The wrestling world lost an icon last week with the tragic passing of Scott Hall.
The Hardys, Matt and Jeff, shared memories of working with Hall on the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast.
Matt Hardy began by saying it’s extremely sad how Scott Hall’s death seemingly came out of left field. It is difficult to make sense of things when somebody passes away unexpectedly, but Matt feels that it’s important to make the most of each day. The Hardys have always “lived for the moment” but Hall’s passing is a reminder that you never really know how much time you have left in life.
Matt told host Jon Alba that Scott Hall was good to the Hardys when they worked together in the early days of their WWE careers.
“Scott was very cool to us,” he said. “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.”
Matt continued, “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.’”
Jeff Hardy Remembers Scott Hall
Jeff Hardy says Razor Ramon was a huge inspiration on their careers. However, that match against Hall had him reconsidering his love for pro wrestling.
Not only were the WWE rings “terrible” back then (very stiff to take bumps on), but Scott Hall also roughed him up a bit.
“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,” said Jeff. “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.”
That first match against Razor was tough, but he remembers Scott Hall took him under his wing and looked out for him behind the scenes.
“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.”
Listen to Matt and Jeff Hardy on the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy:
