The passing was announced on March 14 of professional wrestler Scott Hall - perhaps best known to '90s kids in Ireland as archetypal WWF villain Razor Ramon, and later, under his own name, as a part of the New World Order storyline that permanently broke the medium's jealously-guarded fourth wall in Warner Bros-owned WCW.
Hall had been placed on life support following cardiovascular complications from hip replacement surgery, suffering three heart attacks at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, in Georgia, USA. He had been booked for a number of fan events in the coming weeks, making personal appearances and signing autographs for devoted followers.
Starting in the Mid-West of America during the tail-end of professional wrestling's regional territory system in the 1980s, Hall became a superstar in earnest upon joining the World Wrestling Federation (now known simply as WWE), and inhabiting the character of Razor Ramon, a self-styled 'bad guy' patterned after Tony Montana, protagonist of legendary gangster film Scarface.
Acting as a foil for the company's heroes, such as Bret "Hit Man" Hart and "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hall quickly became a success, racking up four reigns with the WWF's secondary Intercontinental Championship, including a famous Ladder Match opposite on-screen rival and real-life friend Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X, in April of 1994 at Madison Square Garden, New York.
In 1996, after ditching long-held pro wrestling convention and publicly embracing colleagues on either side of the goodie-baddie spectrum of on-screen personae at a WWF event, Hall and longtime close friend Kevin Nash, better known as the WWF's Diesel, defected to World Championship Wrestling, then owned by the Time Warner media conglomerate that had built its cable-television entertainment channels on weekend pro wrestling shows popular in the American South.
There, alongside Nash and a shocking villainous turn from career hero Hulk Hogan, Hall led the New World Order faction, a renegade group of black-clad wrestlers that were seemingly invading the long-time "traditional" wrestling stronghold to seize control for themselves, and whose membership would, at one point, include NBA star Dennis Rodman.
The storyline ignited a ratings war in the US between the WWF and WCW companies, each outdoing the other in terms of shock and spectacle to capture a ravenous Monday-night audience on basic cable television - not the least of which was running an on-screen storyline that reflected Hall's real-life battles with alcoholism and addiction.
After being released in 2000 by WCW, Hall returned to the WWF for a brief revival of the New World Order group in 2002, as well as making appearances with smaller companies like TNA Wrestling in the years that followed. His career was marked by his struggles with addiction, however, as well as the revelation in a 2011 ESPN documentary that his pre-wrestling life was affected by his involvement in a 1983 altercation that became fatal, with a second-degree murder charge dismissed due to lack of evidence.
Fellow professional wrestler-turned-yoga exponent "Diamond" Dallas Page reached out to Hall in 2013 to help him overcome his addiction and psychological battles, crowdfunding for necessary medical expenses, and succeeding in helping the veteran wrestler get clean.
Hall subsequently enjoyed a late-career resurgence outside the ring, making special appearances on WWE television and independent wrestling shows around the world, including an appearance for now-defunct Cork-based promotion Celtic Championship Wrestling.
In 2014, Hall, under the character of Razor Ramon, was inducted into WWE's Hall of Fame on a solo basis, while a group induction for the New World Order faction in 2020 saw him enter the Hall a second time, under his own name.
— Adam (@cluelesnerd) March 14, 2022I've watched this 18 second clip so many times today and the quote still hits every time I watch it
"Hard work pays off! Dreams come true! Bad times don't last! But bad guys do!" - Scott Hall pic.twitter.com/ynlDNnrZvS
Kevin Nash confirmed Hall's family would take the decision to end his life support on Instagram on Sunday night: "Once his family is in place they will discontinue life support.
"I'm going to lose the one person on this planet I've spent more of my life with than anyone else. My heart is broken and I'm so very f**king sad.
"I love Scott with all my heart, but now I have to prepare my life without him in the present."
Peers, contemporaries, and wrestling companies the world over paid tribute last night over social media, while WWE opened its weekly 'Raw' programme with a tribute video featuring some of his career highlights.
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