In his early years Scott Steiner let his impressive ring work do the talking. We had an inking that he might be a bit crazy after seeing the mind blowing moves he pulled off. A chiseled heavyweight performing frankensteiners and backflip fallaway slams was shocking to see. Landing on his head and almost breaking his neck did nothing to stop him.
Eventually, injuries caught up and he evolved into Big Poppa Pump. He toned down the acrobatics and beefed up the personality. His intense promos gave fans a glimpse of the wild Steiner personality they had only heard about in shoot interviews. He feared no man, legend, or even his own promotion! He cut vicious, unscripted promos on Flair, Torrie Wilson, and WCW itself. It was crazy to hear him reference Stone Cold Steve Austin during the Monday Night Wars. But he did what he wanted.
Since his exit from the WWE his legend has only grown. Compilations of his stories are all over Youtube as it seems every wrestler giving a shoot interview has something interesting to say about the Big Bad Booty Daddy. He was respected and feared in almost every major promotion around the world. I'm sure there are plenty more stories left to unearth.
While there are some stories of bullying, most wrestlers have generally positive remarks about the man. Whether thats from pure intimidation I don't know, but either way it's impressive. One story on this list even recounts a time he saved a wrestler's life!
Steiner explained it well himself when he said "I was born with a wild hair up my ass. There's nothing I can do about it. My buddies in college used to say that one day I'd end up in jail because I'm out of control and have no use for authority."
So let's take a crazy walk through the most insane Scott Steiner stories around.
12 12. Frankensteiner vs. Hurricanrana
Mexican Luchador Huracain Ramarez is said to have originated the move. A ‘rana’ is a double cradle pin, hence the usual pin finish.
But that’s not how Scott Steiner sees it.
Steiner decided to clear up the matter with the WCW broadcast team personally. He burst into their dressing room and yelled out:
"How come you guys call it a hurricanrana whenever one of the Mexicans does it? It's a f---ing Frankensteiner no matter who does it! A F---ING FRANKENSTEINER!"
How nice of him to share his move and name with the rest of the promotion!
11 11. The reason Bill Watts carried protection
We’ve all heard that when Bill Watts was running WCW he carried a gun, though we never heard why. Well, according to none other than Jim Ross, Watts had a gun because he feared Steiner!
Whether this is true or just a humorous exaggeration is impossible to tell. But with so many backstage stories regarding how intimidating Steiner was, it doesn’t seem too far from the truth.
If Steiner is coming for you, you better be loaded for bear.
10 10. Ric Flair promo
The infamous promo directed towards Flair and his own promotion of WCW was entertaining but strange. The two wrestlers weren’t involved in a storyline at the time and Steiner’s insults were extremely personal, accusing Flair of stealing his gimmick from the “Real Nature Boy Buddy Rogers”.
The reason it seemed strange and random was that Steiner was improvising. He felt like insulting a legend and his own promotion so he went ahead and did it. Steiner confronted Nature Boy no.2 in the parking lot afterwards as well. Flair was left in tears and Steiner was sent home with a paid suspension.
9 9. Highway to Hell
Petey Williams got along with Steiner and even performed as Big Petey Pump for a time.
Steiner asked Williams where the gym was and Williams told him it was a short walk down the road. Steiner decided to drive and took Williams with him. They pulled up to the red light when Williams pointed the gym out and noted it was a one way street going the wrong direction.
Steiner is no wuss and not only blew through the red light but raced the wrong way down the street. You think you get a body like that by wasting time before working out?
8 8. Teaching Junior a lesson
The funky purple tag team Men on a Mission had a spunky manager named Junior. During a tour, Junior had sat in Headshrinker Samu’s seat. Rikishi (Fatu) let Junior know whose seat he was in to which Junior replied “Fuck Samu”. Junior refused again when Samu asked and that was all it took.
Scott Steiner and several others strung Junior upside down in a bathroom with tape (an engineering feat) and proceeded to urinate on him.
And I always thought Junior didn’t stick around because he was terrible.
7 7. Steiner, a pencil and a felony
Kevin Nash was recounting several tales of backstage Steiner intimidation when he dropped this bombshell.
We’ve already covered that Steiner loved stringing wrestlers up with tape, but on this occasion he went much further. With a poor jobber dangling from a tape trap, Steiner stuck a pencil into a certain orifice.
Nash was shocked and told Steiner that sodomy was a felony and he didn’t want to have any conversation with the Feds.
As of this writing the FBI have had zero involvement with this situation.
6 6. He could do this move
Steiner truly was a genetic freak. He was always built like the Incredible Hulk, but in his younger days he had the agility of Spider-Man.
I’ve seen plenty of flippy dippy luchadore offense, but I’ve never seen this combination of power and acrobatics. This is one of the many impressive moves in his earlier repertoire that gained him top-tier status on the international scene.
Injuries from his hard-hitting style led to a drastic change to the pure power style of his later years but hardcore fans never forgot what he was capable of.
5 5. A match almost killed him
A routine 2007 TNA house show in Puerto Rico was almost his last.
An in-ring kick to the throat led to coughing up blood in the hotel later on. He was rushed to a local hospital and diagnosed with a very serious torn trachea.
Steiner obviously knew better than those wuss doctors and repeatedly tried to leave the hospital on a private jet. Of course the change in air pressure from a flight would have killed a lesser man, but this is the Big Booty Daddy we’re talking about.
Only an induced coma was enough to calm him down enough so that doctors could cut him open and repair the damage, spending two weeks to drain the fluid from his mighty lungs.
Steiner skipped the jet on the way home and relaxed with a nice cruise instead.
4 4. He tried to remove DDP’s eye
Page’s wife Kimberly found some drug paraphernalia backstage and claimed it belonged to Tammy “Sunny” Sytch, to get her fired. Being a great human being, Steiner would never stand for this injustice. He reacted by chasing Kimberly around and out of the building. Situation over right?
Nope. DDP must have vowed to protect his wife from being chased and decided to confront ol’ White Thunder at the gorilla position. A fight ensued and Steiner used his amatuer wrestling background, attempting the ‘Michigan State Eye Remover’. Page must have blinded Steiner with cigar smoke as he appears to still have both eyes.
3 3. He saved Shane Helms' life
Helms was set to wrestle Steiner and came up with a spot that would combine his superhero gimmick with Steiner’s power game. Helms suggested that he would fly like superman but get caught and thrown into Steiner’s patented super fireman’s carry off the second rope.
Helms got to the top rope but lost his balance and would have landed on the steel steps head first. That’s when the real Superman saved the day. Steiner quickly grabbed him, said “easy kid” and pulled off the super fireman’s carry just as planned.
2 2. Allegedly threatened to kill Hulk Hogan
Through researching these stories it struck me as to how many former WCW wrestlers thought Steiner should have been pushed much earlier into Hogan's top spot. As a WCW mark at the time I was blown away by how quickly he transformed his character from the bland, mulleted, babyface, to the charismatic bad ass of Big Poppa Pump. But Steiner wouldn't get the championship until WCW was too far gone to save.
Perhaps it was this animosity that led to a WrestleMania weekend confrontation with Hogan's wife at an airport. Jennifer Hogan infamously claimed that Steiner grabbed her and threatened to kill her Hulk husband.
Steiner has come out on record to say that he didn't touch her or threaten murder. He simply wanted to tell her that Hogan inducting Randy Savage into the Hall of Fame that weekend was "bulls***...He hated him, everyone knew that".
Steiner simply stated that it's not his fault that Hogan fears him.
1 1. The real Road Warriors
Animal and Hawk may have played Road Warriors in the ring, but the Steiners were the real deal.
Wrestlers spend a large amount of time crammed into rental cars on long road trips. To pass the time, the Steiners had a special Mad Max inspired game they loved to play.
If they saw another car filled with wrestlers they would speed right alongside them. Scott would grab hold of brother Rick's leg as he dangled out the window. The Dog Faced Gremlin would reach out to the other car, open its door and grab at the terrified wrestlers inside. A death defying stunt done purely for fun.
When Paul Heyman and the Samoan Swat Team saw the Steiner-mobile pulling alongside theirs, they naturally locked the door. Rick angrily pounded on the window, trying to smash it. Their wheelman Sting then pulled in front of Heyman's car as the brothers began throwing everything they had at Heyman's vehicle, including a very large watermelon.
This resulted in a highway battle causing so much damage that Heyman was banned from renting a car in North Carolina ever again.