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Answered: 1/16/04
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What ever happened to Rick Steiner?
Steiner spends most of his time hunting and relaxing from what I have heard.
He did very well financially in the business over the years and probably doesn’t
need to work. He has worked some shows for the WWA and NWA TNA in the last year
or so, but given that he is now in his mid forties, his in-ring career, at least
on a full time basis, is probably over. He had a good run.
I've noticed that a lot of current WWE wrestlers have gotten their
start, or at the very least have passed through, Rick Bassman's UPW promotion
in Southern California. What is the perception of Bassman and his wrestling
school within WWE?
I know that Bassman has access to the talent relations department and he has
gotten people from his promotion work in WWE, including John Cena and Victoria.
In fact, he has had a good track record of it. So, while I can’t say for
sure how the company looks at him, I think it’s fair to say that they
at least respect what he does.
Was the character called "Oklahoma" a takeoff on Jim Ross?
Yes. When Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara jumped from the then-WWF to WCW, they
came up with the character as a way to mock Jim Ross. Whether it was personal
is anyone’s guess, but JR didn’t exactly love Russo during his time
in the WWF or vice versa. Ferrara, who played the character, exaggerated Ross’
mannerisms and they ended up portraying the character in an insulting fashion.
It was definitely a lowlight in WCW at that time.
Being that HHH has pretty much buried everyone on RAW and has his say
in a lot of the storylines, I was just wondering if he has any pull with the
Smackdown Roster. Are they so separate now that the Raw guys never even see
the Smackdown guys?
For the most part, yes the Raw and Smackdown guys rarely interact. They have
their own schedules and mostly see each other only at the co-branded PPVs. HHH,
on the other hand, attends a lot of Smackdown shows, especially when he doesn’t
have movie commitments. He sits in on most of the meetings and does have a say
in things for that brand as well. He is part of the family now, after all.
Are the Harris Brothers skinheads or is it just a part of their wrestling
characters? I have heard things like they had nazi tattoos that WWF forced them
to get removed and one of the brothers wore a nazi shirt on NWA TNA. If they
are racist why would anyone hire them; it seems like having someone on the roster
like that would be bad for business.
I can’t say if they are skinheads or not because I don’t know.
But, I do know for a fact that anything you see on them that would make you
wonder that is not part of a wrestling character. I remember when they both
showed up in ECW with “SS” tattoos on their arms. It shocked pretty
much everyone in the company, both because of what the tattoos stood for and
also because ECW was owned at the time by two Jewish men, Tod Gordon and Paul
Heyman. After showing up with the tattoos, they quickly ended up getting more
ink on them to cover up the offensive message that they had been sending. There
was also an incident where Don Harris wore an SS like shirt on an NWA TNA PPV,
which caused a stir, and rightfully so. Why people hire them? I have no idea
but I agree that it’s a very poor decision for any company to make. There
is no place in society, let alone wrestling, for racism, from where I stand.
You can send non-question feedback to me by clicking my name! Dave Scherer
