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| Ricky Steamboat |
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| Real Name: Richard Blood Stage Name: Ricky Steamboat, The Dragon Home Town: Honolulu, Hawaii Height: 5'10" Weight: 235 ponds. Brief Bio: In the fickle world of pro wrestling, attention spans are short, and stagnation is the key to damnation. In order to keep the fans' attention, many wrestlers try outlandish gimmicks, create a flamboyant appearance, or repeatedly switch from "bad guy" to "good guy", sometimes all three, and more! Few wrestlers are able to maintain one identity or persona throughout their entire career without making the jump to "the other side of the fence", be it as either a heel or a face. Usually, the ones that do are very special wrestlers. "The Dragon" -- Ricky Steamboat -- is one of those unique competitors... Steamboat began his career in 1976 in the Mid Atlantic region of the country. During those early years he also competed occasionally in Florida, however the Crockett family's N.W.A. Mid Atlantic region was Steamboat's main base of operations. He burst upon the scene, and on June 25, 1977 he scored an upset win over Rookie Of The Year and N.W.A. Mid Atlantic Tv Champion Ric Flair in an exciting altercation that began one of wrestling's greatest, and longest-running, feuds ever... Rick Steamboat went on to hold the N.W.A. Mid Atlantic Tv Title for four months before being defeated by the evil Baron Von Raschke on October 15, 1977. The loss was less painful to Steamboat because of the fact the he and Paul Jones had just teamed to win the Mid Atlantic Tag Team title on August 22, 1977 by defeating the young and vicious team of Ric Flair and Greg Valentine. Steamboat, along with Ric Flair, was arguably the hottest young star in wrestling during 1977, and he also defeated his nemesis Flair for the prestigious U.S. Heavyweight title on November 1, 1977 -- which he held until being defeated by Blackjack Mulligan. However, even though 1977 is considered a breakout year for Steamboat, 1978 was even better... On April 23, 1978 Steamboat & Jones, the Mid Atlantic Tag champs, won the NWA World Tag Team titles by winning a 10-team tournament. The team was forced to vacate the Mid Atlantic Tag title in March of 1978 due to winning the World Tag title. Steamboat and Jones became one of the top teams in the sport and defended their belts with frequency, but Jones eventually became jealous of the young and good looking Steamboat, and all of the attention he received. He eventually turned violently on Steamboat, and the two former partners engaged in a series of grudge matches, with Steamboat clearly coming out on top of the feud. Once he had disposed of Jones, Steamboat once again turned his attention to arch-rival Ric Flair. On December 18, 1978 he defeated Flair for the U.S. championship. However, as time would tell, Flair and Steamboat were very evenly matched opponents... and Flair defeated Steamboat on April 1, 1979 to regain his U.S. Heavyweight championship. In 1979, success continued to follow the popular young Hawaiian star everywhere he went. Steamboat would go on to bounce back from a loss by simply winning another title...and on October 23, 1979, Steamboat and "Chief" Jay Youngblood teamed to win their first of five N.W.A. World Tag Team championships between 1979-1983. In 1980, Steamboat won the N.W.A. Mid Atlantic Heavyweight title by defeating Hussein Arab (later known as The Iron Sheik), and he would go on to hold the title for nearly an entire year before losing to Ivan Koloff on April 16, 1981. He also formed a team with young Canadian superstar Dino Bravo, and the duo won the Mid Atlantic Tag Team title. The team had much success until they were finally defeated by the hated Sheepherders, who were later known as The Bushwackers. In 1981, Steamboat defeated Ivan Koloff to regain his Mid Atlantic Heavyweight title. He also won the Mid Atlantic Tag Team title with partner Jay Youngblood in Toronto on August 22, 1982. But on Christmas Day 1983, Steamboat announced that he was going to retire from the sport of wrestling, and the NWA World Tag Team title was vacated. The young, fast, talented, and extremely popular duo would never team again, as Youngblood tragically died a short time later. Steamboat retired, he said at the time, to spend more time with his wife and young son. His legions of fans were crushed, but Steamboat had made up his mind. He kept his word, and Rick Steamboat disappeared from the world of wrestling... That is, until he showed up in the World Wrestling Federation in 1985. Upon his entrance into the WWF, Rick Steamboat was billed as Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. But just as in the NWA, Steamboat again continued his winning ways and was among the premier wrestlers in the WWF. He had violent, intense feuds with fellow Hawaiian "Magnificent" Don Muraco and Jake "the Snake" Roberts, as well as "Macho Man" Randy Savage. In fact, it was against Savage that Steamboat wrestled in what some still claim is the greatest match in Wrestlemania history. On March 29, 1987, after a truly classic battle, Steamboat pinned Savage in front of over 93,000 people to win the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight title. But after years of working for a title in the WWF, Steamboat was defeated less than three months later in a very controversial match against the far less competent Honky Tonk Man. Soon after, Steamboat once again disappeared from the world of wrestling. Then in 1989, Eddie Gilbert announced that he would have a surprise partner to face Horsemen Ric Flair and Barry Windham on NWA television the following week. Flair was unimpressed though, and was not expecting much of a surprise when from out of nowhere, Rick Steamboat, Flair's greatest enemy, appeared on TBS and actually pinned NWA champion Flair in front of the whole nation. Forced into a match by the NWA Board Of Directors, Flair lost his prized NWA World Heavyweight title to Steamboat on February 20, 1989 in Chicago, IL. Steamboat held onto the title in a series of rematches against Flair, and defended his NWA World title against other top wrestlers like The Iron Sheik and Butch Reed. But Flair, as always, regained his belt by defeating Steamboat in Nashville at the NWA's 1989 "Music City Showdown" PPV. Steamboat once again disappeared from the wrestling world soon after his loss. After a fairly long period of time away from the sport, he again reappeared in the WWF in the early 1990's. However, unlike during his previous WWF tenure, Steamboat was now relegated to mid-card matches and feuds. He was billed only as "The Dragon", and had a pre-match ritual that saw him "breathe fire". This all wasn't satisfactory to Steamboat, who was truly one of wrestling's elite names, and after a rather bland run of being misused in the WWF, he once again left the Federation. Rick reappeared in WCW, once again in a dramatic and unexpected fashion, as Dustin Rhodes' "mystery partner" when Barry Windham (Rhodes' original partner) was injured by The Enforcers, Arn Anderson and Larry Zbysko. Rhodes and Steamboat won the WCW World Tag Team titles that night, and would have a successful run as champions. A short time later, he would also win the WCW World Tv Title by defeating "Stunning" Steve Austin on September 2, 1992. Steamboat then teamed with Shane Douglas, and the duo went on to win the WCW World Tag Team titles on November 11, 1992. The team held the belts for four months before losing to The Hollywood Blondes, Austin & Brian Pillman. On August 18, 1993 "The Dragon" once again won a major championship, this time the WCW World Tv title by defeating "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. Steamboat defended his World Tv title against all comers, and was a very successful Tv champion. Then in 1994, Steamboat won his 4th U.S. Heavyweight title by defeating "Stunning" Steve Austin for the belt on August 24, 1994. Steamboat held the prestigious title until September 18, 1994, when he vacated the title do to his inability to defend it after sustaining a severe injury. It was the last title Rick Steamboat ever held. His injury was bad enough to force him to again retire from wrestling, this time for good. There has been speculation about Steamboat, who wrestled his entire career as a fan favorite and never competed as a "heel", returning to wrestling either with the WWF or WCW, but nothing has come of that talk and Steamboat has remained inactive within the sport. He currently owns and runs a gym in Charlotte, N.C. Links: Above Bio is from: http://www.knowyournews.com/pastbios/steamboat.html Photo From: http://www.cooldudesandhotbabes.com/steamboat.html |
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