10 Tag Team Wrestlers Who Held Their Partners Back

1. Rick Steiner

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WWE.com

Few tag teams in wrestling history are more respected and beloved than The Steiner Brothers, but the fact remains that Scott was always the more talented of the two. As capable as Rick was, fans who saw the 260-pound Scott fly around the ring like a cruiserweight pegged him as a future star.

In 1991, Scott was being groomed for a singles run - he even scored a pinfall victory over Ric Flair - but the Steiners ended up leaving WCW for WWE. All ideas of a separation were dropped, and the all-American good guys added two WWE World Tag Team Championships to their resume. After a brief spell in ECW, the Steiners returned to WCW. They spent the next couple of years feuding with the nWo before Scott finally turned on Ric and broke away as a singles star.

By then, Scott was almost 36 years old, the peak of his athleticism far behind him. While "Big Poppa Pump," as he came to be known, still got a run as a main eventer, it was cut short by injury and WCW's closure. Had Scott Steiner's singles run materialized in 1991, or had WWE run with it when they had the chance, it's possible that Scott would be mentioned alongside men like Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels. Instead, he was simply saddled with Rick for far, far too long.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013