as good including a great match against Bret Hart at the Royal Rumble 1993 and the infamous 123 Kid Match. What I love about these matches is it shows just how well he can work with anyone.

From his nWo WCW days they include a fantastic match between him and Kevin Nash against Harlem Heat. This is probably one of the best tag matches I have seen in a long time and it was a pleasure to relive it. There is also a great match against Chris Jericho which was proof that Hall never refused to put people over.

Another great match is a world championship match against Sting and this is interesting because although he was a bona fide main eventer it was very rare that Hall would ever be in the world title picture and so this is a nice break from the usual Hogan or Nash taking over the main spot.

They also include his Hall of Fame induction which was great to watch and you can feel from everyone just how delighted everyone in that arena is that he finally got back to the position he always should have been.

Living on a Razor's Edge: The Scott Hall story is possibly the best example of a redemption story. I would not be surprised if his (or even his and Jake Roberts') story is turned into a film. Yes Aronofsky's The Wrestler showed that fall into the 'demons' of pro wrestling, but it never gave you the redemption that this true story gives you. If you have anyone in your life who has hit rock bottom and cannot see any way out, show them this documentary because to quote Razor 'It's not about how many times you get knocked down, it's about how many times you get back up!'