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Ricky Steamboat is a WWE Hall of Famer and an all-time legend of the professional wrestling business. He is regarded as one of the best in-ring talents in history, with his style influencing countless other top level wrestlers over the years. He spent a lot of time in various promotions, making a name for himself and adding to his resume of classics, but when looking at his WWE career, things weren’t exactly too glamorous. WWE may try to paint a picture of his time with the company being iconic, emphasizing one specific classic bout, but overall his career in WWE is not as good as many might believe.
Ricky Steamboat Made A Name For Himself Outside WWE
Ricky Steamboat first rose to prominence in the Jim Crockett Promotions, winning many NWA and WCW Championships over the course of his career. For nearly a decade, he rose the ranks to become a big name, starting what would eventually become an all-time great feud against Ric Flair. He also had several great matches around that time in the likes of AJPW, battling Genichiro Tenryu and Atsushi Onita.
Later in Steamboat’s career, after he left WWE, he continued his spree of magnificent matches, in which he would have arguably the best series of matches ever against Ric Flair in WCW throughout 1989, continuing his legacy there, before leaving for WWE again briefly, and once again returning to WCW in 1991. Although he never made it to the Monday Night Wars due to getting released, before ultimately retiring in 1994, he was a major part in the growth of the promotion during the late 80s and early 90s, and they booked him well, allowing him the time to put on great clinics.
Ricky Steamboat Was Buried After His Intercontinental Championship Win
When it comes to WWE, Steamboat arrived to some decent acclaim. He would start off strong with a win at the very first WrestleMania. Joining WWE was also notable for the development of “The Dragon” persona, which would become synonymous with him. He would steadily rise up the card, including in a strong feud against Jake Roberts, which culminated in an enjoyable Snake Pit match. There was a minor downside to one of their matches though, when Steamboat got legitimately knocked out following a DDT onto the concrete.
The peak of Steamboat’s time in WWE came at WrestleMania 3 when he battled Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Championship in what is regarded one of the classic WrestleMania matches, with it stealing the show and adding a huge legacy to both the event and the title. Steamboat was a very popular babyface, and this victory looked to set him up for some great times ahead. However, not long after this title win, Steamboat reportedly requested time off due to the birth of his son.
Due to Steamboat only just becoming champion, this caused him to get some backstage heat from the likes of Vince McMahon, who then decided to make Steamboat drop the gold to The Honky Tonk Man after just a few months. Steamboat wasn’t given enough time to develop his one and only reign in WWE, with it ending before he could make any sort of impact. After this reign, Steamboat’s run in WWE became quite poor.
