It appears that my long time friend Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat will now be going into the WWE Hall of Fame. The word is out that his induction will be done by “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. The only other person that should have been considered is his son who is currently training in Japan. With that being said, Flair is an excellent choice. It will be a speech filled with a lot of emotion and memories. The only thing that would or could make it better is one more time those two guys step inside the squared circle. Alas, I am sure it is not to be, but I can dream cant I.
It’s a long way to come from selling vacuums door to door in Tampa, Fl to being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Although the majority of the Steamboat legend was built in the NWA, he certainly contributed to the WWF and WCW as well. He participated in a match some would argue is the greatest Wrestlemania match of all time vs. Randy Savage at Wrestlemania 3. I think if you want to be a wrestler today, and you haven’t seen that match on video, it would be like wanting to become an American Citizen and not recognizing the first president was George Washington.
I have had many good times with Ricky over the year and a lot of laughs. I can remember one story from his gym on W.T.Harris Blvd, Ricky Steamboats Mid Atlantic Gym, that he shared with me. It was about the great Lou Thesz. It seems that Lou was in the gym and he wanted to do seated rows. The exercise machine was already being used by a couple of strong kids who were using the maximum allowed on the machine which was three hundred lbs. They saw Lou waiting and having no idea who he was said something to the effect of we will be done in a minute “old man". When they were done they wanted to reset the machine for the old man but Lou told them to leave it where it was and with one hand took the bar and proceeded to sit down never letting the weight crash. He then proceeded to do numerous repetitions as those young strong kids stood in stunned silence. If you ever had the opportunity to be exposed to Lou I am sure you can appreciate this story even more.
One other story that I love to tell about Steamboat comes from my old tag team partner and lifelong friend Carolina’s Own David Isley. Before I knew David he was an employee over at Steamboat’s gym so he has known Rick a very long time. David knew that I was very close friend with long time wrestler Charley Fulton who was very respected and liked by all that knew him. Fulton truly was a guy that could wrestle a broom stick and make it work out. I remember back in the old days Charley telling me that it didn’t matter if a referee was good or bad to him. He said, " if he is lousy I will just work around him". Well David brought up his name to Rick one day and Rick said, "Charley Fulton ... now there’s a guy who will 'blow you up', exhaust you and then let you beat him". Well I told Charley that story one day and he got real embarrassed and said, "did Steamboat really say that?" I confirmed that he sure did. It was then that Charley told me, "Sal I hadn’t done that to anyone in years". If you knew Charley Fulton the whole thing is just a classic story.
I had the chance to work a couple of matches with Rick when I was a referee. One was for George Scott when he opened up a small territory in Charlotte. At the time, George's son Byron was the other referee and his work was totally fine but being George's son he got all the guys he wanted to work with. Well everyone always wanted to work with Steamboat. I had to go to George’s assistant Paul Jones, who was a very good friend of mine, and plead my case and ask for a favor to be able to work the TV match that Steamboat was in. We had no idea how long Steamboat was going to hang around and help his old buddy George Scott out. It was George that gave Rick his initial break in the business and Rick never forgot it. So Paul worked it out for me and I got the chance to work with the Mid-Atlantic legend Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.
The next time was when George Scott ran a one night tournament at the Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum. We were to crown a new champion that night. Well, I did get assigned the next to the last match before the finals which was Steamboat against Brian Knobbs of the Nasty Boys. The next match was going to be Ricky Steamboat vs. Robert Fuller for the title. I wasn’t scheduled to do that match but, luckily, I knew what the finish was supposed to be. I don’t know where Byron was but we went from one match into the other. In the previous match Knobbs had hurt Steamboats leg but Steamboat still won the match. The thought was that with his injured leg Fuller would get right on him. I had left the ring and when I saw what was happening I asked George Scott what to do. He screamed "get in the ring" so I did. In the end, Steamboat put over Robert Fuller in an attempt to help his friend George Scott. It was all put together very well and it was my pleasure to be a part of it.
I can remember being a young fan and going to Madison Square Garden every month. One month we had the pleasure of seeing the young team or Steamboat and Youngblood face off against Tor Kamata and Dick “The Bulldog” Brower. It was the first time I had seen the pre-"Dragon" Ricky Steamboat and his partner Jay Youngblood. I really enjoyed the match not knowing what part Rick would play in my life years later.
It was several years later that I would personally meet Jay Youngblood at the New Haven Memorial Coliseum. He was set to be in a tag team match against two more rugged individuals my trainers Afa and Sika “The Wild Samoans”. It wouldn’t be Ricky Steamboat that was his partner on this night it was his brother Mark that would be by his side. The team of Steamboat and Youngblood had broken up long before and Steamboat had moved on to a singles career. I worked the match that night. Sadly, it would be the last time I would ever see Jay Youngblood. He passed away not long after.
I hope Jay Youngblood will be looking down when his partner is inducted into the Hall of Fame by “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. He played a part in what became a great career and should be smiling when it all happens.
The WCW didn’t do anything special for Rick’s retirement from active wrestling. His last match was against “Stunning” Steve Austin and all he did was retire his last championship and walk away from the business. We did have a retirement ceremony for him on an indy show run by Willie Clay in Concord, NC. I presented him with a plaque along with Danny Paris. It was certainly a lot less than this man deserved. It is a long time coming, but Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat will finally be honored properly and go through the rest of his life with the title of Hall of Famer
The picture for this article is of Ricky Steamboat Jr. with the Missouri State Title before he left to go train in Japan. I am sure he will be very proud of his father and from what I have seen so far I am sure his father is very proud of him
This has been a piece of my mind
