Original subtitles

- Yeah, it's a great feeling.

Never thought it'd happen,

but finally, you know, we made it.

[soft music]

- Yeah, it's good to be back.

Never thought I would.

♪

- You feel like all you've done

now meant something.

♪

- My brother and I wrestled a lot of great teams.

- Been all over the world.

But when you get to do it with your brother--

he was always there.

He always had my back.

♪

[crowd yelling] - There's never been

a tag team in the sport of wrestling

as dominant as the Steiner Brothers.

[dramatic music]

- It's hard to overestimate how good those guys were.

- They were the real deal.

They could both go.

- The way they manhandle people is amazing.

I've never seen a team like this.

♪

- They were always feared collegiate wrestlers.

- My brother and me are at the top of the food chain.

- In terms of having each other's back,

I don't think you could find two people tighter.

But Scott was always a shorter fuse.

Scott could be dangerous if you pushed him too far.

Scott got physical backstage.

- I'm not one to hide my emotions.

I'll tell you how I feel about you,

and if you don't like it,

I don't give a [bleep].

♪

- He had a short fuse, but so did Robbie.

- Rick did not mind showing his dominance.

- He's amateur wrestler. He could handle himself.

I was amateur. Handle myself.

- It was a blessing to have my brother with me.

- But this business can be rough.

You know, every time something goes wrong,

I worry about my brother.

- Like, are you freaking kidding me?

You just tore your trachea, almost died.

I'm just gonna have to accept the fact that

this is what makes him happy.

- They always had a respectful understanding

between each other.

Those two brothers had it worked out.

- Those guys are as tight as two brothers could be.

Yeah. [laughs]

Never really wanted to piss them off too much.

- Bow down to the greatest tag team that ever lived.

♪

- Rob was born March 9th in 1961

in Bay City, Michigan.

Scott was born July 29th in '62.

16 months' difference between the two.

They were very busy, and they were boys,

but they learned early that there are rules.

- My dad was a strict marine.

He made us toe the line.

He was very strict with us.

When we talked to him, had to look him in the eye,

or he'd whack ya.

- He kept us in line.

Well, the thing is, my brother and I,

we always used to fight growing up.

And I think, at one point, my dad had enough,

and so he said, "You guys want to fight?"

Well, he taped our mouths shut with duct tape

and then put a belt around us.

And then we had to stare each other.

- It's good to have rules.

And you abide by 'em, or there's consequences.

And we trained the kids that way.

And we told 'em the Lord was first in our family

and you gotta go with it.

- Their mother instilled in them--my Aunt Babe

would always push those guys to excel, to do their best.

So they wanted to win all the time.

- My brother and I wrestled each other

growing up all the time.

We used to get four carpets together,

'cause we couldn't afford a mat,

and wrestle on that.

I wasn't gonna let my younger little brother

take me down or even anything.

- You know, being two years older is a big difference.

I mean, I could get him every once in a while,

cheap shot him.

It was fun, man.

We're real close.

My brother played football and wrestled in high school,

and I did the same.

So I did what he did.

My junior year, I was undefeated.

That was when I won the state championship.

- In recruiting Scotty, traveled to his home

and talked to he and his mom and dad.

And they were all saying how Rob was a good wrestler too.

And so that kind of planted the seed for us to

go ahead and look into Rob also.

♪

- Oh, man.

College life was the best, man.

- My brother and I got away from that strict household.

We went wild.

I mean, we were a couple kids off the farm.

- Yeah, them guys were nuts. They were absolutely nuts.

- I don't know how much I should say, but I mean,

we were taking cars and...

- They took this guy's car and then got it down through

the tunnel and put it right on the block M

on the 50-yard line in the Michigan football stadium.

- They were a little crazy.

They had a big dog.

It was on a chain,

and the chain was leashed just so

it could get to the sidewalk.

- People would be walking, and they didn't know

how far that leash went.

And they would jump on the car.

- They scared the hell out of students.

- Scott and Rob would be sitting there

just crying laughing.

- Just having fun.

We're bored. - Nobody messed with them.

But they were good-natured guys.

But you didn't wanna cross 'em, 'cause you crossed one,

you had two Rechsteiners you had to deal with.

They were probably two of the closest brothers

I think I've been around probably in my entire life.

- Scott always looked up to Rob, and then, you know,

Rob would basically always look after Scott.

- We were tight.

You gotta trust somebody, right?

- We lived together.

We practiced together.

We ate together.

- They both worked hard in wrestling,

and they were pretty good.

Scotty, he was an all-American.

And Rob, I think he if had stayed completely healthy,

could have been.

- I enjoyed it, you know,

and in my senior year, got hurt.

I tore my meniscus.

- And that really bothered him.

And at the time, I said to him, "You know,

"there's a reason for it.

You know, don't dwell on it."

Rick wanted to be a teacher.

- I graduated '84 from Michigan,

and then I had a science of education degree.

I was gonna teach school,

and I substitute taught for a little bit.

I made $23 a day.

I knew right away I wasn't gonna

make it in life with that.

So I called my coach, Steve Fraser.

I went back there.

We had the summer camps that we did for Michigan.

And Steve let me be involved in that

and made some money doing that.

Steve introduces me to George "The Animal" Steele.

He knows Verne Gagne in the AWA in Minnesota.

About two weeks later, I give him my résumé,

sent it to Verne.

And about a week later, I was in my car,

driving out to Minneapolis to go see this school.

It was tough going through it.

- Not like amateur wrestling.

Do not worry about the point system,

because there isn't any point system.

- I thought because I was a amateur, it was gonna be easy.

It wasn't easy, but there was a lot of guys

that helped me out a lot

getting started in the business.

- Introducing now, in the corner to my right,

from Ann Arbor, Michigan, weighing 265 pounds,

Rob Rechsteiner.

- I remember it, 'cause we were actually at a sports bar

in Ann Arbor with my buddies.

He came on the big screen, and it was pretty cool.

- And he knows his way around a ring.

You can tell that.

- So for him to start wrestling,

they just basically got the ball rolling.

That's when I decided to do pro wrestling.

♪

I never really had a plan, man.

I knew I wanted to keep on training,

and wrestling was the best way to do that.

♪

We had Michigan wrestling camps,

and one of the instructors was actually The Great Wojo.

And he was a wrestler for Dick the Bruiser

around Ohio, Indiana, Michigan area.

And then it just so happened that when I graduated,

they asked me to come down,

asked me if I want to do it, and I said, "Yeah."

'Cause they already--you know, of course they knew

my brother was in already, so yeah.

Started with Dick the Bruiser,

legendary professional wrestler.

And my first match was against Great Wojo.

- The Great Wojo has been upset

by a virtual unknown making his debut in the WWA.

We have a new champion, Scott Rechsteiner.

- You could drive six, seven hours to make 20 bucks.

Sometimes the only gratification you get

is when you're in the ring,

because that's a lot of time to spend on the road

for such little money.

But it was always the driving force of--

tagging with my brother was something

I always wanted to do.

- I worked with the AWA in Minneapolis,

and then Verne sent me to Montreal.

I wrestled there for about a year with Tom Zenk,

and then we went back to Minnesota.

And then Jack Lanza sent me down to Bill Watts

down at Mid-South.

- Rob Rechsteiner.

Now what he obviously prefers to be called is Rick Steiner.

- They said, "Stein, we can't pronounce your name."

So one day, he came back, and they go,

"Why don't you just split your name up?

Just go as Rick Steiner."

I say, "Okay."

So from that day on, I was Rick Steiner.

- Rick Steiner, a powerful young man

with a lot of potential.

- When I first met Rick Steiner,

he was there working for Watts.

He was green, he made mistakes,

but he worked hard.

He always worked hard.

- Good move.

- He's a stallion.

- Tulsa was one of the towns we worked in,

and I met this girl at the gym named Jayme,

and she was very inquisitive about Rick Steiner.

- So I was like, "Hook me up." [laughs]

"If you know him, hook me up."

Didn't know that he was a wrestler.

And I just liked the way he looked.

- Went out, and rest is history.

She gave me three beautiful boys.

Best thing that's ever happened in my life.

- We dated about three years.

We had gone from Universal Wrestling Federation,

which was Mid-South Sports.

They sold to Crockett.

We moved to North Carolina,

and then Turner bought it.

And we ended up moving to Georgia.

In '87 is when we moved here,

and we just kinda stayed.

- So I didn't get married till I was working for Turner.

So it made it a lot easier, 'cause

we were able to stay around the Atlanta area more,

doing TVs and stuff.

But every chance I got,

if we were in driving distance,

you know, four or five hours,

once we were done with the show, I was in my car,

and I was driving home.

I wanted to be here.

If I'm gonna have kids and have boys,

I wanna make sure I'm here to raise them.

And so I made every effort I could

to be here to take care of 'em.

♪

And I think within six months of me being in with Turner

and in the WCW, my brother came in.

I knew he was in the business and what he was doing,

but we never really stayed in contact,

you know, close contact like we used to.

I just went off and was involved and engrossed

in what I was doing.

- Your new World Television Champion, Rick Steiner.

- But, you know, being my brother,

I wanted to get him in

to be a part of this company.

And it would be great for him and I to tag together.

- Rick Steiner, the singles wrestler,

was compelling.

There was something there for Rick Steiner.

But Rick Steiner when teamed with Scott Steiner

went to a completely different level.

- It took me 2 1/2 years to get to the NWA,

where we finally hooked up.

Felt great.

- They love this kid, Rick Steiner.

Boy, what a superstar he has become.

And I really feel like that his brother

has unlimited potential.

- It was great.

I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else but my brother.

I don't know how it gets any better than that.

- Wait a minute. What's going on here?

Two brothers are wrestling, and then they form a tag team.

And I was like, "Wow, okay, this is pretty cool."

You know, kinda, like, gave me and my brother

a little inspiration there.

- They're some of the most exciting wrestlers ever,

and they have literally burst on the scene.

- They come in from athletes all their lives,

and amateur backgrounds.

Then there's a natural bond there.

They're brothers.

So you know the camaraderie is gonna be there.

- It gave us a decided advantage.

- Two, three!

- Yeah!

New tag team champions have been crowned.

The Steiners have won it.

[cheers and applause]

- It was a great feeling,

winning that first title with my brother.

[cheers and applause]

- That was my goal, to be the best tag team in the world.

We didn't train all these years for nothing.

We got these belts now, and we're gonna keep 'em.

- He was always striving to be better

and come up with stuff that nobody else did.

- Scotty possessed an ability to do something

that anybody that size

was not doing at the time,

like the Frankensteiner at the time.

- That's the most beautiful move

in professional wrestling today.

- He pushed me to not accept this

but to accept we can do better; we can do more.

So he was a good influence for me.

- Seeing Rick and Scott Steiner together

and finding out that they were really brothers

added this whole new dynamic

to the mix that you knew, watching wrestling,

you were watching characters.

But when you find out the Steiner Brothers

are really brothers,

have really been together all their lives,

it makes it seem like this team,

these guys are the real deal.

- Comes down to believability,

and nobody was more believable than those guys.

Rick was so strong

that he would do things like,

he would just get you in a position--

I'm not talking about in the ring.

I'm talking about backstage.

[dramatic music]

- Back then in the day, you walked in the locker room,

and you didn't say a word.

You walked in the locker room, you sat down on a bench,

and you were respectful of all those other guys in that room.

And that's what I did.

I remember Michael Hayes come in the room one time.

He grabbed ahold of me, and I just--

[laughs] I went into that shoot mode,

and I freaking took him down, put him on his back, and held.

And then Buddy Roberts come over,

and I grabbed him too.

- Was having his way with me,

and, you know, when we finally--

he let me loose, and I called him a gremlin.

- That's when that "Gremlin" movie,

where you pour water on these animals

and they turn into gremlin-- crazy gremlins.

And so Michael Hayes gave me that gremlin.

And that dog-faced thing, Kevin Sullivan gave me that.

I don't know how or why.

But stuck from then on.

- It's like the dog pound.

They're barking for the Dog-Faced Gremlin.

- Rick did not mind showing his dominance,

especially, like, in the case of taking down

Lex Luger in a three-piece suit.

- Rick decided to go amateur wrestling on me

in front of all the boys before the matches.

He rode me for, like, a half hour.

Hurt my shoulder, my arm.

I was trying to get outta stuff.

He had me in all his wrestling holds.

I was so mad at him.

- Luger was one of the primo talents at the time.

You could have got fired for that easily,

but, you know, "Ah, Steiner's Steiner."

And--[laughs]

And they became really good friends.

- A lot of times, that was part of their indoctrination.

They'd play around with you like they're wrestling.

Then they'd take you down.

You'd try to get up, and they'd take you down again.

And I guess I passed the test, 'cause Rick after that

jumped in the car with Stinger and I,

and I guess he thought I was okay.

♪

We traveled in the car together.

We hung out together and ate together.

So we were like our own family,

us four guys on the road.

- Once the Steiners started to get established--

and, you know, they had some pretty good friends

that had some stroke in Sting and Lex Luger--

then, you know, they kind of let down their hair.

They got more accepted by the boys.

- That was like college times ten,

'cause you had so much freedom.

You know, you were basically on the road

with no supervision.

It was a free-for-all, man.

- They're mischievous kids in, like, a grown man's body,

which makes them a lot of fun.

- The Steiners would do some crazy stuff.

Like, they duct-taped people in the dressing room.

- I'm watching the Steiner Brothers,

and they're torturing this referee.

I looked over, and he's taped up with gaff tape

like a mummy.

- Duct-taping The Nasty Boys' feet

and arms behind their back,

stripping 'em down, and throwing 'em out

into the crowded arena.

- None of the ribs were that serious or vindictive.

It was just young, dumb, and just trying to have fun.

They know not to mess with me 'cause of my brother.

Having a brother along for the ride was the best thing.

Never had to worry about each other's back.

- Him and I never fought.

I mean, we'd have words,

but that was probably the extent of it.

I mean, and we were with each other all the time, you know,

morning, noon, and night.

- Lot of good times on the road, man.

Lot of good times.

- Those guys were known for pranks.

I saw a lot of guys get pissed,

but then again, nobody would do anything,

because you got two legitimate wrestlers

that could really tie you up like a pretzel.

And there's nothing that you could do about it

other than go cry to the boss,

and that's not gonna help a whole lot.

- I don't think firing them or suspending them

really ever crossed anybody's mind except maybe Watts'.

- Bill Watts came and took over WCW.

Bill knew the inmates were kind of running the asylum

and something had to be done immediately

to stop that to get progress going.

- Bill Watts is in charge,

and my brother and Bill did not get along.

- Yeah, it got pretty heated at one time.

- Bill had a kid that was in the business,

and he showed a lot of favoritism towards that boy

over some of the older experienced guys.

- It pissed me off, so I let him know I was pissed.

- Scotty didn't like that, didn't put up with it,

and he stood up to Bill.

Bill didn't like that.

I just don't think there is a chance

of reconciling any of that with Bill and my brother.

- Yeah, I wasn't gonna take no [bleep] from him.

- It was a personal thing between him and my brother.

You know, he's told me, "I'd give you a contract,

but I'm not gonna give your brother a contract."

And I told him, "Well, I'm not leaving my--

you know, I'm not gonna leave my brother."

And my brother had been talking to Vince and WWE,

and he was receptive for us coming up there,

and it was a great opportunity,

and so we went.

- Steiner Brothers Rick and Scott pouring it on

here in the World Wrestling Entertainment.

Climbing the ladder of success

by leaps and bounds, I might add.

[exciting music]

- Technically, in the ring as a team,

they were really good.

I enjoyed them.

They were legit.

- The Steiner Brothers are the champions.

- Well, we were tag team champions, but...

we wanted more.

[dramatic music]

You know, I took Vince's word.

We had a handshake.

He promised us we'd make more money

than we ever had in our life.

♪

We didn't make as much, so...

we asked to leave.

And he let us go.

- We were in WWE for probably about two years.

At that point, another company,

a Japanese company, offered us some really good money

to come up there and less travel.

And so we ended up leaving WWE and going to Japan.

[cheers and applause]

- They went over there, and they rocked Japan.

- Steiner Brothers! [cheers and applause]

- I remember going to Japan and guys over there

trying to take advantage.

I know these guys will test you

to see how good you are.

It was really good having my brother with me there.

He's amateur wrestler. He could handle himself.

I was amateur. Handle myself.

[cheers and applause]

- Steiner Brothers to this day are still legendary in Japan.

- It was great.

We were wrestling in front of 75,000 people

in the Tokyo Dome,

winning world titles over there.

Japan was hot, man, and we thrived.

- We were there for about a year.

I wanted to get back into WCW, 'cause they were still rolling,

and, you know, we were only doing,

you know, one day a month, two days a month.

So I called up, and it just so happened

WCW was working a deal with Japan

and so worked out a deal with WCW

and were able to come back.

- When we came back to WCW, it was like coming home.

And then shortly after that was when the NWO was formed:

Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Hulk Hogan.

And from then on, man, it just took off.

- Look at this crowd.

They're all on their feet.

WCW each and every week,

the number one most-watched wrestling program

on planet Earth.

And it keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

- It was the best time.

♪

It was nothing like I've ever seen before.

Wrestling was hot.

- I managed them for a while in the WCW.

Fans' reaction was good, very good.

- At that time when you'd be doing it

and you're in a moment, it's like,

"Wow, this is never gonna end."

- They are the best tag team in our sport, bar none.

- "This is great, man.

This'll go on till I'm old."

- Six times they have held the WCW World Tag Team titles.

- I always thought we'd be a tag team

till the end of the business.

I never thought we'd split up.

- There has never been a tag team

in the sport of wrestling

as dominant as the Steiner Brothers.

- It got to a point,

there wasn't a lot of tag teams left

that we hadn't wrestled.

I know Mr. Bischoff, who was running the company

at that time, thought, "You know, let's try

"and see if we can split 'em up and see if it works

"and see if, you know,

we can do some singles with you guys."

- We'd played it out.

There was not much else to do with the Steiner Brothers.

- 'Cause at that time, we had wrestled

everybody in WCW,

and there was really no more hills to climb.

- There is kind of a ceiling for most tag teams

in wrestling only in the sense

that most of the time,

the main event of the big shows

are not gonna be the tag team championship.

They're gonna be the singles world championship match.

And I think, as you watch the Steiner Brothers,

as much as people love them as a team,

just the dynamic of who Rick and Scott were,

people started to get a little hungry to see them separate.

- Whoa. What did I just see?

- He double ax handled his own brother.

- What in the world did I just see?

- You gotta be kidding.

- My oldest son, he did not understand it

when Scotty turned.

♪

He was highly upset.

- Can you imagine the Steiners' family

at home watching this?

Can you imagine this?

- And they just both came over

and sat him down and talked to him

and just said, "Look, this is our job.

"We're not mad at each other.

"We still love each other.

"And, you know, it's nothing like that,

"and it's not gonna change.

"I'm not gonna stop coming over here to hang out.

It's just work."

- I didn't like it when they made 'em split.

Didn't have to be, but they wanted it

to see what would happen, but it didn't divide the boys.

- You know, I just wanted the best for my brother.

It was his turn to take the next step and do his thing,

and he was ready for it.

And I was included in a lot of top things.

And I mean, it was okay.

Really nothing I could change or do about it.

Was I happy? I mean, I was-- I was fine with it.

I was making money.

Always probably could have did more.

But, you know, you're kind of at the mercy

of the people in charge.

- He had to deal with politics also.

He was probably a little more passive than I was.

And in some cases, they took advantage of him.

They push and push to see how much they can push

until you push back, and...

unfortunately, it didn't take much to push me.

♪

My attitude was changing.

I wasn't the same fresh-faced kid outta college anymore.

And I was kind of hardened by the politics of wrestling.

So I was ready.

- Watching Scott Steiner

break away and become a solo star was mind-blowing.

It was incredible.

Scott completely reinvented himself.

[cheers and applause]

- Nasty Boys? - Yeah.

- Boom! - He was heavy.

- [laughs] I bet he was.

- As much as I appreciated the cheers of the fans and--

who always were supportive of the Steiner Brothers,

I just felt that it was time.

I knew I had to change.

I wasn't the guy wearing a Michigan jacket anymore,

and I wanted to take,

you know, a 180-degree turn

and go the opposite.

I went and bleached my hair.

I showed up, and, like, a lot of people didn't recognize me.

- It's Scott Steiner. Look at his head.

- That's Scott Steiner? - That's Scott Steiner?

[crowd yelling]

- You wouldn't know it was him.

It was one of the almost unbelievable transitions ever.

- That's where it's at, Daddy.

- As time went on, he just got bigger and bigger and bigger.

- There's no plausible way you could have watched

Scott Steiner's body change on television

and not thought something was going on

beyond him being in the gym.

- How did you feel about it

when you would come out an entrance

and you'd see steroid signs in the crowd?

- You can make all the accusations you want.

I've never failed a drug test, so...

take that information and do what you want with it.

[dramatic music]

When I made that transition

from the Steiner Brothers to Big Poppa Pump,

I wanted to get in the best shape I possibly could.

so a lot of strict diet.

I'm a genetic freak.

Once you are leaner, you're naturally gonna look bigger.

I'm gonna make you understand that size does matter

and I'm the genetic freak.

- When he got into that Big Poppa Pump routine,

he's kind of got it down.

His mic skills went up exponentially.

- You see, all my hoochies have a space to fill.

And they all tell me I'm the big thrill.

I was single through most of my career,

so I always had a good time,

and I never had any thoughts of getting married.

When you're in wrestling and you see all the divorces,

the hardships that are on your family--

and I never wanted that for myself.

It was just for the fact that I didn't want to miss,

you know, my kids growing up and stuff.

- And then he met Christa.

She's probably been the best thing in his life

he's ever had.

I believe she's an angel.

- Scott and I actually met at the gym.

I was like, "Oh, he's got a cute smile."

So we went out, and then we kind of just clicked.

[dramatic music]

- I mean, she was the best person I ever met.

- He was so sweet to me all the time.

- I met her in 1998, and then we got married in 2000.

♪

- Scott was such a different person at home.

And when he would be at work, he'd be so intense.

It kind of made me nervous.

So, like, I'd rather just stay outside of it.

♪

- There's a difference between me at home

and then me on the road at the arena.

I took my job serious.

You know, the booking committee wanted me

to do something that was bad, I'd let 'em know

that I thought it was bad,

and I'm not one to hide my emotions.

You know, I'll tell you how I feel about you,

and if you don't like it,

I don't give a [bleep].

- He developed a bad attitude, and...

he always thought people were out to get him,

and he kinda got a little crazy back then.

- Think you have an anger problem?

♪

- Maybe. You know, you just gotta know when to approach me

and when not to approach me.

You know, I've always had a wild hair up my ass,

you know, since I was a little kid.

You know, nothing's changed.

It's that, you know, don't push me,

and, you know, I won't push you.

That's all.

♪

- I don't knock him for it at all,

because when you're dealing with the system,

sometimes you gotta make some noise.

You gotta shake some feathers, man,

and especially when you're good,

especially when you're talent.

When you're talent, you know you can leave,

and they know you can leave.

- Hulk Hogan worrying about a spot.

Well, he can have his spot,

his bald spot. - Wow.

- I think Scott certainly had a chip on his shoulder.

He knew, "I have the pedigree for this."

Incredibly athletic in the ring.

"I have a physique like no one else."

Scott Steiner was so desperate to be the guy, or so it seemed.

- He really had some animosity against a lot of these guys

that were on the top,

just because everybody was reaching for that

and wanted to be on top,

and my brother did too,

and he had to fight for it, and he did.

- It's over.

- Scott Steiner is the new world heavyweight champion.

♪

- That was validation that hard work pays off.

♪

I was very proud of it.

♪

It was very satisfying.

I won the belt on my terms, and, you know,

I can look myself in the mirror

in the mornings and at night

and, you know, think I did it the right way.

I didn't have to kiss anybody's ass.

My athletic ability brought me to the top.

♪

- You know, it was great. He was happy.

I was happy for him.

[cheers and applause]

I never felt like I was in my brother's shadow.

Never had a problem with it, never was jealous of it.

He was doing his thing, and I was doing mine.

- Rick Steiner is the United States

heavyweight champion.

- Everything was going great at WCW.

Everybody was making money.

It was like a dream come true, you know,

being in that business.

♪

We were just riding a high.

- I had been a champion for six, seven, eight months,

and all of a sudden, when WCW closed,

my legs were cut from under me.

- They ended up selling it to WWE.

We were all, like, in shock.

- We are stunned. We are floored.

The very last telecast of "WCW Monday Nitro."

- For that last night,

my foot was paralyzed.

I wasn't supposed to be there.

- couple months after I won the title,

I woke up,

and my foot was totally paralyzed.

I mean, it just flopped there.

It happened during the night, which was the weirdest thing.

There's nothing like looking at your foot

and you can't do nothing with it.

[dramatic music]

And all the doctors are explaining to me, like,

"You know, when you damage a nerve,

it will come back."

♪

Unfortunately, I waited.

Just never came back.

♪

- He used to take trainers tape,

wrapped it around his shoe

and around the back of his ankle and calf

to hold his toe back so it didn't drop

and get in the ring and wrestle.

♪

- For that last night,

when WCW was taken over by the WWE,

I wasn't supposed to be there.

My doctor wouldn't give me clearance, but...

I showed up anyways and did what I had to do

to do the right thing.

- We've got a new world heavyweight champion

on this very last "Monday Nitro."

- When WCW closed,

it was shocking.

♪

- You're like, "Holy cow,

is this really happening?"

And you don't really--

you know, and then I had a year on my contract,

so, you know, I had a year to get everything

in order and everything for, you know,

that final check to come in.

And so I decided to go to Japan.

My oldest called me.

I was on the bus.

He was about ten years old, and he asked me,

"Are you gonna come watch me this Saturday

at a football game?"

And I said, "Son, I'm in Japan. I won't be able to be home."

He goes, "Don't you like watching me play football, Dad?

"You never come.

You never come to my games."

And I sat there, and that just stuck in my brain

for the rest of the tour.

And that was the last tour I went over to Japan for.

I came back and reactivated my real estate license,

and I stayed home from then on.

I mean, if you're a dad, I couldn't think about myself.

And had to think about them, and so I just never went back.

[cheers and applause]

My brother, he told me he was gonna go up to WWE.

♪

- My foot was still paralyzed.

We still went forward.

At that time, I had to wear a brace,

and I taped my ankle up over the brace

to where it was almost a cast.

♪

That's how I wrestled.

It was tough.

- I remember that first match he had with Hunter.

On his entrance, he was coming into the ring,

and he goes to get up on the second rope, and he slipped.

And, you know, something like that gets in your head.

It's not good.

♪

And then from then on, it just--

♪

I don't think it ever clicked for him

the way that he wanted it to

or the way that we wanted it to.

♪

- I ended up lasting, I think,

a year, year and a half.

♪

As soon as I left there,

a week later, I had, like, three major surgeries,

one to fix my ankle.

I got a lot of home time with my boys,

and it was great.

- He played with the kids every day.

And it wasn't until the kids got into, like, kindergarten

and they'd have playdates

and Scott would be like, "Well, where are they?"

I'm like, "Oh, they're at a playdate."

"Well, why didn't they come over here?"

Like, he had nothing to do.

So I think that's why he went back to work,

'cause his boys wanted to play with kids their own age.

[laughs]

- I went back to full-time wrestling.

Went to TNA for, you know, two reasons:

'cause my boys, they love wrestling,

and, two, I wanted to prove, you know,

that what I did in the WWE was an abomination,

was something I wasn't proud of.

♪

I mean, even though my foot still wasn't 100%,

I could still move around.

♪

Being in TNA was a great time.

And then unfortunately,

I almost died in Puerto Rico in a wrestling match.

♪

- Scott was in a tag team match

in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for TNA.

And Scott got kicked in the throat

towards the end of the match.

- Got kicked in the throat, which tore my trachea.

And if I would've just tore my trachea

up here,

I would've just had a tracheotomy.

It would've been easy.

But unfortunately, it tore in my chest.

So they had to go through my rib cage,

open it up, went through my lung.

- And he made it through.

His wife was able to fly down the next morning.

♪

- He was really swollen,

so he was, like, wide.

♪

They went through his side,

and they basically filleted his back.

And then they put a chest tube in the side,

so he was swollen.

But I was like, "Oh, he looks"--

you know, he seemed good.

And the doctor happened to be in there.

And the first thing he said to him was,

"How much downtime is this?"

And I thought, "I'm done.

"I'm not worrying about you anymore.

"Like, are you freaking kidding me?

"Like, I just--

"you just tore your trachea, almost died.

"I'm just gonna have to accept the fact

that this is what makes him happy."

♪

When you do something that you love to do

and that's sort of your identity that, you know,

not doing that was never, like, really an option for him.

- This business can be rough on the body,

and it is rough on the body.

And every time something goes wrong, you know,

I worry about my brother.

♪

- I was wrestling again in two, three months.

♪

There's nothing like going out in front of a live crowd.

There's nothing like going out in front of a live crowd.

♪

It's like an addiction. It's adrenaline.

I mean, I loved wrestling.

♪

[dramatic music]

- When WCW went and closed,

next step for me was doing real estate.

I had gotten my real estate license

probably back in mid-'90s.

I was buying houses with Curt Hennig

and Rick Rude and Boss Man.

We had a little company, and we were buying

houses and flipping them.

I reactivated my license and then started

selling real estate again.

And it worked out great.

♪

And I was able to focus all my concentration on my boys.

♪

You know, I look back, and, you know, my dad's passed now,

but I just learned so much character.

I learned a lot from my dad.

- He was a good dad.

He still is.

He was strict, no doubt about it.

And he just made 'em toe the line

and made 'em be respectful.

He loves his boys.

- I get to do all the things a dad does with his son.

And I was able to do that.

And they were of the age that I could do that with 'em

and we could make some memories.

- He was around a lot.

He was a part of our athletics and sports,

and he was a part of our school.

- I've been on the school board now for 16 years.

I just like being involved with what's going on.

- He's very much involved in our sports.

He loved to watch me play.

Football was the focus for me for four years,

but my dream was to be WWE superstar.

I talked to my dad. He said, "All right."

So I came down for a tryout.

♪

- Work your ass off.

Good luck to everyone.

- I'm here to be a student.

I wanna learn, and both my dad and uncle

are both excited for me. They're happy.

Boom!

- It just seemed like the natural thing

for him to do it, and...

he's doing well with it.

- Well, Breakker, an aspiring NXT superstar,

certainly wants to stand out.

And he wants to make an immediate impact.

- He has the potential to be better than both of us.

[bell ringing]

- The new NXT champion, Bron Breakker.

- It was so cool, man, to do it in front of my father,

because he had never seen me work live.

- It's a great feeling to see your son be successful.

It's great to see him carry out a legacy

that you did for a while.

- I was ecstatic.

It was a dream come true.

♪

- It's so ironic that it's the kid

and his success

that got the family back in good graces

with WWE.

- The news has broken this morning.

Rick and Scott Steiner...

- Finally taking their rightful place

as members of the WWE Hall of Fame.

Congratulations.

- For a while there, never thought it would get here.

- I think Scott definitely did not like the WWE

and definitely let everybody know about it prior to this.

- When I left WWE, you know, there was frustration, anger.

You know, I was pissed off.

♪

- I saw on social media,

they were gonna hand Scotty Steiner a hot mic

at the WWE Hall of Fame.

You're like, "I'm gonna watch this."

♪

- You know, giving me a live mic,

sometimes it could go good.

Sometimes it could go off the rails.

♪

A lot of people actually thought

that me having a live mic was a dangerous thing.

But I mean, I never had those thoughts,

because I wasn't gonna do anything to hurt Bronson.

The years go by way too fast,

and you wonder, "Where did all the time go?"

So have fun.

[cheers and applause]

- I mean, I came in peace, you know?

Water under the bridge.

- One person I wanna thank,

I wanna thank my brother.

[cheers and applause]

He always set the standard high.

You know, he's kept me on a pace

to be the best I could be.

I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him.

So I thank my brother, and I thank you all you people

out there for supporting us.

Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo!

crowd: Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo!

- I mean, it was just like a dream come true.

Made a great partnership,

and I think that's part of our success

is just being around my brother pretty much my whole life.

We never really separated.

And we still aren't.

We live a mile apart from each other.

Oh, you were actually nice to somebody.

Lookit, you're shaking a kid's hands.

- Look at that mullet. [laughter]

Look at the size of those arms.

- What arm?

- See that vein right there? - No, I don't see it.

- Bigger than your whole arm. - Yeah. You hope.

Everything we did, we did it together.

I think it was a blessing to have my brother with me.

- Didn't your motorcycle stall?

- No. Mine didn't stall. You stalled yours.

♪

- I look back on those days.

I wouldn't wanna do it with anybody else but my brother.

- Perhaps the most awesome brother combination

to ever compete in the sport of wrestling.

I don't know of any two brothers

that have the opportunity to really create a dynasty

that these two kids have.

- Just amazing what they've done with their lives.

But they worked hard to get where they were,

and it wasn't handed to them.

- They were cutting-edge.

- They wrestled on top with everybody

and always gave you an unbelievable match.

- We worked hard. We came here to be the best.

- One of the greatest tag teams of all time

and then to turn around and have that kind of run

as an individual.

- Nobody had more fun than I did in professional wrestling.

I had a great time from day one.

- It was an awesome feeling

having my brother as a partner

and having him be a part of the business together.

- My brother would be the only one I'd want by my side.

♪

- My brother's great.

Couldn't have done any of it without him.

♪