Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer “The Dragon” Ricky Steamboat who is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and a Former NWA World Heavyweight Champion recently revealed how he got his epic ring name.
Ricky steamboat is a legend of professional wrestling who started his professional wrestling career back in 1976. He turned out to be one of the biggest names in professional wrestling with time. He travelled in a lot of wrestling promotions including the likes of WCW and WWE.
Ricky Steamboat Reveals How He Got His Ring Name
In 1997 he joined the Jim Crockett promotion which later became the WCW. During this time period he won is even number of big Championship including the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, NWA Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Championship two times and a total of thirteen Tag Team championships in his WCW career combined.
In 1985 he came to WWE for the first time and here is where he was named as the Dragon. In WWE he did not win many Championship, the only Championship he won was the WWE intercontinental championship. After 1994 he stopped wrestling regularly, but he kept on making sporadic appearances.
One of his famous appearances was at WrestleMania XXV where he challenged Chris Jericho in a gauntlet match along with Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka. WWE inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame on the same year in 2009.
“The Dragon” Ricky Steamboat who is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and a Former NWA World Heavyweight Champion recently spoke to Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw where he revealed how he got his epic ring name. He said;
“When I came down to Florida in 1976, I walked in the office and Eddie Graham says, ‘I remember you kid, you know when you’re in high school you wrestled Mike’. He says, ‘Rick Blood’s a great wrestling name’, but he said that’s for heels, Blood, that’s for heels.
“He said, ‘I’d like to call you Ricky Steamboat, we had a guy here in the late 60s and through the early 70s that campaigned here. His name was Sammy Steamboat. He was from Hawaii and I’m going to start putting your name out there, but I’m not going to call you his son, I’m going to start listing you as a nephew. You’re the nephew of Sammy Steamboat.’
“I’ll never forget the first night I went to the office, on Tuesday or Wednesday night we’re in West Palm Beach. I’m the first match, I’m in the ring, I’m in the corner, they’re doing old school announcing.
“The announcer’s in the middle of the ring with the mic and he announces, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have a substitute this evening. Taking the place of Rick Blood, give it up for the nephew of the great Sammy Steamboat, Ricky Steamboat!’ and the crowd jumped out of the seats. I went, ‘Holy moly!”
H/T and transcribed by Inside the Ropes