Russ Morgan

Rarely in professional wrestling do you get a face become heel to such a big response, almost overnight Scotty Steiner became one of the most intimidating and dominant heels in wrestling history.

Scott teaming with brother Rick as “The Steiners”, they behind the “Road Warriors” were arguably the 2nd most popular and successful tag teams of the late 80’s and 90’s. Although the Steiners had a decent run in the WWF from 1992 to 1994, they are best known for their WCW tenures.

Fast forward to late 1997, the Steiners are competing with “The Outsiders” “and Harlem Heat” for the WCW Tag Titles. At this time, the nWo were dominating and WCW had very few wrestlers the fans could count on. Scott already a big athletic guy, hit the gym intensely and in a short time you could already see a significant increase in his muscle mass, thus impacting on his generally quick in-ring work. This coupled with dispensing with his 80’s rocker style haircut and growing a goatee, the writing was on the wall for his fan favourite moniker. During this time Scott had taken to not getting overly involved in tag matches, leaving Rick to carry the load.

It was on February 22nd 1998 at SuperBrawl VIII that Steiner showed his true colours (which in this case were black and white). In a match for the unified WCW tag titles against Hall and Nash, Scott turned on his brother to join the New World Order. The next night on Nitro, Scott debuted with new white hair and the transformation was complete. Scott Steiner was no more, Big Poppa Pump had arrived.

Summary

Looking back, this was exactly the kind of lift Steiner needed to move to the top tier, although you might be slightly surprised to know that he is only a one time world champion. Throughout his nWo career, back to WWE and latterly TNA, Steiner was the heel you could rely on. The only downside was that his in-ring work was reduced a variation of suplexes and generally standing around and shouting, gone indeed were the days of the Frankensteiner. Big Poppa Pump will be looked on as one of the great heels wrestling has produced, which is a credit to Steiner whom pretty much assumes the role in real life. Steiner has been known to have a short fuse which has lead him to do some jail time. The line is very blurred where the real Scott Rechsteiner finishes and Big Poppa Pump begins…

Until next time…