X-Pac 1-2-360
Guest: Scott Hall
Release Date: January 18th, 2018
Recap by: Sean McGraw
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Recap:
X-Pac is joined by Jimbo, Denise, Bill and TK. This week’s guest will be Scott Hall. X-Pac had a really great time at his appearance The Wrestling Guy Store.
News:
Ric Flair is a very happy man:
His daughter Megan Fliehr is engaged to Conrad Thompson and he announced on Twitter. Pac says Conrad is such a sweetheart of a guy. X-Pac is totally stoked for those two. It makes Pac think of a house show when Ric wrestled Jay Youngblood. Megan brought X-Pac’s wrestling book that George Napolitano made with Ric in it and had Ric sign it for X-Pac. Ric didn’t really do autographs at that point so it was really cool. It’s hard not to like Conrad. He does a great job with his podcasts and he has a couple of other things that he has coming out that X-Pac won’t tell anyone. X-Pac is happy for them.
WWE Performance Center has a new signee
Ricochet has signed with the WWE. Ricochet had a touching farewell at PWG. Chuck Taylor had cut some heel promos going into the match but had a heart-warming send off. Chuck was big part of Ricochet’s training in pro wrestling (maybe he isn’t really a dick in real life lol). A probable landing place in WWE is 205Live. A couple of friends of X-Pac questioned that Ricochet can work on a few things that guys Pac’s age think that guys Ricochet’s age need to do like slow down etc. All of the things that are perceived negatives for Ricochet are correctable. 99.99% of the people on Earth can work as hard as Ricochet but not even come close to what he can do. You can teach him all of the other things. The thing that some people don’t realize is that he is pound for pound one of the strongest guys on the roster.
WWE has also signed a Mae Young Competitor
After months of rumors, Candace LeRae has officially been signed to the WWE. She made every competitor that much better in every one of her matches in the MYC. WWE has brought up the fact that she wrestled against men and are maybe planting the seed for her teaming up with her husband Johnny Gargano and going after Zelina Vega and Andrade “Cien” Almas. X-Pac says that’s appealing (Big understatement there). X-Pac doubts that it will affect her Hot Topic deal. Pro Wrestling Tees did email people saying that they better grab T-Shirts now, because they don’t know if/when the shirts would be pulled off of Pro Wrestling Tees. Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish all had theirs pulled.
A Mae Young Competitor has neck surgery
Jazzy Gabert was supposed to be signed but the offer was rescinded after tests revealed that she needed neck surgery. She put up a go fund me page (I don’t think she actually posted it herself, I think it was a fan that started the page). X-Pac is bummed for her because she’s just getting started. Hopefully the recovery goes well. For X-Pac it was about ten months. It was fortunate to be under a WCW contract at the time because Pac got 100% of his money the whole time he was off. She’s not getting any money. X-Pac donated and asks his listeners to help out as well.
Another WWE Superstar will not be competing in the Women’s Royal Rumble
It was announced that Paige is not competing due to neck injuries. They didn’t give any further details so we don’t know exactly where Paige’s career stands. Pac says he thinks that people may have jumped the gun as to whether her career was over or not. Pac says there are always silver linings in life even though situations appear to be really bad. When X-Pac broke his neck for the second time in WCW his father in law had been diagnosed with cancer. It was a blessing to be able to be there to help take care of him. If he were on the road at that time the situation would have been an awful mess. X-Pac says Paige is as talented outside the ring as she is inside the ring. There is a place for her in wrestling and entertainment for many years to come. X-Pac would hope that she keeps in mind that she’s already had an incredibly successful career even if it may be cut tragically short.
WWE has announced their first inductee into the Hall of Fame
WWE and ESPN announced that Goldberg will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. X-Pac says great for him. It’s great to see that he was able to come back and do things the way he thought they should be done. He’s a credit to the industry. He does a lot of good things outside of the ring and it’s nice to see Bill get recognized. The WWE 24 special on Goldberg is put over and it puts his latest run into perspective. X-Pac says that when he gets to RAW25 he is going to be followed around by cameras as a subject for the WWE 24 series. There are also rumors that Bam Bam Bigelow, Eric Bischoff, and Miss Elizabeth might be others that are inducted this year.
Interview with Scott Hall
X-Pac asks Hall if there are two better people to talk about RAW25 than the two of them. Hall says probably not. They two of them ran the first ever angle on Raw. He also just got a text from the office asking him to bring his ring gear. He said “Are you ribbing me?” He said to give him a little more than a 3-4 day notice and for the right money he’ll have the abs showing. He said he’ll bring the gimmick street shows. He jokes that they want a rematch between he and Pac and is just giving Pac the heads up. Hall says it’s about time for him to go over. X-Pac says that he went over in the diaper match when he was on the way out the door. Pac said you know I’m being punished when he’s leaving and I’m still doing the job! Hall wasn’t sure what the finish was because Vince hated him for giving his notice. Hall thought for sure that he would be wearing the diaper and Hall said he looks pretty good in a diaper – he’s even wearing one right now (This whole story was a pretty funny little bit).
Scott remembers first meeting X-Pac. He knew about the angle six months in advance. They went out of their way to establish Pac as a job guy. Hall remembers being totally worn out from going so hard back in the day. He told Pac to pick one move and then they’d go out and get the match done. Pac picked moonsault and Hall said alright kid, see you out there. After watching it back 25 years later, Hall remarks on how young Pac looked back then saying Pac looked like he was 11. Pac says he couldn’t grow facial hair and he had a lot of baby fat that he was carrying around. Pac wasn’t old enough to legally be in bars yet so he was holding court and shouting “Drinks for everybody!” Hall says Pac was so loaded at one point that Pac put the lit end of a cigar that he was smoking in his mouth (this was a hilarious story that got the whole panel laughing).
Hall brings up Mr. Perfect (X-Pac was riding with Curt when he first started out). Curt never missed an opportunity to rib a guy. He was in the WWE as a really young guy and had a lot of talent. Pat Patterson rubbed off on Curt and by the time Hall got to the AWA, Perfect was taking guys like Hall, Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty, under his wing. Perfect would say that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, if it’s the other guy’s night make them look GREAT.
During the conversation, Hall says that he just got a text from Kevin Nash saying that Nash wouldn’t be at RAW25 (I don’t blame the guy, getting on an airplane sucks on MY knees and I didn’t just have a knee replacement.) Hall asks if X-Pac saw the Picture that Nash put on his Instagram of inside the operating room during his knee surgery. Hall says it looked like a scene from The Walking Dead. Pac says that Nash sent him a picture and Pac could see the amount of pain Nash was in just by looking at his face. Hall jokes that Nash is doing that just to get the nurse to increase the pain meds. Hall says that he and Nash have been communicating and that Nash said that he wasn’t going to be at WrestleMania either. Hall says that he doesn’t care. He loves wrestling and he loves being around the young guys. Plus he loves the catering.
Hall is asked about growing a mustache. Back in the old AWA days he had one of the best mustaches around and when Hall left he pretty much has kept the clean shaven look. When was the last time he had the mustache? Hall says he does a lot of appearances these days and people want to see the guy that they used to see on TV. Hall says that his son Cody keeps trying to get him to grow the mustache back and change his look. Bill mentions that he would pay $100 to have a picture with Hall and the “AWA mustache.” Hall hilariously replied that for $100 he’d have one by the end of the night. Hall talks about how he had heat with Magnum TA and all of the marks back in the day when he was an under guy in WCW. Apparently commentary guys on the old AWA shows would always talk about how he looked like Magnum P.I. So Magnum TA approached Scott and told him that he has to have his own identity. Pac asks if Magnum was already done at this point. Hall says “He was already a gimp. What do mean? I can’t roll up in a wheel chair, brother?”
X-Pac asks Scott to retell the story about how Vince called him the first time and Hall said he wasn’t ready. It was actually Jack Lanza that reached out to Scott. Lanza approached him in St. Louis where they would routinely hold super-shows. This was back before the testing days and Scott is real jacked, young, and hadn’t had any injuries. Lanza was in the office for the AWA, but he was going to make a move to the WWE. Lanza asked Hall if he was ready to make a move and Hall said no, he wasn’t ready. Lanza said to Hall “Everyone’s the s**ts when they start.” Scott replied, “As long as you feel that way, I’m ready!”
Hall also tells an interesting little story about Curt Hennig, Verne Gagne, and Greg Gagne going on a Salmon fishing trip. Apparently a fish ended up spitting a hook in Verne’s eye. They had to sit there and wait for a helicopter to come get them and Curt said that Verne no-sold the hook in his eye.
Hall is asked about any ribs that Mr. Perfect pulled on any Raw shows. Perfect never missed an opportunity to rib a guy. He would also recruit minions in some of the younger guys. Pac admits to being one of them. When they were in Vegas, the casinos would give the wrestlers an extra $50 to gamble with. Curt would give that money to some of the job guys if they made him look particularly good. He would talk to the young guys and Hall said he thought it was because Curt was such a kind guy. Curt then told Hall that you always have to be nice to the young guys because you never know who they’ll turn out to be.
Scott is asked to speak more in-depth on his match with X-Pac on the first RAW. What was it like? Was he surprised at the reaction? It went exactly as programmed. When Vince talked to him about it he kept the details on the down-low. Vince was insistent on it being a clean win, because there can’t be any controversy, otherwise he won’t be the 1-2-3 Kid, he’ll be the 1-2-ugh kid. What was it like working with someone smaller? It was the perfect matchup because of the prior buildup. They were able to do a lot of stuff and it was the perfect place, perfect time.
Are there any younger wrestler that Hall is excited for meeting or perhaps working with when he goes to RAW25? Hall is a Finn Balor fan; he’s a Kevin Owens fan. Hall also likes Cesaro and Sheamus. He doesn’t care about the Bullet Club/Balor Club using the “too sweet” hand gesture. They know where it came from. It’s a way for younger people to rediscover the past. He likes being around the young guys because he remembers what it was like to be a young guy.
The conversation with Hall wraps up and then the panel goes around the table with their plugs.
Rating 6/10
I feel like this episode is a love it or hate it episode. I try not to be too negative, but I feel like this one had a lot of things going against it. They were dealing with technical difficulties a lot and, in my opinion, that was the least of their worries. I think that the conversation really suffered from X-Pac’s and Scott Hall’s familiarity with each other. Hall was all over the place. He would be answering a question and then get sidetracked by little details that would lead to a totally different tangent. I could see where some would find this kind of conversation entertaining, but for me it was tough to concentrate. Another problem is that I was really put off by some of the things that Scott said. The Magnum TA comment seemed to be way out of line and really put a major damper on listening to the rest of the episode. At one point in the episode Hall made the proclamation that he is a Christian, but the way that he was talking and the way that he presented himself made him sound pretty hypocritical. Having said that, I want to make it clear that I have never met Hall or spoken with Hall and these are just impressions from the hour or so conversation from the podcast. Aside from the negative aspects of the show – there were a couple of funny stories and there were some interesting stories about Scott and about the 1-2-3 Kid and Razor matches from the early days of RAW. I think if you’re a big Hall fan, you’ll enjoy this episode. If you’re just an average fan, this might be a tough listen.
Timestamps:
00:00 – 29:10 Intros and News Discussion
29:11 – 29:54 Ad Break
29:55 – 1:25:32 Interview with Scott Hall
1:25:33 – 1:29:09 Show wrap up
About Sean:
Sean is a media professional from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sean’s earliest memory of wrestling is seeing Kane on WWF television in 1998. Sean watched primarily WWF in the Attitude Era and dropped off just before the initial brand split. Seeing recap promos of the Undertaker building up to WrestleMania 20, he became hooked and has been an avid fan ever since. Sean’s wrestling preferences currently lean more towards NJPW/ROH/NXT but he remains a fan of it all. In his spare time Sean enjoys cooking, baking, and going to the gym. You can follow Sean via Twitter @stmcgraw and Instagram @stmcgraw09.
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