Professional wrestling star Cody Hall is no stranger to the world of wrestling, as his late father, the legendary Scott Hall, was one of the most prolific stars of his generation. In a recent interview on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet! podcast, Hall spoke about living up to his father’s legacy, as well as his nearly two year break from action and recent return.
Check out some of the highlights below:
On wearing his father’s WWE Hall of Fame ring:
I mean I would much rather have my father than the ring, but it takes me back to all the memories. All the times, I wish that I could talk to him about LA and that I met you and stuff. I feel that all the time, but when I look at this at least I know that I have a part of him with me.
On taking a break from wrestling and making a recent return:
So like I said, wrestling can be a lot of things, it can be good or bad. The highs are high and the lows are low. I felt like I kind of experienced both and felt more of the lows. I had been living in Japan, so living abroad, it can be exciting but also tough. I had some personal stuff too along with living abroad. I was getting to 30, and even though I love wrestling and it is my passion, there are other things that made me happy. So I kind of thought about stepping away and finding other things in life. But the whole time I missed it, I considered coming back. But then of course, losing my father, seeing all the outpour and the love, seeing what I meant to people, remembering all those experiences that I had similar with the travel and meeting all of the people. It just made me appreciate it and be a part of it more.
On living up to his father’s legacy:
Yeah, I used to think that it was my burden to bear, but now I’ve been trying to see it as my torch to carry. I am so proud, my father was a great man who lived a great life who did a lot of great things in his life. He lived a full life, so I am very happy for him and very proud of him. But it is hard, every show that I go to, people want to say such and such about your father. Oh he was the coolest, he was the best, and it’s hard to live down. It is hard to over shine him or step out of that shadow, so I always had like an inferiority complex about it. Like no matter what I did, it would never be good enough and no matter what I did, people would never acknowledge it, it would always be about my father. So that was definitely a struggle for me, and it kind of still is.
On creating his own legacy:
I would say that I am still searching for it. In my first couple of matches I wore my father’s old gear. I wore the dripping blood and would go out there and hit The Razor’s Edge. And it was fun, I loved doing my father’s moves and like doing an old Razor Ramon match. But it definitely became hard, every time people looked at me they would think of my father. So accentuating that is only gonna make it worse. I’m not going to come out and do his cha cha or his fire and play into it. Because being an imitation is always like a losing effort from the start. Who I am trying to be is still up for debate still.
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