Ricky Steamboat

Danny Diamond · 02-24-2006, 07:21 PM

Richard Blood (born February 28, 1953 in West Point, New York), better known by his stage name, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, is an American professional wrestler

Career

Ricky debuted in 1976 in the American Wrestling Association and became one of the greatest professional wrestlers of the 1980's and early 90's. He took the name Sam Steamboat, Jr., from older Hawaiian wrestler Sam Steamboat, to whom he is not actually related, but pretty soon began using his real given name. He went from there to the Mid-Atlantic territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1977. There he captured the United States Championship three times and the World Tag Team championship six times (once with Paul Jones and five times with Jay Youngblood).
He was brought to the World Wrestling Federation in 1985 where he feuded with Don Muraco, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, and "The Macho Man" Randy Savage. At WrestleMania III on March 29 1987, Savage and Steamboat competed in what many wrestlers consider the best match in WWF history in which Steamboat captured the WWE Intercontinental Championship. It was after seeing this match that Chris Jericho decided to become a wrestler.
Several weeks after winning the Intercontinental Championship Steamboat asked WWF owner Vince McMahon for some time off to be with his wife Bonnie who was expecting the birth of their first son Richard Jr. This did not sit well with WWF management as he had been molded to become a long-term Intercontinental Champion. He lost the belt on June 2, 1987 against the Honky Tonk Man. His son was born later that month.
Ricky came back in time for the 1st annual Survivor Series in November 1987. However management was still bitter over his impromptu sabbatical from his first WWF run and he was not pushed nor given any meaningful feuds. His last major WWF appearance was in WrestleMania IV in April 1988. Shortly thereafter he announced his retirement.
Ricky Steamboat made a triumphant comeback in January 1989 and returned to the NWA where he had a legendary series of matches with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. He ended up capturing the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Flair in February. Aside from several rematches with Flair, he was also the last NWA World champion to defend the belt in All Japan Pro Wrestling in a match against Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa). He lost it back to Flair in May.
After losing the NWA title in late 1989 Ricky again ventured into semi-retirement. Ricky did return briefly to the WWF in the summer of 1991 wearing a dragon man costume and blowing fire before his matches. He was not promoted as a major star as it seemed there was still some bitterness from his first run with the company. Theories also suggest that since he had won the NWA title (the WWF's main competitor at the time) that he was purposely buried to give the impression that he won the title in a smaller less competitive league than the WWF. The highlight of that run was at Summerslam 1991 where he wrestled in a 6-man tag-team match with "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and The Texas Tornado. Shortly therafter he again left the WWF.
In November 1991, Steamboat made a surprise return to World Championship Wrestling (the new name of NWA superterritory, Jim Crockett Promotions, after its purchase by Ted Turner). He captured the Unified NWA/WCW World Tag Team championship with Dustin Rhodes and Shane Douglas on different occasions. He also captured the Television & United States Heavyweight Championships. While feuding with "Stunning" Steve Austin in 1994, Ricky Steamboat took a bad bump off the top turnbuckle and serverely injured his back. He retired for good in August 1994. Austin has said that he considers Steamboat to be his greatest opponent. Bret "The Hitman" Hart, who only worked a few matches with Steamboat, also named him as one of his favorite opponents.
Since then, Ricky Steamboat has played supporting roles in both NWA-TNA, and more recently ROH (Ring of Honor) promotions.
In early 2005, Ricky Steamboat returned to the World Wrestling Entertainment as road agent and was introduced as a WWE Legend at WWE Homecoming in October 2006.
In early 2006, Ricky Steamboat told WWE management that he would like to come out of retirement at Wrestlemania 22 and work a match with Ric Flair, but the idea was nixed.

Wrestling facts

Finishing and signature moves

Flying crossbody
Dragon Arm drag
Leaping Judo chop
Knife edge chop
Double chickenwing

Entrance music

"Sirius" (The Alan Parsons Project)

Championships and accomplishments

National Wrestling Alliance

2-time NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Champion

defeating Ric Flair on June 15, 1977
defeating Paul Jones on June 10, 1979

3-time NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champion

with Paul Jones, defeating Ric Flair and Greg Valentine on August 22, 1977
with Paul Jones, defeating Ric Flair and Big John Studd on November 5, 1978
with Jay Youngblood, defeating Don Kernodle and Jim Nelson on August 22, 1982

2-time NWA United States Heavyweight Champion

defeating Ric Flair on October 22, 1977
defeating Dick Slater on April 21, 1984

6-time NWA World Tag Team Champion

with Paul Jones, defeating The Masked Superstar and Ken Patera on April 23, 1978
with Jay Youngblood, defeating Baron von Raschke and Paul Jones on October 22, 1979
with Jay Youngblood, defeating Ray Stevens and Greg Valentine on May 10, 1980
with Jay Youngblood, defeating Sergeant Slaughter and Don Kernodle on March 12, 1983
with Jay Youngblood, defeating Jack Brisco and Jerry Brisco on October 3, 1983
with Jay Youngblood, defeating Jack Brisco and Jerry Brisco on November 24, 1983 at StarrCade 1983

1-time NWA Toronto United States Heavyweight Champion

defeating Ric Flair on December 18, 1978

2-time NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion

defeating The Iron Sheik on November 1, 1980
defeating Ivan Koloff on October 10, 1981

1-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion

defeating Ric Flair on February 20, 1989

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked him # 13 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
PWI ranked him # 19 of the best tag teams of the PWI Years, with Jay Youngblood
PWI ranked him # 82 of the best tag teams of the PWI Years, with Shane Douglas
PWI Rookie of the Year Award (1977)
PWI Tag Team of the Year Award, with Paul Jones (1978)
PWI Editor's Award (1995)
PWI Match of the Year Awards, versus Randy Savage (1987)
PWI Match of the Year Awards, versus Ric Flair (1989)

World Championship Wrestling

2-time WCW World Tag Team Champion

with Dustin Rhodes, defeating Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko on November 19, 1991 at Clash of the Champions XVII)
with Shane Douglas, defeating Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes on November 18, 1992 at Clash of the Champions XXI

2-time WCW World Television Champion

defeating Steve Austin on September 2, 1992 at Clash of the Champions XX
defeating Paul Orndorff on August 18, 1993

1-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion

defeating Steve Austin on August 24, 1994 at Clash of the Champions XXVIII

World Wrestling Federation

1-time WWF Intercontinental Champion

defeating Randy Savage on March 29, 1987 at WrestleMania III)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

He is a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996)
1983 Tag Team of the Year (with Jay Youngblood)
1987 Match of the Year (vs Randy Savage)
1989 Match of the Year (vs Ric Flair)

Championship succession

Preceded by:
Randy Savage

WWF Intercontinental Champions

Succeeded by:
The Honky Tonk Man

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Ricky Steamboat

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