The news this weekend that former WWF star Razor Ramon / Scott Hall is on life support was sad to hear. The man had overcome some really tough times in life. Well documented fights against drugs and alcohol were just as famous as his in-ring bouts with Shawn Michaels or the NWO. But he pulled his life together and seemed to be in a good place. News reports say his family will visit him and they will then take him off life support as soon as today.
I got into radio only really because I grew out of professional wrestling. I loved the WWF as a kid. My mother somehow scraped together enough money to take me to Atlantic City to see WrestleMania 4. The seats were so good we were just a few rows away from a real estate guy who one day would become the president. I got to see Hulk Hogan take on Andre The Giant and Sarasota’s own “Macho Man” Randy Savage lift his first world championship belt. It’s sad to look at the pictures I snapped on my Kodak Disc camera back then. So many of the guys are no longer with us.
Before you assume this is a hit job piece on the WWF, it’s not. Years later, I got to work in pro wrestling as a ring announcer and got to hear real stories. Yes, many of the guys took steroids. (They were legal in the 80s.) Yes, many of the guys partied. But put the judgment away for a moment and try to understand the life they lived back then. You don’t know what these guys went through. Unlike other sports, yes I call pro wrestling a sport, there is no offseason. There are no home games. Constantly traveling, trying to eat well, find a place to work out, performing while injured all while resisting the temptations with drugs that eased the pain … that was a tough balance for the guys back then. It probably still is.
My pro wrestling fan days are behind me. I turn it on from time to time to reminisce. I even went to WrestleMania in 2021 when it came to Tampa. But it was really that mid to late 80s era of WWF and NWA wrestling that made my childhood so awesome. And these 10 WWE legends are missed.