SCOTT STEINER WWF/E 2002

[Clare]

CAN anyone remember the promo's the build up too BIG POPPA PUMP coming too WWF/E ?? after all that build up and a few matches with Triple H which was 3 star at best he gets too form a tag team with Test. He never won a title in the two years he returned too WWF/E from 2002/04. I think it they had brought in the Steiner brothers instead of just Scott it would of had more of a impact than just the week it did when Steiner debuted. I just think that all the talent they had during 2002 and 2003 they could of done a hell of allot more with Scott Steiner than they did as i am not one of his biggest fans but he deserved more than he got on his WWF/E return in 2002 any thoughts on why he didn't get a big push and was pushed down too tag team level with test and Stacy as manger

AND hey go easy i am a lady and its my first post lol

 

[Roskell]

I was a huge Scott Steiner fan in WCW and was gutted he wasn't apart of the WCW/WWF Invasion Angle. The pop he received on his debut in Madison Square Garden was amazing, kept his promo nice a short (Always helpful with Scott) but they then put him in a stupid cartoonish feud with Triple H...bodybuilding crap etc. Did nothing to help either wrestler and killed any chance of Scott keeping himself in the Main Event for much longer. In my opinion he was badly booked to start with and Triple H shouldn't of been his first major feud.

 

[mrfantastic111]

That was back when HHH was being poised to become 'The Man', and it's often argued that Scott didn't get anywhere because it was going to take too much steam away from HHH's first year as the top dog. Not to mention that he was a WCW guy, nor was he Goldberg and struck lucky. That being said, I was never a huge fan of Steiner. I liked him, I just never invested too many of my cheers for him.

All that aside, I'm not sure if he deserved a push seeing as he was fresh on the scene, but I think he was entertaining enough as a character to hold at least one title reign, even if it wasn't the world title. We noticed over time that he became abit odd on the mic though, ie weird promo botches every now and then. Honestly I think he was like most high anticipation wrestlers who arrive - they receive a large ovation when they arrive, but as time goes on they just kind of simmer down. Steiner didn't maintain the intrigue for very long after his arrival.

 

[BlueLightning]

I agree that it had a lot to do with what was going on with HHH at the time and the way their stirrings was portrayed, but honestly, his in ring performances were pretty damn underwhelming, so I can't imagine WWE was too happy with that either.

 

[Mustang Sally]

.... and it's often argued that Scott didn't get anywhere because it was going to take too much steam away from HHH's first year as the top dog.

I think the more cogent point is that WWE knew it couldn't afford to plan too much with Steiner because he was always one injury away from being rendered useless to his employer. The man was 'roided so tightly I figured any movement he made in the ring might be his last. In fact, it was surprising Vince hired him, given his physical make-up. They must have worked something out contractually to protect the company in case Steiner was out injured for an extended time, which wound up happening, of course.

When Steiner was involved in the pose-down with Triple H (which was, at least, a logical use for Steiner since he could do it without getting hurt) I always had the feeling that Trips was still exercising even as he was 'roiding, keeping his body flexible to perform in the ring. Conversely, Steiner looked packed but never seemed to be in good shape. Remembering how great he was in the ring in the early 90's, it was visually painful to see him deteriorate into a freak show, able to function more as a bodybuilder than a wrestler.

When an athlete is injury prone, many sports companies will shy away from hiring them even if they're super performers. That was Scott Steiner. WWE tried with him because he was a major name, but the result was inevitable and it was easy to see it coming.

 

[y2grae]

Best line i ever saw regarding Scott - If he blinked, he sold your move.

The guy was epic in the black hair mullet days, then next i saw he was jacked out of belief and roided to high heaven and back.
I have to agree with Mustang Sally with the one injury away from being on the shelf as to why he wasnt given a full run.
He could cut a decent promo, look mean etc and even managed a frankensteiner.... just have to have it down as a worry from the top about his health.

 

[obamartins]

Scott Steiner was WCW's most compelling character in the dying days of WCW - he had believability because his character as an out of control loose cannon jacked up legit hard man monster was real, he had a very unique "look", sexual innuendo jive promos, he could "work".....etc.

Steiner along with Booker T & Goldberg was WCW's hottest commodity after the WWF purchased WCW in March 2001. WWF has been wanting to sign Steiner according to dirt sheet reports since late 1998 when at that time his WCW contract was coming up for renewal. Steiner got a big pop when Vince McMahon mentioned his name on the RAW/Nitro simulcast.

After WCW Steiner just like Goldberg, Nash, Flair, Sting etc. continued to sit out & wait for their million dollar Time Warner contracts to expire. Unlike Booker T & DDP they didn't accept 50 cent for every dollar buyout option from Time Warner so they could work for the WWF & WWF refused to buyout their million dollar contracts to not upset the pay scale & egos of WWF lockerroom & continue to waste money of XFL football leauge instead.

Steiner was also injured & turned up on the last Nitro to put over Booker T & lose his WCW World Heavyweight Championship with a bad back & nerve dmagae in his foot when he was not contractually obligated to. During this time the arguments for & against Steiner being signed by WWF were all over the dirt sheets & his bad repuation in WCW which included unscripted shoot promos, arrests, threatening managment, backstage fights etc. were a big reason.

Steiner was signed by WWE in late 2002 after a year of negotiations & various physicals to make sure he was healthy. He was meant to be the tag team partner of Steve Austin against Scott Hall & Kevin Nash at Wrestlemania X8. Steiner was asked to take a drugs test & said he would if Triple H could come with him...that was the last he heard of drug tests.

One of the reasons Steiner was signed was to offset the loss of Hulk Hogan, The Rock & Steve Austin who were no longer on TV for various reasons. Steiner was offered a big money contract...which he accepted however Steiner was still not recovered from the nerve damage in his foot - he had drop foot which he worked with throughout his WWE tenure from November 2002 to January 2004 (i believe).

The following is froman interview with Steiner -

"When I left I WWE, I had surgery on my foot. I had drop foot, where my foot was totally paralyzed. I had a tendon transfer and got nine screws in my foot. They broke my foot, took a bone graph from my hip and put it in my foot and put a plate in there. So, now my foot is not 100 percent, but it works, so I can wrestle a lot better than I did."

Backstage politics (everybody knows the the former WCW marquee names signed were not used correctly) definitely played a role in Steiner's dissapointing WWE run furthermore the fact that he was not allowed to cut his own promos & had to use WWE scripted bullshit. Another reason in my opinion is that he was brought in as a babyface when he far better as a heel.

Now Steiner's injury was also a reason but the thing is WWE made a BIG investment in Steiner signing him to a big money contract (when they knew he had injury problems) so why not utilise him in a way to get the most out of him? He should have always been presented as a STAR but he was reduced to being a midcarder. There is so many ways in which you could have utilised Steiner it isn't even funny.

Here we are in 2012 & Steiner is getting white heat in India attacking the crowd while hundereds run away from him just like the time he burned the Swiss flag & had chairs thrown at him in 2009....basically WWE doesn't have a heel who can touch Steiner who has done this stuff throughout his career.

 

[closet_fan]

Out of all the opinions, Mustang's was closest to what I was going to write. I think McMahon signed him just to sign him because he knew he was going to generate some interest, but he had things going against him as soon as he showed up.

He was roided beyond belief. And I am sure by then his body was already breaking down. There was no way Vince was going to give him a bigger program and take the chance of him getting injured.

Not to mention he rubbed HHH the wrong way with the supposed "I'll take a steroid test if Trips does" comment he had supposedly made when he was there.

Mullet Steiner was great to watch in the ring. He had a great combo of size and speed. It's a shame he got into what he did. He looked terrible in the latter WCW days.

Steiner is going to end up like Dynamite Kid and be crippled for the rest of his post-wrestling days. How he can wrestle now, with the rumors he can barely walk or get out of a car, is beyond me. He must be hopped up on a ton of pain meds.

 

[Clare]

do u think he would of had more of a impact if rick Steiner had joined WWF/E in 2002 and we still had the Steiner brothers as a tag team and i think it would of been g8 as imagine the feud's we could of seen for excamle
Steiner brothers vs
Brothers of destruction
Edge and hulk hogan
The dudleyz
hardy boyz
billy and chuck PMSL i had too put that in lol

i wish the invasion angle had been put off a year so the we would of had in WCW the likes of steiner's goldberg hogan nash hall

 

[mrfantastic111]

do u think he would of had more of a impact if rick Steiner had joined WWF/E in 2002 and we still had the Steiner brothers as a tag team and i think it would of been g8 as imagine the feud's we could of seen for excamle
Steiner brothers vs
Brothers of destruction
Edge and hulk hogan
The dudleyz
hardy boyz
billy and chuck PMSL i had too put that in lol

i wish the invasion angle had been put off a year so the we would of had in WCW the likes of steiner's goldberg hogan nash hall

I think that Steiner would of been a great inclusion in the invasion, but I doubt that the Steiner brothers would of become big in WWE, at least nothing higher then tag team champs. They would of been superb champs during those days, and I think that they would of been great to team up against evolution. At the end of the day, I doubt that much would of come of those two as anymore then just a tag team. WWE didn't really need them, they already had great divisions back then and I guess they would of just become another couple of chips of the ol' WCW block. Not to say that they weren't worth a draw, but I think WWE would of been fine without them. Who these days really thinks back to HHH/Steiner as anything memorable? Steiner after all was no HBK or HHH... And as mentioned by the guy who took a quote from me earlier in the thread, Scott's ability to wrestle as well as avoid injury didn't age as well as HBK or HHH either

 

[obamartins]

do u think he would of had more of a impact if rick Steiner had joined WWF/E in 2002 and we still had the Steiner brothers as a tag team and i think it would of been g8 as imagine the feud's we could of seen for excamle
Steiner brothers vs
Brothers of destruction
Edge and hulk hogan
The dudleyz
hardy boyz
billy and chuck PMSL i had too put that in lol

i wish the invasion angle had been put off a year so the we would of had in WCW the likes of steiner's goldberg hogan nash hall

The thing with Rick Steiner is that he also had a reputation & in the last few weeks of Nitro before the buyout he beat up Konnan, Lash Leroux & another guy i forget for real in the ring which pretty much eliminated his slim chance of being offered a job with the WWF.

TNA used Steiner perfectly in when he debuted in 2006. Steiner proved alot of people wrong during his first TNA run in 2006.

 

[Ryberg]

Yeah he was roided BUT as he said why doen't he and HHH take a roid test? He pissed VMK and the WWE before he got there. He was better on the mic than anyone they had INCLUDING THE ROCK! I think it was more he was held down in the WWE because he took away fans from HHH. Plus in reality I think he scared the hell out of VMK and HHH! He had a big mouth and the size to back it up. He is one guy who never cared what either said and wouldn't kiss up to them.

HAHAHA I still wish the WWE would have added Lenny and Lodi! CLASSIC

 

[The Brain]

but they then put him in a stupid cartoonish feud with Triple H...bodybuilding crap etc.

I don't see what was stupid about that feud. I thought the build was great. Steiner received a huge push immediately by getting to work with Triple H. The reason his push didn't continue is obvious. He blew it. The match with Triple H at the Royal Rumble was awful. Those big pops he was getting turned to boos before the match was even over. It's pretty rare that the crowd turns on the face during a match because his performance is so bad but that's what happened to Steiner at the Rumble. Obviously his push was stopped after that.

As far as bringing in Rick and using them as a tag team again, it may have worked for a little while but not for long. WWE just hasn't committed to tag teams for the past decade. They might have been hot for a little while but I'm sure they would have been split within a year.

 

[DRP]

i totally agree i think wwe missed a trick with steiner when he joined for whatever reason that may have been he wouldve been a great heel at a great time for the company as hes proved with his stint in TNA although i think hes past his best now

 

[Fisheatppl]

Well, all I can remember of Scott Steiner in the WWE at that point is him not being able to last through a match with HHH, and him dropping HHH during said match. I didn't know about the behind the scenes stuff at the time, so I always figured he sucked so bad at that point in his career they decided he wasn't going to be good enough for them to rely on, hence never winning a title.

 

[Police Penis Sucking Goat Fucker]

Scott Steiner probally has one of the grossest looking bodies none to man He is roided to the extrme. I don't undertstand why anyone would want to do that to there bodies. To me when he started getting carried away with the roids and bleached his hair thats when I lost all respect for him. I hate these over jacked steroid muscle heads, I'd rathe watch a wrestler with a natural body any day over any Scott Steiner match in the last 15 years I know he was talented but he isn't worth anything today. Nobody cares about Steiner anymore he didn't make any impact in WWE and he hasn't done shit for TNA. It's sad how the only thing I seem to remember about Scott Steiner is that his match with HHH at the rumble sucked and he was wearing a red thong

 

[SinCityBlitz]

Yeah he was roided BUT as he said why doen't he and HHH take a roid test? He pissed VMK and the WWE before he got there. He was better on the mic than anyone they had INCLUDING THE ROCK! I think it was more he was held down in the WWE because he took away fans from HHH. Plus in reality I think he scared the hell out of VMK and HHH! He had a big mouth and the size to back it up. He is one guy who never cared what either said and wouldn't kiss up to them.

HAHAHA I still wish the WWE would have added Lenny and Lodi! CLASSIC

After reading your post I can understand why you think Steiner was so great on the mic.

Once again I find myself agreeing with Mustang Sally. Steiner's body was so bad at that time that if he was to bend over he would have blown his ass out. Plus he was bad on the mic and horrible in the ring. I don't know why Vince brought him in.

 

[Ryberg]

After reading your post I can understand why you think Steiner was so great on the mic.

Once again I find myself agreeing with Mustang Sally. Steiner's body was so bad at that time that if he was to bend over he would have blown his ass out. Plus he was bad on the mic and horrible in the ring. I don't know why Vince brought him in.

Really? Who to this day (maybe Punk) gets a mic reaction like Big Poppa Pump got? He couldn't move anymore of course but that's all the injuries DUE TO the roids. I mean Big Show and Khali are still around and can't move or wrestle. Before roids he was awesome in the ring. And for every person HHH screwed over I wish BPP would have ended HHH career.

 

[FlairFan2003]

First, WWE didnt want Steiner right away, he wasnt sitting at home collecting on his Time Warner contract. WWE initially only pursued a few WCW stars after the take over, Steiner, with a history of temper tantrums and a rep for being hard to work with wasnt one of them.

As for his lackluster WWE run, Steiner as an in ring worker was not nearly as good as he had been before he bulked up. As for being pushed to the main events too soon, like him or not he was a legit main eventer before he arrived, you dont bring in Kevin Nash and book him in the mid card, you maximize the impact of his arrival by putting him high profile ASAP.

However, Steiner's Big Poppa Pump persona was clearly a heel, he didnt have the charisma of a Nash, HBK, or Flair to switch from heel to face with little character change. His whole persona was a bad guy, which he played well but he didnt have the ability to play it as a hero. Therefore booking him vs HHH during the Evolution story wasnt smart. He should have been booked vs a major good guy.

In the end reaction to his HHH bouts was lackluster, Trips was getting more cheers than Steiner. That didnt help his standing. I did lack his tag team with Test, they had real potential as a mega heel team but WWE had no interest in developing a tag division beyond the champs and their top challengers.

In the end Steiner had a bad rep for being hard to deal with, his ring work was declining, he was limited as a character and the tag division was non existent, that is why Steiner failed.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Steiner was a physical wreck when he signed for the WWE, he has since said his foot was paralyzed, and he is in better shape now than he was then. His 'roided physique would have also limited his in-ring work, as people can see by just how terrible his matches with HHH were. I have never seen fans turn on a babyface during a match like they did with Scotty in that match.

Had Steiner produced the goods in his matches after his awesome debut, its quite possible that he would have been given the belt, but he didnt. He was not in shape to be in the ring then, and there was no way WWE were going to continue the push of someone who was producing such bad matches.

Its a shame, as Steiner is always entertaining on the mic, and had such a cool entrance into the company. He was a wrestling machine in his prime before he got into abusing the roids. I am amazed he can still go in TNA, and still pull off the Frankensteiner. He is better now in 2012 than he was in 2002, and he was past his prime even then.

 

[justtxyank]

He was hurt. The E should never have let him work a match with his foot in the condition it was. He could barely move in the ring. That destroyed his push entirely because his physical condition made him look like a joke in the ring and the fans turned on him.

In some way I'm sure Vince relished that. here was yet another WCW "star" that once the "real" fans who actually "know" wrestling saw, was deemed unworthy.

It helps with the narrative. WCW was full of talentless heavyweight hacks. The only wrestlers who were any good couldn't wait to go work for the WWF!