8 Wrestlers Who Purposefully Sabotaged Matches

6. Rick Steiner (Southeast Championship Wrestling, 2005)

Shawn Michaels Hogan
WWE.com

There are few things as satisfying as seeing a bully get their comeuppance.

Rick Steiner, along with brother Scott, was notorious for bullying and shooting on wrestlers during his glory days in WCW. Jobbers, in particular, would fear getting into the ring with the Michigan natives because they knew they'd leave the ring black and blue and quite possibly suplexed out of their boots.

Rick went on a mini rampage of sorts in the early 2000s, too, shooting on Konnan, Lash LeRoux, Kwee Wee and Hugh Morrus on separate occasions. In 2005, The Dog-Faced Gremlin was up to his old tricks again, this time trying to legitimately hurt independent wrestler Vordell Walker during a tag match at a 'Day of the Legends' event.

Unfortunately for Steiner, he didn't realise that Walker was a bit of a hard man himself and was trained in martial arts, judo and submission wrestling. According to an interview Walker gave shortly after the incident, Steiner refused to work anything out with Walker or his own tag team partner, Erick Stevens, before their match and tried to get cute with him in the ring. It was up to Walker's partner, a genuinely friendly Dustin Rhodes, to try and get it together.

Rick gave Walker a stiff kick to the face early in the match, drawing blood and tried to wrestle him down. Walker easily got out of the situation and, in retaliation, unloaded a couple of shoot kicks of his own, got Steiner in a guillotine choke and wrestled the veteran down to the ground.

Walked said that he ' wasn’t really trying to pound this guy; I was just trying to get him to chill out. I got control of him numerous times, and finally I got his back and started working the chokes in just to let him know that we could wrestle or continue to fight'. Walker tagged out to Rhodes, and the match chugged along until the ending, at which point it pretty much fell apart.

At one point, Steiner attempted to powerbomb Walker from the ring apron through a table at ringside. Well aware of Steiner's behaviour earlier in the match, Walker refused to go up for the move, angering Rick further. He then told Walker that he 'couldn't work' and demanded he tag Rhodes back in. When Rhodes entered the match, he and Rick brawled to the backstage area, leaving Walker and Stevens to work the rest of the match themselves.

Eventually, Rhodes pinned Steiner to end the match. Once backstage, Rick was apparently nonchalant in his attitude and didn't really say anything to Walker, which naturally confused the youngster considering what had went on before. Two years later at another independent show, Walker and Steiner reportedly had another confrontation backstage which resulted in Steiner choking and bleeding from the mouth and the police being called.

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Contributor

Student of film. Former professional wrestler. Supporter of Newcastle United. Don't cry for me, I'm already dead...