Shining a Spotlight 7.22.10: The Dragon

Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat

Some who have followed my columns for a while probably know already that I’m one of the biggest Steamboat marks on the planet. Watching him wrestle was always special as the man was a natural in the ring, someone who could put on a fantastic match and tell a great story at the same time. His technical skills and flying abilities were great, his mix of martial arts into his moves made him stand out and his selling was the best you’ve ever seen. The DVD is a great way for fans like me to relieve the man’s exploits and see one of the best the business has ever produced in his prime.
　

Early Years

The DVD is good showing Steamboat’s rise as, while being billed all his career as being from Hawaii, it turns out he was born in Westpoint, New York although he moved around as an army brat. Hooked onto wrestling in Florida, he obviously latched onto Jack Briscoe as one of his influences, especially his arm drag. It’s always interesting to note how some of the biggest stars in the business never intended to be wrestlers as Steamboat trained as a fireman before getting into the business more. He was told his name of Blood wasn’t right for a face so billed him as the “nephew” of star Sam Steamboat and things rolled from there.

The DVD does a great job of showing Steamboat’s years in Mid-Atlantic as he began his rise clashing with the various stars of the time. He and Ric Flair had trained together in Verne Gagne’s harsh Minnesota camp so the two knew how to work together. In 1977, Steamboat upset Flair to win the TV title, the match that made him a star. They began a feud for the U.S. title in a feud highlighted by Flair rubbing Steamboat’s face into the concrete and Steamboat retaliating by ripping off one of Flair’s suits. The two had a great chemistry in the ring that would come to the fore when Steamboat challenged Flair for the NWA title in 1984.

Before that happened, however, there came a terrific period for Steamboat’s career, which he still considers the true highlight of his life: his partnership with Jay Youngblood. The two men complemented each other perfectly, their mix of youth and aerial abilities combining with Steamboat’s speed and skill and Youngblood’s power. The two were good friends out of the ring, always working together to improve their tag skills and give the fans a great match. Their feud with Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle is still talked of today as the two teams traded the tag titles between them, culminating in a cage match in Greensboro where traffic was snarled for miles across the arena and thousands of fans were turned away. After that, they engaged in a great feud with Jack and Jerry Briscoe, giving Steamboat the chance to be with one of his idols, the program culminating with the faces beating the Brothers for the belts at the first Starrcade. They might have gone further but split up just before Youngblood’s death in 1985.

WWF, WCW and Back Again

The late 1980’s was when Steamboat’s star rose high. He’d bounced around WWF for a while with some good stuff like a rare face-vs.-face match against Davey Boy Smith in a 1985 tournament. In 1986, a regular match against Jake Roberts on Saturday Night’s Main Event turned wild when Roberts clotheslined him off the ring before the match started and then gave him a DDT on the concrete floor. Roberts had actually warned Steamboat of the dangers of the move but Steamboat waved it off, figuring he could take it but ended up with a massive bump on the head for weeks. The feud between them was good even if Steamboat needed to bring a Komodo dragon to the ring to counter Damien.

But in November would come the big one as an Intercontinental title match against Randy Savage on TV ended with Savage brutally attacking Steamboat, draping his throat over the ring barrier and leaping onto him, then leaping off the top rope to jam the bell into Steamboat’s throat. Steamboat sold it brilliantly to the point where even the smarts were convinced he was actually hurt. It was to give Steamboat time off to have a kid with his wife but it turned into a much bigger deal than expected. A bit on the DVD I didn’t expect but liked was Savage boasting to Bruno Sammartino about hurting Steamboat and Bruno attacking him in a rage. They would do vignettes of Steamboat trying to rehabilitate his “injured” throat before he made his big return on another SNME in January to interrupt a Savage/George Steele match.

It all built up to the duo’s battle at Wrestlemania III and if you don’t like this match, you have no right to call yourself a wrestling fan. For fifteen minutes, the two stole the show with a fantastic battle (helped by how perfectionist Savage insisted on mapping everything out), the tide turning back and forth with multiple two-counts from both men and the great psychology of Savage trying to reinjure Steamboat’s throat. Finally, with a little help from Steele, Steamboat reversed a Savage slam into a pin to win the IC belt to a huge pop from the fans.

It was pretty much the best match of 1987 and seemed to begin a long reign for Steamboat. But it didn’t work out. Some say that Hulk Hogan wasn’t happy about how two mid-card guys had stolen the show from under him. Steamboat states he wanted time off when his wife gave birth a couple of months later and was forced to drop the belt. The story is it was going to be to Butch Reed but he didn’t show up that night. Regardless, it went to joke worker the Honky Tonk Man, a supposedly brief reign that turned into the longest IC one of all time.

When Steamboat returned, he was pretty much pushed aside on the card, his last major WWF appearance losing in the first round of the title tournament at Wrestlemania IV. He fell back from the business, running his gym in North Carolina but was pulled back to the NWA in 1989. Ric Flair had been given booking duties by the new Turner regime and thought Steamboat would be great to start a feud with. Steamboat returned on a televised tag match, partnering with Eddie Gilbert against Flair and Barry Windham, pining Flair to be elevated to number one contender. The two battled it out at the Chi-Town Rumble in February with Steamboat pinning Flair to win the title. It was still one of the absolute best moments for me as a fan to see this man who had been such a veteran and professional finally reaching the top of the business. Having his wife and kid in the ring with him may have been schmaltzy but it still paid off.

The match would have been the best of 1989 if not for the fact that the two would top it not once but twice. Their two-out-of-three falls match was fantastic with Steamboat becoming the first person ever to make Ric Flair submit to win one fall, getting the match despite the fact Flair’s foot was outside the rope. That set up their Wrestle War match in May where Flair regained the belt in a great battle. Steamboat had expected some rematches but instead was pushed aside when Terry Funk attacked Flair to set up the next feud. Steamboat would bounce around, feuding with Lex Luger for the U.S. title but falling to the wayside as the ‘90’s began. He made a brief return to WWF in 1991 where he wore a goofy costume and did a fire-breathing trick but nothing sensational. So it’s not surprising Steamboat would be tempted to go back to his roots in WCW.

His debut was perfectly done as Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham were to face Arn Anderson and Larry Zybsko for the tag titles. Windham came out in street clothes, claiming a hand injury but said he had a surprise for the heels. For one of the few times in their history, WCW pulled a surprise off as a guy in a goofy lizard costume came down the aisle and threw his cloak off to reveal himself as Steamboat. The crowd popped big while Arn did a great job selling Steamboat as a threat (“Noooooooot Ricky Steamboat!“) and the match was a terrific affair with Steamboat and Rhodes winning the belts.

The Enforcers vs Dustin Rhodes & ???-WCW Tag Team Titles 1Uploaded by TSteck160. – More professional, college and classic sports videos.

The Enforcers vs Dustin Rhodes & ???-WCW Tag Team Titles 2Uploaded by TSteck160. – More professional, college and classic sports videos.

Steamboat would spend the next few years as one of WCW’s most dependable guys, getting great matches out of a lot of folks. In 1992, he and Rick Rude would have a great feud with Rude and manager Paul E. Dangerously paying women to claim to have slept with Steamboat and Rude busted the Dragon’s nose. But Steamboat would get revenge by beating Rude in their classic Iron Man match at Beach Blast and would defeat Steve Austin for the TV title. In 1993, he and Shane Douglas would win the tag team titles and engage in a great program with the Hollywood Blondes. Another TV title reign would follow before he and Ric Flair restarted their feud in early 1994, Flair just barely retaining the belt in a terrific battle at Spring Stampede. Steamboat would then get into a feud with U.S. champion Steve Austin, Austin using heel tactics to either win or get himself DQ’ed to keep the belt. This built up to a Clash of the Champions match in August with the stipulation that if Austin was disqualified, he’d lose the belt. Again, the duo put on a great match which climaxed with Austin tossing Steamboat over the top rope, which at the time was against the rules. Just by letting go of the top rope, Steamboat would win the belt but instead of taking the easy way out, he did his patented “skin-the-cat” to get back in and small packaged Austin for the belt.

Sadly, this would be the last big match for Steamboat as he injured his back taking a bad bump during the match. Told by his doctors how serious it was, Steamboat decided to go out while he was still on top. At Fall Brawl, the scheduled rematch between him and Austin was canceled as Steamboat came out in street clothes to forfeit the belt (although not announcing his retirement yet), making Austin the champion, only for Austin to lose the belt in a 30-second bout against Jim Duggan. Steamboat retired with pride from the fans, running his gym and handling his family life.

But fans never really forgot him and Steamboat has proven in the last couple of years he still has it with his appearances at the Hall of Fame and then coming back to the ring against Chris Jericho. Sure, he’s not the great performer he used to be but for a man who hadn’t wrestled in fifteen years, he more than held his own and reminded you why he was just so damn special.

His Style

What made Steamboat so great? Sure, his amazing technical skills were a plus as well as his high-flying ability. When he took off from the top rope, it was a real sight as the man could fly like few others. His martial arts added nicely as his chops and blows seemed harsher than others and gave his bouts an extra splice. And he still has one of the best arm drags you’ll ever see, making this common move look truly damaging and no one “skins the cat” like he could.

Probably Steamboat’s best ability was his selling. The man was one of the absolute best sellers the business has ever seen. He studied boxers to learn how to show it off so when he took a blow, he made you feel it, staggering and puffing out his cheeks. His looks of agony pulled you in, making you need to cheer for him when the going got tough. He still has that, as his beat down from Nexus showed. When he wrestled, you never got the sense he was phoning it in or just doing a paycheck, he loved wrestling with a passion and loved giving fans his all. That was what they responded to the most, that pride in what he did and how it rubbed off on the folks in the crowd.

Perhaps most notable is that Steamboat was one of the few workers in the business to spend his entire career as a face. True, by his own admission, he probably wouldn’t have been that good a heel. His mic work was good (especially against Savage or Rude) but not quite the killer instinct a heel needs. But the fact fans were behind the guy all the time makes him more notable as he was a great baby face, always able to get you cheering him and feeling terrific when he won. That’s the mark of a great worker and performer and Steamboat was both of those.

Summation

As a long-time mark for the man, it’s great for me to see Ricky Steamboat enjoying a new rush of fame for this new generation. This DVD is long overdue, allowing younger fans to see just how fantastic a performer and man the Dragon was. It’s easy to look at the big matches against Savage and Flair as his hallmarks. But any match with Ricky Steamboat was a joy to watch, as you would see a man ready, willing and able to give fans their money’s worth. Whether it was for a title, for pride or just a mid-card match, the Dragon never gave you anything but his best. He truly lived up to his name as he brought a fire to wrestling that’s inspired so many workers over the years like Chris Jericho. It’s a rare thing for a veteran to still be so admired and respected after so long but Ricky Steamboat has pulled that feat off. And like so many, I am proud to say I’m a fan of the man who makes you realize how great wrestling can truly be.