| World Champion
Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: nWo City
Posts: 10,827
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Scott Steiner:
One of my first experiences with Ric Flair, was from Dick the Bruiser. He had heard I was gonna go down to the NWA. He says 'as soon as you get there, drop your bags and tell Flair I told you to carry your bags'. And I thought he was kidding me, I thought he was telling the truth, ya know. And later on that night I'm back with Don Kent and telling him what he told me and he said nah, don't do that, you won't be staying long. They all told me that's how Flair got in the business, carrying the guy's bags, ya know.
Flair actually took a liking in you and your brother, he was very impressed with how tough you were and actually tried to bring you into his fold, is that true?
Nah, not that I know of.
He wasn't friendly to you?
Pfft, Flair's friendly with everybody, but he'll just stab you in the back, ya know. That's the way he is. You can't trust him.
They say he used to ask you and your brother to face eachother for him to watch for his own entertainment. Is that true?
Never happened. You heard that? Nah, like we were gonna listen to Ric Flair, ya know. He's like the Wizard of Oz with the curtain down, ya see somebody different on one side of the curtain and on the other. Backstage he's the biggest pussy ever to me.
Talk about your loss to the Quebeckers when you were leaving the WWF.
Well we just, wanted to get out of there, so. No big deal. They were fucking horrible. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to get out, ya know.
"There wasn't anything regarding that match like, the finish wasn't what it was supposed to be..?"
Oh no. Not unless you've heard something different.
No, I'm asking you.
Well I just told you. Why, have you heard something?
No I'm just asking here
Oh come on man! Time out. Time out first, what are you talking about?
There was a story there where it was a last second decision for them to win just to get you out.
To get us out? Nawh.
So there was never a falling out with you and Vince?
Oh yeah, we had a meeting with Vince. We back on now? Yeah I had a meeting with Vince, we told 'em we were pissed off about the payoffs and stuff like that, ya know. And he actually felt bad, ya know. Cause we promised to make money and we did. So that's one of the reasons we could break free. No ties at all. He let us go. I think he felt bad, but.. cause he couldn't pay us, ya know. But wrestling wasn't his top priority ya know, he was facing jail time. Like he's gonna worry about us. Or anybody ya know, he actually brought people in.. cause he was legit.. he was thinking he was going to jail, ya know.
You came back to WCW when they made the decision to compete against Vince. How did this WCW differ from the one you left years before?"
Well it was.. that's when Eric was in charge, ya know. Eric in my opinion was probably one of the best things that ever happened to WCW. And if anybody ever says it's different, they're fucked up. Cause he started Nitro. And he's the one that stole talent. He's the one that brought the pay scale up. He paid everybody better. I dunno what your agenda is in wrestling, but if it's not to make the most money you can, then you are a mark, ya know. Eric was one of the best things, and he didn't take any shit from anybody really. I have nothing bad to say about Eric.
"There was a very political time period in WCW, did you see that, or were you just doing your own thing?"
Oh pff, there's politics from day one ya know, Flair saying he's 16 time world champion, but give me a fucking break. Ya know, he had Kevin Sullivan, he had all those guys booking for him, it's like.. I would have been 16 time world champ if I had all my buddies booking for me, and he was even the booker at one time, you know what I mean? And when he was the booker, fucking everybody wanted to kill him. Of course there was a lot of politics, that's the way it was, ya know. It was always like that. That's why he got so pissed off when I did the interview. It was just so close to the truth, ya know.
"Why did you pick that interview, cause you weren't even in the program with Ric Flair?"
Well.. that was our nature, we were the nWo, we pretty much picked on everybody ya know. It just so happened that I just.. ya know wanted to do it, so I did it.
Was it like 3 o'clock in the afternoon and you thought hey lets go pick on him...
Yeah I thought about it for a couple of days, and I thought yeah fuck it, I'll fuck with him today. Doing an interview about him, ya know.
What kind of backlash did you get when you came back?
Well I came back and I found out later Flair's in the room crying. Actually crying. But that's the way Flair was, ya know. If you've seen that skit the nWo did - that's one of the funniest things I've seen in wrestling - when X-Pac with the tears coming out of his eyes.. that's the way Flair was man. You gotta see it to believe it. It's embarrassing, ya know. Yeah, and I came back and heard that he was crying, and he actually tried to get me fired. Went through JJ Dillan, ya know. And Bill Bush. Bill Bush didn't know what the hell he was doing, so he was listening to.. of course he was listening to Kevin Sullivan, JJ Dillan, it was so... same fucked characters that were bringing WCW down, ya know.
You gotta understand, Jim Herd wanted to retire Flair. When Herd was in charge. Flair always looked.. his body looked like shit, I mean.. it was.. aahh that's the only reason he stayed on top, ya know.
Flair's always discredited Herd from wanting to make him Spartacus.
No.. yeah we all laughed at that. Fuck him man, he fucked with so many people, he got so many people fired, it was.. ya know. He deserved what he gets, it's common man.
How about Hogan in his place and this political structure..
Oh Hogan was the man. Eric listened to him. I will say Hogan is like the Zen master, the master manipulator. He's the greatest of all time, he went up to the WWF and beat Vince's son in law. I mean how's that.. ya know what I mean? He's the best, man. Ya know he's.. the high chief man. Best worker outside the ring there is.
Was that also why he aligned himself with you, cause you were getting so over?
Well ya know, when I first turned heel I found out through some of the guys who were in the room, he was.. Hogan called all the shots man. You know what I mean? He used to say who would win and would lose man. And so he would tell Eric, and Eric.. ya know.
You said Flair cried over what you...
YEAH!
Did he ever come back and try to say something to you face to face, or..
Well, the next day they sent me home, ya know. And it just so happened that he was, ya know coming through ya know and he tried to say something and I told him to get the fuck away from me. He tried to "oh it's not my fault" ya know. I mean what are you f..? *shakes head* I mean you gotta be an idiot to believe anything Flair says, ya know.
But they did keep you off TV?"
No, first they tried to say they were gonna fire me cause I was wearing the Superman thing on the side of my trunks, so then my lawyer he's wow he's on the rough side with you now with the Superman logo ya know, so they took it down. It was just a cluster fuck down there ya know. You would not believe that, ya know TBS and the power they had.. how mismanaged it was. It was pretty bad, ya know.
Was there, since you but this promo on Flair, that they actually turned it into an angle?
No, Flair would want to part of that, no. The thing ya know, I also did a hard interview against Hogan too ya know. And I actually compared the two ya know, cause I had nothing against... I had just come back from my back surgery and Hogan had just left the nWo and I cut a pretty good interview on him ya know. And I compared the two and, they did what they did ya know, but they couldn't.. there was nothing they could do.
If WCW gave you something that you didn't wanna do, did you do it, or?
If I didn't like something, ya know, it had to make sense cause I wasn't gonna do something stupid. But you gotta understand at that time I was coming up with a lot of my own stuff at the time.
What kind of stuff did you bring to the table?
Well it was my idea to look like this. At the time, Marcus got hurt with his neck, my brother got hurt with his shoulder and I was hurt with my back ya know, but we were still doing TV every week and we'd just come up with our own storylines, ya know. Lot of that stuff was what we wanted to do, ya know. And Eric was good about that, cause like I said, he knew the booking was horrible.
Who was the booker then?
Same old shit, Kevin Sullivan, and.. they had a community of guys, ya know.
So the hair thing was your idea?
Oh yeah. Nobody was gonna come up with ideas for ya. You had to come up with your own. So yeah.
What about the Bill Goldberg phenomenon?
Bill took off like no other. It was just amazing. What he was able to accomplish in such a short time, ya know. Not too many people could do it. There was Steve McMichael, phenomenal football player. There was a comparison between him and Goldberg. McMichael was just, probably a hall of famer, but Goldberg picked it up and McMichael never did, ya know.
What part did you return to WWE?
They offered me money that was pretty good.
Opposed to previous unsuccessful attempts to get you in there earlier?
Yeah. I was actually supposed to.. they contacted me right before WrestleMania. They talked to my lawyer and mentioning something like me tagging with Austin against Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. I just let my lawyer take care of it, ya know. Unless they came up with the right number, I told them they shouldn't bother to call me. Plus, I could see what was going on on TV ya know. *shakes head* I think at time, Austin was singing.. to Vince with the guitar, all in the ring singing... I mean it was brutal shit man. So, I was in no hurry.
You probably had to catch up with the TV a lot..
Yeah I actually did watch a little bit. But it was like, it was nothing that was worth anything, ya know.
When you finally did get in there, what was the promise made to you?
Well they said, they were gonna push me, ya know. But I had heard rumours they were just gonna bring me in to face Hunter and that was it, ya know. Matter of fact, one of the ring crew guys brought me a piece from the Pitsburg newspaper where it said hoping you don't get treated the same bla bla bla, all the WCW talent, hoping they would do it different than with other WCW talent, ya know, but... he basically treated me and Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, all the same ya know.
All the same?
Yeah he just.. put his thumb on us, ya know. I mean I couldn't even do my own interviews ya know. They had to write out your own interviews...
Why do you think he did that, particularly to you?
He did it to everybody. That's the way it was up there, it was like.. control freaks, ya know. There were like 4 or 5 little guys, can't be more than 5 foot 6, 5 foot 8, trying to write for TV what's cool, ya know. And I was like, this wasn't working.
The match with HHH, they said it was booked too long...
It wasn't booked too long, they took it too long. You don't understand, you don't realize, they could bury you any way they wanted. We were supposed to go for 18 minutes, we ended up going for like 28 minutes, 29 minutes. They weren't gonna do anything with me from day one, ya know.
There is speculation that Triple H was trying to stretch the match out and trying to make you look bad and cash you up
Yeah but I wasn't tired ya know.
But why would control freaks plan a match and let it go longer than planned...
Yeah but I just said it ya know. They wanted to put their thumb on ya, trying to make ya look bad, ya know.
Why would they make you look bad though, they got money invested in you..
You tell me. It don't make no sense. So who's dumb? Me or him? Ya know, I'm collecting the same amount of money whether he pushes me or not, ya know. At that point in time I was gonna sit back and, my foot was injured at the time, so ah hell, I was gonna let 'em do what he wanted, ya know. I already knew I had no control, ya know.
I don't know if you guys seen it, first time I went out there it was Madison Square Garden. You guys see that? Howard Finkel said - ya know Howard Finkel's the first guy that Vince hired ya know. He said "I've been around for a long time, seen every superstar, Bruno", and he says that ranks with one of the best ovations. And I took that.. cause I knew Howard from the first time we were up there in '92/'93, so I respected Howard's opinion. And real quick after that, maybe two weeks after that, I said to Vince 'they bury me yet?', ya know. I knew people were gonna bury me ya know. "Oh no no, everybody wants to see you get over", ya know, so. But I knew it, ya know.
Nature Boy Ric Flair, he was already back there
Yah. *smile* Why?
Did you have any corresponds with him, or did you just kinda stay away?
Oh I talked to him. Oh I don't... just because he's a piece of shit doesn't mean he's not my friend. He's still talking to me like we're... ya know, but that's the way Flair is ya know.
If you had to critique your match with HHH, what would you say to that?
That wasn't very good.
Why?
Well it takes two people. Ya know. One guy doesn't wanna have a good match, it's not gonna be a good match.
Why would he not wanna have a good match with you? Think he was intimidated?
Ah for whatever reason, ya know. He probably was influenced by things said to him by Flair ya know. I dunno. But I knew going in, ya know. After that ya know, I knew I was screwed, so. But you know that's... it's his company. Look at where it's at now.
You were doing an angle with Test...
Yeah. Brutal. They wouldn't let us do anything. Stacy still wearing those wholesome clothes, ya know. I was making, trying to make her dress a little more like Midajah. One RAW they just wanted us to go out there and just kiss, ya know. Out of the blue, just *shakes head*. A mad passion kiss. We both looked at eachother like.. what for? Ya know. Why would we do that, we had no.. the chemistry wasn't there for that to happen. So we didn't do it, ya know.
Did you like working with Rob Van Dam?
He's very talented, ya know. But he was another guy that they shit on up there, ya know. I mean he's very talented but for whatever reason, I didn't think he took the business serious. But that was their mindset, like I said, they could bury anybody for whatever reason. And that was their reason for not pushing Rob Van Dam. Cause he did a lot of amazing stuff, ya know. And he was over too, I thought, ya know. And if they were to gave him something, he could've been even more, but when I tell you guys that there's so many ways you can bury somebody, it's different ways man, there's some evil motherfuckers in this business, ya know.
[talking about why all the wrestlers look in perfect shape nowadays, as opposed to the old days when it was okay to be fat]
Does it hurt the audience that they can't relate to some of the characters...?
They can't relate to the characters because you've got these weasels in the back, all writing interviews out for everybody, they got the same mind writing interviews for the same different characters, you know. There's definately gonna be a crossover, you know what I mean, that's what the cookie cutter is, it's like, besides the bodies, it's like you've got these same morons in the back writing all the interviews and telling you exactly what to say, you know. Before, it was like different, you know, you had Orndorf, Piper, you had all these other guys, coming up with their own, like Jesse Ventura, and Superstar Billy Graham coming up with their own unique style, the way they're saying something it's not like that anymore. I mean, I know that first hand, you know. From some idiot telling me what to say and how to say it, you know. And I had to practice it before I went out. I mean, it was a joke.
You think Vince is making a mistake by signing all these younger guys in, while there are a lot of wrestlers on the shelf like Goldberg, Sting, you think those wrestlers, WCW wrestlers would make an impact on the WWE?
Yeah, why wouldn't me make an impact? I mean, we beat 'em. First I don't think a lot of people would come back. I mean, he had the oppertunity, you know. I mean, he had to realize, we beat him for 82 weeks straight that there was a market for us. And Vince didn't pick up that market, they didn't pick up the audience from WCW. It's just a fact you know. It's nothing personal, but some people like WCW, some people like the WWE, and he made the mistake thinking that he was... you know there's the problem that he wanted to rule the world, he got it and wrestling is fucked for it.
It seems like there's a whole bunch of guys, on TNA that WWE is not using, there's like a whole bunch of other guys that couldn't make it through the company...
Right. *nods*
Do you think that Vince basically didn't bring the whole WCW right away because he's been, all these years battling WCW and he didn't want to put the guys over..
Oh definitely. Definitely man.
If he brought in all the guys at once, he'd have to job 'em basically...
Exactly what he did, ya know. Vince took it personal, man. He didn't want anybody getting over from WCW. I am the perfect example of that. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg's a perfect example. We're all perfect examples, you know. Why he didn't want WCW to succeed, you know.
At a business standpoint, wouldn't it have been smarter to keep the two companies seperate, and once a year maybe could have done a world series or something like that.. with wrestling
Oh yeah, without a doubt, ya know, but.. like I said, he wanted to rule the world.
Do you think the nWo, the REAL nWo would've made a comeback in the WWE, but you know, I mean the real nWo
Yeah, if you'd let somebody else do it. You know what I mean? Keep Stephanie away, keep Hunter away, keep Vince away. And it would work. But they won't do that.
What is Sting's mindset as far has the business these days, has he pretty much given it up?
I think so, yeah. I haven't talked to him in a while.
You're always pretty outspoken on ideas and stuff like that, would you ever want to be part of a creative team? Or is that like, you're not ready for that yet, you wanna be in the ring more..
Who do you want me to be part of a creative team for? Vince? Are you fucking kidding me? Nah, I don't think so. I'm not gonna go work for somebody just for the sake of working, you know. I mean, cause I don't need to.
Is there anything you want to say to your fans out there that you never had a chance to say?
Nah, I just appreciate it, I think they appreciated anything that I did. I busted my ass and stuff like that. When I was a babyface, ya know, I did that, and when I was a heel, I tried to be the biggest prick there was, ya know. Make 'em hate me. A lot of guys can't do that. Or don't wanna do that, ya know. I love being booed. I'd rather be a bad guy than a good guy. Without a doubt, hands down. I can make people hate me more than I can make them like me. But that was my personality, ya know so yeah. I think that came across on TV too, ya know.
What are your thoughts on when they put the belt on David Arquette and stuff like that, you think that was good, or?
Are you fucking kidding me?? That was the biggest piece of shit I fucking ever was involved in. It was bullshit, ya know. All because of that stupid fucking movie, ya know. Which nobody even watched. Ever seen the movie? It's fucking horrible, it was all DDP trying to bring that bullshit in, it was the worst thing that ever fucking happened, it was a joke. And a B-rated actor to be in with, ya know. It was not like he was putting on Arnold Schwarzenegger. And that still wouldn't have made a difference. It was a joke man. *smiles*
I think everybody was disgusted, you know. Like everybody was saying, what the fuck? Ya know. I think everybody realized that, this place is fucked up more than we thought it was. I mean, I criticised them from day one, ya know. I didn't give a fuck, ya know. I speak my mind when.. ya know. That was bullshit. As a matter of fact, I think WCW did an interview with me after it happened, and I said basically the same shit, ya know. And the guy meant nothing, he still means nothing. But that was Russo, he could have 20 ideas and only one of them to be good, ya know. And at that time, nobody had control of him. Eric was gone then.
In WWF, didn't Vince have a final say?
Well that was the deal, yeah. He had 20 ideas and Vince fired him cause he could only use one of them. You know what I mean? I mean the guy had some good stuff, but you gotta disect the good parts and in WCW there was nobody doing that, ya know.
Did you ever see the political struggle between Kevin Nash and Scott Hall with Eric Bisschoff and then Hogan's side?
Oh yeah. Yeah all the time, man. One of the things with the nWo, they split 'em there, ya know. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were the cool ones, ya know. And Hogan was.. I mean I remember when Hogan and Nash were gonna face off and he says before I talk to you, you gotta take your wife's glasses off. You guys remember that? It was the funniest shit.. cause in the next segment, at the end of the show, he came out with no glasses on, so you knew that he got him, you know what I mean? But it was a no-win situation for Kevin Nash, cause like I said before, Hogan had Bisschoff's ear, ya know.
What are your thoughts on Mr Warrior?
That's his name now, right? Warrior? I mean anybody that changes his name to Warrior is fucked up, you know. I dunno.. I think he's definitely um.. I think he's fried a few brains. Cause he came down to WCW and it was when Hogan had to beat 'em back, ya know. |
The truth about wrestling and how it's gotten from Scott Steiner himself 
