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Mr Harms

By Mr Harms
in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

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sydneybrown

sydneybrown

Posted
Posted

Yes.  Here:

 

 

"The Steiner Stiffs"
Originally published: June 4, 1992
Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly newsletter #177

"If it ain't stiff, it ain't worth a fuck."
-Stiff Records.

"That Steiners match was something, wasn't it?"
-Bill Watts the night of WrestleWar.

As it happens, I was ringside for the Steiners match against Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka. It certainly was something. In fact, it was quite a spectacle. As stiff as it may have seemed on television, it was absolutely brutal from fifteen feet away. It was one of the most compelling pro wrestling matches I have ever witnessed. It was also a complete and utter disgrace - a total exhibition of the qualities that make the Steiner Brothers one of the most unprofessional acts in the business today.

It started from the beginning of the match. Scott goes for the blockbuster suplex on Fujinami and blows the spot. Iizuka runs to give Scott another chance to hit the move. Steiner does it correctly this time, but he is still a little embarrassed and pissed. So he pops to his feet and levels Fujinami with a clothesline, holding absolutely nothing back. Fujinami was obviously unprepared for the blast and went down hard. He tagged out and was so out of it that he could barely stand up in the corner.

It certainly did not end there. Iizuka was obviously injured after Rick Steiner accidentally screwed up an admittedly innovative double-team move and landed on the man's face. Iizuka was obviously in a great deal of pain and bleeding the hard way from the mouth. It very well could have been a serious injury judging from the fall and the wrestler's reaction to it.

That made no impression on the Steiners. Rick and Scott continued to pull absolutely no punches or kicks as they battered and pummeled both opponents unmercifully. Being talented stud athletes themselves, Iizuka and in particular Fujinami, retaliated with stiff, hard blows. These blows, however, were delivered in a professional manner to opponents who were ready for them, not cheap shots to wrestlers who left themselves open and defenseless. The Steiners did not allow either man to stay on offense for very long and started their out of control punches and kicks as soon as they got the opportunity.

Both of these clowns had no respect for the fact that, like themselves, Fujinami and Iizuka are gifted athletes who make a living night in and night out as professional wrestlers. Both have made every sacrifice in pursuit of excellence in their craft. Tatsumi Fujinami is a legend in the professional wrestling business on a par in his country with a Nick Bockwinkle or a Ric Flair here and yet he received no respect from either brother. Apparently the Steiner Brothers could not have cared less. What did Rick or Scott think would happen to their opponents after they hurt them? The answer is obvious.

The Steiners don't think.

Scott Steiner certainly did not when, in front of this pay-per-view audience, many of them kids who paid twenty-five dollars a pop to watch them, he screamed, "Fuck this shit!" before powerbombing Iizuka.

Gee, Scott - Fuck what shit? It was YOUR team that refused to cooperate in wrestling a match that brought the best out of all the participants. It was YOUR brother who kept aiming fists and boots at Iizuka's face even after the injury. It is YOU and your brother who have spent the last six months making guaranteed money and dogging it in the ring.

It has become a familiar sight on WCW television shows to see Rick and Scott amble their way to the ring for a match with their heads down as though they wish they could be anywhere else. If at any particular time they happen to be holding some championship, odds are the brothers are dragging the belts behind them like they smelled bad.

One of two things generally happen during these squash matches. If the jobbers are lucky, Rick will just aimlessly screw around in the ring until the finish. If not, and the Steiners are mad for any reason, someone is likely to get hurt. A poorly trained, out of shape job boy is in real danger if he blows a move during one of these matches.

I am not naive when it comes to this sort of thing. Anyone who has attended television tapings for WCW on a regular basis for the past several years has seen any number of no-name wrestlers get the crap beaten out of them by more established stars. I never saw a live squash match involving Kevin Sullivan, for one, where he did not legitimately beat up his hapless opponent.

In many ways, the destruction of jobbers by someone like Sullivan is understandable. Before the Titan expansion and the existence of newsletters such as this one, the pro wrestling business was essentially closed to outsiders. Anyone wanting to become a wrestler had to get by a stringent set of requirements before they could even become trained. Guys like Billy Robinson or Jack Brisco might take an aspiring lug and twist him into a knot to prove that the candidate had either the guts or the physical prowess necessary to participate in the ring. That level of pride has for the most part been lost in a business where promoters try to take unathletic steroid fed clods and immediately proclaim them "stars".

It has been lost where anyone, no matter how short, or fat, or out of shape, or lacking in wrestling skills, with a few bucks in his pocket can find a school to "train" him. The proliferation of independent promotions has undoubtedly given talented young wrestlers a place to learn their craft, but they have also provided a lot of guys who did nothing more than buy a pair of boots a chance to think that they are actually wrestlers. It must be frustrating for a lot of the old guard in the business to watch this. Someone like Kevin Sullivan, who has to battle to continue to stay in the mainstream, might be expected to feel some bitterness. Sometimes that frustration can spill out into the ring. It is hard to feel very sympathetic when an unprepared, out of shape clod takes an ass whipping in that circumstance.

But what do the Steiners have to feel frustrated about? They couldn't care less about wrestling traditions. They make over a quarter of a million dollars a year in guaranteed money. They are promoted as the top tag team act in the company and never have to do jobs. They seem to have a self-enforced policy of only doing jobs to fellow fan-favorite and pal Sting, a policy that makes no sense for any number of reasons. The matches with Sting & Luger and Sting & Muta showed that the Steiners certainly can have good matches without hurting their opponents, when they feel like it.

At least in the match at WrestleWar they were pumped up and trying. Most of the matches since Scott's bicep injury have seen both brothers at quarter speed or less. The feud with Eaton and Anderson was a flop in large part because of the Steiners' indifferent attitude in the ring, although to be fair it should be pointed out that Eaton and Anderson never clicked as a team and that the television supporting the feud was the usual incoherent mess. Still, this feud should have at least produced a series of good matches. That never happened because of the brothers' unprofessional attitudes and lazy ring work.

Those unprofessional attitudes may manifest themselves in yet another area. David Shults was quoted in several media outlets during the TitanGate scandal to the effect that "you can train, say your prayers, and take all the vitamins you want, but if you want 24 inch arms, you have to take steroids." Scott Steiner is beginning to look like the Toxic Avenger without the green skin. His bicep injury which put him out for several months and cost the company money and momentum, is an injury that occurs more easily to steroid users. Coincidentally, unemployed moron Sid Eudy suffered the same injury at one point.

The Steiner Brothers work for Turner Broadcasting which has an official anti-steroid policy. As employees of that company, they have an obligation to abide by company procedures. There is no real reason for the two of them to look that pumped up. The extra muscle slows them down and makes them more prone to injury. It also makes a lie out of WCW's public service announcements and policy to have them at the top of the card.

It is up to company management, Bill Watts in particular, to handle that problem, one that certainly transcends this act alone. It is the Steiners' ring style that rankles in a personal way. The Steiners can stop potatoing their opponents now. Some fans may look at their brutal style and think that it is proof of the boys' toughness. Those fans are wrong.

The Steiners' potato style is proof of their cowardice. Insiders like to speculate on the authentic toughness of guys like John Tenta, Haku, or Steve Williams. They are least earned that rap outside of the ring in "legitimate" ways. Real toughness and "shooter" reputations are beside the point of professional wrestling.

The idea behind professional wrestling is to produce a legitimate-seeming, entertaining, but ultimately inauthentic fight which the audience can suspend their disbelief during, if only for a while, and enjoy. All the participants have to cooperate in order to produce a good pro wrestling match. A stiff, professional style produces the best kind of matches. When Ric Flair laid in those chops to Ricky Steamboat's chest, no one hit harder or looked more realistic. The difference between that and what the Steiners do is that Steamboat was prepared for those chops and Flair sold his stuff equally as well. It is the height of cowardice to hit someone full force in the face who is leaving himself wide open for what they expect to be a pulled punch. It proves nothing about the Steiners' "toughness". If they wanted to fight Fujinami and Iizuka, great, fight them head up and go to jail or the hospital afterwards. The Steiners for some reason do not seem anxious to do that, though.

Wrestlers have to put an enormous amount of trust in their opponents. The Steiners spit on that trust on this night. If Terry Gordy and Steve Williams end up hurting these guys when they are forced to protect themselves, I for one won't shed a tear.

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Michael Sweetser

Michael Sweetser

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the repost.  I just rewatched the match on the Network, and honestly, I think it's a bit blown out of proportion.  Scott definitely looks unhappy at the fuckups, but while the clothesline to Fujinami was stiff, it was in the proper location (if not SLIGHTLY high).  The double team was fucked, but it wasn't as if Rick started going nuts on him - Rick bent down to check on him and you could see the concern on his face as Iizuka tagged out. It all seems to settle down about halfway through the match, although Iizuka does drop Scott right on his neck with a suplex.

 

I see where the Steiners didn't exactly have the best attitude in this match, but I don't see it as nearly as big a deal as Mitchell did. 

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BurningBeard

BurningBeard

Posted
Posted

That Steiners match was when i started to sour on them, being sloppy/careless with opponents.

I was glad when Watts brought in Doc and Gordy, to give them saome of their own medicene.

 

Flair's story on the Steiners fued with Murdoch and Slater was pretty funny as they just wouldn't bump for them

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cool arrow

cool arrow

Posted
Posted

I couldn't find it on YouTube but I remember a few years back that Rick Steiner tried to shoot on Vordell Walker and got the worst of it.

 

Judging from this account, it seems like they got into it more than once.

 

This past thursday I think it was the 9th of June I went to my first CWA(Christian wrestling Alliance) show in SC , one of my friends was on the show as a wrestler and he took me in the lockeroom to meet some of the wrestlers and I saw Goldust, the Mack Brothers and I saw Rick Steiner sitting in the corner and I saw Vordell Walker walk over to Steiner and my friend told me they had an in ring fight like 3 years ago where Steiner took cheap shots at Walker. Vordell Walker walked near to Steiner and you could hear Steiner call Vordell "a piece of sh*t" and withen 5 seconds Vordell Walker punched Rick Steiner in the face twice and then Walker threw Steiner up against the wall and then all of a sudden Rick Steiner is on the floor choking and bleeding from his nose and mouth about to pass out while Vordell Walker had him in a Guillotene choke hold. Goldust, the Macks and others all tried to pull Vordell off the gagging Steiner and after Vordell let go he went outside and Steiner followed and started running his mouth somemore and screamed he was going to shoot Vordell if he ever saw him again and then the police showed up and im not sure what happened other then after his match Vordell Walker was escorted to his car by the police and that was all I saw.

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Playa Shunna Ver 3.0

Playa Shunna Ver 3.0

Posted
Posted

From the latest historical Observer 9-7-98

 

"Flair had been at legal odds with WCW since early April, when he missed a Thunder taping in Tallahassee, FL where the plan at the time was to have him announce the new Four Horsemen, which was going to be himself, Lex Luger, Bill Goldberg and Kevin Greene managed by Arn Anderson."

 

I never heard anything about that Horsemen line up.  That would have been an entirely different direction for the Goldberg character.  

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cwoy2j

cwoy2j

Posted
Posted

No one did morefor Kayfabe than Apter and his crew. Hell he deserves i nthere as a photojournalist at the least!

Never saw Mitchell credited in WWE material as "Photo courtesy of..."

 

James

 

One of my favorite stories from Jericho's books is him talking about how Larry Z tried to sue him over the use of the term "Living Legend". Larry's legal team apparently tried using quotes from a kayfabe interview from an Apter mag as some kind of evidence of copyright infringement and Jericho was like, "hmmm, you do know they just make up those interviews right?"

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sydneybrown

sydneybrown

Posted
Posted

Hopefully because we all know....

 

Even in Apter's book, he kinda comes off as if "Jesus Christ you guys, how many times do I have to tell you that Shocket and Ellner were/are real?"

 

Though I didn't know until reading his book that Dan Shocket also wrote for porno mags.

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