This was a joint shoot interview by both RF Video and Highspots (the only joint interview I know of to ever happen). Michael Bochicchio, the owner of Highspots, asked most of the questions, but RF Video’s Rob Feinstein posed some questions and RF’s Doug Gentry got in three or four towards the end, as well. In fact, this interview would have taken place right before Doug passed away. There were some instances where Scott thought they had cut the tape to have an off the record clarification conversation with the interviewers and the tape in fact hadn’t been cut. I wonder if he ever found out about that and if he would have been mad.
There was a little incongruity in the time that certain topics got, but nothing that was the end of the world. For instance, I wish Scott had talked more about his first WWE run in the early ’90s. The talk only lasted a few minutes, even though he was there for almost as long as he was in WCW the first time, and that initial WCW run occupied somewhere around 20-30 min. I also wanted more talk about the mid-’90s part of his WCW run, as they basically went from the beginning of his WCW return in 1996 to 1999, with a little bit of nWo talk in between. There was no talk of the Steiners’ feud against Harlem Heat, which I really wanted to hear about, and I also would have been happy to hear about Public Enemy, who the Steiners had over a dozen matches against. So as armchair quarterback with 20/20 hindsight, I would have extended the talk about his first WWE run in the early ’90s and the first few years of his 1996 WCW return. I also wanted to hear more talk about Jeff Jarrett, who played a big role in Scott’s WCW career, but was really only discussed during the TNA era of Scott’s career. Furthermore, Scott’s involvement in Andrew McManus’ World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) was never mentioned. Scott does talk about more subjects than I list; I only list the topics that he discussed substantially or had something noteworthy to say about.
Scott not surprisingly has strong (mostly negative) opinions about Dave Meltzer, DDP, and especially Ric Flair. In fact, Flair gets a decent amount of attention throughout the interview. Meanwhile, Scott has a very high opinion of Eric Bischoff. I was surprised that he had as critical of an opinion of DDP’s push, as I thought they were friends. Meanwhile, I was surprised he was more positive on Hulk Hogan than he has been in other interviews, and didn’t have as many negative things to say about Triple H as he has since. I also learned that Scott kept in touch around this time with Chuck Palumbo, and had a high opinion of the former-Natural Born Thriller.
I would have loved to have heard Scott talk about the 450° splash that he supposedly invented, but this interview took place long before that video went viral on YouTube. I actually wonder if he was ever asked about that in an interview, and if so, what he had to say about it. I think this interview took place around 2006, shortly after his TNA run began picking up, so I guess it makes sense that they didn’t talk a lot about TNA, as he hadn’t had much experience there by this point.
This was a decent interview. It ends extremely abruptly, as he was still kind of answering a question and the interview had no formal close, although they had already started wrapping up. You got to see chill Scott Steiner just shooting the shit. Even when asked about fairly pointed questions about steroids, Scott never lost his cool, if you’re wondering. He had a good, consistent attitude throughout the entire interview, though the interview’s topics distribution could have been more even.
Rating: B
Index of topics discussed:
- his amateur wrestling background
- his college days
- University of Michigan
- his early opinion of pro wrestling
- initially getting involved in pro wrestling
- “Bulldog” Don Kent
- Memphis
- Billy Joe Travis
- Jerry Lawler
- working out
- entering WCW
- travel companions in early ’90s WCW
- Jim Herd
- The Varsity Club
- Terry Funk
- The Nasty Boys
- The Road Warriors
- Doom (Butch Reed & Ron Simmons)
- the Frankensteiner
- Lex Luger
- Ric Flair
- Missy Hyatt
- Terry Gordy & “Dr. Death” Steve Williams
- NJPW
- The Great Muta
- deciding to leave WCW and jumping to WWE
- his WWE tag team opponents
- his fallout with WWE during his first run
- his brief ECW tenure
- Dave Meltzer
- he and his brother’s “stiffness” reputation
- returning to WCW during the Monday Night Wars years
- Eric Bischoff
- changing his hair color and look
- backstage politics in mid and late ’90s WCW
- his shoot promos on Ric Flair
- Hulk Hogan
- Kimberly Page
- the Nitro Girls
- Scott Hall
- late ’90s and early 2000s WCW booking
- Buff Bagwell’s neck injury
- Bill Goldberg
- Diamond Dallas Page (DDP)
- 3 Count
- Sid Vicious’ leg injury
- his Mark McGwire promo
- steroids
- WCW getting bought by WWE
- negotiating with WWE
- joining WWE
- scripting of promos during his WWE run
- Triple H
- WWE trying to bury him
- Andrew “Test” Martin
- Stacy Keibler
- Midajah
- Jeff Jarrett’s involvement in his TNA run
- Jerry Jarrett
- Nu Wrestling Evolution (NWE) in Italy
- his reputation for being hard to work with
- cruiserweights
- appearing on “Charmed” on WB
- JBL
- obesity in America
- WWE creative writers
- his message to his fans
- “Ready to Rumble” and David Arquette
- Vince Russo
- Kevin Nash & Scott Hall
- Ultimate Warrior
RUN TIME: 1 hr. 53 min.
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