‘Good Ol JR’ Jim Ross has detailed the time Rick Steiner saved lives following a car accident and the subsequent heat from Bill Watts thanks to being a heel at the time.
For some, the name Rick Steiner brings back memories of head protectors, bright coloured wrestling attires and arguably the greatest tag team to have ever stepped foot inside a wrestling ring. For others, those recollections will be of a fresh-faced heel once a member of The Varsity Club alongside Kevin Sullivan and Mike Rotunda.
However, only those wrestling purists will remember the stint of ‘The Dog Faced Gremlin’ in Mid-South Wrestling as a killer heel who took no prisoners.
Now, Jim Ross has taken to his Grilling JR Podcast in order to shed light on the day that Steiner broke character in public – along with Terry Gordy – to save the lives of people who had been involved in a car accident as well as the heat he received from promoter Bill Watts for killing kayfabe just to save a life:
“It’s just like losing a fight in a bar in the Mid-South territory. It’s not rumour or innuendo in the Mid-South bars, if you lose a fight to a civilian then you’re out. It’s [being angry about Steiner and Terry Gordy saving people’s lives from a car-crash] Cowboy [Bill Watts] just trying to really underscore a point. The worst transgression would have been if one was a babyface and one was a heel. Then they would have been up s**t’s creek. He didn’t like that. He wanted to protect the gimmick, protect the business as he would say. And guys learnt that early on, they learnt respect for the business. Cowboy would have been upset if they were heel and a babyface travelling together like the Duggan Iron Sheik thing back in the day when they got busted.”
As The Steiner Brothers, Rick and brother Scott took the tag team world by storm in WCW, WWF and even ECW following the star’s babyface turn in the late eighties. Their matches with the likes of Sting & Lex Luger, The Road Warriors, The Fabulous Freebirds and The Quebecers are stuff of legend while their battle with The Heavenly Bodies at SummerSlam 1993 was a classic encounter.
Though partly retired from the industry in the present, Steiner still competes inside the ropes with his last bout coming on September 19 2019, when he teamed with Kazushi Miyamoto to defeat The Heatseekers for Tokyo Championship Wrestling. His son Bronson, is now continuing on the Steiner legacy having signed a developmental deal with WWE.
Credit for the interview: Grilling JR Podcast