Opposite Ends of the Scale: Dustin Rhodes, Scott Steiner, and Shawn Michaels

This week’s article is something completely different to any of those that have come before it. This week’s article is the first triple threat in the series with one superstar representing the high point of a career, another who’s currently in a lull of sorts, and a third that is somewhere in between but has seen his fair share of ups and downs.

After doing just the smallest amount of research for this article, it quickly became apparent why they call Shawn Michaels “The Showstopper.” One look at his long list of achievements will have you nodding your head in agreement. The other two are no pushovers but can they even compare to HBK? Read on to find out.

Similarities

• All made their debut in 1988 for separate national level promotions
• All debuted and initially made a name for themselves as a part of a tag team
• All have held tag team gold on multiple occasions
• All have wrestled for WWE/F at some point at their career

The Early Years

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Dustin Rhodes – Within 26 months of debuting for the nationally televised NWA promotion, Rhodes had also spent time wrestling in WWF and WCW while being involved in storylines with the likes of Kendall Windham, Ted Dibiase, Larry Zbyszko, and even his own father “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes.

Once Rhodes arrived in WCW in early 1991, he established himself as a dependable worker and started a lengthy tenure with the promotion that ended up lasting 4 years in total. Throughout this time he feuded with some of the biggest names in the company including Barry Windham, Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Bunkhouse Buck, and Barry Darsow.

By the end of his run with WCW in 1995, Rhodes had already collected the World Tag Team Championship and the United States Heavyweight Championship.

After spending a portion of the start of his wrestling career in the tag team division of several promotions and with multiple tag team partners, Rhodes was finally making strides in the singles division.

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Scott Steiner – Almost immediately after debuting, Scott Steiner started to make a name for himself in the tag team division along with his brother Rick. Before long they found themselves looking across the ring at modern day legends such as the Fabulous Freebirds, The Midnight Express, and even the Japanese team of Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki.

The Steiners were taking the WCW Tag Team division by storm and during their first run with the promotion they already had the NWA United States and World Tag Team Championships, WCW World Tag Team Championship, and even the IWGP Tag Team Championship belts to their name.

By the start of 1991, Steiner was also successfully making his way through the singles division and even managed to get a win over Ric Flair.

In the latter half of 1992 backstage politics got in the way of a great run and the Steiners ended up signing with WCW’s rival promotion WWF. The change of scenery did the brothers no harm as they went on to wrestle more prominent tag teams at the time including The Headshrinkers and Money, Inc.

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Shawn Michaels – Michaels first found popularity as a part of the tag team The Rockers along with fellow team member Marty Jannetty. After a couple of years of toiling in the WWF Tag Team division, the pair were involved in controversy when a match between The Rockers and The Hart Foundation was taped with The Rockers winning the WWF Tag Team Championship because Jim Neidhart was negotiating a release. Before the match could go to air however, Neidhart was rehired and the title changed was never recognized.

By the end of 1991 The Rockers had split up and Michaels was now competing in the singles division as a heel. A year later he had the Intercontinental Championship around his waist and things were looking up for Michaels, now know as “The Heartbreak Kid.”

By the end of 1995, HBK as he was now affectionately called had won the WWF Championship, the 1995 Royal Rumble, and 3 consecutive “Match of the Year” awards from Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

Position in pro wrestling at the time:

At this point each of the wrestlers were in very similar circumstances. While they had all started out as tag team wrestlers, by the end of 1995 they also had a great deal of experience wrestling one on one. For now Shawn Michaels was ahead of the pack, but Dustin Rhodes and Scott Steiner were right on his tail and were neck and neck.

Mid – Late 90’s

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Dustin Rhodes - Now on his second run with WWF and after debuting the Goldust persona, Rhodes’ career was on a dangerous downward slope. His new character limited how much he was pushed by WWF, but over the next four years he still managed to win the Intercontinental Championship on multiple occasions.

The rest of his time was spent mostly feuding with one of several women by his side while working out a grudge with another mixed couple. He even spent a small period of time as “The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust” where he would mimic other wrestlers in the promotion.

By the end of 1999 he had re-signed with WCW and undergone yet another gimmick change where he now went by the ring name “Seven,” but soon dropped it and reverted to being Dustin Rhodes.

Scott Steiner – After spending only months in Paul Heyman’s ECW promotion in 1995, Steiner went back to his old stomping grounds WCW where he ultimately finished the decade.

The Steiner brothers once again found themselves as a big part of the tag team division and had already won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat before the ink on their new contracts was even dry.

By the beginning of 1998 Scott Steiner had undergone a heel turn which was completed when he attacked his brother while they were defending the tag team titles and joined the New World Order stable. He also changed his look bleaching his hair and bulking up, which is the look that we’re accustomed to today.

By the time the new millennium came around, Steiner had wrestled with some of the biggest names in the business, not just in WCW, such as Rey Mysterio, Booker T, and Goldberg. He was now credited with the World Television and United States Heavyweight Championships.

Shawn Michaels – After taking some time away from the squared circle, Michaels returned as a face and was soon involved in more controversy after the incident at Madison Square Garden where after a Steel Cage match with Diesel, Razor Ramon, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Shawn Michaels, and even Diesel himself started hugging in the middle of the ring, despite the fact that between the four there were two faces and two heels.

Over the next few years Michaels found himself constantly on the hunt for the WWF Championship and went on to become the first Grand Slam Champion in the company’s history. Months later after feuding with Undertaker and participating in the first ever Hell In A Cell match which received a five star rating from Dave Meltzer, Michaels along with Helmsley, Chyna, and Rick Rude created the first incarnation of D-Generation X.

Michaels, as a part of the D-Generation X stable, reignited his feud with Bret Hart and when Survivor Series came along the now infamous “Montreal Screwjob” occurred. Mere months later he severely injured his back and was later forced into retirement. He made a few appearances as the commissioner of RAW during 1999 but then left the company all together and started his own training academy where the likes of Brian Kendrick and Bryan Danielson started their careers.

Position in pro wrestling at the time

While Michaels’ star was rising the fastest, his retirement put a stop to everything and left Steiner and Rhodes to try and overtake him. Between Steiner and Rhodes, Steiner was clearly at a higher point in his career by the end of 1999.

The Early 00’s

Dustin Rhodes – Rhodes got the new millennium off to a bad start after being suspended from WCW for making some comments about Vince Russo on the WCW internet radio show including calling him an asshole among other things. Upon his return to television he rejoined his father in tag team competition until the company was bought out by WWF where his contract was not renewed.

He eventually did rejoin the WWF roster however when 6 months later he was involved in the Royal Rumble match. After spending most of the following few months in the Hardcore division, he was drafted to RAW during the newly named WWE Brand Extension where he quickly became a formidable tag team with Booker T.

After winning the Tag Team Championship, the pair went their separate ways and Goldust was resorted to a new tweak in his gimmick that required him to stutter whenever speaking, further pushing him down the ladder and diminishing his chances of ever winning a world title.

By the end of the year he had once again been released by Vince’s company but was later signed to TNA where he feuded with Robert Roode, Raven, and Kid Kash among others before yet again being released from a wrestling promotion. When the end of 2005 rolled around he somehow found himself in WWE for his fourth run.

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Scott Steiner – “Big Poppa Pump” was at the top of his game when the year 2000 started as he played a major role in the re-established nWo stable and before the year was out he was the World Heavyweight Champion. He later lost the title to Booker T after months of feuding on the last ever episode of WCW Monday Nitro.

Steiner then went on to wrestle for the new World Wrestling All-Stars promotion for a year where he became the WWA World Heavyweight Champion before vacating the title and returning to WWE.

After joining the RAW brand, Steiner challenged Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at a couple of PPV matches, one of which earned the Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for “Worst Worked Match of the Year.”

Then Steiner entered a long program in the tag team division along with Test and Stacy Keibler which ultimately led to Steiner’s release from the company when he injured an arm in the latter half of 2004.

Shawn Michaels – HBK made a triumphant return from a career ending injury and at WWE’s SummerSlam PPV in 2002 he wrestled Triple H in a match that showed that “Mr. Wrestlemania” hadn’t lost a step during his time away from the business.

Over the next few months, Michaels was involved in the first ever Elimination Chamber, a Three Stages of Hell match, the Royal Rumble, and a Wrestlemania match against Chris Jericho that was awarded the Match of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

Over the next few years, Michaels put on epic match after epic match including and won another two Match of the Year awards from PWI for his Wrestlemania XX and 21 matches. He also competed in his second Hell In A Cell match in 2004, and had a successful heel turn in 2005.

Position in pro wrestling at the time

Despite not being an active wrestler for the first two and a half years of the new millennium, Shawn Michaels made up for it in a big way, and by the end of 2005 he was bigger than ever and the clear superstar between the three wrestlers featured in this article.

Steiner on the other hand, although finishing this five year period on the shelf, found himself somewhere in the middle of the road. While he was almost always in the picture for a World Heavyweight Championship, the matches that he put on were not of a spectacular quality. Lastly there was Goldust who was severely limited to the amount of success he would achieve due to his new gimmick of stuttering.

Today

Dustin Rhodes – The last four years have seen Rhodes wrestle for three different promotions, one of which on two occasions. He started 2006 in WWE’s Royal Rumble match and 12 months later he was making appearances for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Six months after that he was in the middle of his second stint with TNA under a new “Black Reign” gimmick which was later voted as the worst gimmick of 2007 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The highlights of his time in TNA were wrestling at Bound For Glory 2007 in a Monsters Ball match against Raven, Abyss, and Rhino, and also participating in a 10,000 Tacks match against the tag team of Abyss and Raven.

Since then, Rhodes has started wrestling in WWE for the fifth time where he is now a member of the ECW brand. It was just last week that he had his first televised win since returning to WWE. That symbolizes exactly what his position is in the wrestling world today, and it’s a sad fact.

Scott Steiner – After spending a considerable amount of time on the independent scene, Steiner was signed to the TNA promotion where he remained to this day. Throughout his time in the company he has had major feuds with the likes of Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, and more recently Bobby Lashley, and also competed in several Lethal Lockdown matches at the annual Lockdown PPV.

As his career is winding down, he’s slowly being moved away from the main event scene and shifting closer to the “filler” role for PPV cards. It’s a shame that somebody with Steiner’s experience isn’t on the chase for a title belt anymore, but his role is a necessary one and Steiner is as dependable to fill it as anybody else on the roster.

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Shawn Michaels – Even at the current age of 44, Michaels is still providing the goods. He churns out classic matches seemingly ever other week, and in the process he’s helped to put several stars “over.”

In the last four years we’ve seen Michaels and Triple H reform the stable D-Generation X, feud with the McMahons including a Hell In A Cell match, retire Ric Flair at Wrestlemania XXIV, reform DX yet again, and even make the team of Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase, Jr. into the superstars that they are turning into today.

Position in pro wrestling at the time:

As was the situation five years prior, Shawn Michaels is the clear front runner ahead of Steiner and Rhodes at this point. When all is said and done, it would take a miracle for either Steiner or Rhodes to be looked at as bigger superstars than Michaels.

Goldust

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Career Highlights

• Participated in 3 War Games matches (1992, 1993, 1994)
• Wrestled in 14 Clash of the Champions events (XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVIII, XXIX)
• Tag Teaming with his father, a feat that is shared by only a small group of wrestlers

Achievements

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (1991)
• Ranked No. 11 in the PWI 500 (1996)

World Championship Wrestling

• 2x WCW United States Championship
• 2x WCW World Tag Team Championship (1x Ricky Steamboat, 1x Barry Windham)
• 1x WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (with Big Josh & Tom Zenk)

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

• 3x WWF/E Intercontinental Championship
• 1x World Tag Team Championship (with Booker T)
• 9x WWF Hardcore Championship

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• Rookie of the Year (1989)
• Most Improved (1991)
• 5 Star Match (1992 – WarGames match)
• Worst Gimmick (1995, 1997, 2007)
• Most Embarrassing Wrestler (1997)

It’s just another case of a gimmick limiting the potential of a wrestler when it comes to Rhodes. His ability to wrestle is unquestionable so it’s just a shame that he never achieved any great heights during his career. Without the gold paint, it is quite possible that he would have made a success of being a constant threat for a world title, but unfortunately it seems like that day will never come.

Scott Steiner

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Career Highlights

• Participated in 2 War Games matches (1991, 2000)
• Participated in 3 Lethal Lockdown matches (2006, 2007, 2009)
• Wrestled in 14 Clash of the Champion events (VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXXIII, XXXIV)
• Wrestled at Wrestlemania IX (1993)
• Wrestled in two Bound For Glory matches (2007, 2009)

Achievements

Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling

• 1x WCW World Heavyweight Championship
• 2x WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
• 2x WCW World Television Championship
• 6x WCW World Tag Team Championship (with Rick Steiner)
• 1x NWA United States Tag Team Championship (with Rick Steiner)
• 1x NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Rick Steiner)
• Pat O’Conner Memorial Tag Team Tournament (1990 – with Rick Steiner)

New Japan Pro Wrestling

• 2x IWGP Tag Team Championship (with Rick Steiner)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI Tag Team of the Year (1990, 1993 – with Rick Steiner)
• Ranked No. 6 in the PWI 500 (1991)
• Ranked No. 2 in the Top 100 Tag Teams of the “PWI Years” (2003 – with Rick Steiner)

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

• 1x TNA World Tag Team Championship (with Booker T)

World Wrestling All-Stars

• 1x WWA World Heavyweight Championship

World Wrestling Federation

• 2x WWF Tag Team Championship (with Rick Steiner)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• Best Wrestling Maneuver (1989, 1990)
• Tag Team of the Year (1990)
• Match of the Year (1991 – with Rick Steiner vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki)
• Worst Worked Match of the Year (2003 – vs. Triple H)

While he has had his share of ups and downs, Scott Steiner can say that he truly has been a main eventer, although he still has a lot to offer the wrestling fraternity. His current feud with Bobby Lashley is building nicely and hopefully we will see something big come out of it where we will one day look back and remember what a memorable rivalry it was.

Shawn Michaels

Image Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Career Highlights

• Returning from a serious injury to further his legacy as one of the best in pro wrestling history
• Participated in 4 Elimination Chamber matches (2002, 2003, 2006, 2008)
• Participated in 4 Hell In A Cell matches (1997, 2004, 2006, 2009)

Achievements

American Wrestling Association

• 2x AWA World Tag team Championship (with Marty Jannetty)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI Match of the Year (1993 – vs. Marty Jannetty, Monday Night RAW)
• PWI Match of the Year (1994 – vs. Razor Ramon, Wrestlemania X)
• PWI Match of the Year (1995 – vs. Diesel, Wrestlemania XI)
• PWI Match of the Year (1996 – vs. Bret Hart, Wrestlemania XII)
• PWI Match of the Year (2004 – vs. Chris Benoit vs. Triple H, Wrestlemania XX)
• PWI Match of the Year (2005 – vs. Kurt Angle, Wrestlemania 21)
• PWI Match of the Year (2006 – vs. Vince McMahon, Wrestlemania 22)
• PWI Match of the Year (2007 – vs. John Cena, Monday Night RAW)
• PWI Match of the Year (2008 – vs. Ric Flair, Wrestlemania XXIV)
• PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (1995, 1996)
• Ranked No. 1 in the PWI 500 (1996)
• Ranked No. 10 in the PWI 500 of the “PWI Years” (2003)
• Ranked No. 33 in the Top 100 Tag Teams of the “PWI Years” with Marty Jannetty (2003)
• PWI Feud of the Year (2008 – vs. Chris Jericho)

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

• 3x WWF Championship
• 1x World Heavyweight Championship
• 3x Intercontinental Championship
• 4x WWF/E World Tag Team Championship (2x Diesel, 1x Steve Austin, 1x John Cena)
• 1x WWF European Championship
• 2x Royal Rumble Winner (1995, 1996)
• Fourth Triple Crown Champion
• First Grand Slam Champion
• Slammy Award for Best Slammin’ Jammin’ Entrance (1996)
• Slammy Award for Best Threads (1996)
• Slammy Award for Squared Circle Shocker (1996)
• Slammy Award for Master of Mat Mechanics (1996)
• Slammy Award for US West Match of the Year (1996)
• Slammy Award for Leader of the New Generation (1996)
• Slammy Award for Best Finisher (1997)
• Slammy Award for US West Match of the Year (1997)
• Slammy Award for Match of the Year (2008)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• Tag Team of the Year (1989 – with Marty Jannetty)
• Match of the Year (1994 – vs. Razor Ramon, Wrestlemania X)
• Most Charismatic (1995, 1996)
• Best Babyface (1996)
• WON Hall of Fame (2003)
• Feud of the Year (2004 – vs. Chris Benoit and Triple H)
• Worst Feud of the Year (2006 – with Triple H vs. Shane & Vince McMahon)
• Feud of the Year (2008 – vs. Chris Jericho)
• Match of the Year (2008 – vs. Chris Jericho, No Mercy)

Shawn Michaels truly is the showstopper. He is easily the best of the best and his legacy will live on for decades after his retirement.

In the next edition of Opposite Ends Of The Scale, two currently contracted WWE superstars will be discussed, but it is unlikely that you’ll find any two wrestlers who are more diverse. It’s a fascinating piece showing the huge differences between the careers of Edge and Kung Fu Naki despite the fact that they both made their debut for WWE in the same year. We know how dissimilar these two individuals are now, but how did it become like this?

Stay tuned to The Wrestling Daily to find out!

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