The Steiner Brothers will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022. As first announced by David Shoemaker on TheRinger.com, Rick & Scott Steiner will be enshrined in the hallowed hall during the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony as part of WrestleMania Week.
The most successful tag teams must be completely in synch and possess an ability to almost read each other’s thoughts. Arguably no one can find that level of connection better than family. Enter celebrated University of Michigan alumni Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner, sibling competitors who donned on the headgear (and/or mullet) and introduced an innovative in-ring style that helped them fight their way to the top of the mountain.
The Steiner Brothers first joined forces in 1989 and grew to become the face of tag team excellence as one of sports entertainment’s most celebrated tag teams. Together, Rick and Scott lit up NWA Mid-Atlantic and NWA/WCW where they used their impressive mix of amateur and professional wrestling to capture the WCW Tag Team Titles seven times and the United States Tag Team Titles once. Their success was not entirely limited to the Atlanta-based organization, however.
During their brief time in WWE in the early ’90s, the pair quickly made history by appearing on the first episode of Monday Night Raw in 1993, battling The Headshrinkers on The Grandest Stage of Them All at WrestleMania IX and winning the WWE Tag Team Championship twice. Following a short tenure with ECW in 1995, The Steiners then returned to WCW in 1996 and their impact was undeniable as they battled elite opposition like Harlem Heat and The Outsiders for the WCW Tag Team Titles.
The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will take place this Friday, April 1 at American Airlines Center in Dallas as part of WrestleMania Week. The event will stream live exclusively on Peacock in the U.S. and WWE Network everywhere else. In addition, for the first time in history, WWE will present both Friday Night SmackDown and the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony live on the same night at American Airlines Center, giving all fans in attendance an unprecedented opportunity to witness both events for one price.
The teams of siblings debuted in 1989 in WCW. With Missy Hyatt in their corner, the Steiner Brothers were an up-and-coming tag team, mixing technique, power, speed, and agility. The same year, they would defeat the Freebirds for the NWA World Tag Team titles. The year after, they would capture the NWA United States Tag Team Championship from The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane). In 1991, they were the second team ever to hold both the WCW World and United States Tag Team titles at once. After the Steiners won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki on March 21, 1991, WCW announcers began referring to them as “Triple Crown Champions.”
They signed with WWF in 1992, quickly after leaving WCW. They were shown as babyfaces, proud of their accomplishments at the University of Michigan. They appeared on the debut episode of Monday Night RAW on January 11, 1993. They made their WWF pay-per-view debut on January 24, 1993, at the 1993 Royal Rumble, defeating The Beverly Brothers. At WrestleMania IX on April 4, 1993, the Steiner Brothers defeated The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu).
Following WrestleMania IX, the Steiners began feuding with Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster). A few months later, the Steiners defeated them for the WWF Tag Team Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Money, Inc. regained the titles on June 16, 1993, at a house show in Rockford, Illinois, but lost the titles to the Steiners once again at another house show on June 19, 1993, in St. Louis, Missouri. They would later feud with The Heavenly Bodies, The Quebecers, and many more. They would leave WWF in 1994.
After a few months in ECW in 1995, the Steiners re-signed with WCW in 1996. They initially feuded with the Road Warriors and had several matches with then champions Sting and Lex Luger. They would eventually win the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat on July 24, 1996, but Harlem Heat would regain the title just three days later and the title changes were never mentioned on TV.
Following the formation of the nWo, the Steiners began feuding with The Outsiders, who had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat. The Steiners spent the entirety of 1997 and into 1998 feuding with the duo of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. They also feuded with other nWo members like Vicious and Delicious and continued to have matches with Harlem Heat. On the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, The Steiners introduced Ted DiBiase as their new manager, who led them to two tag team championships.
The team entered 1998 as the tag team champions, but the dissension between the brothers caused them to lose the belts. Scott’s heel turn led him to would often not tag his brother into matches. However, they won the WCW World Tag Team Championship again in 1998. The final straw came at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22, 1998, when the brothers would face The Outsiders again.
Midway through the match, Rick knocked both Hall and Nash out of the ring while both attempted to attack him behind the referee’s back and celebrated by running around the ring barking while Scott entered the ring to celebrate with him. Scott then attacked Rick by hitting him in the back, followed by a double underhook powerbomb. Scott then assaulted DiBiase as well, abandoned his brother to be taken out by Hall and Nash and signified that he was joining the nWo by personally handing Hall and Nash the championship belts himself. They then both embraced singles careers. After WCW, the brothers reunited for the first time in NJPW in 2002, where Rick was signed, wrestling 3 matches. The Steiners Brothers would reunite on many occasions, including in TNA.
Rick’s son Bronson, who wrestles in the WWE on the NXT brand as Bron Breakker, puts on the neon-coloured singlets that his father and uncle wore when running roughshod over the best American and Japanese wrestlers of the early 1990s. Breakker is a true generational star in his own right, but he has considerable shoes to fill as he follows in the footsteps of a pair of statuesque, ferocious legends so legit they turned the unreality of pro wrestling into Steiner Brothers–infused hyper-reality.
They were athletic enough to match any opponent’s pace, their vicious release suplexes and clotheslines shook the ring, and Scott innovated impressive offensive moves like the “Frankensteiner” and “Steiner screwdriver.” In terms of fraternal mat-based ultraviolence, no tandem in history came close. The Steiner Brothers had individual success and also worked as a tag team on and off for 20 years, and their physicality and presence defined them as two peerless athletes and earned them a place among the Legends.