While Scott Hall hasn’t wrestled for WWE since 2002 the co-founder of the nWo has revealed that he’s still being handsomely paid by the company.
Appearing on a special edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff Scott Hall reflected on the beginnings of the nWo and how he made the move from WWE to WCW.
When Scott Hall appeared on Monday Nitro on May 27th 1996, it set into motion a story and chain of events which would change the wrestling business forever. Hall was joined by Kevin Nash on June 10th, before the duo became a trio at Bash At the Beach with the addition of Hulk Hogan.
Reflecting on the nWo’s impact, Hall described how at events he’s often meeting fans who weren’t even born with when the angle took place, but they still know and appreciate the story.
“I’ve got three signings in the New York area and I’ll be darned, and I’m sure you see it E [Eric Bischoff] you go to these appearances and praise God there’s always a long line. I’m amazed, I haven’t wrestled in forever, but there’s always a line. But now there’s little kids that will come up to you with a little nWo shirt, throwing the Wolfpack up, and I’m going ‘You weren’t even born when this was happening.’ And they’ll talk to you about the whole angle. So thank you to WWE Network for keeping us vital and all those guys in WWE merch for coming out with sweet merch. [laughs]”
Eric Bischoff added that he had spoken with Kevin Nash recently who had commented on how well WWE’s nWo merchandise was still selling. Hall quickly confirmed just how well the merchandise was doing by revealing that he’s still earning six-figures without making any appearances.
“Yeah, I mean I’m making six-figures just off merch. And every once in a while when you make an appearance you get paid more. The funny part is that now when I hardly ever work for them or or do anything the payoffs are always way better. It’s always first class air fair, they always have a driver at the airport. Now when I was filling seats for them and travelling all around the world, I couldn’t get sh*t. [laughs]
On an earlier episode of the podcast, Bischoff also discussed Hall’s move to WCW. Bischoff explained that by 1996, Hall had developed something of a reputation which caused him to be wary of working with the star.
The former WCW President recalled going to pick Hall up from the airport to gauge how he was.
“So Scott obviously had a history and a reputation. And I was a little bit concerned about it. It wasn’t a secret. And I wanted to really get inside Scott’s head…
“But his reputation preceded him and I picked Scott up at the airport, Marriott in Atlanta, I live there obviously at the time, and had him ride with me down to Macon because that was, you know, an opportunity to have some was about an hour and half drive, I guess two hour drive. And I thought it would be a great opportunity to kind of just get inside his head a little bit and see where see what I could really learn about him and where his head was at and if he was clean or not to be honest, and to also set the tone with him because in 1996 at this point 1996 the morale in the WCW locker room was very high.”
Hall and Nash joining WCW not only created a major stir amongst fans, but also with the wrestlers they’d left behind in WWE (WWF). Speaking on WWE Untold: Two Dudes With Attitudes, Nash revealed that Shawn Michaels was “p***ed” over his exit, admitting that he had every right to be.
After WWE and WCW had traded ratings victories earlier in 1996, Nitro enjoyed it’s greatest run of success after the arrival of Hall and Nash, beating RAW for 83 consecutive weeks.
Scott Hall returned to WWE in 2014, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. The former Razor Ramon has gone on to appear sporadically for the company ever since. Later becoming a two-time Hall of Famer after being inducted alongside his nWo brothers in 2021.