The Ricky Steamboat Appriciation Thread

OrtonViper

These past two days have had people praising Ricky like there's no tomorrow. So we can all show our appriciaton for an amazing wreslter.

Diabhal Beag

He's good but he's no Jack Swagger :pac:

flahavaj

Steamboat is and was ridiculously good. Man am I glad I got him in the Draft. See my post in the Picks Thread for further elaboration on his greatness.

I understand he was great last night again on Raw.

AlphaMale 3OO

Fan-fcuking-tastic. He's still good enough to actually work regularly on the raw roster if he wanted too, though his body would certainly feel it. Kind of put it into perspective for me how bad Flair was at the end of his own career (which hasn't really ended yet) though his style has always been different.

ShawnRaven

Little Shyte wrote: »

He's good but he's no Jack Swagger :pac:

Thank christ for that, because Swagger WISHES he had an ounce of the talent that Steamboat does.

gerrybbadd

Did you see those perfect deep arm drags on Jericho at Mania... Best in the biz no doubt!

ShawnRaven

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Did you see those perfect deep arm drags on Jericho at Mania... Best in the biz no doubt!

Yep, he still has it.

Diabhal Beag

He never lost it obviously. He is one in a hundred though because you won't see a lot of legends performing that well on a big stage.

Bubs101

They should use how hot he is now to bring in mini Steamboat. Sure he's a little green but they'll never have a chance to launch him so hot and he can learn from Jericho which worked for Cena

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

They should use how hot he is now to bring in mini Steamboat. Sure he's a little green but they'll never have a chance to launch him so hot and he can learn from Jericho which worked for Cena

He's really really green though. Hes had barely any matches of any note anywhere. While the idea is good, the timing is all wrong, he needs to do a few of those NOAH tours and hone his game before he's ready for the big time.

Bubs101

flahavaj wrote: »

He's really really green though. Hes had barely any matches of any note anywhere. While the idea is good, the timing is all wrong, he needs to do a few of those NOAH tours and hone his game before he's ready for the big time.

Working NOAH tours won't teach him anything about the WWE though, completely different style. Lash him in to the deep end and you never know, it could work out. If not his dad can cover for him. I thought he was in FCW already though but it seems like I was wrong

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

Working NOAH tours won't teach him anything about the WWE though, completely different style. Lash him in to the deep end and you never know, it could work out. If not his dad can cover for him. I thought he was in FCW already though but it seems like I was wrong

Working NOAH or other Japanese companies should be mandatory training for ALL guys that WWE want to put on TV. The stylistic differnces don't detract from the huge amount that a young American guy can learn in Japan. The combination of longer matches and in-ring time, workrate oriented style and exposure to the amazingly intense training dojos that those guys run are a brilliant grounding to give any young wrestler. Guys like Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Dynamite Kid spoke glowingly of the effect that working in Japan had on their abilities as wrestlers. If it was good enough for them, then its good enough for youing Steamboat!

Bubs101

flahavaj wrote: »

Working NOAH or other Japanese companies should be mandatory training for ALL guys that WWE want to put on TV. The stylistic differnces don't detract from the huge amount that a young American guy can learn in Japan. The combination of longer matches and in-ring time, workrate oriented style and exposure to the amazingly intense training dojos that those guys run are a brilliant grounding to give any young wrestler. Guys like Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Dynamite Kid spoke glowingly of the effect that working in Japan had on their abilities as wrestlers. If it was good enough for them, then its good enough for youing Steamboat!

First of all, that was a much different Japan. I'm pretty sure NOAH lost their TV recently and I know for a fact that the market there is nowhere near as strong as it used to be. Secondly, Jericho, benoit, Dynamite and Eddie all did it to get noticed, same as Edge same as Storm. If they were wanted by American companies at the same time they wouldn't have gone and the WWE will want Steamboat if they don't already. Lastly, how many of the current roster have worked in Japan, it's not needed anymore. Would it be of benefit, sure. Is it needed and would they retrain him in FCW if he learnt the Puro style further stalling his arrival. Yes

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

First of all, that was a much different Japan. I'm pretty sure NOAH lost their TV recently and I know for a fact that the market there is nowhere near as strong as it used to be. Secondly, Jericho, benoit, Dynamite and Eddie all did it to get noticed, same as Edge same as Storm. If they were wanted by American companies at the same time they wouldn't have gone and the WWE will want Steamboat if they don't already. Lastly, how many of the current roster have worked in Japan, it's not needed anymore. Would it be of benefit, sure. Is it needed and would they retrain him in FCW if he learnt the Puro style further stalling his arrival. Yes

While you're spot on in saying the Japanese market is in terrible decline, thats largely irrelevant. My point is that the in-ring experience that he would gain on an intense three week tour would be invaluable to him as a wrestler in ters of his in-ring performance. The training the Japanese go through in the dojo's is incredible and I fail to see how this could do anything but benefit a rookie like Steamboat Jr. He's a lucky and privileged guy to be going on those tours at such an early stage of his development.

I remember when Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne) was went to Dragon gate and did his first tour. When he returned a few months afterward, the improvement in him was just startling, interms of his physique, smoothness in the ring, crispness, general demeanour and confidence. It worked wonders. Ditto Jack Evans and most recently The Young Bucks in PWG (the rate at which those lads are imprioving is quite scary, they're hgoing to be as good as they want to be).

As for the curent roster, just because most of them haven't worked Japan, doesn't mean they shouldn't! It's something I've always said. Sending all their new talemt for a few Japanese tours would sharpen them up no end. Some of the guys who've appeared on TV in the last few years were just way too green in the ring. Send them off to Tokyo for a few months and watch them develop.

Bubs101

Yeah, I see where your coming from and with Bourne and Low Ki the tide might be turning in the WWE as to how to develop talent. Lord knows FCW was a step backwards

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

Yeah, I see where your coming from and with Bourne and Low Ki the tide might be turning in the WWE as to how to develop talent. Lord knows FCW was a step backwards

FCW has been awful, barely anyone of any note has come out of there, really.

God be with the glory days of OVW when they had the likes of brock, Cena, benjamin, Batista all in one promotion, or even the Paul Heyman-booked days of 2004/5. Those Heyman OVW shows where brilliant examples of how to write one hour episodic TV wrestling shows, great great stuff

bigeasyeah

Hey -just wanted to say I think he s great.I was watching some of the matches he had with Ric Flair.Edge of my seat stuff.

RebelRockChick

It's been great seeing Steamboat back at WM and Raw, a delight to watch, he could put some of the younger wrestlers on the roster to shame.

Can't go without mentioning his match against Savage at Wrestlemania III (will put the vids in the video thread). Used to have that PPV on video but loaned it, never to get it back . Did manage to watch it again last night on youtube, great match!

Met him in Dublin a few years back and got his autograph, he had to doublecheck that he had written his name correctly before handing it back to me :pac:. He was more than happy to pose for photos and sign autographs though, absolute sound guy

EireGunner

Steamboat is an amazing wrestler I hope he is more active in the raw roster in the coming months!

D-FENS

Delighted to see the Dragon stealing the spot light to a large degree this past week in WWE. I remember being really disappointed at his sudden departure from the WWF in ’87 and disgusted at his mis-use in his 2nd WWF run, but he exposed what a bad move Vince made there. To think that he could have been used, at the very least, in the IC title picture of the time that included Curt Henning and later Bret Hart.
I remember he came down the aisle and stood just outside the ring when the lights had gone up at the RDS show a few years ago (during the whole jumping the barrier to grab a used Austin beer can shenanigans, if anyone was there and remembers it), he didn’t acknowledge the crowd that was largely dispersing anyway, but I was still standing at the barrier with my then 7 or 8 year old son who’d just witnessed Stone Cold in the flesh and gotten a high five off Cena so was pretty much on cloud 9, but when I got excited at spotting the Dragon and pointed him out, my son wasn’t too impressed because he hadn’t a clue who he was! He knows the name this week though.
Just wish they’d used his old entrance music from his 1st WWF run, that always gave me goose bumps as a kid. That other one just reminds me of taka michinoku or kung fu naki

Endaaaagh

Def needs a DVD release. I grew up watching him in WCW, fueding with Austin and Rude. Wasn't he in a tag team with Marcus Bagwell too? I think I remember them fueding with the Hollywood Blondes..classic stuff.

EdK

While i have really enjoyed seeing Ricky wrestle at Wrestlemania and on Raw I'm not sure i'd like to see him around for the long haul, Perhaps maybe a singles match at Backlash against Jericho might be a nice way to finish up

ShawnRaven

Endaaaagh wrote: »

Def needs a DVD release. I grew up watching him in WCW, fueding with Austin and Rude. Wasn't he in a tag team with Marcus Bagwell too? I think I remember them fueding with the Hollywood Blondes..classic stuff.

I'd love a Steamboat DVD release, but there'd be far too much stuff omitted. His WWE runs were the worst. Not in the sense of match quality (only bad match he really had in WWE was against Kamala in 87, in the sense of management & achievements. He was given an IC title reign and it was yoinked off him within weeks, when he came back, he was actively jobbed out to all and sundry.

In 1991, to add insult to injury, they threw a silly dragons costume on him and had him breathe fire. He wasn't used then either.

That's a lot of stuff to omit. Because McMahon hardly ever admits he's wrong.