Rick Steiner On Why WCW Was The Best Company To Work For, Who Split Him And Scott, NWO, Vince Russo

As we previously noted, former WWE, WCW, and TNA talent Rick Steiner recently sat down with Hannibal TV to discuss his time in the business of professional wrestling. Steiner commented on his time with TNA and his feud with The Dudley Boyz, and his comments can be read here below:

On his time with WCW:

"I enjoyed it, it was a great experience. It was a new company for Ted, he treated us great. It was a new company so experiencing new things, it wasn't established so we had a bit more longitude to get things done, and do things, and try new things, and stuff like that because they were just starting this new company up. I really enjoyed it, WCW was probably the best company to work for being in the business back then, just with the family orientation and the way Ted used it with TNT, Turner Network, and everything like that. We were home a lot, it was kind of geared towards the family so we could be here in Atlanta, and so I really had a good experience with it."

Being a part of the 'Boom Period' of pro wrestling:

"When we come back into it it was just the NWO it was just — you know infancy period, we came back and we were getting established back into the thing and then they brought Scott Hall, Kevin, Hulk and did the NWO and it just exploded. It was really kind of cool to be involved with — it was already a nationally recognized thing in entertainment, but now football teams, baseball teams, everybody was acknowledging NWO and WCW and the wrestling entertainment business. I don't know if you remember that but we were having movie stars coming in a wrestle and being part of the show. Basketball players like Rodman, different things, people just wanted to be a part of it. You couldn't go anywhere without being recognized. My brother and I, hell we enjoyed it."

Who split him and his brother Scott up in WCW:

"It was Eric, I forget where we were on the road — I think in Canada somewhere or Oregon, he comes up to his room with us in the hotel and kind of sat us down and had the idea we had, been in the business now I think ten years as a team, wrestled everybody. Eric felt like we needed to take the next step in being singles, we had already done the singles thing, I had gotten injured and my brother was thinking about the NWO thing, so they brought us up and went over it and — it was time to do something, it was time for change. It ended up working for my brother, he changed his gimmick a little bit and blossomed out. I kind of changed my deal a little bit, it was all good. I thought it was fine, it was just time."

The backstage reaction to Vince Russo joining WCW during the company's downfall:

"I think there was a lot of skepticism because he had been coming from Vince, they brought him in, he didn't have any credibility other than supposedly coming up with the Steve Austin gimmick. So with us guys who had been in the business for a while it was like, you gotta show me more than one guy. Your always skeptic about a new boss coming in whether he can do the job or not, and I think everybody was skeptic at first. Then he kind of favored Jeff Jerrett with some of that entourage that was going on there. We kept him at arms length, questioned a lot of stuff he wanted to do. I guess it all didn't matter because in 2001 it was over."

His own relationship with Vince Russo:

"I never really had one. He came in towards the end there, him and my brother got along great, I never really had any dealings with him. Some of the ideas he had I didn't really agree with and I didn't do them. There was no arguing or anything like that I just didn't agree with some of it, and if I didn't like it I just went to Eric. There was a lot of crazy stuff going on towards the end there with Russo, Eric, and Hogan. So there was a lot of turmoil going on with that whole entity, and I just stayed out of it and did my job, kept my nose clean, did what I thought was right and that was it."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Hannibal TV with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Source: Hannibal TV