Scott Steiner remains one of the most controversial personalities in wrestling history. The controversial reputation of Steiner grew towards the end of WCW and especially following his WWE run. Steiner came with huge expectations to become a top tier superstar when joining WWE in 2002, about a year and a half after WCW was purchased.
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Fans showed strong interest in Steiner during his debut at Survivor Series 2002 along with the first few months, but things fell apart quickly. Steiner fell from challenging for the World Championship to not even having a WrestleMania XIX program in just a few months. Find out just what impact WWE had in the poor use of the legend. The following ways show how WWE failed Steiner in various ways.
8 Eric Bischoff & Stephanie McMahon Getting Priority In His First Storyline
The brand split war between Raw and Smackdown was in place when Scott Steiner made his WWE return. Rival General Managers Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon were each trying to recruit Steiner for over a month on both shows, as a top free agent.
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Steiner’s importance was played up, but he felt like an afterthought to the Bischoff vs. Stephanie storyline. WWE wasted time, using up the best of Scott’s instant momentum. The angle wasn’t well thought out and hurt what could have been something special with Steiner dominating opponents instead.
7 Pose Down With Triple H
The feud of Triple H vs. Scott Steiner was Steiner’s first official program in WWE after signing with the Raw brand. Steiner having an instant angle with the World Championship should have been huge, but WWE dropped the ball with the story from start to finish.
One of the worst segments featured the bodybuilding passion of both Triple H and Steiner used for a pose down segment. Each wrestler did poses to show off their physiques with judges rating them. Fans started to turn on the program with brutal segments like this doing them no favors.
6 Political Debate
Another bizarre segment featuring Scott Steiner would see him getting involved in a program with Chris Nowinski over world politics. The war in Iraq was debated by Steiner and Nowinski from the right wing and leftist perspectives.
Steiner made some strong comments that could have been deemed offensive, which just provided more confusion than anything else. WWE didn’t even have much interest in an actual payoff match between them, which made this concept even sillier. It was a complete waste of time.
5 Attacking Stacy Keibler
The time of Scott Steiner and Stacy Keibler working together would see them both hoping to find their ideal long-term act. Stacy managed Steiner for a few months during his feud with Test. WWE booked them all poorly with things spiraling out of control.
Test eventually would win out by getting Steiner on his side. Scott turned on Stacy by physically attacking her with his belly-to-belly suplex move. Fans completely gave up on Steiner around this time, when he reached the point of no return.
4 Teaming With Test
The aftermath of Scott Steiner turning on Stacy Keibler saw him entering a full-time tag team with Test. Stacy was forced to manage them since they owned her contract. Steiner and Test were both at the end of the road, where this felt like their final chance to make it work in WWE after multiple failures.
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Fans did not care in the slightest about the tag team and only appeared invested in Keibler. WWE did nothing to make the tag team appear on the same page, nor did they attempt to change up their presentation. Steiner and Test would both get released shortly after the tag team flopped.
3 No HOF Induction For The Steiner Brothers
The legendary run of Scott and Rick Steiner saw them become one of the all-time great tag teams. WCW was the place where the Steiner Brothers had dominated the tag team industry, but they also had a superb run in WWE.
Scott has been vocal about his issues with WWE, but that didn’t prevent names like Ultimate Warrior from getting inducted. Even if the company holds ill will towards Scott, the contributions of Rick deserve to be honored in a major way.
2 Losing First Feud To Triple H
Scott Steiner’s hot start to his WWE stint fizzled out when his program with Triple H tanked. The timing of Triple H’s infamous reign of terror would see Steiner become a victim of his tyranny. Their segments and matches all missed the mark with little to no chemistry.
Triple H and Steiner had two of the worst matches of 2003, with Triple H ultimately winning the feud. Steiner winning the title so quickly may have been rushed, but losing his first program was a terrible call. WWE should have avoided this match so early if they were planning to have Steiner lose.
1 No Presence At WrestleMania XIX
The aftermath of the Scott Steiner vs. Triple H program would see Steiner losing any relevance in WWE. Steiner drastically fell from having the red-hot start to his run, to not even making the card of WrestleMania XIX.
Bruce Prichard revealed on his podcast that Triple H was not originally expected to face Booker T on the show and Steiner having another match was likely the plan. Vince McMahon gave up on Steiner to the point where he couldn’t make the biggest show of the year in an undercard match, to show his WWE value moving forward.
NEXT: 10 Backstage Stories About Scott Steiner We Can't Believe
