Eric Bischoff Recalls Meeting The Steiners For the First Time, Walking In on Them Tormenting a Referee

– Eric Bischoff spoke about his first time meeting Scott and Rick Steiner (The Steiners) on the latest 83 Weeks podcast. Bischoff recalled to Conrad Thompson that he met the two at a show when he had just started in WCW as an interviewer in 1992. As Bischoff recalled it, he walked into the dressing room and found Rick and Scott having duct taped-up a referee and stuck a pencil…well, some place a pencil probably shouldn’t be stuck.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On when he first met Steiner: “It was — you know, I was thinking about that, knowing we were gonna do this show. And I think the first time I really crossed paths with Scott. Obviously when I first came to WCW, I think in 1992. I believe I started in the summer of 1992, and I think there was an event. At least , the one that I recall that stands out in my mind, it was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I don’t remember, it was a PPV event and I don’t remember which one. It could have been a Fall Brawl, it would have been about the right time. And the guys were dressing in what was really a, it was either a wrestling training room or part of a gymnastics training room or whatever. It was a big, open area, not a traditional locker room area. And all the talent was there, getting dressed. And I of course was doing interviews, so I would have to run back and find talent, and take them over to the interview area and things like that. And again, I’m still new on the job, trying to get used to everybody’s names and faces. There’s a lot of talent there that I wasn’t familiar with. And still, [I was] kind of walking and talking very carefully as the new guy. And not only the new guy, the new guy who was the C squad backup to the backup to the backup announcer.”

On seeing Steiner in the locker room for the first time: “So I go into this room, this big room where the guys are dressing. And I see both Steiners, Rick and Scott, have a referee. And for the life of me, I’m not sure who it was. I wanna say it was Nick Patrick, but I could be wrong. But anyway, they had this referee, and they had him duct taped up like a mummy. They had duct tape around his mouth, his hands were duct taped to the sides of his hips and his legs. His feet were duct taped together. And he was buck-a** naked and had a pencil stuck up his a**. And I thought, ‘Wow. This is gonna be a hell of a gig.’ [laughs] That’s my first recall of the Steiner Brothers. And I’m sure the referee, whoever it was, whether it was Nick Patrick or whoever, must have done something that the Steiners found worthy of some sort of Steiner Retribution. But they tortured him. It was, all I wanna say, in good fun for those who were watching. [laughs] Who knows what he did to deserve such a response. I’m not sure, I didn’t see it. I just saw the aftermath, and I thought, ‘Man. I’m gonna be really careful around these two guys.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.