Hall to team up with Sting in TNA

Rumor has it that ‘Bad Guy’ himself, Scott Hall, whose toughest bout has been with the bottle over the years, will make his way back to mainstream wrestling later this month, teaming up with former WCW foe, Sting, with TNA.

I say mainstream wrestling because Scott Hall is presently wrestling with the World Wrestling Council where he won and is still holding their Universal Championship down in San Juan, Puerto Rico which he gained over the summer, defeating Apollo and WWE’s Carlito (whose father runs wrestling in Puerto Rico).

The announcement of Hall’s apparent return to TNA comes as the feud there between Sting and Angle continues after Angle won the TNA title back from Sting last week in a controversial ending involving Hall’s long-time partner Kevin Nash. The plan presently for the Genesis PPV is to have Sting and Hall team up against Angle and Nash, an interesting conflict of personalities when you consider the history between Hall and Nash.

Scott Hall first built up his reputation wrestling under the name of Razor Ramone in WWF while Kevin Nash (who once played center for the Tennessee Volunteers before his wrestling career) simultaneously achieved fame as Shawn Michael’s bodyguard called Diesel. However, it was their move to WCW and the formation of the New World Order along with Hulk Hogan which made them household names.

If you will recall, it was Hall who was the first to show up on WCW programming back in 1996, followed by Nash as the two formed the Outsiders tag-team which would go on to hold WWF tag gold six times. Hall and Nash left WWF the night after competing in major feuds, Nash with Michael Hickenbottom (HBK) and Hall with Paul Levesque (Triple H), all good friends who are sometimes referred to as the Kliq.

Of interesting significance to Hall’s return as Sting’s partner is the way the NWO shocked the world back at Bash at the Beach in 1996. It was at the WCW PPV that Hall and Nash were taking on Lex Luger, Randy Savage, and, you guessed it, Sting, when the Outsiders’ secret partner showed up, none other than Hulk Hogan, who swerved the world by turning heel and heading up the NWO.

One of the most famous pictures in all of wrestling history is Hall, Nash and Hogan standing in the middle of the ring wearing NWO black and white, being pelted by garbage hurled by the shocked wrestling fans who would have never thought about Hogan going to the dark side.

Will Hall and Nash swerve the world again at Genesis and perhaps combine to steal the gold themselves? I’d like to see that. Sure, Nash isn’t in wrestling shape but he even admitted years ago that he only had three moves anyway. Actually, it was Hall who did most of the heavy lifting in their tag team. If we do see an Outsider-type group reformed, I’m sure it will be Hall doing the wrestling for the most part with Nash doing the interviews.

As hard a time as I give TNA for bringing in WWE and WCW rejects, I’ve got to admit that with the addition of the Outsiders, especially after expanding Impact to two hours on Thursday night, they will have an unprecedented collection of some of the greatest tag teams ever. They already have the Steiners, The Dudleys and, let me add one to the mix, the Latin American Exchange, which I believe is the greatest of the modern-day tag teams. And, if we are to listen to rumors, they may soon have Harlem Heat as Booker T has left WWE on the heels of his suspension in the Signature Pharmacies controversy and is rumored to want to join TNA with brother Stevie Ray. Aside from LAX, none are in their prime, but still to see these future hall-of-fame teams compete each week is still pretty impressive for us fans who have a bit of old school in us.

As for the likelihood of Hall’s return given his problems with keeping schedules in years past, we should remember he was an original member of the TNA roster until he quietly disappeared from the wrestling world back in 2004 and that he has succeeded in his return, entrusted with the NWC title. If he does make his return as rumored this next month, let me just say ‘that’s one more for the good guys.’