By the late 1990s, Scott Steiner had basically become a parody of an actual pro wrestler. His muscles had ballooned to cartoonish proportions, he communicated exclusively with incoherent shouting, and his trademark athleticism had badly deteriorated, all clearly due to steroid abuse. Steiner was no politician in the Hogan/Nash tradition, and despite all of this he continued to receive the biggest push of his career; some fans believed that everyone backstage was literally terrified to tell Steiner, "no." Anecdotal evidence suggests that Steiner was prone to violent outbursts and he became fond of going off script on live television to insult his fellow wrestlers, including Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. Only Diamond Dallas Page would confront Steiner, and be badly beaten for his trouble. Steiner reportedly nearly ripped out one of Pages eyes, and, rather than punish him for this, WCW allowed him to retain the world title in the main event of their biggest show of the year.
