Sid was the champ when WWF was in the crapper...and was the champ when WCW was in the crapper....
Also I don't think Steiner is really to blame for WCW being so bad during his run, he seemed to be really over. I remember reading wrestling.ign.com back during those days and an episode of Nitro jumped an entire point when he made his return in 2000. The other guy in the segment was Hugh Morris and I have a feeling it wasn't his drawing power that pulled those visitors away from USA Network.