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Pre-Show Stalwart
The one-on-one exhibition match on WCW Nitro in 1999 was between Scott Norton of the nWo B-Team backups and "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner of the nWo Wolfpac Elite. Throughout the entire Norton/Steiner match (which by the way was a heel vs heel match), the crowd was chanting "Steroids!" out of jeering. Who was the crowd directing the Steroids chant at? Because whoever had the crowd chanting Steroids at him must've been more over as a heel than the other who would've appeared to play a quasi-face for the match.
Quick background checks on both men:
-1) Scott Norton was an all-natural powerhouse wrestler who spent time alternating between WCW and Japan. His fans may think of him as an underrated wrestler in the USA because he was a bigger star in New Japan, and because of being heavily pushed as a star. I think of Norton as the guy who caused Rick Steiner to be a sloppy in-ring worker near the end of 1997 when Norton wanted the powerslam but Rick Steiner wanted the Steinerline clothesline. What happened was that Norton slipped while applying the powerslam, and almost broke Rick Steiner's neck by dropping him on his head. That's how Buff Bagwell wound up with a broken neck by a botched solo Steiner Bulldog from Rick Steiner. If Norton didn't drop Rick on his head, maybe Rick would've applied the Steiner Bulldog much more smoothly on Buff, and Buff never winds up with a legit broken neck on a WCW Thunder episode in 1998.
-2) Scott Steiner was an all-natural all-around in-ring worker who invented moves such as the Frankensteiner, the Tilt-A-Whirl backbreaker, Steiner Screwdriver (a vertical suplex-turned-piledriver) and the Steinerline plus a bunch of differing variations of suplexes. It wasn't until when injuries did him in that he became Big Poppa Pump in 1998 and transformed into a strict basic brawler and a showman.
So there you have it. Both Scotts were on the downside of their athletic primes of their wrestling careers by April 1999, although Norton didn't accumulate too many injuries that kept him from realizing his full potential like Steiner did. But Steiner had the better character than Norton, so that's why Steiner managed to stay relevant as a singles star despite being a late bloomer while Norton moved back to New Japan full time.
Quick background checks on both men:
-1) Scott Norton was an all-natural powerhouse wrestler who spent time alternating between WCW and Japan. His fans may think of him as an underrated wrestler in the USA because he was a bigger star in New Japan, and because of being heavily pushed as a star. I think of Norton as the guy who caused Rick Steiner to be a sloppy in-ring worker near the end of 1997 when Norton wanted the powerslam but Rick Steiner wanted the Steinerline clothesline. What happened was that Norton slipped while applying the powerslam, and almost broke Rick Steiner's neck by dropping him on his head. That's how Buff Bagwell wound up with a broken neck by a botched solo Steiner Bulldog from Rick Steiner. If Norton didn't drop Rick on his head, maybe Rick would've applied the Steiner Bulldog much more smoothly on Buff, and Buff never winds up with a legit broken neck on a WCW Thunder episode in 1998.
-2) Scott Steiner was an all-natural all-around in-ring worker who invented moves such as the Frankensteiner, the Tilt-A-Whirl backbreaker, Steiner Screwdriver (a vertical suplex-turned-piledriver) and the Steinerline plus a bunch of differing variations of suplexes. It wasn't until when injuries did him in that he became Big Poppa Pump in 1998 and transformed into a strict basic brawler and a showman.
So there you have it. Both Scotts were on the downside of their athletic primes of their wrestling careers by April 1999, although Norton didn't accumulate too many injuries that kept him from realizing his full potential like Steiner did. But Steiner had the better character than Norton, so that's why Steiner managed to stay relevant as a singles star despite being a late bloomer while Norton moved back to New Japan full time.
