Scott Steiner
Scott Steiner will go down in history as one of the best tag team wrestlers of our era. He's also established himself as a singles wrestler with an unpredictable mouth.
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College Athlete
Scott Steiner actually has credibility as a wrestler since he competed on a collegiate level. The University of Michigan was impressed enough with him to offer him a full scholarship to wrestle. Scott Steiner did well enough to become an All-American and even earned himself a degree in education.
Independent Circuit
After he finished college, Scott Steiner sought the training of The Sheik to begin his professional wrestling career.
He then began working for a couple of independent wrestling promotions, winning championships in the WWA (World Wrestling Association) and CWA (Continental Wrestling Association). Scott Steiner held the WWA Heavyweight Championship and the CWA Tag Team Championship.
It's interesting to note that one of the wrestlers that Scott Steiner lost the CWA Tag Team Championship to later became one of his nemesis in WCW. Robert Fuller went on to become Colonel Parker in WCW.
Scott Steiner did well enough to get the attention of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance). Of course, it didn't hurt that his older brother, Rick Steiner, was already an established star there. The idea was to put the two brothers into a tag team. |
NWA/WCW
When Scott Steiner first showed up in the NWA, management had him accompanying his brother to the ring while he was chasing the NWA World Television Championship. That proved to be a good move as he wasn't rushed on to the fans. They gradually became a tag team.
The team's popularity skyrocketed with fans loving Scott Steiner's array of moves. He was the master of suplexes and had a great finishing move called the Frankensteiner.
The Steiners then became the "Triple Crown Champions" as they captured and held the WCW United States Tag Team Championship, the WCW World Tag Team Championship, and the IWGP World Tag Team Championship simultaneously.
Scott Steiner was becoming one of the best overall performers in the world, so management wanted to capitalize on that by making him a singles star. They decided to give him an instant boost of credibility by giving him a pinfall victory over then WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Ric Flair. The two wrestled in a great match at Clash of the Champions XIV; the match ended in a draw, which was the best booking decision because fans hungered for more.
However, all that would come to an end when Bill Watts was unable to resign Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner to a contract extension. The brothers decided to head up north and give WWE a try.
WWF/WWE
During this time period, WWE had an idiotic policy of ignoring the past of the new wrestlers that get signed. Rather than capitalizing on the worldwide popularity of the Steiners, WWE brought them in as a run of the mill tag team.
They worked their way up the tag team ranks by beating teams like the Beverly Brothers and the Headshrinkers. Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner eventually did win the WWE Tag Team Championship from Ted DiBiase and Irwin R Schyster (who was a former tag team partner of Rick Steiner in the NWA).
The Steiners held the tag team titles until management made the odd decision of putting the belts on the Quebecers. It was a cheap victory because manager Johnny Polo (now known as Raven in TNA) threw a hockey stick into the ring, which was caught by Scott Steiner. The referee disqualified him, and the titles changed hands (the match stipulation allowed for a title change on a disqualification).
Their run in WWE ended when management was upset by their decisions to not fight one another during the Royal Rumble. Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner stayed true to their characters by refusing to fight one another at the time. Not only were they long time tag team partners, they were also brothers. It didn't make sense to them at that point in their characters' history. This caused them to leave WWE.
WCW
After a brief stint in ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling), the Steiners decided to head back to WCW.
Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat and engaged into a feud with the Outsiders and the nWo. It was during this time that Scott Steiner slowly made the transformation into a heel. It wasn't long before he turned on his brother and joined the nWo.
While in the nWo, Scott Steiner began establishing himself as a singles wrestler again. In fact, management even pushed him as the #2 star in the nWo behind Hulk Hogan for a while. Scott Hall was going through his thing at the time, and Kevin Nash was doing his thing with the Wolfpac.
Eventually, Scott Steiner would win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Booker T. He would hold on to the belt until the final episode of Monday Nitro. Many believed that the title switch was due to Scott Steiner choosing not to sign with WWE after WCW died.
WWE
After doing a quick tour with the WWA, Scott Steiner made his return to WWE. It ended up being a horrible decision because everything that could go wrong went wrong. Part of it was Scott Steiner not being able to perform at 100%. The other part was rumored to be backstage politics against him.
After a horrible feud with Triple H that was downright embarassing, Scott Steiner was moved down to the tag team division. He formed a tag team with Test (managed by Stacy Keibler) that basically did nothing of worth. Scott Steiner was released a short while afterwards.
TNA
Scott Steiner then joined TNA, where he was involved in several high profile matches and feuds. He was also a part of the Christian Coalition for a short while before management wisely decided to put him back in the tag team division with his recently signed brother Rick Steiner. The duo feuded with Team 3D (formerly known as the Dudley Boys) in a dream tag team feud.
Closing Thoughts
Things have come full circle for Scott Steiner as he's now back in his proper role as a tag team specialist. |
