The Steiner Brothers

At Starrcade '88 and Chi-Town Rumble, Scott Steiner started to accompany his brother Rick in his matches in World Championship Wrestling. Not long after, the brothers started to team up in January 1989.

With Missy Hyatt in their corner, **the Steiner Brothers** were an up-and-coming tag team, mixing technique, power, speed, and agility. They later added Robin Green to the group. With their tremendous win-loss record, they earned a shot at the WCW World Tag Team Championship, held by The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin). On September 12, 1989, at *Clash of the Champions VIII*, the Steiners lost when Green tripped Scott, causing him to get DDT'ed and pinned by Hayes. Green would transform into Woman, and brought a tag team called Doom to wrestle the Steiners at Halloween Havoc, in which the Steiners lost.

On November 1, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia, the Steiners defeated the Freebirds for the WCW World Tag Team titles; the title change would air on the November 18 episode of *World Championship Wrestling*. They held the titles until May 19, 1990, when they were defeated by Doom in Washington, D.C. at Capital Combat.

The Steiners defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) for the WCW United States Tag Team Championship on August 24, 1990 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Upon winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship on February 18, 1991 (the title change aired on the March 9 episode of *WCW Pro*), the Steiners vacated the WCW United States Tag Team Championship on February 20, 1991. They were the second team ever to hold both the WCW World and United States Tag Team titles at once (The Midnight Express tandem of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane were the first team to accomplish that feat in September 1988).

At the same time, Scott was being groomed as a singles performer. On WCW's weekend shows (*WCW Power Hour*, *WCW Saturday Night*, and *WCW Main Event*). There was a special "gauntlet" match segment where a performer was picked to wrestle a top star on each show on that weekend, winning the sum of $15,000 if they defeated all three. Scott was the second to run the gauntlet, with his second opponent being Ric Flair. Because the Four Horsemen clumsily interfered, Steiner beat Flair by pinfall. He would then get a title match against Flair at *Clash of the Champions XIV: Dixie Dynamite* on January 30, 1991, which ended in a time limit draw. Scptt began teasing a heel turn when he teamed with Marcus Bagwell against Steve Austin and Brian Pillman on an Oct 10, 1992 episode of *WCW WorldWide*. During the match, Bagwell was injured when he was attacked Arn Anderson and when Scott went to tag Bagwell, he was unable to. An angry Scott then kicked Bagwell and slammed him into the ring where he was attacked by Austin and Pillman, who then won the match. Scott would go on to win the WCW World Television Championship from Ricky Steamboat on October 17, 1992. The heel turn which Scott was undergoing was later aborted upon the Steiner Brothers leaving WCW for the World Wrestling Federation.

The Steiners left WCW in November 1992, with Scott vacating the WCW World Television Championship. They quickly signed contracts with the World Wrestling Federation, making their televised debut as babyfaces in an interview on the December 21, 1992 edition of *WWF Prime Time Wrestling*. They appeared on the debut episode of *Monday Night Raw* on January 11, 1993. They made their WWF pay-per-view debut on January 24, 1993 at the 1993 Royal Rumble, defeating The Beverly Brothers (Blake and Beau). At WrestleMania IX on April 4, 1993, the Steiner Brothers defeated The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu).

Following WrestleMania IX, the Steiners began feuding with Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster). At King of the Ring 1993 on June 13, 1993, the Steiners and The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart) defeated The Headshrinkers and Money, Inc.. The following evening, at the June 14, 1993 television taping, the Steiners defeated Money, Inc. for the WWF Tag Team Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Money, Inc. regained the titles on June 16, 1993 at a house show in Rockford, Illinois, but lost the titles to the Steiners once again at another house show on June 19, 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Steiners successfully defended their titles against The Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray) on August 30, 1993 at SummerSlam. On the September 13, 1993 episode of *Raw* in New York City, New York, the Steiners defended their titles against The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) in a "Province of Quebec rules" match, wherein titles can change hands via disqualification. The match ended when the manager of The Quebecers, Johnny Polo, threw a hockey stick into the ring, which was about to be used by Jacques, however, Scott took it away and began to hit him with it as the referee turned around, thus, he disqualified the Steiner Brothers, awarding the title to The Quebecers. Scott gained a measure of revenge by defeating Pierre in a singles match the following week on *Raw*.

At the 1993 Survivor Series on November 24, 1993, the Steiners teamed with Lex Luger and The Undertaker as "The All-Americans". The All-Americans defeated their opponents, "The Foreign Fanatics" (Yokozuna, Crush, Ludvig Borga and Jacques), although Luger was the sole survivor.

On January 22, 1994, both Steiners entered the 1994 Royal Rumble, with Scott entering at number one. After Rick entered at number three, the brothers cooperated until being eliminated by Owen Hart and Diesel respectively. The Steiners wrestled sparingly after that and eventually left the promotion in mid 1994. Scott appeared last in a King of the Ring qualifier loss to Irwin R. Schyster at the April 13 *Superstars of Wrestling* taping (which included a run-in from Rick after the match), which aired on May 7.

The Steiners debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) on July 28, 1995 in Middletown, New York, defeating Dudley Dudley and Vampire Warrior. They next appeared with ECW on August 4, 1995 in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, defeating Dudley Dudley and 2 Cold Scorpio. The Steiner Brothers made their debut in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ECW Arena on August 5, 1995 at Wrestlepalooza, teaming with Eddie Guerrero in a loss to Scorpio, Dean Malenko and Cactus Jack. On August 25, 1995, they defeated Scorpio and Malenko, and they went on to defeat Scorpio and Chris Benoit the following evening. On August 28, 1995, they defeated Dudley Dudley and Dances with Dudley in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

At Gangstas Paradise on September 16, 1995, the Steiners joined forces with Taz in a loss to The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) and Jason. On September 23, 1995 in Middletown, they defeated Raven and Stevie Richards. Scott made one more appearance (teaming with Taz in a losing effort against The Eliminators on October 28, 1995) before the brothers departed from ECW.

The Steiners re-signed with WCW in 1996. They initially feuded with the Road Warriors and had several matches with then-champions Sting and Lex Luger. They would eventually win the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat on July 24, 1996, but Harlem Heat would regain the titles just three days later and the title changes were never mentioned on television. A short time later, Scott was sidelined with an injury and Rick had several singles matches until Scott returned to the ring the following January. Following the formation of the New World Order (nWo), the Steiners began feuding with The Outsiders, who had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat. The Steiners spent the entirety of 1997 and into 1998 feuding with the duo of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. They also feuded with other nWo members like Vicious and Delicious and continued to have matches with Harlem Heat. On the August 4, 1997 episode of *Nitro*, The Steiners introduced Ted DiBiase as their new manager, who led them to two tag team championships.

The beginning of Scott's heel turn began in late 1997/early 1998 when he, now with increased muscle mass, having cut his signature mullet, and sporting a goatee, started a feud with Buff Bagwell over who had the better physique, as well as developing a short fuse with his temper. Scott and Rick began having problems teaming up, as Scott would often not tag his brother into matches. The team entered 1998 as the tag team champions, but the dissention caused them to lose the belts. It was not the end of the team's troubles, as Scott would often wrestle a whole match by himself, refuse to tag Rick when he would need to leave the ring, and would often keep the referee distracted with his own antics. On the February 2, 1998 edition of *Nitro*, things appeared to come to a head when Scott scored the victory in a tag team match against Nash and Bagwell by pinning Bagwell without making a tag to Rick, and Rick screamed and yelled at his brother for his actions. One week later, however, the duo won the WCW World Tag Team Championship again.

The final straw came at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22, 1998, when the brothers would face The Outsiders again. Midway through the match, Rick knocked both Hall and Nash out of the ring while both attempted to attack him behind the referee's back and celebrated by running around the ring barking while Scott entered the ring to celebrate with him. Scott then attacked Rick by hitting him in the back, followed by a double underhook powerbomb. Scott then assaulted DiBiase as well, and abandoned his brother to be taken out by Hall and Nash and signified that he was joining the nWo by personally handing Hall and Nash the championship belts himself. The next night on *Monday Nitro*, he adopted a new gimmick, dyeing his hair and goatee blond and increasing in muscle mass even further, damaging his agility.

The two brothers had a feud that also involved Scott's new partner Buff Bagwell, while Rick teamed with a variety of partners including Kenny Kaos, Lex Luger and Bagwell's mother Judy. Shortly before WCW's demise, the Steiners reunited on August 7, 2000, not so much as a tag team but they were both heels who watched each other's backs. They lost to Kevin Nash and Sting on *Monday Nitro*. On March 5, 2001, they reunited for their last WCW match as a tag team as they lost to Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page on *Monday Nitro*.

On April 1, 2022, the Steiner Brothers were inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. They also appeared on stage the following night at WrestleMania 38.