A very hilarious insterview Scott Steiner did recently. I know its a lot to read but its definitely worth it. I got it off NT early and its pure entertainment. Scott Steiner for president.....
“Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner has never been one to hold back when he’s asked for his opinion on something or someone. During a telephone interview on Wednesday, Steiner discussed his stints in WWE and WCW, his near-death experience in Puerto Rico last year and what he thinks about Ric Flair, Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
Steiner will participate in a three-way match against TNA world champion Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle in the main event of the Sacrifice pay-per-view Sunday.
You’ve had your share of injuries over the years. How are you feeling physically these days?
For the most part I feel pretty good. I’m starting to get back in pretty good shape, [but] not as great as I was at one time. I think ever since I had the accident in Puerto Rico, there was so much trauma to my body that I haven’t really been able to get as lean as I’d like. But it’s starting to come around. There was just so much swelling that it was hard to come back from. And there’s still a little bit of pain. My muscle back there doesn’t work entirely correctly because my lat was sliced in half. Other than that, I feel pretty good.
You were talking about the serious trachea injury you suffered in Puerto Rico. Can you take us through that whole experience?
I didn’t realize there was a big problem until later on that night. I got kicked pretty hard in the throat, but I finished the match. I felt like there was bleeding back there, but the EMTs at the building said there was nothing wrong. I actually went back to the hotel. My throat was hurting pretty bad, but I just thought it was swelled up, so I tried to eat some ice cream to bring down the swelling back there, but it didn’t help. Then I tried eating, and I couldn’t eat because it was just so painful for the food to go down. Then I went back up to my hotel room and stayed there for about an hour or so, and then I felt my lungs starting to get heavy and I was having cold chills. Then I started spitting up blood. That’s when I called the ambulance, and they rushed me to the hospital, which was an experience.
I’ve been to jail before, and it was like the gates of the jail at the hospital. There were 20-foot high steel gates and there were armed guards outside the hospital. The opened the door, which creaked, and then they slammed it shut. I walked in there, and there was literally people lined up, bleeding, screaming down the corridors. Nobody was speaking English, and it was kind of freaky. I was actually at the same hospital where Bruiser Brody died. So, I was kind of freaked out. I called a couple of my buddies because I wanted to get out of there. I came in and they took some scans, made me drink some stuff to see what the damage was. That was brutal trying to drink that stuff. They finally found that I did have a torn trachea. The bad part about it was that it was torn in my chest. They told me I had five hours to live. The air that was supposed to be going into my lungs was now going into my skin. That turns poisonous and then you die. I still didn’t really want to believe them. My buddy owns a private jet, and he was going to fly it down. They kind of sensed that I wanted to get out of there. Thank God that didn’t happen, because my lung would have collapsed and they couldn’t have saved me because the trachea was torn. They put me on some sedatives and kind of calmed me down. I was still fighting it and trying to get out of there, because I didn’t want to have surgery in Puerto Rico. Finally, a Puerto Rican doctor came in and calmed me a little bit, but he still sensed that I wanted to leave so he put me under.
The next time I woke up – I had been in an induced coma for two days because the pain would have been so bad – I felt like I was choking. It felt like I was going to drown because I couldn’t get any air. They pulled the ventilator out of my throat and I woke up. They told me they cut through my lat, basically split my ribs in half, and then cut through my lung, sewed my trachea up. Then they put a tube in my lung to drain for two weeks. I just swelled up. I looked brutal, like a 300-pound fat guy. It was the most swelling I ever experienced. I still couldn’t fly, so I had to take a cruise ship home. I went to get on the cruise ship – and no cruise ship. A guy jumped off and committed suicide, so the FBI boarded the ship and had to circle for like 17 hours. So I had to wait an extra day in Puerto Rico, got on a cruise ship, and it took me another week to get home. I took my tour bus back up to where I live, and I tried to recover. I still kind of worried, so I went to a doctor to see if they did everything right, and the doctor shook my hand and said, “You’re lucky to be here. Those doctors saved your life.” That will mess with your mind. I was kind of messed up for three or four months, knowing that I could have been dead.
Has a brush with death changed your outlook on life at all?
Yeah, a little bit. The thing that really messed me up was that one of my best friends had died a month earlier. Life isn’t fair. It definitely makes you look at things a little bit differently. I think I’m pretty much over the fact that I could have been dead, and physically I’m almost there.
Does that whole experience make you never want to go back to Puerto Rico?
Oh, no. The Puerto Rican people and the doctors were great. The nurses were fantastic. Other than the language barrier, they were nice. Here’s one funny story. I told you that I swelled up real bad – and my [testicles] swelled up really bad. I literally had to carry them in my hand to go to the bathroom. Some of the nurses weren’t so easy to look at, but one day, one of the most beautiful nurses I have ever seen walked in. I got up from my wheelchair and turned around, and she was beautiful. I dropped my drawers and I said, “Are my [testicles] supposed to be this big?” She ran out of the room and I never saw her again (laughs).
Switching gears a bit, why do you think your WWE run from several years ago wasn’t as successful as it could have been?
Well, if you look back, everyone from WCW got treated like [garbage], from Goldberg, to Kevin Nash, to Scott Hall. You have to remember – you were there – we beat WWE for 82 weeks straight, and Vince [McMahon] obviously took that personally, so he wanted to bring everyone in that was on top in WCW and bury them. Kevin Nash is supposed to be the best friend of Triple H, but he got the same thing. He won the first title match [against Triple H] by DQ and then lost the second one. I can’t really take it that personally because [Tripe H] treated supposedly his best friend the same way. I’ll tell you right now: People up there are miserable. Both times that I went up there, it was the most screwed-up place I’ve ever been.
Worse than WCW was screwed up?
Oh, my God, it’s not even close. You got Triple H, who’s [sleeping with] the boss’ daughter. She thinks she’s the greatest and he’s the greatest. He’s in the production meetings and the booking meetings. You mark my words: He will break Ric Flair’s record for world championships, because they’re both cut from the same mold – they’re both marks for the belt. It will happen. And it’s bull. I think [The Wrestling Observer’s Dave] Meltzer wrote that every time [Triple H] is the champion, ratings go down, pay-per-view buys go down – it’s a fact. But that’s what happens when you’re [sleeping with] the boss’ daughter. That’s the one thing that was worse going up there the second time – she was involved. And the only reason she’s involved is because she was part of the lucky sperm club. That’s her only qualification.
Scott, please stop sugarcoating it and tell me how you really feel.
(Laughs). There are other people that felt the same way.
Was a run as world champion ever discussed when you went to WWE?
Oh, no. I was there for the same [expletive] that Goldberg and Kevin Nash were.
So did you know that going in?
No, actually I did not expect that. I really didn’t think Vince was that stupid to buy out the competition and then bury it. How stupid is that? That’s his ego. He wanted to own the wrestling world. Well, now he has it and look how it’s done. Ratings are worse than they’ve ever been. They’ll never come back because there’s no competition. I hope TNA becomes a viable contender. If things work out the way it happened with WCW, where finally we went head-to-head live, there’s a possibility it can happen. Trust me, people want to jump. I’m not the only one that sees that Triple H is a [jerk]. If they can jump to a better situation, they will.
You mentioned WCW, and you and I were both there when the doors closed. How did the company go from being so successful to going out of business in such a short time, and who should take the most blame for it?
The people that are the most to blame are the higher-ups in TBS. They despised professional wrestling even though we outdrew basketball, baseball – even when the Braves were in the World Series. And then to sell it for $2.5 million? That’s ridiculous. That right there shows you it was a [screwed] up situation. Everybody wants to blame Eric Bischoff, and they don’t know what they’re talking about. Eric Bischoff was one of the best things to happen to WCW because he brought the pay scale up and he wanted to get rid of the old [expletive] that was going on in WCW. Unfortunately, he didn’t want anything to do with the booking. I had a number of talks with Eric where he said, “Man, I need to find some different bookers. Where do I go?” It was hard to find.
You’ve been very critical of Ric Flair in the past. What are your thoughts on his retirement, his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame and his career overall?
I thought it was a joke how many times he cried. Remember the nWo skit when X-Pac was supposed to be Ric Flair, and every time they asked him a question tears would come down his face because he had a pump of water under his arm pit? Now that comes into play as far as what Ric Flair was like behind closed doors backstage. He was a crybaby. He was a little [wuss], man. And for him to do it during the match and then at the induction ceremony, come on, man. Are you kidding me? That’s the way Ric Flair was.
OK, I’m going to play devil’s advocate. Didn’t I see you cry on TV once?
Yeah, but that was for an angle that I did later on that night, and everybody knew I was faking.
I know. I’m just kidding.
He was doing it because he’s a mark, man. It was unbelievable. That’s how he was in real life. Here’s another story: Ric Flair thought his big Four Horsemen were going to come back again. So, [Curt] Hennig was going to join them, and we were going to wrestle them at a pay-per-view in a cage and it was going to be the Four Horsemen’s triumphant return. But Hennig was going to turn and join the nWo. When they told Ric Flair the finish, his eyes started welling up, and we had to leave the room because we started laughing. We were like, “Look at that little piece of [garbage]. He’s [freaking] crying. I’m not the only one who has that view on Flair. If you talk to Bret Hart, he’ll say the same thing about Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and Triple H. They're all pieces of [garbage], man.
My first two months in the business was my first indication that Ric Flair was a piece of [garbage]. I broke in with ##@+ The Bruiser, and I was going to go down to the NWA for a tryout. I told ##@+, and he said, “As soon as you get there, you drop your bags in front of Ric Flair and you tell him to carry your bags and you tell him I said so.” I said, “OK, I’ll do it.” I didn’t know anything about ribs back then. On the way home I was riding with “Bulldog” Don Kent, and he said, “No, you can’t do that.” But ##@+ The Bruiser had no respect for him. He said that’s how he got in the business – carrying guys’ bags. Look at Bruno Sammartino – he has zero respect for Flair. Ole Anderson once slapped David Flair and said, “I’ve got more for your dad if he wants some.” Flair had so much heat with the guys he wrestled with – he had zero respect.
I don’t know if you saw Flair’s farewell address on Raw, but everyone on the roster came out and it sure seemed like they all had a lot of respect for him.
Kevin, it’s written in the show. They have to show up. It’s just like if they tell you to go out there and do a match. They had to go out there and pretend like they respect the guy. The only guys that do are Triple H and Shawn Michaels. They’re three peas in a pod – three guys who couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag. They’re three of the biggest [wusses] that have ever been in the sport. And they’re all friends – imagine that. They all come from the same mold. They were never athletes and the way they got things done was behind closed doors and backstabbing people.
You’re really going to love it when I tell you this: I’m a big Shawn Michaels fan.
Well, I guess if you like to look at gay magazines that he’s posed in and watch him dance around in chaps like one of the Village People or a Chippendale, if you’re a fan, more power to you, baby. Personally, I think he’s a [freaking homosexual].
Well, all right then. Let’s move on. After some bad experiences in WWE and WCW, is wrestling fun again for you now that you’re in TNA?
Yeah. When I left I WWE, I had surgery on my foot. I had drop foot, where my foot was totally paralyzed. I had a tendon transfer and got nine screws in my foot. They broke my foot, took a bone graph from my hip and put it in my foot and put a plate in there. So, now my foot is not 100 percent, but it works, so I can wrestle a lot better than I did.
People were quick to criticize you when you were in WWE and say that you had lost it, but you were in constant pain your whole time there, right?
That’s why I really didn’t care a whole lot up there. When your mind is concentrating on pain 24 hours a day, which I was – I’d like anybody to try and wrestle with one foot. If I moved my foot it would just flop uncontrollably. I had total paralysis down there. And it causes pain up your legs and in your hips. It was hard. I was actually going to retire; I did not want to go up [to WWE]. But they offered me more money than I was asking for, so I took it, thinking that they would want to do business. Shoot, they paid Bill Goldberg more than they paid me just to bury him, too. It made zero sense whatsoever.
Speaking of Goldberg in WWE, there was an infamous segment in which they put a blonde wig on his head. If they had come to you with that blonde wig, what would you have done?
Yeah, I’d have told then to [expletive]. That was one of the first things that Bill did up there. I said, “Bill, that’s brutal. Why’d you do it?” He said, “Oh, they want to expand my character.” But that’s the way that politics work up there. They aren’t trying to expand his character; they’re burying him. But when you first get up there, you don’t think it’s going to happen because you figure they want to do business.
What was it like to team with your brother Rick again last year in TNA?
Oh, it was great. The fans wanted it. The only reason that we went into singles competition was because, as a tag team, we had defeated everybody, we had wrestled everybody. When went up to WWE, we beat everybody. There were no more mountains to climb. That’s when my career took off in a different direction – that’s when I became “Big Poppa Pump.” I’m glad it happened, but when we got back together, people loved to see it. It was good.
You mentioned that you considered retirement several years ago. How many more years do you see yourself wrestling, and what will you do after your career is over?
It’s hard to say. I’ve prepared from Day 1 to get out of the business, and now that it’s so close for me retiring, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But as long as they want to pay you and keep you around, I hope I can go on long enough to where we start challenging WWE for ratings, one-one-one live. Yeah, [retirement] is close, and I have no idea what I’ll do to fulfill that void. When you do something as long as I have, you obviously love the sport – although not everything about the sport. It will be tough to replace that high that you get because you like to perform and give the fans what they want, or in my case, make the fans hate you. I’ve got a couple options, but I don’t think anything is going to replace wrestling.
You’re wrestling in the main event of the Sacrifice pay-per-view Sunday against Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle. What can fans expect from that match?
A lot of brutality. Everybody knows Kurt Angle. Everybody knows me. Everybody’s getting to know Joe. He’s one of those guys that fans are behind. He has some interesting aspects to his game that Kurt and I don’t have. I think it’s going to be a great match. We’re going to try to put on the best show possible.
My interview with Scott Steiner a few weeks ago elicited more response than any of the Q&A's I’ve posted since starting the blog a little more than a year ago. In particular, Steiner’s unflattering comments about Ric Flair, Triple H and Shawn Michaels touched a nerve with readers. Some applauded the controversial Steiner for speaking his mind, while others accused him of being bitter and jealous.
In this follow-up interview, Steiner clarifies some of his statements and responds to his critics.
A number of people who saw your comments about Ric Flair, Triple H and Shawn Michaels said that you were bitter and jealous of their careers. What is your response?
I have nothing to be bitter about. I’ve made a lot of money, and more importantly, I’ve saved a lot of money. I’m not bitter. I love this business and that’s why I’m still in it. I’m just telling you the way it is, man. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
There’s no way I’m jealous, because there’s no way I would want their careers. For one thing, I couldn’t be Triple H because there’s no way I could [have sex] with Chyna. And he was doing that before she even got face reconstruction. There has only been two people in the history of the Howard Stern Show where they had them go to the bathroom to make sure [they were women] – Chyna and Nicole Bass. And she was on the show after the face reconstruction.
Look at Triple H’s career before he started (having sex with) the boss’ daughter: He lost to Ultimate Warrior in 30 seconds; he was losing to guys like Alex Wright in WCW; he lost to one of the Godwins in a pig slop match. And then all of a sudden he’s [having sex with] the boss’ daughter and he’s the toughest guy in the world. I’m not the only guy who thinks that. It’s no secret what Kurt Angle thought of Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Here’s one story I got from Kurt: Triple H was trying to block Kurt Angle from winning the [WWE] world title. He said in a meeting, “I think Kurt Angle’s too small.” And Jerry Brisco stood up and said, “Well, what do you think would happen if you guys fought for real?” And he sat down, shut his mouth and they ran with it.
Shawn Michaels is one of those wise-cracking guys who would say a smart comment to you, but then if you face him, he would run and cry somewhere. That’s exactly what happened one time when he was cutting down the Harris Brothers – I think it was Don Harris. Finally, he had enough. He waited until Shawn Michaels got in the room, kicked everybody out of the room, shut the door, grabbed him by the neck and was going to pound the [heck] out of him. A tear came down his eye. He turned around, started laughing and walked out. That is Shawn Michaels in a nutshell.
As for Ric Flair, I could go on and on. I was there one time when we were doing TV tapings at Center Stage [in Atlanta], and Rick Rude followed Flair around for about an hour and just totally blistered him. He told him he looked like hell and he was friends with the booker, totally blistering him. Finally, Flair had enough, left and did not come back to Center Stage until after the TV taping started. People think I’m making this stuff up.
Wahoo McDaniel could not stand him. He told me one time Blackjack Mulligan knocked Flair out with one punch. Jim Crockett at one time owned the NWA. I always liked David and Jackie Crockett, but I only met Jim Crockett once or twice, and everyone thought he was a [jerk]. But Flair had him as the best man in his wedding. Who has the promoter as his best man? Wahoo said back in the day when there were territories all around the country, one of the ways the boys made sure they wouldn’t get fired and wouldn’t have to worry about a job from week to week, is they would borrow money from the promoter. That way the promoter couldn’t fire them because he wanted to get his money out of them. Wahoo said that Flair had tax problems and Jim Crockett bailed him out, so there’s no way he was going to get rid of Ric Flair. Wahoo did not like him, did not like his wife – he called her the rat from Raleigh. The stories he would tell me – he just blistered him. And Flair had no idea.
When I was in WWE, it was right after Andre The Giant had died. We were doing a Raw in New Jersey. I was talking to Rene Goulet, who was an agent then. Everybody was pretty bummed out because everybody loved Andre – I only met him once, so I didn’t know him that well. Flair came by and did his usual, “Wooo!” I swear to God, Rene was so [angry], he wanted to punch him out. He said Flair lived like two hours from where Andre was buried in North Carolina. He said, “That piece of garbage. He wouldn’t drive two hours to pay his respects to Andre.” He wanted to kill him. I could go on and on.
I remember a world title match back in 1991 between you and Flair at a Clash of the Champions. What was it like working a match with him? Did you have a different opinion of him back then?
No. I always knew he was a piece of garbage. Flair never drew when I was in the NWA and WCW. Flair had all of his friends booking him on top and we were not drawing. People can say what they want, but I was there and we did not draw nothing. They may have papered the crowd to make it look good for a Clash or a pay-per-view, but we did not draw. I can say for a fact that Flair at that time did not draw a dime. And they say he was the greatest? If you want an honest opinion, you ask somebody who they would rather be on the card with – Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair. If they don’t say Hulk Hogan, they’re out of their minds. At least you knew when you were on a Hulk Hogan card you were going to get paid. Thank God in WCW we had guaranteed contracts. If we had been paid by the houses that we were drawing, we would have starved.
Here’s the deal with that Clash of the Champions. Things had gotten so bad, and they wanted to put the belt on somebody else. They actually wanted to make me the world champion. I had just beaten Ric Flair in a gauntlet match to set up for the Clash of the Champions. So we’re going over the match backstage, and he was like, “Yeah, I got this, I got that,” and then he went out there and sandbagged. It was one of the worst matches I ever had. And I was wondering, “What was that?” The match I had with him in the gauntlet was 10 times better. So I went in the back and I was disappointed. Then I heard a couple weeks later, he was telling people in the office that I got tired, I wasn’t ready for the spot. And to tell you the truth, I really didn’t want to be the world champion. At the time, I still wanted to team with my brother. About a month later, I was wrestling him in Philadelphia, and I gave him nothing. He tried to hit me with a chair, and I grabbed the chair and hit him with it. I just beat the crap out of him. I came back after our match and waited for him right at the door, waiting for him to say something. If he would have said something I would have clocked him one, but he didn’t say nothing. He put his head down and walked back to his dressing room. He’s a punk, man.
Flair was messed up on so many different levels. One time in Baltimore, Sting was going to beat Flair for the belt. So Flair pulled Sting aside, and Sting thinks he’s going to tell him something about the match or give him some big knowledge, and this is what he said to him, and Sting could not believe it. Flair said, “When you get married, it’s a big deal. When you have kids, it’s a big deal. But there’s nothing like winning the world title.” Sting came back and grabbed my brother and I and Lex [Luger], and said, “You’re not going to believe what Flair just told me.” That’s how messed up he was.
Here’s a story that Gary Hart told me. He was managing Muta at the time, and they were going to go in a different direction with Muta. Basically, they were thinking about getting rid of Gary Hart, and he was hurt by it. Back in the day, if you were NWA champion, different territories had to give you their vote to keep you as champion. Gary at one point was in Texas. So Flair at that time came by, whined and dined him and kissed his [butt]. So, later when they were thinking about firing Gary, he said to me, “I went up to him now to see if he could help me out, and that piece of [garbage] said he couldn’t do nothing for me.” Two or three weeks later, he was fired. That’s the way Flair was. He used you, and then he cut your throat.
Another thing that people took issue with was when you said that Triple H and Shawn Michaels were the only guys in WWE who respected Flair. What about guys like Batista, Chris Jericho and Big Show – who was crying during Flair’s Hall of Fame speech and during his farewell on Raw – and others?
Trust me, if it was a different time, Flair would cut their throats in a second, but he’s not in that position anymore. When Flair was in Evolution, he knew he needed those guys to keep his spot, so he helped them out. So I believe Batista has respect for him, because he helped him out. As far as Big Show, I think he’s a crier. He cried when Hulk Hogan retired, too. Can’t take him to a sad movie, either (laughs).
I think some people believe that you don’t respect anybody. Are there any guys in the business that you do have respect for?
The main guy you have to have respect for is Hogan. Hogan was the man. I remember when I was [in WWE], Chief Jay Strongbow used to call him the golden goose. He always said he could lay a golden egg. That was the respect that Hogan had – because he drew. The greatest is the one who draws the money. Would you rather be a 16-time world champion like Flair or would you rather be like Bruno, who had a 10-year run like he had and always sold out Madison Square Garden? That’s respect, man.
You have to respect the guys that have set attendance records and drew a lot of money – like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. And, of course, The Rock, not only for what he’s done in wrestling, but what he’s doing right now in the movies, which is unprecedented, where a wrestler has been so successful in Hollywood. One of the guys that I most respect is Kurt Angle. When he left WWE, I think a lot of people thought he was the best wrestler there. Not only that, but he was an Olympic champion. I think a lot of people don’t realize how hard it is to be an Olympic champion. Wrestlers in general I respect, because it’s a hard life.
One of your biggest gripes with Flair is that he was cutthroat in his backstage politics. A lot of people say that Hogan was far worse when it came to playing politics.
Oh, God. No. Flair was 10 times worse, and Hogan was a man about it. Hogan, if he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t [BS] you; he just wouldn’t talk to you. He wasn’t like these guys that come up to you and be all “ha-ha” and tell you you’re the greatest and then go behind closed doors and stab you in the back. Hogan had the best contract because he had creative control, and everybody knew that. But he had that respect man, and you got to give it to him. Hogan was the master. He went up there and actually convinced Vince, and he beat Triple H for the belt. I loved it. You know it had to [tick] off Triple H. And it was the worst match ever. It happened right after Hogan had that great match with The Rock at WrestleMania. And then Triple H wrestled him [a month] later and it was horrible. And they say Triple H is such a great worker. Yeah, right.
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