Scott Hall was a wrestling superstar in the early 1990s, his immensely popular character the "Scarface"-like Razor Ramon. Later, he was one of the faces of the faction dubbed the New World Order, which was part of World Championship Wrestling. Now, at age 52, Hall has a pacemaker and takes about a dozen pills daily to deal with anxiety and pain. He's been arrested several times since his final stint with WWE in 2002 and has publically discussed his struggles with drugs and alcohol.

"There's got to be some reason that I'm still here," Hall told "E:60," which will air a story about him Wednesday. "I should have been dead 100 times. I should have been dead 100 times."

Hall said many of the older wrestlers of his generation are "all dinosaurs now and we're all retired and dead. The young guys coming up now aren't drinking and drugging and stuff I hope as bad as we did. …
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Copyright, 2011 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.Pro wrestler Scott Hall.

"I tell my kids this, 'I can't tell you not to drink and do drugs, they are fun. It's fun. They work,'" Hall said. "But what sucks is when you want to quit and you can't, and pretty soon you alienate or you hurt everyone around you. It's a family disease and then you can't keep a promise to anybody. What sucks the most is when you can't even keep a promise to yourself."

Stephanie McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment's executive vice president of creative development and operations, said WWE has sent Hall to rehab multiple times and spent "in the six figures" on efforts to help him get sober.

"It's the most amount of money we've spent on anyone," she said. "I just want Scott to get help and to decide for himself that he needs help. It makes me sad. I don't want anybody to pass away prematurely or otherwise really. Scott was an incredibly talented performer, larger than life, charismatic. He's a father, he's a friend. I'm sure he means a lot to a lot of people and it would be a shame for him to pass away."

Hall's story of drugs and stints in rehab highlights the substance-abuse problems some former wrestlers have faced, and the efforts WWE has undertaken to try to help its ex-stars. It's a problem professional wrestling has faced off and on since it hit the big time 26 years ago. On pay-per-view TV, the world was introduced to a combination of entertainment and celebrity dubbed "Wrestlemania." The main event was Hulk Hogan and Mr. T battling Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul "Mr. Wonderful" Orndorff. That day, March 31, 1985, professional wrestling went mainstream. Liberace attended, Cyndi Lauper was a manager and Muhammad Ali was a referee. After all the glitz and glamour, professional wrestling became big over the next decade -- and behind the scenes it was, at times, debauchery.

"Back in that era it was pretty much sex, drugs and rock 'n roll," said Mike Mooneyham, who writes a wrestling column for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier. "I mean it was really the wild, wild west. There were very few rules. These guys were outlaws. … These guys were abusing drugs and there wasn't a lot of drug testing going on at that time."

WWE, which created "Wrestlemania," has been criticized over the years for its culture, which has involved allegations of steroid and other drug abuse. In 2006, a year before Chris Benoit's suicide, WWE took steps to improve the health of its independently contracted in-ring performers, offering a substance-abuse program as part of a talent wellness program. McMahon said WWE sends hundreds of letters out to "as many as we could identify as ever having a contract with the WWE."

"In addition to that substance and abuse program, we also have cardiovascular testing, we do blood checks, we do physicals, we do concussion testing akin to the NFL," McMahon said. "We're really about maintaining the health and well-being of our superstars because without our superstars we don't have a business."
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ESPNPro wrestler Hulk Hogan.

In addition, McMahon and others said, the culture of wrestling is changing. Today, top-level professional wrestling has gone corporate, and there's a greater influence on health.

"The superstars of today -- they're businessmen," she said. "They realize the healthier they maintain their bodies, the better they are going to perform, the more money they're going to make. They're more about playing with their iPads and gaming devices than they are about going out and hanging out at the bars."

Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, said the "mindset has changed." He said the culture has shifted from bigger is better to healthier is best.

"Wrestlers have been more educated, more up to speed," said Hogan, an executive with TNA IMPACT wrestling. "I mean before, back in the day, you'd have the match at Madison Square Garden, the Boston Garden, all the wrestlers would see each other down at the Marriott bar. Nowadays, all the guys go up and they go to the room and play video games, or go on their computer."

Hogan now makes decisions about the TNA IMPACT wrestling roster. In Philadelphia on Sunday, Hogan will mix it up in the ring once again against rival wrestler Sting at a pay-per-view event, "Bound for Glory." At age 58, his fondness of performing is still evident, but now he is more careful. He no longer performs his trademark signature move, the leg drop, on his opponents.

"You calculate every move," he said. "You don't jump off the top rope anymore. You keep your boots on the ground. You definitely make sure you paint with broad strokes and you make sure you capture the audiences' emotions early."

Hogan is a rarity, bridging the gap from vintage to current. There are others, too. The Undertaker is still dropping Tombstones in the WWE at age 46. Ric Flair, age 62, is wrestling too, still yelling his trademark, "Woooo."

While some of the old guard is still wrestling, others are struggling. Matt Hardy was most recently a headliner for TNA IMPACT this year. He worked for WWE previously. Hardy's image has splashed the pages of TMZ for multiple drug offenses. He has since been released by TNA IMPACT and has had several rehab stints.

"For every Scott Hall there's a guy like Arn Anderson," said Cody Rhodes, who grew up a fan of Hall and is currently the WWE intercontinental champion. "There's a guy like Tito Santana, who went through '70s, '80s, '90s and his son's in an Ivy League school, and he still does independent wrestling. He still laces up the boots, but just for fun, not for bills or anything like that."

I had the chance to see an early cut of the ESPN E:60 piece on Scott Hall that will officially debut on tomorrow’s episode. Watching it, you get a really sad, depressing feeling that it’s only a matter of time until Scott Hall is going to die…and unlike a lot of stories that have been produced about professional wrestling and those who have passed away, the feeling is that the clock starting ticking on that death for years before he ever took a bump.

The early portion of the story paints the story of Hall’s life before he entered pro wrestling, being raised in a family of “hard drinking rednecks” that places Hall as the self-professed head of the household at the age of only 15. As if that wasn’t enough to mentally process, Hall is charged with second degree murder after getting into a fight with someone over a woman he was dating. While the charges were dropped, the mental scars of the incident and Hall’s decision not to seek help coping with the fallout of the experience really set the stage for the mental issues he began compensating for by turning to self-abuse.

Hall’s career is recounted with clips from the AWA, WCW and WWE as Hall recounts pitching the Razor Ramon character to Vince McMahon, who had never seen “Scarface.” The business, with the Hall as a member of the NWO at the forefront of the big boom of the 1990s, is showcased as being on the largest, most popular scale it had ever achieved – with all the darker pitfalls of the wild, wild west hard living lifestyle talked about by Hall (including a haunting story about a hotel room conversation with Shawn Michaels while both are in a partying-induced stupor), Sean Waltman and Eric Bischoff.

Like every bubble, the wrestling one crashed and at the same time came the crash of Scott Hall. There is a well edited sequence showing the difference between the young and vibrant Hall before thousands of fans and the bloated, pale Hall of today working before sparse crowds while fighting to stay both relevant and on top of the personal issues that have now defined his life and career alike. 911 calls made to check on Hall’s well being are played during the piece as are comments from members of Hall's family.

Hall's infamous incident in Fall River, MA where Hall stumbled through an Internet PPV broadcast is both the centerpiece and the most depressing thing in the piece. Hall, out of the hospital for just 24 hours, is shown staggering like a slow motion jellyfish while making his trademark mannerisms as if he was trapped within a sea of molasses. Justin Credible talks of switching the pills Hall was taking with aspirin while the promoter of the event defends himself for putting Hall out there in that condition. In the end, Hall admits he didn’t even know what country he was in. The footage of Hall working the show is among the worst, most depressing examples of what independent pro wrestling has to offer.

For someone who once lived in a fantasy life only few have seen, the reality of Hall’s life in 2011 is that he now has to take and maintain close to a dozen medications daily due to congenital heart failure brought on by so many of his self-abusive traits. Hall is close to a dozen rehab stays at a cost of six figures to WWE. His once trademark physique and chiseled good looks have been weathered and worn away. Hall's friends, including Kevin Nash, admit that they’ve been preparing themselves for the worst for over a year. It's a situation where you can't help but shake your head and wonder who's to blame, and whether you should have anger or sympathy for the man.

The lone beacon of hope towards the end of the piece is Hall’s son Cody. Long estranged, Cody has tried to reconcile with his father, moving in with him. The younger Hall admits that at this point, he’s more concerned with helping his father stay alive than whether Hall can finally get himself clean. However, in one of the more surprising moments of the feature, it’s revealed that Cody himself is now training as an independent wrestler. That revelation comes only a few minutes before Scott’s ex-wife Dana declares that Scott is as addicted to his alter ego and wrestling as he is any substance. The piece does not show her reaction to Cody following his father's journey in life as a performer.

Overall, an absolutely a deep, well edited piece that is worth going out of your way to see. Hulk Hogan is also interviewed in the piece, but doesn't add much beyond an understanding of the qualities of Hall as a performer.

It's a sobering piece where Hall is described as a "shell of himself" by his own child. Hall himself admits he should have died but for some reason, he is still here. As his health continues to break down, one can only hope that Hall can finally find some peace for himself and his family, before it's too late. Anything more may be overreaching, given the pattern of history, one that Hall appears to have been born into without choice and only ended up compounding that pattern with his life choices.

E:60 airs tomorrow evening.