Bron Breakker has revealed that he paid tribute to his father Rick Steiner at New Year’s Evil with a little something that may have flown under the radar.
At New Year’s Evil Bron Breakker finally scaled the NXT mountain, defeating Tommaso Ciampa to claim the NXT Championship.
While the Steiner family has incredible wrestling pedigree, Breakker’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. The second-generation star only made his in-ring debut a little over a year ago, signing with WWE in February 2021. Although the young star had to wait until September to make his NXT debut.
Since making his debut, Breakker has only tasted defeat once, and that was at the hands of Tommaso Ciampa in only his fourth match.
Reflecting on his championship victory with Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports, Breakker said that he enjoyed being able to make his illustrious father and uncle proud.
“It’s crazy, man. They’re proud of me. You know what I mean? They’re happy for me,” Breakker said. “They’re kind of living through me in a way, a little bit. They’re very involved. Talking to me, giving me tips, help, whatever the case is. It’s cool, man. I could see it makes them happy, man. It’s a really cool thing.”
Although the new champion was happy to follow his father and uncle into professional wrestling, he joked that he wants no part of meeting his dad inside the ring.
“I never wanted to try him because he would throw me on my head. I mean, I wanted no part of wrestling him, He doesn’t play, man.”
While it had already been highlighted that Breakker wore a pair of his father’s boots for his championship victory, the young star also lifted the lid on another tribute that fans may have missed. For the bout, Breakker swapped his usual multi-coloured singlet for an all black number.
Breakker explained that this was in fact another Rick Steiner tribute as he also wore black when he won the WCW Television Title in 1998 and the United States Title in early 2001.
“He wore black on that night, his singlet was obviously different. His was probably cooler, to be honest with you. It was just kind of a tribute to that,” Breakker said. “Just change it up a little bit and keep people on their toes. Keep people invested in what I’m doing. I want to entertain as much as I can. My wardrobe, what I’m wearing, and stuff are a part of that.”
The image of Bron Breakker embracing Rick Steiner in the middle of the ring after his victory was certainly a feel-good moment, but his appearance didn’t pass without controversy.
On his way to the ring, Breakker smashed a giant gold ‘X’ in half, the ‘X’ symbolised the black and gold era of NXT that is now well and truly over. This symbolism was said to have not gone down well with everyone backstage.
Elsewhere in the interview, Breakker played down the controversy, saying that the entrance simply represented a shift from the black and gold era to NXT 2.0.