10 Wrestlers Who Left And Returned More Badass
1. Scott Steiner
Scott Steiner was born a badass.
He was coded by DNA to become a badass; an NCAA All American in the University of Michigan, he used his formidable amateur background to inform his pro wrestling style as an awesome suplex machine and jaw-dropping move innovator. In JCP/WCW, Steiner waged super-physical wars with Terry Gordy and Steve Williams en route to becoming with brother Rick the best tag team in the world. The brothers left following a contract dispute in 1992 to ply their gruesome, awesome trade in the WWF. They brought with them a level of danger and physicality the promotion had never seen - their match with the Beverly Brothers at Royal Rumble '93 was an AJPW tag masquerading as a WWF PPV opener - before leaving in 1994.
After a brief sojourns in ECW and Japan, the brothers returned to their spiritual home near enough as they'd left it, toned-down technicolour aside, before Steiner embarked on a heel singles run.
If Steiner had precious few f*cks to give at the best of times, he threw them in Ric Flair's face in 2000, by which point his badassery came to define him. This ultra-ripped hard bastard version of Steiner was awesome. He modified his ring style to align with the brawling norm, a style he elevated by simply becoming even more stiff, taking time to tell crowds to "F*ck off" in full earshot of petrified TV cameras.