Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Scott Hall's Son Cody Hall On His Father's Legacy And Following In His Footsteps

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

Cody Hall (@realcodyhall) is a professional wrestler and the son of the late WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the recent passing of his father, what it was like growing up with Razor Ramon as a father, following in his footsteps as a professional wrestler, working for New Japan, what happened when he signed with MLW, his favorite Scott Hall matches, how DDP saved his father's life, what his current career goals are and much more! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Believe! All right, my friends, welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CBV Chris Van Fleet, and thank you so much for being with us for such a powerful conversation. Scott Hall was an absolute legend, and the wrestling world as a whole mourned his passing back in March, And whether you knew him as Razor Ramon or Scott Hall, he left an indelible mark. And he is never, ever going to be forgotten. Just a few weeks ago at the LAX Fan Fest in Los Angeles, I had the pleasure of meeting his son, Cody Hall.

And we immediately hit it off. We had a great conversation. And I put out an open invitation for him to be a guest on the podcast whenever he wanted to talk about his career, both in and out of the ring. I mean, he is very much his own man, but also to talk about the memory of his father. And a few days later, he took me up on it. And here we are. We were sitting down to do this interview. So check him out on social media at Real Cody Hall on Instagram, at Cody underscore Hall 1 on Twitter.

And if you're not following me, just my name at Chris Van Fleet. And I'm sure you're already subscribed to the show if you're listening right now. But if not, take a second right now to either subscribe. or check to see if you're subscribed because we got some great conversations like this one that I know you won't want to miss out on. Without further ado,

please welcome Cody Hall. Cody, are you at DDP's studio right now? You nailed it. I am. I'm at the DDP Yoga Performance Center. Yes, very recognizable. That's why I picked it. I thought it would be a great backdrop for today's meeting. And look, Dallas is just such an awesome guy. I don't know nearly as well as you do, but, you know, I have zero bad things to say about him.

I love that guy. Yeah, absolutely. I always tell Dallas, like when he dies, he's going to get to hang out with God himself. Dallas is really like an angel. He has a big personality, so sometimes that can be a lot. But if that's the worst thing that you can say about somebody, you're doing pretty good. So he's a special one. So you're based in Atlanta.

How close are you to the DUDE Performance Center? I'm five minutes from performance. Oh, my gosh. So do you see Dallas a lot? I try to. Dallas is a busy guy, so I give him his own space. He has his own life. But I love the touch base with him and check in.

We try to do our workouts, like, once a week. And just kind of let him know, like, what I have going on and taking his advice. Is he like one of your wrestling uncles? I would think so, yeah. I have a couple people that I consider my uncle. So Dallas is definitely one of them. And I can really count on Dallas, maybe even more than anybody. Let me guess.

The other one's Kevin Nash, perhaps. Big Kevin, of course, Uncle Pock. Yeah, right, right. So I was so fortunate to meet you last week at the LAX Fan Fest. And it was so cool to see you there. And yeah, so cool to like finally meet you in person. And the first thing that you notice is like, you're a big dude, like a really big dude. Yeah, thank you.

I'm pretty tall. I would like to still fill out more. You know, I'm in the gym every day trying to reach my potential. So working on it. But thank you. I think the other thing I noticed immediately is you were wearing your father's Hall of Fame ring. Are you still wearing right now?

Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm wearing it right now. I thought maybe you would mention it. And yeah, I enjoy wearing it. It kind of makes me feel closer to him. It's kind of like my good luck charm now. So there's one for me, one for my sister, and mine's pretty much always with me. Oh, no way.

Wow. Was your father also buried with his, or are you wearing his wreck? No. I have the Razor one, and she has the Scott Holland W.L. Oh, wow. Why know they all have an inscription? So what's the inscription on this one? Yeah, let me see if I can show it to you.

This one says razor on the inside. Why do we get to it? The other way. There we go. I don't know if this is going to focus at all. I think you can kind of see it there. Oh, that's so cool. It's in there somewhere.

Wow. Yeah, what does it mean to you to be wearing that every single day? I mean, I would much rather have my father than the rings. But it just kind of takes me back to the memories. You know, all the time. I wish that I could talk to him about L.A. and told them that I met you and stuff. And I feel that all the time.

But at least when I look down at this, I know I have like part of them close to me. Yeah. It's kind of a trade off. When I saw you on the weekend, you were basically saying, like, I'm back out there. I'm doing this again. So you took a bit of a hiatus from wrestling. So you're back and you're taking bookings now, right? I am.

Yeah. So I'm on the independent scene now. So not too many upcoming events, but anybody wants to get a hold of me. Please contact me, Instagram, Twitter, getting my email. And I would love to be back out there. I've only been doing it for a couple weeks since I've decided to wrestle again. And I've been loving it. And it's addictive again.

And I wish I had a match today, you know, so. What's addictive about it? Is it the crowd reaction? I would say that's probably the first. first thing you think of. Wrestling can be so many things. Like it can really give you a sense of purpose. When you wake up as a wrestler,

whether you're thinking about your next costumes, sitting down with a pin and paper, whether you're in the gym working on your body, whether you're washing matches or working on your promos or catchphrases. And then, you know, it can bring you to travel, all these friendships. You know,

it gave me a way to meet you who brought us together. And then, yeah, of course, like getting the pops and the reactions from the fans and, like, their love and sport, that's the part that's kind of irreplaceable. And even though, like, people clapping or cheering your name, as a sound, I swear, it's like a physical feeling sometimes. It's like you feel like I'm crashing over you and it gives you goosebumps and it's a,

it really is addictive. So walk me through the decision number one to step away from wrestling and then number two, a few weeks ago to go, you know what, I want to do this again. Okay. So like you said, wrestling can be a lot of things. It can be a lot of good, but it can be a lot of bad. So the highs are high, the lows are low. And I felt like I kind of experienced both.

And maybe I was in a phase where I was kind of seeing more of the lows. I had been working in Japan for several years, so living abroad can be exciting, but can be tough. I had some personal life stuff that kind of coincided with living abroad, kind of questioning the wrestling. I was getting towards 30, and even though I do love wrestling, it's like my passion. There are other things that make me feel happy. I do believe that I can be more than that. So I thought maybe I would step away and try that kind of real life. But the whole time I missed it, it was always kind of considering coming back.

And then, of course, losing my father, kind of like the outpour of like the love. and seeing like how much he meant to people and remembering all those kind of experience that I had similar like how I got to travel and all the people that I've met hoped that I got to touch them. It just made me really appreciate it and I just want to be a part of it more. Yeah.

Well, you're in such a difficult position because your father was one of the absolute greats. And I feel like when people see you, they want to see a piece of your father. And you are your own man, but at the same time, you're living in this gigantic shadow that he's left. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I used to think it was like my burden to bear. Now I've been trying to like see it as like my torch to carry because I am so proud. You know, my father was a great man who did a lot of great things in his life. He lived a very full life. So I'm happy for him and proud of them. But it is definitely hard. You know, like at every show I go to, people want to come up and say like, oh, such, such about your father. He was the coolest or the best or, you know, that's hard to live down.

It's definitely hard to like overshine him or step out of that shadow. So I always had like a big like inferiority kind of complex about it. Like no matter what I did, I never felt good enough. No matter what I did, people would never really acknowledge it. It was always just about my father. So that was definitely a struggle for me. And it kind of still is. Yeah, like when you first got into wrestling,

people just assume you're going to be Scott Hall Jr., Razor Jr., and you're trying to be your own man. And I think it actually works in your favor that you don't look a ton like him. So then you can step out and be your own man. How hard was it when you first got into wrestling to really find your own footing? I mean, I would say I'm still searching for it. I mean, my first couple matches, I wore my father's old gear. I wore the dripping blood, and I would go out there and hit the razor's edge.

And it was fun. You know, I loved like playing to my father and doing all his old moves and abdominal stretching guys and just like doing an old like razor remote match. But it definitely became hard. Like I said, like every time people look at me, they think of my father. So accentuating that is only going to kind of make it worse. I'm not going to come out and do his cha-cha and his fire and all these things to like play into it. Because being an imitation is always like, you know, it's kind of a losing effort from the start.

So who am I trying to be is definitely a for a bait still. Yeah, who are you trying to be right now? I don't know. I've definitely experimented, but I've never had like a, I don't know. I've never really stuck to it. Because like I said, I want to be so good. You know, I take it so serious to live up to it. And, you know, I enjoy wrestling so much.

And I want to be a perfectionist. I'm like so proud of myself that nothing's ever kind of been good. enough for me. So I don't know. I still try. I never give up on it, but I'm not quite there. I mean, there's going to be a lot of people who maybe haven't seen your work in Japan and your work with the Bullet Club. If they were to go back and watch some of that stuff, what would they see? What does Cody Hall the wrestler look like? Oh, man. See, that's a really tough question for me. Like I said, I'm very like a self-deprecating person. For me, it's, I've always been like really hard on myself. And one of the things I've always wanted is like my moment, like my ladder match,

something that I could tell someone to go back and look at. And I feel like I've never had that. I've definitely had matches I enjoyed where I go to the back and I thank the guy and I say, we should have a rematch and I sincerely meet it and I loved it. But it's still never as good as I see it in my head, never as good as I feel that I want to be. So I couldn't even tell you. This is like that idea of like imposter syndrome. You know what I'm talking about?

Explain it to me. Imposter syndrome is this idea of like you're there. You're doing the thing, but you go, I don't deserve to be here. I'm not good enough. I'm not as good as these other people that are here. I shouldn't be here. That's something that a lot of very successful people deal with. It sounds like shades of that, absolutely.

Let's take this way back. Who were you as a kid when you were growing up? And at what age did you realize your father was raised a Ramon? I was always a really shy kid. Growing up, I don't think I totally grasped it because I just remember people always coming out to my father and kind of being weird. And now I see it now.

They were just excited to meet him and they were appreciating him or whatever. But people would come up and be shaking or we would go to restaurants and people would stare or everybody would come up to me and say, hey, are you going to be a wrestler too? And as a little kid, like, you don't know what to say or like why people are treating your father this way. I just thought he had like a weird effect on people. But I guess like toward my midteens, I started to grasp like he had some stardom and that's why he's always gone.

That's why he's always traveling. So it took a while to him. Was he on the road like all the time up until maybe your teenage years? Yeah, it definitely feels like it. I would never say like my father was like an absentee father. It's not as though I didn't know him and he wasn't in my life. But he was gone a lot. That was just kind of like the nature of the beast.

So I definitely remember like my mother being around more, especially like my childhood like formative years. So when people are asking you and you're a kid like, you're going to be a wrestler when you grow up? What's your answer when you're a kid? And then when does that shift to go? You know what? I think I do want to try this.

Yeah, I would say no as a kid just because I felt like I didn't know what else to say. I would just kind of be surprised by it. I didn't fully really understand. Or if anything, you know, it was kind of complex because, like, my mom would blame a lot of wrestling on, like, some of my father's, like, shortcomings or problems they had. So I kind of didn't know better. But just after going through life, after high school,

I joined the service for a little bit. I was in the Air Force. And that was, you know, a good experience, but I didn't want to stay in for a career. And I kind of wasn't sure which direction to turn. And around that age, me and my father, I started kind of reconnecting. He was not really getting sober,

but I was more worried that he was doing so poorly. Maybe he wasn't going to last longer. So I was making that extra effort to push through and get to know him again. And all he really had to like teach me or all he ever really like would get excited about his wrestling. So I decided I'm just going to get into wrestling too. So we have something common. So that was like the bond that brought you guys together. Yeah. It was always the time that I wanted. You know, I would not. Yeah. My father was there for me. We would fish and we would do stuff. But I feel like the best times we ever had was making our road trips together, washing matches together. That's when I really had his full attention and interest. That's when he would really come to

life when he was talking about wrestling. So that's what it took to finally get to know. Were you backstage a lot at WWF as a kid with him? I wouldn't say a time, but I definitely remember a couple times he took us on road trips. Like when him and my parents were in between dating or divorces or whatever, I remember I got to go on the road with him for like a month straight and make some loops and go through the Northeast when he had like just come back to WWE and was feuding with Stone Gold. And I remember some of those being really cool.

Like I was still kind of young. So I remember like when Stone Cold would be kicking his ass, I would be scared. and stressed out like keb aren't we going to go find him you know what's going on but um it was great times so you would have been like what 10 11 at that time probably around there wow that was it also a really exciting time uh in wrestling because wcw wwee we're merging right your father goes back to wwee after all those years like a lot was going on there right absolutely yeah that was prime time it was really golden years for it so i was glad that i could see it um there's definitely have been times I wish that maybe I was a little bit older, so I could have been around for more of, like,

his WCW, like, UW around and appreciated it. But I'm happy without things turned up. I do want to say thank you for your service. And I'm curious, what went into your, like, the thought process to wanting to join the service? I guess I was just kind of like a lost soul. You know, that's kind of what you do. Like, if you don't have a lot of direction, the military is good for people. So, like I said, my parents had been kind of back and forth when I was growing up. I was living with a single mother at the time, and I knew that she was working really hard to feed my sister and I. Like, my mom just cleaned houses for a living. So that's, you know, really hard work. So I just thought, like, I want to get out of the house. I want to kind of alleviate the burden.

And I've always been kind of like an independent guy. So I figured this is my way to just branch out right away and have my own thing going. So I did it. And I like I said, I wouldn't regret it. I had a great time. I still people touch some of those friends. But I just thought, you know, I had a lot of friends back home telling me, oh, you should have tried college. You've been a community college. I had my father, you know, finally talking to me, hey, you should come be a wrestler, you know, like I can coach you up. Let's do that instead. And I decided just to go with him. Look, it's an interesting part of your life where in your 18, 19, 20, 21, where you feel like you could go in so many different directions. You know, you went and you served United States and then you came

back and you still got the opportunity to go do all these other things that you want to do. Yeah, it was great. So your father kind of says, hey, let's do this thing. And you start training to be a pro wrestler. Was it 21? I think so around there. Yeah, early 20s, 21 sounds right. And was it with him and Dallas? No, it was mainly just him in our living room. He had like one DVD with four or five of his matches, burns onto it, and we would just watch them over and over.

I would lock up with him, and this was what he wasn't doing good, so he was real frail, so that'd have to be real gentle with him, and we would just kind of go through holds. And then eventually you found somebody with a wrestling school, and I had a couple really basic matches, where it was just, you know, like do the moves and get through it. And then from there, he started kind of having a hard time again, and then he moved up to Atlanta to live with Dallas

and that's when he really got cleaned up and then I followed him up there and that's when my whole kind of indie push and moving to Japan and everything jumped off from. So were you living with him up until that point? Up until leaving for Japan? No, no, like when he moved in with Dallas and Atlanta, were you living with him in Florida?

We have been living together and then he went away for some kind of rehab and I kind of held down the fort and then from rehab and he went back up to Atlanta and then he was just telling me like, hey, I'm doing great, you know, like Dallas, you know, he has my back, he has your back, there's a room for you too. And if you want to come up here and do a fresh start, you know, I think it'd be great for both of us.

And like I said, I was just so excited that he was doing good. He really did seem like he was on the right track. And, you know, I just got swept up in it. Yeah, a lot of people credit DDP for saving your father's life. Would you agree with that? He deserves the credit, absolutely. Yeah. And what, like, walk me through what that was like.

Obviously, Dallas is a good friend of your father's. He knew that he needed help. Where does it go from there? Okay. Well, like you said, my father was kind of gone. I guess when he first decided to go or Dallas first convinced him. But he had definitely kind of been knocking on death's door for a while there. Like I said, that's what kind of brought me back in to like push through even his tough times and how he was being.

Just as I thought I should spend this time with my father before he's gone. We even did like an ESPN special around that time. So you can kind of look back and like see the condition he was in. And I almost thought that was kind of our goodbye. So just for Dallas to step in It really did give him like a whole other decade of his life Gave him the chance to go on earth These Hall of Fame rings

And just like leave the world in such a better place Create so much more goodwill And like good memories for my sister and I So Dallas is an angel I'm really curious The four matches that you had burned onto a DVD When you're learning to wrestle in your living room What matches were they?

They were all razor stuff I think it was him versus Bam Bam Him versus Martel Maybe one versus Sean I forget the other but just over and over, just work on the basics. I'm sure you get asked this all the time,

but what is your one Scott Hall match or Razor match? Someone asked me this recently, so I try to give different answers. Oh, okay. I like some of the stuff in Japan. Maybe one of my favorite ones that just came to mind when you said that's him versus Keb. I think it was a Halloween havoc,

just because it's so rare to sealing them to wrestle against each other and in a singles. So it wasn't exactly like a five-star classic, but just because I appreciate them. to you so much. That's nice to see. You know, something different than like him versus Sean. Which, which I think is the match that a lot of Razor fans will immediately. Of course. I can't give you that one. I mean, come on. That's such a great match, right? Oh, of course it is. Yeah, I love that one. I mean, Sean's so great too. That's what made it's so good.

Like that finish, he gets his leg caught in the rope. Susie unties himself, gets his arm caught. You know, my dad told me he didn't even know he was going to do that. You know, I just show like, I wonder if Sean even knew or if he's just that good. Wow. That's what's fun about being out there, right? You can make even better on the fly, you know, once you're really comfortable out there. It's cool. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup.

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Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Do you remember the very first match of your fathers that you watched was? That's a hard question. So I'm going to have to say no. Nothing comes to mind. Or do you remember like the first event? Like was it a WrestleMania? I have kind of vague memories of doing something in Florida near our house where I think he did like a charity show for John Tenta, who was Earthquake.

And I have some photos that he and I are together. And I feel like I have some memories of that. So I'll have to go with that. How is your neck doing, by the way? My neck feels fine. Yeah, so unfortunately that was somebody kind of just grailed my career. Like I was in the Bullet Club in New Japan.

Things were going good. Yeah. But I just caught a dive one day. Like Nick Jackson, who I'd taught many times before, just kind of hit me weird. And I had like really bad pinched nerve. So I took some time off from New Japan. That's eventually how I ended up losing my job.

I told him I need some time off. And during that hiatus, they decided just to bring over some Bullet Club guys to kind of just like fill the roster. Adam Page, Adam Cole, people switched over. So by the time I was finally healed up and feeling good again, they told me like, hey, you know, we've kind of moved on without you. Maybe we can work you back in for next year.

And at the time, I wasn't really sure, like, what to do. You know, I wasn't sure if that was like their true answer or that was just a way to kind of like, you know, like let me go quietly. And I was kind of like going through it. So I asked my good friend Lance Archer for his advice. And he told me I'm about to leave Nella. Maybe you could go there. They could be looking for a new big guy.

And I said, hey, that makes a lot of sense. And he said, if you want to come down to a cork and later today, I'll introduce to the boss. So I came down and met him and I was able to just kind of like step into Lance's shoes to get a job there and kind of transition. But I always missed that New Japan job. You know, I missed that blue mat. You know, that was unfortunate. Well, is there, is there an opportunity to go back there, do you think? I would hope so.

I haven't really been in touch with them. Like I said, I kind of felt weird about leaving. You know, I've been in the dojo for years. People say once you're in the New Japan Dojo, you're kind of their boy for life. But I just kind of felt like things kind of went down weird between the Tori and I, however they kind of filled myself. spot and I just decided to keep it rolling. But I don't think there's any burnt bridges or bad blood, I would hope. I would think it's weird. Not only do you move on from New Japan, you move on from picking up your entire life, moving it across the world, and then bringing it back to America.

Like that's a, it's almost like, you know, like one chapter of your life is done and then it's back to what you had before. Yeah, that was definitely a hard time for me. Because I had been living in the Dojo when I had that injury. I went back to, like, heal up and live with my father. And, you know, I don't want to speak ill about my father, but we were having a tough time. And it was a tough place for me to be. And I decided to move back to Japan full time, even just the train in the new Japan dojo.

So they would see me there every day, just putting in work, letting them know that I wanted to be a part of you. And that's when I started having these kind of weird conversations with the tour where he was telling me, hey, man, you know, yeah, we want to use you, but we're full right now. And I said, hey, well, I just, you know, put my whole life on whole soul, and hold everything to come back here and train and show you that. So that's why I kind of felt like I had my back against the wall and ended up having that conversation with Lance Archer and just saying, you know what, I'm not sure I can wait. I'm not sure how this is going to go. Maybe I should just make the next play.

You know, through all of this, has WWE ever reached out to you? No, I've never had a try out of contact with anybody, actually. I feel like, you know, you'd be exactly what they're looking for. I don't. It would make sense. I mean, maybe not. No one's ever talked to me. So I kind of guess I'm not sure what to think about it. I always hoped like my father. advice for me was to go to Japan and learn out of work. And I was assumed that I would just go to Japan and just be really good. And eventually someday would want me and somebody would want me and they would call me and say, hey, we have something for you.

And that call never gave. I remember being there for years. I'm like once a year, William Reglin Canaan seem would come watch the shows. And I remember looking out to the crowd and seeing like two white faces like, wow, that's them. You know, they're watching tonight. Then after the show, I'd go sell my gimmicks and like I would see them go to the bathroom. And they'd be right in line, you know, as close as I am to my camera. and they just wouldn't look at me, wouldn't say anything.

So I just thought, you know, maybe it's not meant to be. Wow. Well, when you look ahead five-ish years, if you're going to keep going on with wrestling, what are the goals for you? What do you want to do? I really haven't set any benchmarks. Like I said, I've always kind of had, like, a weird relationship with wrestling, so I don't want to, like, make it even more stressful.

I'm just enjoying that it's fun right now, and I'm having so much fun, like reconnecting with friends and making new friends. But if I'm going to do it, I, of course, would love to be on bigger stages. So, like, the more people, the bigger pops is, like, the best. better feeling and like seeing how my father like reached people it's not all about like being in a big company like getting big money it's about like being on a bigger platform and being on TV so people can see you and care about you and you can mean something to them that's what wrestling means to me but um I guess we'll see how it unfolds I'm just trying to take like one indie match

one interview at a time and then just kind of spread the good word and see where it goes it sounds to me like it's like all right let's make the next match better than the last match and then just keep kind of moving forward with that and that's always been my mantra If anybody follows you on Instagram, though, you've been spending a ton of time in the gym. You look great. Thank you. Like I said, it's never good enough for me, but I'm working on it. I have a lot of part.

So are you, do you have another job right now while you're still taking indie bookings? I have a few things I do. I mean, security is always kind of a shoe in for me. I've got to meet up with it. Obviously, I mean, you're, you're legit six eight, right? Yes. Yeah. And you weigh how much?

Maybe like, I always bounce. between 280, 290. I guess like just genetics. I kind of float. Yeah, nobody's picking a fight with you. I would hope so. I don't want to find it. I'd rather be everybody's friends, you know, that's kind of like what I would say my strong part of security is, you know, we can just talk it out. But I do that sometimes.

I'm going to meet up with a friend about maybe a part-time office job pursuing the rest of them on the weekends. I would love to try to act. You know, Atlanta's a good place for that. I mine crypto on the side. You know, I'm looking into buying some properties and kind of being like a real estate guy. You know, they say that's always a good investment. So like you said, I try to be more than just.

just the wrestler, but it's definitely my favorite thing that I do. Is there, and with great respect here, is there also not a possibility that you can collect royalties for, you know, the very foreseeable future? That is possible. I think Triple H at my father at my father's funeral mentioned that to my sister and I, some royalties are becoming our way. But I'm not sure that's going to be like something that I can just sit back on my loyal score. You know, I'm trying to make my own life and such still, but a little extra money never hurts, right? Like kind of peace of mind. we just think that with the image that your father has and all the licensing deals like there's

definitely there's a lot of possibilities there perhaps uh yeah i mean unfortunately i'm not even sure if you yeah uh once upon a time when my father was not doing very well and he was kind of hard up for cash he did sell a portion of his royalties just for a lump sum so i don't think his royalties are nearly what they should be or could be so that's why i say i'm not trying to make it like something that i look to to like pave the way for me well You can start making your own royalty money as Cody Hall. That's what I'd much rather do. You know, you're sitting there right now in the DDP Performance Center.

He's pretty connected with AEW. Do you think that you could have a match on Dark or maybe spend some time there? Yeah. That's not something I've been considered. Like, I haven't tried to call it any favors. I definitely do know a lot of people. And sometimes it is all about who you know. But like I said, I try to go into the gym because I try to be so hard on myself.

I don't feel like I look good enough for TV. I don't feel like I'm good enough to. WrestleMania, all these kind of things, you know. So maybe once I get out of my own way, I'll talk to Dallas and see what he thinks. You fall into that category of Big Guy. So growing up, who were the big guys that you loved watching? Okay, well, I mean, Big Cab would be a default. But some other ones I think of, I'm a big Japanese wrestling fan.

That's why I went over there. So I love Bruiser Brody. I love Stan Hansen guys that just, like, beat the hell out of people. I'm a Vader fan. I really love Terry Gordy. I loved Barry Wendham because he was a big man that could punch, but also was very athletic and really wrestle you, like, get on the mat. Arm drag, arm drag you even though he was six, seven.

So I'm pretty eclectic. Donalio, Jonathan, you know, there's a good sleeper. Wow, these are all great picks. How about just, you know, other than your father, but just people in general, who were your favorite wrestlers growing up? Okay. And other than Big Kev, I guess. Yeah, okay.

Aside from Big Kev, I was going to say Sid Vicious, kind of someone in the same vein, you know, or like a Goldberg, not to just just bring anybody's work, but I really respect guys to just have like gray fire. It can come out and just rah, and like everybody get behind them. You know, you don't have to go out and run all your high spots.

Like you can just make your entrance and like look like a star. So maybe someone like that. Yeah, a lot of those guys are the guys that get over from like an entrance alone. Like maybe they're not the best in the ring. Maybe they're not the most technical wrestlers, but they've got like amazing charisma or amazing entrances that it just oozes through.

Yeah, which I think is better. My father always told me, ideally you want to be a star and a good worker. A good worker can always get a job, but a star gets paid. So it's kind of better to focus on one than the other, and maybe your skills develop with time. But if not, you know, just at least work on your persona, your look, you know, get the right gear for you and just try to play your strengths. What do you think is the best piece of advice that you got from your father that, you know, you still carry with you all the time? That's a hard one. My father was really good to be the advice, really good with the one-liners.

so many quips like in it out of the ring. Maybe like don't be a mark for yourself is one thing that you have to remember in wrestling. Like it's not all about you. It's not all about your moves that you do every night. You have to take care of the person out there with you. You have to just care about the promoter in his business, how he's going to do that night, whatever he wants to do. So maybe that, you know, always just remember to like keep around straight.

I love how openly you can speak about him because it's only been three months as we sit here right now since his passing. What's this year been like for you? Yeah. Kind of up and down. Like I said, I was still kind of on my hiatus. I was living in Southern Maryland. I had a pretty steady job, like working on a military base.

So kind of a quiet life. And then just like losing my father kind of inspired me to maybe push for a little bit more. I felt like I definitely hadn't been really trying to like achieve my goals or be out and about in the public scene. And I felt like that became important to me again. And then I don't know, it's kind of hard to put my finger on. Yeah. Like you were saying that about 10 years.

years ago when Dallas took him in and basically gave him new life and extended his life, it sounded like you were almost preparing for him to pass away then. Do you feel like when he did pass away this year, you were, I don't know, I don't say prepared, but like you kind of like were ready for this to happen. Right. I guess in some sense, like I said, I had kind of like mentally come to terms with my father's not going to live forever, you know, like he liked to be a rock star, even when he kind of came back to life and was doing good. He liked to, party, he liked the drink, he liked to stay out late. And he had a lot of those crazy nights.

So when you live that kind of life, you don't become 80, 90, 100. So I always knew, but it's just like, you know, goodbyes are hard. Like change is hard. So I wasn't ready for it. So I'm still kind of coming to terms with it, but I just try to believe he's in a better place. Now, by the time I did see my father, it was pretty clear that this wasn't going to be a kickout situation, you know, like he was ready to go.

And, you know, I accepted it for him. I wanted him to be like in a better place to move on and not be in pain anymore. So it's just kind of life. We're all going to lose our father at some point, unfortunately. So I'm just glad mine was a great one before it happens. Yeah. Did you ever worry that you would run into some of the same problems that your father had in his life? Yeah, of course.

I mean, I'm his son, so I'm half of them. So we have a lot in common. Definitely as I get older, I feel like it took me time to understand myself. And as I was starting to figure myself out, I could kind of see the parallels between us, maybe why he would act a certain way, why he did certain things, why certain memories I had. you know, that makes sense to me now because we were so alike, and I took so much for him. So this is part of life.

I saw an interview with Xbox where he was saying that you guys are so alike and all the things he didn't like about Scott. He also doesn't like about you, and that you guys are so similar in that way. Oh, right. Yeah, I can kind of see that. People tell me that sometimes kind of the facial expressions or my dad could be really funny and really quick,

but he could also be like really sassy. So sometimes it comes out in that way too, you know, like your little comebacks to everything. People don't always appreciate those, but you are here. When people come up to you like at this convention last weekend, what's the one thing that they really want to always talk to you about? Either just my father these days, it's kind of the condolences or just how cool he was, or just kind of their well wishes.

I think there's like a lot of love for me out there now. And people have always kind of wanted me to do better. And like I said, I want to do better. And maybe now is finally the time for it. I've always been kind of like a late bloomer. And that took a while to kind of figure things out, figure things out for myself. So maybe I'm in that right headspace.

It's the right time for me. And people don't like get behind me and make something happen. Are you training there in Atlanta right now? Not currently. I've been looking around for a new school. I used to go to WWA4, which was ran by Mr. Hughes. I think AR Fox runs it now. So I think he and I are cool.

I haven't seen him for a while, but I'd like to drop him a message. And I think there's a few more around here. Maybe QT Marshall has a school. Maybe. Yeah. So I definitely want to find some place that I can get in the ring and work on my stuff. Your dad was so many different things to so many different people.

But who was he to you and what was he to you? My father was like my best friend, at least for a while, like definitely those years in Atlanta. You know, that's all I ever wanted because I never feel like I really got to know I'm growing up. So, you know, I kind of stopped looking at him as a father because it would kind of be hard for us sometimes. Like the things that he would do would hurt me too much. but I finally just like embrace them as my friend like he's just one of the boys he's my buddy and I can finally just talk to him about like regular stuff I don't know that that's what made all the difference for me I'm sure that meant a lot to you but I bet it meant even more to him

I'm so excited for what's next for you and like I want to thank you for being so open and like for sharing these amazing memories that you have of your father and of your life with him with all of us as well. No, yeah, thank you so much. I mean, I'm glad that my father touched so many people. It means a lot to be, and I know he really appreciated it. During his life, he would talk all the time about how special the fans are, how there's not fans like wrestling fans.

You know, football players don't have people getting like tattoos of their face on them and stuff. It's a totally different thing. And, yeah, it's amazing to be a part of. So, yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate the invite to be here. What do you think is the best tribute that you've seen? Is it tattoos? Is it murals?

What is it? The tattoos are pretty cool. I've always really loved art. Like for someone to sit down and draw you, you know, that's a whole different level of over. So I really appreciate the fan art. I've seen people do like a tap dance, people write songs, poetry. Of course, like some of the edits you see people do. So I couldn't single that out. I just want to let everybody know I really appreciate it. And it's a lot to me that made a piece a lot easier for my family and I. I appreciate you, man. It's so good to get to know you. And I look forward to getting to know you more.

I'm sure our paths are going to cross, you know, dozens more times in the wrestling world. Yeah, of course, in the small world. What's the best way? You said that you're open for bookings right now. So what's the best way for people to get in touch? I mainly use Instagram, but I also have Twitter. And then through there, you can find my email address. So just contact me there or leave me a DM and then we can negotiate and figure it out.

My schedule is pretty open. Well, you mean, the year's pretty much half done. So if we look ahead these next six months, what would be like a big win for you? Would it be wrestling in a particular city, state, organization? I would love to come back out to L.A. and see you again. Come on out. Exactly. I have some friends in Europe.

I have great members of working over there. I'm looking at something possibly going back to Germany in September. I would love to go back to Japan or back over to Asia. You know, wrestling can take you so many places. So I have a few things cooking, but nothing too official. So we'll see how it goes. But I'll post all my upcoming dates and let everybody follow along for sure. We saw you like very briefly,

a deal with MLW and I've just always been curious what what happened there yeah so um I really appreciated them coming to me and they came to me with a really cool idea for this mask character who um I've always thought that maybe I could get behind it's always been hard for me to be scott hall sun so I thought maybe like wearing a mask to be really freeing for me you know I've always loved kind of like monster characters like a cane but just uh after talking to them kind of the way that they saw it and how that they structured their contract as far as like years and the amount of money that it was, and where I was in my personal life, what I was looking to do on the side, which was take a break from wrestling and prove to myself that I could have at the

legitimate job. I wasn't ready to give that up. I had finally found something where I worked in an office and had a computer and like, you know, solid money and not having to take bumps and stuff. So I wanted to kind of go down that road for a little bit longer. So unfortunately, me and MLW couldn't come together on that. Well, I feel like you've got all kinds of possibilities in front of you. And like, it's good to see you back at the conventions and it's good to see you back in a ring. Yeah, thank you so much. The convention was great, but I kept on saying, you know, I wish that I could have wrestled that day. You know, that's how I sell pictures and people want to come to meet me, you know, let me go out there and do my thing and then come up to

me, man, you know, you should be somewhere else, you know. But yeah, it was absolutely a pleasure. I love seeing everybody. It's so good to be around like all the boys again. And there's nothing like the wrestling family. Nothing like it. Cody, I wrap up every interview with gratitude, because I start and end every day. I say out loud, three things I'm grateful for in my life. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? I was grateful to wake up this morning. I'm grateful for my health and I'm grateful for my great friends and family. Like we talked about, I'm here in Dallas's facility.

And as soon as I told him, I had something cool like this going on. He said, I know exactly who Chris is and I can open my doors for you. So just to have things like this going for me. I feel blessed. Well, tell Dallas that I say hello. Thank him for allowing us to share this time in his beautiful studio. and Cody, man, I'm pumped for what's next for you. Yeah, thank you so much.

I think things are going to go good. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. And I know it probably wasn't easy for Cody to talk about his dad just three months after his passing. But the amazing thing is Scott Hall is someone who will never, ever be forgotten. His work is going to live on forever, both in the matches he had, the promos he had. and of course through his children. It would mean the world to me

if you could share the link for this episode with someone who you know will enjoy this and please take a screenshot, post it on social media, and tag us so we can share it as well. He is at Real Cody Hall on Instagram at Cody underscore Hall 1 on Twitter. And if you're not following me,

just my name at Chris Van Fleet. And I'll leave you with a great quote from Helen Keller that I think really encapsulates everything that we were talking about here. What we have once loved, we can never lose. All that we deeply love becomes a part of us. Be great and be grateful today. We will see you on the next one, which is tomorrow.

First, some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video.

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