August 2001
Big Dreams, Lean Years
by Mike Fazioli
Before he made his mark as Scotty 2 Hotty - one-half of the tag team Too Cool - Scott Taylor spent a decade as a struggling performer. From his debut, while a high-school sophomore, in front of 75 mostly disinterested fans to years in the indy circuit, Taylor lived hand-to-mouth, pursuing the dream he nurtured from a very young age until it finally came to fruition in the WWF.
"How many times did I think about dropping it in the meantime? All the time," Taylor says. "I got to the point several times where I thought, 'It's never going to happen.' Then when it did, it was awesome. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be - and more."
Taylor was only 16 years old when he had his first professional match in Portland, Maine, against Steve Ramsey. For the teen with dreams of super-stardom, it was a cold slap of reality. He perserved, however, continuing to plug away by working indy shows, trying to get experience and exposure. Two years later - still in high school - Taylor found himself in a Federation ring for the first time, on a card headlined by a Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. Razor Ramon match.
Taylor was placed in a tag team match against a team that had once billed itself as the Undertakers. Not surprisingly, they had to surrender that moniker to a more-famous athlete who was already well on his way to iconic status in the Federation.
Although only in his teens, Taylor was already making contacts and getting small breaks. In 1991, he was contacted and asked if he wanted to work at a Federation show. Only one problem: He was supposed to be in school that day. But the urge to pursue his drea was too strong, and Taylor took a day off to go to the show.
Taylor arrived at the show - entering through the performers' entrance rather than the fan entrance he had used to many times before - and immediately found himself face to face with many of the Superstars he spent hours watching on television.
He was greeted at the door by Rocker Marty Jannetty and Orient Express member Pat Tatanka, who introduced himself to Taylor and helped the youngster quell a serious case of butterflies.
"I was nervous all day long," he says. "I had never been in front of more than 500 people. All of a sudden, I'm in front of 15,000 in Rochester, New York. It was pretty scary."
In the locker room, Taylor found himself - quite literally - looking up to the headliners of the day. While his heart was filled with fantasies that he would one day be the seasoned veteran meeting the wide-eyed rookie at the door, his head still said otherwise.
"I was in awe. Undertaker, the Hart Foundation, Sid, Hogan were there," Taylor says. "At the time, you hope that someday you'll be be the guy in the back and some kid will walk in an see you and say, 'Whoa, look at that.' But you also know the chances are pretty slim. It took me five or six years before I got a contract."
Then weighing in at about 180 pounds, Taylor had been under the impression that he was on a physical par with some of the Federation's smaller and more athletic Superstars. Again, a harsh dose of reality was in store for the aspiring teen.
"I remember the first time I saw Marty and Shawn up close," he says. "I thought I was about the same size as them, then I saw them as was like, 'Holy s***!' They were a lot bigger than I thought - and they were a lot bigger than me. They looked smaller on TV because they'd be in there with Demolition or whoever, but they were big.
"I was only 180 pounds at the time and everyone else was a moster," Taylor continues. "The smallest guys then were Shawn Michaels and Owen & Bret Hart, and they were like 230. I was by far the smallest guy there."
His match that night would be his first-ever televised bout. He was teamed with Sonny Blaze, and they were defeated in short order by tag-team title contenders the Beverly Brothers.
After graduating high school, Taylor was able to chase his dream on a full-time basis. He continued to work the indy circuit, enduring the hardships that all of today's Superstars remember so well. During a stint in Memphis that began in 1993, Taylor had to overcome infections in both eyes and a car which literally blew up during a drive from Memphis to Louisville.
As he stood by the side of the road, surveying the smoldering remains of his vehicle, another car pulled to the side and gave him a ride to the show. The driver? His future tag team partner Brian Christopher.
By 1997, with years of indy experience under his belt, Taylor was ready to sign a contract with the Federation. His first match as a contract performer with the World Wrestling Federation was against Aldo Montoya - now back in the Federation as Justin Credible.
In many ways, his dream had come true. Bue, Taylor says, it wasn't until a few years later, when he and Christopher exploded onto the scene as the hip-hoppers Too Cool, that he truly felt he belonged in the world's preeminent sports-entertainment organization.
As tough his road to success was, though, Taylor looks back on those days for inspiration. He also has a locker room full of kindred spirits who share many of the same tales of those leaner days.
"The Hardys have pretty much the same story. Our backgrounds are very similar," Taylor says. "It's funny. I can remember we were on the road at the same time. We were in Allentown, Pennsylvania, talking at three in the morning, while this huge snowstorm raged outside. We were saying, 'Man, someday we're going to make it. Mr Perfect, Shawn Michaels and those guys won't be here anymore.' We were just hoping. Now, we're here together, and it's pretty cool. Every so often we'll be talking and complaining about this or that, and we'll just say, 'Remember Allentown.' We say that all the time."
Several passages of this article have been omitted.