Over the past several months, Impact Wrestling lost several top talents. The Broken Hardys, Drew Galloway, Jade, Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis all parted ways with the company. They all allegedly walked due to the mishandling of contract renegotiations by new Impact owners, Anthem Sports. Since the company started its new direction a little over two months ago, they’ve shuffled to right this ship. Impact scored a huge coup with the signing of Alberto El Patron. The artist formerly known as Cody Rhodes has appeared much more frequently at Impact tapings. This, along with many of the recent episodes occurring live, kept the ratings steady at an average of 300,000 viewers. For this company to have a more resounding impact, for lack of a better term, they need to bring out the big guns. In the world of professional wrestling, there aren’t many with bigger guns than the self-proclaimed “Big Bad Booty Daddy”. Yes, Scott Steiner made his return to Impact Wrestling.
Pro Wrestling Sheet first reported that Steiner, who has been working for Global Force Wrestling in recent years, returned to Impact. He has aligned with heel commentator Josh Matthews in this ill-conceived feud against Jeremy Borash. It was announced that Steiner and Matthews would be in tag team competition at the Impact Wrestling pay-per-view Slammiversary. They will be facing off against Borash and his partner, Joseph Park.
The former amateur wrestler and multiple time world champion first wrestled in TNA in 2006, making waves during his debut at Destination X. During this run, Steiner won a Feast or Fired briefcase to gain him a shot at the TNA World Championship. During this match, Scott suffered an unfortunate ACL injury. For a while, he took on Petey Williams as a protégé. Furthermore, Steiner also won the Tag Team Championships with former WCW rival, Booker T.
After leaving the company in February 2010, Steiner returned a year later. He had a fairly successful two year run, feuding with top factions Fortune and Immortal. In March of 2012, Steiner and TNA once again parted ways.
I have mixed feelings about Steiner’s return to Impact Wrestling. On the one hand, the promotion is sorely lacking star power and needs all the help it can get. On the other hand, Steiner already had two good runs with the promotion. The man is 54 years old and has suffered through several injuries. If Steiner appears regularly on the program, I would recommend using him as either a manager to a top tag team or the leader of a faction. I’m a huge fan of Steiner’s body of work and would hate for him to be sidelined by yet another injury.
Do you think it was the right move to bring Steiner back to Impact? Who do you feel should be the next big name talent that Impact tries to sign?
