10 Massive WWE Babyface Pushes That Were Doomed To Failure
9. Scott Steiner
Often, all audiences want to do is back a winner. Somebody that walks, talks and acts a good game, backing the whole thing up in the ring when the time comes to do battle. It's an achingly simple premise, and yet wrestling's convoluted machinations often destroy a promotion's ability to present just that.
Such was the case in late 2002, when Scott Steiner returned from wrestling exile over a year after WCW's demise to wreak havoc in WWE.
As it later became apparent, he was masking a raft of injuries, including a particularly devastating drop foot condition threatening to kibosh him even wrestling a full match for several months.
Rather than hiding the weaknesses, the company exploited them. Steiner was utterly exposed in his first match at the Royal Rumble, looking out of breath, out of step and out of energy against a Triple H that offered little help in making the contest appear particularly credible. Why would he?
Steiner's obvious shortcomings ensured his failure to compete as a top star, resulting in two back-to-back stinkers in January and February 2003 that were awful enough to remove 'Big Poppa Pump' from the WrestleMania card the very next month. He was a chauvinist heel later that year, and gone completely by early 2004.