WWE Hall of Fame 2009: Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat
Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat is the fourth member of the Class of 2009. Career highlights, best matches, personal views and more!
Hall of Fame inductee’s are being revealed on a weekly basis in the run up to WMXXV and the fourth was announced on Raw on the 23/02/2009 as Richard Henry Blood aka Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat.
For me Steamboat falls into the same category as The Funks, in that he didn’t really have his best years in the WWE. While many would consider his WrestleMania III bout against Randy Savage the best of his career, his achievements in the WWE really do pale in comparison to all that he did while working for WCW.
Before reading on why not check out my formal article on The Dragon here:
WWE Hall of Fame 2009 Ricky Steamboat
On with the show…
Personal Views
As I said above I’m in kind of the same situation with Steamboat as I was with the Funks. Before doing this article I’d only seen a handful of Steamboat matches (Wrestlemania III obviously) and most of them were in the form of clips and highlight reels.
I knew the name, I think most people interested in Wrestling will do, but I didn’t know much else. While researching the formal article I read a lot of background info and even managed to track down a couple of his more well documented matches, and after seeing them I did feel a slight twinge of jelousy towards anyone who got to experience them the first time round because they were simply breath-taking.
Additional Content
WWE Missed a Trick
While many WWE fans will associate Steamboat with Randy Savage, his biggest rival throughout his career has undoubtedly been Ric Flair. His first and pretty much last big in-ring rivalry was with The Nature Boy and I can’t help but think Vince and Co failed to capitalise when Steamboat re-joined the WWE in 1991, as this was the only time both men were actively wrestling for the WWE.
Flair Vs. Steamboat was a tried and tested formula, and with the WWE creative team turning the wheels behind the scenes, it really could have made what was a fantastic decades long rivalry into a Legacy. Rumour has it they also had a chance to do this in 2006 when Steamboat pitched the idea to WWE officials, instead they chose to pad the card out with a Playboy Pillow fight and a 2 on 1 match that saw The Boogeyman defeat Booker T and Sharmel.
The New Dragon
While researching I also discovered that Ricky Steamboat Jr. is currently making his way up the indy circuit and from what I saw of him, he looks like a real chip off the old block. Given the WWE’s recent influx of second generation superstars on screen, and the fact that Steamboat Snr. is currently under WWE employ, I expect they will snap up his boy fairly soon and get him into FCW, then move him up to ECW (if it’s still around) and on from there.
Finally…
Applying Steamboat to the ‘If Pete Rose is in the WWE Hall of Fame…’ benchmark, I’d say that he is a more than worthy candidate for this year’s induction, and fair play to him for taking a beating from Jericho shortly after he was announced as one.
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JayD
