The Forgotten History Of Rick Steiner In Impact Wrestling
In recent months, Rick Steiner has made an unlikely return to the pro wrestling spotlight. His son, Bron Breakker, has surged as the new face of the NXT 2.0 brand, and Steiner was both a part of his celebration when he first won the NXT Championship, and a plot point when Joe Gacy and Harland kidnapped him to get at Breakker. Additionally, WrestleMania weekend notably saw The Dog-Faced Gremlin and his brother make their entrance to the WWE Hall of Fame. Long-time fans remember The Steiner Brothers starring for WWE in the early 1990s, and all the more so recall them as a top drawing tag team for WCW. However, Rick also made some noteworthy appearances on a slightly smaller stage for Impact Wrestling.
Rick Steiner Was Featured In The Original Impact Wrestling PPV Main Event
When Impact Wrestling launched, they did so under the unusual model of weekly PPV events. Their first show saw them crown a new NWA World Champion—the de facto first top star for the new brand. That main event was contested under Gauntlet For The Gold rules—a Royal Rumble-esque gauntlet battle royal that culminated in a one-on-one match between the final two contestants. Ken Shamrock wound up beating Malice in the end to win the title.
Along the way, the Gauntlet for the Gold included a relatively high volume of WCW alumni who hadn't made their way to, or hadn't succeeded in WWE. While talents like Buff Bagwell and Norman Smiley popped the crowd via their name value, they didn’t last long before getting tossed from the battle royal. By contrast, Rick Steiner looked like a star laying out much of the field with Steiner Lines, making two eliminations, and lasting for a respectable amount of time before he succumbed to Malice’s dominant run in the match.
The Impact Wrestling Steiner Brothers Reunion
The Steiner Brothers were one of the top tag teams of the 1990s—an elite act for WCW, the faces of WWE’s tag division for 1993, and they even had a few-month stint in ECW. Times changed, though, when Scott turned heel and espoused his Big Poppa Pump gimmick. That run included the brothers feuding in WCW, and one has to imagine they might have eventually worked a reunion angle there, had WWE not bought out the company in 2001.
Related: The 10 Best Tag Team Matches Of The Steiner BrothersThe Steiner Brothers would reunite, though, in Japan and across a number of indie appearances. Perhaps most notably, they teamed up again for Impact Wrestling. While Scott was a mainstay for the promotion for several years, Rick’s work there was shorter lived. He showed up to reunite with Scott in 2007. While they couldn’t perform at the high level they had the decade before, there was still real appeal to watching them square off with a next-generation top tag team, Team 3D. Their feud culminated in an unconventional two out of three falls Tables Match at Bound For Glory 2007. Bully Ray and Devon won the first fall, but a Frankensteiner and then a Doomsday Bulldog through tables won the match for The Steiners.
Dream Match: Road Warrior Animal And Rick Steiner Vs. Team 3D
Bruce Prichard has discussed numerous times on his Something to Wrestle podcast that when a promotion can’t deliver an advertised match due to injuries or other unexpected circumstances, the impetus is on them to over deliver with a replacement, outcome, or quality of match that will make the crowd just as happy as—if not happier than--they would have been with the original plans. The essence of this wisdom came through when Scott Steiner had to sit out the first scheduled Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D match at Slammiversary 2007.
Scott had legitimately been injured wrestling in Puerto Rico, and Impact replace him with Road Warrior Animal. In terms of match quality, this wasn’t the greatest substitution, as Big Poppa Pump was enjoying a bit of a resurgence as an in-ring performer at the time, and Animal was showing his age. Nonetheless, the novelty of in essence having not just two, but three of the most iconic tag teams of all time mashed up for this match felt like something truly special.
Rick Steiner never factored in to be one of the top stars of Impact Wrestling. Nonetheless, within a relatively brief combined time (the first PPV, the run with his brother opposite Team 3D, and a few teases that might be a guest tag team partner for others) he made the most of his minutes. The Dog-Faced Gremlin's Impact Wrestling efforts were a fitting coda to his wrestling career at the national level.
