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Pre-Show Stalwart
Sting (Steve Borden) came across as a humble guy who was The Franchise that WCW could rely on from time to time. He is pretty much utilized exclusively as a face for almost his whole wrestling career because all his crowd interactions is as a face. Even if Borden didn't like being on the road all the time, at least he was more nicer to the kids.
Rick Steiner has the heart of a teddy bear, and comes off as someone you would like to have fun with, and have beers with. He is more believeable as a natural face because of his bark and his Dog-Faced Gremlin character gimmick from 1988 to 1998. Even if he was a heel (if miscast as such), his heel heat mostly composed of heat vacuum in 1999-2001.
Lex Luger and Scott Steiner?
Many wrestling peers have virtually nothing good to say about Sting's best friend and Rick Steiner's younger brother, given that both of them had quite notorious reputations backstage.
For Luger, it was a case of him being propped up to be one of the NWA/WCW's flagship megastars after Ric Flair, only for Flair to feel Luger was unworthy of the stardom when in reality Flair was holding him down until it took Jim Herd to fire Ric Flair prior to The Great American Bash '91 by which Luger turned heel in an anticlimatic moment vs Barry Windham (still doing heel work on the Brian Pillman/Yellow Dog program but eventually would turn face). No doubt the GAB '91 really screwed up Luger's motivation for good afterwards. From 1985 to 1991, Luger was actually a hard worker for a muscled bodybuilder and people look at him and think he's lazy in the ring and only cares about parading his bodybuilding physique than being a wrestler to the core. His peers think Luger got his primadonna attitude from being in the NFL as a member of the Green Bay Packers, but he's not a primadonna in the sense that megastars like Hogan and Flair are obsessed with hogging the spotlight and holding people down. He just never needed wrestling imo. Interestingly, Luger never seems to blame Flair for screwing up his (Luger's) momentum, so he just carries on like it's his job to make money rather than tap into the expectations of being a megastar. Luger was really over with the fans in 1988 when he was still a face. He shunned Rey Mysterio, Jr. and assumed him to be a little kid who accidentally turned up backstage.
For Scott Steiner, it was a case of him being looked at as a bully who would take liberties out on rookies and young guys backstage. He is a guy who is never afraid to speak his own mind about certain situations, so it made him far more believeable as a natural heel; along with being a short-tempered guy nobody wants to mess with backstage. His first sign of controversy had to be when Ric Flair sandbagged him on purpose during their 1991 Clash of The Champions singles match in an effort to sabotage Steiner's singles push, and it was back when Steiner could actually work a solid, realistic match before the injuries started piling up. Steiner has since made his dislike for Ric Flair well known, when The Outsiders (Scott Hall & Kevin Nash) fed Steiner some negative information on Flair's shady politics. At the time in 1991, Steiner wanted to remain tag teaming with his brother Rick, and in 1992, Bill Watts planned to make Scott Steiner a heel by trying to split up the Steiner Brothers only for Scott to argue with Bill Watts over giving Erik Watts (Bill's son) a mega push he didn't deserve. That's when Bill Watts was looking to get rid of Scott while aiming to keep Rick, but both the Steiners left WCW not long afterwards. Vince McMahon would do the same thing in 1994, only for Scott to again veto the Steiners breakup. And in 1998, Scott finally turned heel although he was not the same worker he was in the late 1980s/early 1990s. He did become a main eventer by 2000, but I don't even know if Scott Steiner was obsessed with being world champion. The Attitude Era when management officials backstage were too afraid to fire Steiner, so they just let him do whatever he wanted. Plus, management was in disarray and the inmates (ie: Hogan, Bischoff, Russo, Flair, Goldberg, etc.) were running the asylum anyways, so you can't fault Steiner for WCW's woes that led to their demise in 2001. Give him credit for being the first wrestler who actually appreciated Rey Mysterio, Jr. and treated him better than Lex Luger did though.
Anyway, Sting/Lex Luger vs. The Steiner Brothers at SuperBrawl I (1) in early 1991 constitutes a tag team match featuring all four as babyfaces. I'm even surprised that we never got to see a second one, but this time, with Sting and Rick Steiner as the clear faces with Luger and Scott Steiner as heels if we're going by 1992 plans and booking, plus hypothetical scenarios. The first one was a 5-star match thanks to Scott Steiner's flashy high impact moves, so the second one could be no different. Keep in mind that they did eventually have a rematch on a WCW Monday Nitro episode in 1996, although not as good as the first one, due to Luger being somewhat lazy, and both Steiners being more injury-prone and sloppy with their in-ring moves than ever.
Rick Steiner has the heart of a teddy bear, and comes off as someone you would like to have fun with, and have beers with. He is more believeable as a natural face because of his bark and his Dog-Faced Gremlin character gimmick from 1988 to 1998. Even if he was a heel (if miscast as such), his heel heat mostly composed of heat vacuum in 1999-2001.
Lex Luger and Scott Steiner?
Many wrestling peers have virtually nothing good to say about Sting's best friend and Rick Steiner's younger brother, given that both of them had quite notorious reputations backstage.
For Luger, it was a case of him being propped up to be one of the NWA/WCW's flagship megastars after Ric Flair, only for Flair to feel Luger was unworthy of the stardom when in reality Flair was holding him down until it took Jim Herd to fire Ric Flair prior to The Great American Bash '91 by which Luger turned heel in an anticlimatic moment vs Barry Windham (still doing heel work on the Brian Pillman/Yellow Dog program but eventually would turn face). No doubt the GAB '91 really screwed up Luger's motivation for good afterwards. From 1985 to 1991, Luger was actually a hard worker for a muscled bodybuilder and people look at him and think he's lazy in the ring and only cares about parading his bodybuilding physique than being a wrestler to the core. His peers think Luger got his primadonna attitude from being in the NFL as a member of the Green Bay Packers, but he's not a primadonna in the sense that megastars like Hogan and Flair are obsessed with hogging the spotlight and holding people down. He just never needed wrestling imo. Interestingly, Luger never seems to blame Flair for screwing up his (Luger's) momentum, so he just carries on like it's his job to make money rather than tap into the expectations of being a megastar. Luger was really over with the fans in 1988 when he was still a face. He shunned Rey Mysterio, Jr. and assumed him to be a little kid who accidentally turned up backstage.
For Scott Steiner, it was a case of him being looked at as a bully who would take liberties out on rookies and young guys backstage. He is a guy who is never afraid to speak his own mind about certain situations, so it made him far more believeable as a natural heel; along with being a short-tempered guy nobody wants to mess with backstage. His first sign of controversy had to be when Ric Flair sandbagged him on purpose during their 1991 Clash of The Champions singles match in an effort to sabotage Steiner's singles push, and it was back when Steiner could actually work a solid, realistic match before the injuries started piling up. Steiner has since made his dislike for Ric Flair well known, when The Outsiders (Scott Hall & Kevin Nash) fed Steiner some negative information on Flair's shady politics. At the time in 1991, Steiner wanted to remain tag teaming with his brother Rick, and in 1992, Bill Watts planned to make Scott Steiner a heel by trying to split up the Steiner Brothers only for Scott to argue with Bill Watts over giving Erik Watts (Bill's son) a mega push he didn't deserve. That's when Bill Watts was looking to get rid of Scott while aiming to keep Rick, but both the Steiners left WCW not long afterwards. Vince McMahon would do the same thing in 1994, only for Scott to again veto the Steiners breakup. And in 1998, Scott finally turned heel although he was not the same worker he was in the late 1980s/early 1990s. He did become a main eventer by 2000, but I don't even know if Scott Steiner was obsessed with being world champion. The Attitude Era when management officials backstage were too afraid to fire Steiner, so they just let him do whatever he wanted. Plus, management was in disarray and the inmates (ie: Hogan, Bischoff, Russo, Flair, Goldberg, etc.) were running the asylum anyways, so you can't fault Steiner for WCW's woes that led to their demise in 2001. Give him credit for being the first wrestler who actually appreciated Rey Mysterio, Jr. and treated him better than Lex Luger did though.
Anyway, Sting/Lex Luger vs. The Steiner Brothers at SuperBrawl I (1) in early 1991 constitutes a tag team match featuring all four as babyfaces. I'm even surprised that we never got to see a second one, but this time, with Sting and Rick Steiner as the clear faces with Luger and Scott Steiner as heels if we're going by 1992 plans and booking, plus hypothetical scenarios. The first one was a 5-star match thanks to Scott Steiner's flashy high impact moves, so the second one could be no different. Keep in mind that they did eventually have a rematch on a WCW Monday Nitro episode in 1996, although not as good as the first one, due to Luger being somewhat lazy, and both Steiners being more injury-prone and sloppy with their in-ring moves than ever.
