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Pre-Show Stalwart
Q: "Who is the nicest wrestler and who is the most difficult wrestler to deal with backstage between Scott Hall, Curt Hennig and Scott Steiner; plus maybe "The Total Package" Lex Luger, Jeff Jarrett, Sycho Sid Vicious, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Rick Steiner?"
When WCW was bought out by the WWF in early 2001, many people were interested in seeing Sting, Goldberg and Ric Flair (respected at the time, years before his personal politicial issues came to light and many people saw through his shenanigans and lavish lifestyle) as guys with pristine personal backstage reputation who could do no wrong in the eyes of WWF management and Vince McMahon.
They were also interested but somewhat leery in bringing back Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash because of their past backstage reps in terms of backstage politics maneuvers and their previous business relationship with Vince McMahon. Hogan may have been under the IWC crossfire, but at least he was the guy who put the WWF and professional wrestling on the television map in 1984, and Nash was different than Hogan. However, Nash is someone who is more cutting edge, edgy and way cooler than Hogan. Hogan's best years were conducive to being a successful top draw for the WWF, whereas Nash's best years were stigmatised with lack of love from anyone other than The Kliq, Vince McMahon and Vince Russo.
WWF had interest in bringing back Scott Hall, Curt Hennig and Scott Steiner but were very leery of all three of them due to their bad reputations in the industry. Hennig more for his past injury problems since 1991, Hall for his alcoholism substance abuse issue since 1998 and Scott Steiner more for being seen as a divisive locker room malcontent/cancer, working for easy money, an attitude problem, someone who does NOT have the best personal reputation backstage, who is never afraid to openly speak his own mind and for being the most difficult to work with in the eyes of WWF and Vincent Kennedy McMahon, and likely because Vince cited the dying days of WCW in 2000-01 as when Scott Steiner's backstage attitude changed for the worst. Maybe Vince thinks Hall and Hennig are nicer than Scott Steiner in Vinnie's opinion.
And of the five of the rest of whom the WWF had absolute ZERO interest in bringing back,
-1) I think Randy Savage was near 50 and in Vince's eyes, Savage burned his bridges with the WWF in late-1994 after being saddled to commentary, yet he was a top babyface WWF draw in '88-'89 while Hogan was away doing No Holds Barred in 1988, but had a knee injury in 1998 that he could simply never recover from, as he not only changed his image and gimmick on his 1999 return, but he was also stiffer on his Flying Elbow Drop finishers to the point that his outside interference spots (at a time when run-ins were frowned upon in the nWo-era WCW) was absolutely necessary to ensure that Savage doesn't wind up stiffing his opponents, like sending Charles Robinson to the hospital with a punctured lung and Evan Karagias with an unknown injury too.
-2) Sid had all the talent in the world to be one of the pro wrestling greats, but his love for softball was his biggest problem, and that's why Sid was cited as an attitude problem malcontent who got into fights with Brian Pillman and Arn Anderson, and took the money and ran.
-3) Lex Luger was a former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers who many peers cited as difficult to work with, and he was actually the first (before The Kliq) wrestler to even have a guaranteed contract with guaranteed money, but nobody gives Lex credit more than they do for Hall and Nash, and fans think Luger (like Sid) wasn't dedicated enough to wrestling after 1991 with the whole Great American Bash '91 ordeal with the whole Jim Herd/Ric Flair debacle, and think he's all solely about the physique, nothing wrong with just showing off your sculptured muscles. Better than going all out in the ring and hurting yourself constantly anyday, yet his peers assumed Luger to be a total malcontent, but not in the way you're obsessed with winning championships, only that Luger was all about the money and didn't care where he was on the card. But the worst of him came in 1999 when he had a relationship with Miss Elizabeth, where he was heavily into drugs around the 1999-2001 time period. That, plus his acriminious departure from the WWF in 1995, Miss Elizabeth's 2003 death and his unimpressive TNA run being cited as reasons why Luger was rumored to have returned to WWE for the Evolution storyline but never signed on again.
-4) Jeff Jarrett's issue was that he's a vagabond wrestler (without Vince Russo's booking) who bounced around back and forth between WWF and WCW before 1998-99 ended with Jarrett holding Vince McMahon up for money on his final day in order to reunite with Russo in WCW, and that's cited as a reason why Jarrett burned his bridges with Vinnie Mac, so when WCW was bought out, Vince refused to bring back Jarrett.
-5) As for Rick Steiner, his value to his wrestling company eroded by 1998 when his brother Scott reinvented himself to become Big Poppa Pump. After that, Rick became messy, unsafe and dangerous to work with in the ring. But after Vince Russo came over to WCW in late 1999, Rick was probably a weekly healthy scratch, and probably lost his love for wrestling to prepare for his impending real estate career and also a job as a school board member of the Cherokee County School District, so he made that a habit to stiff the stuffings out of Lash LeRoux, Konnan and numerous other jobbers when he became a heat vacuum-type of heel exiting his glory days prime years.
When WCW was bought out by the WWF in early 2001, many people were interested in seeing Sting, Goldberg and Ric Flair (respected at the time, years before his personal politicial issues came to light and many people saw through his shenanigans and lavish lifestyle) as guys with pristine personal backstage reputation who could do no wrong in the eyes of WWF management and Vince McMahon.
They were also interested but somewhat leery in bringing back Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash because of their past backstage reps in terms of backstage politics maneuvers and their previous business relationship with Vince McMahon. Hogan may have been under the IWC crossfire, but at least he was the guy who put the WWF and professional wrestling on the television map in 1984, and Nash was different than Hogan. However, Nash is someone who is more cutting edge, edgy and way cooler than Hogan. Hogan's best years were conducive to being a successful top draw for the WWF, whereas Nash's best years were stigmatised with lack of love from anyone other than The Kliq, Vince McMahon and Vince Russo.
WWF had interest in bringing back Scott Hall, Curt Hennig and Scott Steiner but were very leery of all three of them due to their bad reputations in the industry. Hennig more for his past injury problems since 1991, Hall for his alcoholism substance abuse issue since 1998 and Scott Steiner more for being seen as a divisive locker room malcontent/cancer, working for easy money, an attitude problem, someone who does NOT have the best personal reputation backstage, who is never afraid to openly speak his own mind and for being the most difficult to work with in the eyes of WWF and Vincent Kennedy McMahon, and likely because Vince cited the dying days of WCW in 2000-01 as when Scott Steiner's backstage attitude changed for the worst. Maybe Vince thinks Hall and Hennig are nicer than Scott Steiner in Vinnie's opinion.
And of the five of the rest of whom the WWF had absolute ZERO interest in bringing back,
-1) I think Randy Savage was near 50 and in Vince's eyes, Savage burned his bridges with the WWF in late-1994 after being saddled to commentary, yet he was a top babyface WWF draw in '88-'89 while Hogan was away doing No Holds Barred in 1988, but had a knee injury in 1998 that he could simply never recover from, as he not only changed his image and gimmick on his 1999 return, but he was also stiffer on his Flying Elbow Drop finishers to the point that his outside interference spots (at a time when run-ins were frowned upon in the nWo-era WCW) was absolutely necessary to ensure that Savage doesn't wind up stiffing his opponents, like sending Charles Robinson to the hospital with a punctured lung and Evan Karagias with an unknown injury too.
-2) Sid had all the talent in the world to be one of the pro wrestling greats, but his love for softball was his biggest problem, and that's why Sid was cited as an attitude problem malcontent who got into fights with Brian Pillman and Arn Anderson, and took the money and ran.
-3) Lex Luger was a former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers who many peers cited as difficult to work with, and he was actually the first (before The Kliq) wrestler to even have a guaranteed contract with guaranteed money, but nobody gives Lex credit more than they do for Hall and Nash, and fans think Luger (like Sid) wasn't dedicated enough to wrestling after 1991 with the whole Great American Bash '91 ordeal with the whole Jim Herd/Ric Flair debacle, and think he's all solely about the physique, nothing wrong with just showing off your sculptured muscles. Better than going all out in the ring and hurting yourself constantly anyday, yet his peers assumed Luger to be a total malcontent, but not in the way you're obsessed with winning championships, only that Luger was all about the money and didn't care where he was on the card. But the worst of him came in 1999 when he had a relationship with Miss Elizabeth, where he was heavily into drugs around the 1999-2001 time period. That, plus his acriminious departure from the WWF in 1995, Miss Elizabeth's 2003 death and his unimpressive TNA run being cited as reasons why Luger was rumored to have returned to WWE for the Evolution storyline but never signed on again.
-4) Jeff Jarrett's issue was that he's a vagabond wrestler (without Vince Russo's booking) who bounced around back and forth between WWF and WCW before 1998-99 ended with Jarrett holding Vince McMahon up for money on his final day in order to reunite with Russo in WCW, and that's cited as a reason why Jarrett burned his bridges with Vinnie Mac, so when WCW was bought out, Vince refused to bring back Jarrett.
-5) As for Rick Steiner, his value to his wrestling company eroded by 1998 when his brother Scott reinvented himself to become Big Poppa Pump. After that, Rick became messy, unsafe and dangerous to work with in the ring. But after Vince Russo came over to WCW in late 1999, Rick was probably a weekly healthy scratch, and probably lost his love for wrestling to prepare for his impending real estate career and also a job as a school board member of the Cherokee County School District, so he made that a habit to stiff the stuffings out of Lash LeRoux, Konnan and numerous other jobbers when he became a heat vacuum-type of heel exiting his glory days prime years.
