Ricky Steamboat

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Richard Blood
Richard Blood, 2015

Richard Blood, 2015

Data
Ring name Richard Blood
Rick Steamboat
Ricky Steamboat
Sam Steamboat, Jr.
Additions to names The Dragon
height 178 cm
Fighting weight 108 kg
birth February 28, 1953
West Point , New York
Announced from Honolulu , Hawaii
Trained by Verne Gagne
Iron Sheik
debut 1976
retirement 1994

Richard Blood (born February 28, 1953 in West Point , USA ), better known by his ring name Ricky Steamboat , is a former American wrestler who currently works as a road agent for the WWE wrestling organization. During his playing career he performed for the largest wrestling organizations in North America. His greatest successes were receiving the NWA World Heavyweight Champion title , the WCW World Heavyweight Champion title and the WWF Intercontinental Champion title . To this day, Blood is considered to be one of the best technical players in the history of the wrestling business.

Beginnings

Blood grew up in Florida and has a sports background as a wrestler ; among other things, he was Florida State Champion. His girlfriend at the time was at an airline training academy in Minnesota , where she shared her room with Verne Gagne's daughter . Through this Blood got to her father, who trained him as a wrestler. He made his debut in the American Wrestling Association .

Career

To make him better known among the audience, Blood was given the ring name Sam Steamboat Jr. , which was taken over by the Hawaiian wrestler Sam Steamboat , as he looked very similar to this. A short time later the name was changed to the better known Ricky Steamboat . After Blood left the AWA, he continued using his ring name for Championship Wrestling From Florida and then later for Georgia Championship Wrestling . From 1977 he appeared for eight years in territorial leagues of the National Wrestling Alliance . During this time he received numerous titles.

In 1985 he moved to the World Wrestling Federation after differences with Booker Dusty Rhodes , where he was nicknamed The Dragon . In his first three years at WWF, Blood had feuds with Don Muraco , Jake "The Snake" Roberts , and the "macho man" Randy Savage .

At Wrestlemania  III on March 29, 1987 Blood was allowed to win the WWF Intercontinental title , which he lost again on June 2, 1987. He had his last major appearance in the WWF at Wrestlemania IV in March 1988, where he lost to Greg Valentine . Then he announced the end of his career.

Blood made a comeback in January 1989 at Ted Turner- funded WCW , WWF's main competitor. In a feud with Ric Flair he was able to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but had to lose the title on May 7th again to Flair. After contract disputes with the WCW, Blood stopped performing at the end of 1989. In 1991 he appeared again with competitor WWF. There he now had to wear a dragon costume and act as a fire eater before his matches . Despite his ring presence, Blood received no title chances and left the WWF again in the direction of the WCW.

Blood in a dragon costume, around 1991

For the next three years Blood performed for WCW and was one of the top stars of the promotion. He has received their Tag Team, Television and United States titles several times. In 1994 he had another long feud with Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This went seamlessly into another against Steve Austin for the United States title, during which Blood injured his neck so badly in an unsuccessful action that he had to end his career as an active wrestler.

Blood made appearances as a guest referee for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor from 2002 . He has been under contract with the WWE since 2005 as a road agent, but occasionally appears as a guest referee, mostly at title matches.

The night before Wrestlemania XXV, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by one-time storyline rival Ric Flair .

The next evening he made a short comeback after almost 15 years to compete against Chris Jericho together with Roddy Piper and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka . He also appeared at the backlash event three weeks later; there he played a single match against Jericho.

useful information

Blood is considered to be one of the best technical players in the history of the wrestling business. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has awarded him the rare top rating of five stars for his achievements four times, as well as twice as a participant in the fight of the year and once as a participant in the fight of the decade.

Private

Blood is married and has one son.

successes

Web links

Commons : Ricky Steamboat  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files