Original subtitles

(birds chirping)

- [Speaker] All righty, folks.

It's time again to see your WWE superstar

out here enjoying the golden years of life.

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, folks,

going to make his second hit of the night.

- It's just a big rush for me.

I guess I'm adrenaline nutty.

I almost get the same kind of feeling

during a wrestling match,

when you hear the crowd responding

to what you're doing in the ring.

You notice that adrenaline rush.

This car, it's something for me to play with, and something

that I've been familiar with for pretty much all my life.

- [Speaker] Here we go, folks.

(engine revving)

- [Speaker] Standing ovation for The Dragon,

Ricky Steamboat.

And a dropkick right in the kisser.

- He's just incredible in the ring,

I remember watching him, and he impacted on first sight.

- This is a John Lennon in our business.

This is a Muhammad Ali in our business.

- He was a main-event guy through his whole career.

There are no flaws.

- Greatest (indistinct) of all time.

- Ricky's matches were some of the best

of the best ever to be recorded.

- [Speaker] This is one of the greatest matches

I've ever seen.

Steamboat, leaping. - That was my goal,

to have the match of the night.

I sacrificed so much.

I would be gone a lot, be away from home a lot.

The business was a different animal, being away so much,

and it was hard on family.

I kind of felt I need to do what I need to do now

to help prepare myself for the future.

- [Speaker] Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat,

the new heavyweight champion.

- [Ricky] I always put my career at the top

of what I wanted to be able to achieve.

(Ricky sniffling)

- He's a tough guy on the outside,

but he's very tender-hearted.

- [Speaker] Ricky Steamboat,

one of the most electrifying wrestlers ever to wrestle.

Be one of the country.

- [Announcer] Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat!

- [Crowd] Steamboat, Steamboat, Steamboat, Steamboat.

(soft music)

- Wrestling has given back to me as much

as I've given into it.

I had to take a moment and think about that.

The sport has made it very difficult to have a normal life

as you hope for, but that was a career in a life I chose.

Yep.

- [Speaker] Nice. - Okay, Dad.

There you go.

- [Ricky] In and out of the wrestling ring,

I was known as the good guy.

I think it's the values that my parents instilled in me.

(crowd cheering)

- [Speaker] The Japanese have accepted

fully the surrender terms of the United Nations.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the end

of the Second World War.

(crowd cheering)

(soft music)

- My dad was in the army, I think 22 years.

Being in the Army, military,

and traveling all around the world,

he met my mom in 1949-ish.

When he got married to mom over in Japan,

and he came back to the States with his new bride,

his parents, my grandparents wouldn't let her

in the house because she was Japanese.

It's because of the war.

This was early '50s.

- When they got married,

her side of the family really rejected it,

and his side of the family rejected it also.

- I understood that I and my brothers

were different because we were half-Japanese.

My life as a youngster, being the so-called Army brat,

whether we lived in Germany or Turkey or Italy,

I do remember that the people that lived

in those countries frowned upon the way we looked.

- The Turks did not like us too much.

We'd have rock fights all the time with Turks,

standing at one end of the road, at the other,

just chucking rocks at each other.

But that was the time, back then.

Everywhere they went,

it seemed like they got the look

just because she was Japanese.

- And my mom would wash, rinse,

and then hang the clothes on the balcony.

And I do remember some of the younger Turkish kids,

they would throw tomatoes and stuff

at our laundry hanging on the line.

Being a minority does play a factor on, I guess,

the way you brought up

and also the way you understand the way life is.

You grow up a little bit faster.

- I do remember one time, we was going to the Ozarks,

and we're behind this old pickup truck.

The guy in the back, he looks at me, he points at my mom,

he takes a shotgun, he does this with it.

My mom told my dad to turn the car around.

Boom, we're back in Florida the next day.

- When I was growing up, I was called slanty eyes,

yellow skin.

Every time they would say something to me about it,

I almost looked at them that they were making fun of my mom.

I would deal with it in a way of retaliation, physicality.

I'm glad with the way my parents brought me up,

and my dad teaching me to stick up for my right,

and if you gets your butt handed to you at the end

of the night and you come home, don't be ashamed of that.

You stuck up for what you thought was right.

(soft music)

Going to high school, I was always interested

in playing some kind of sport.

I went out for the football team, and I was a running back,

and I also went out for basketball

because I played basketball as a young kid.

Never was tall, but I was pretty accurate.

But I knew in 10th grade, I would never make varsity because

of the seniors.

So over in the corner of the gymnasium,

there's guys over there doing high school wrestling.

I asked my basketball coach, I said,

"What are they doing over there?"

He said, "Oh, that's the wrestling team."

I said, "Oh, really?

Wrestling?"

Then I said, "See you."

I walked off the basketball court over to the wrestling mat.

- Ricky and I were high school teammates

on the wrestling team.

He was a big guy in high school.

He was humanly strong, and it showed.

The wrestling coach told several of us lightweights

to all pile onto Ricky and see if we could pin him.

He would throw us off like popcorn.

- Wrestling was a different animal.

I played football, but that's a team effort; basketball,

that was a team effort; baseball,

that's a team effort; but wrestling, you show up as a team,

but you're one on one on the mat.

- Ricky was a star, there's no doubt about it.

He was well-qualified to be a state champion.

He would dominate wrestlers.

The matches would begin,

and they would be over very quickly.

- All said and done, my senior year, out of all the athletes

at the school, I was voted Athlete of the Year.

My life through high school was pretty much go to school,

go to some kind of practice, whether it be football

or wrestling, and then on weekends, work at the gas station.

When my dad retired from the military,

and he settled in St. Petersburg,

he bought a little neighborhood gas station,

and that's when I got introduced to cars.

And I'll never forget when I would go out and pump gas

and wash the windshields, check the tires,

check the oil, I'd always knew in the back

of my mind that whatever I did out front would reflect

on this gas station as who we are.

And I thought that was the biggest thing.

(soft music)

My dad was paying me a $1.50 an hour.

With that money, I learned to put away what I could,

and I bought my first car.

- He could rebuild an engine and whatnot,

being a gearhead and stuff like that,

but that's not his protocol.

Him being in sports, he was pretty much all he could do,

knew how to do very well.

- And I don't know if it was planned

or how it worked out this way or it just happened,

Maureen, Rick's high school love was working

for an airline up in Minnesota, and her roommate

at the time was Donna Gagne.

- Donna Gagne's father was Vern Gagne,

and he was the wrestling promoter for the AWA.

- The past 32 years been

tremendously entertainment.

You've truly been a great champ.

- Well, it's been a great sport.

It still will be a great sport,

and it'll go on long after Vern Gagne quits.

- Vern Gagne was the wrestling promoter

based in Minneapolis.

He ran a school that

was not unlike the WWE Performance Center today.

And a lot of great wrestlers came through there.

A lot of superstars came through there,

including The Iron Sheik, including Sergeant Slaughter,

and including Ric Flair.

- So Vern told Maureen, he says,

"Yeah, it is understanding that your boyfriend

was pretty good in amateurs.

We have a wrestling school here,

if he would consider getting into pro wrestling."

And I said to myself,

"I think I'm going to give this a shot."

- Same shock you had the first time

someone threw you down,

but you're building up a tolerance to it.

- I think on the first day, there was about 16 of us.

The Iron Sheik was our coach, and man, he was relentless,

he was unforgiving, he didn't give a flip, he didn't care.

We had a dozen guys quit after the first week.

- [Speaker] Come on.

Dig, dig, dig.

- It was very hard for them, but slowly,

they learned and they did it my way and good.

- Khosrow would break them down.

I literally saw guys crying

because of the pain they were going through.

- I pushed Ricky very hard.

I want to test him.

He didn't quit.

He come in and come in, and then he impressed me,

and then finally he made it.

- Once we finished the camp, Vern Gagne booked us,

the rookies, maybe three or four shows a week.

- My mom was probably not so excited,

but after seeing him wrestle,

both of them were very proud of Richard

becoming a professional wrestler.

- I wrestled in the AWA circuit for maybe about four months,

and then Vern Gagne came up to me, and he said, "Ricky,"

he said, "How would you like to go to Florida?"

And I was like, "Wow.

Going back home."

And I said, "The Florida Circuit?"

And he goes,

"Yep, down there with the promoter, Eddie Graham."

- I wrestled as an amateur,

that's where most professionals

do get their background although,

there is a definite difference as there is going

from the amateurs to professional in any sport.

- I walked into Eddie Graham's office for the first time,

and he goes, "The last name, Blood, that's for a bad guy."

He said, "But you're a good guy.

You're young, you got this long black hair,

you got a good look."

- My first impression when I first met him,

"What a nice guy."

It wouldn't work to make him a bad guy.

How?

He couldn't pretend to be something he's not.

- So he said, "I'd like to call you Steamboat.

I'd like to call you Ricky Steamboat."

He said, "I had a guy here a few years back,

he has since retired.

He was from Hawaii.

His name was Sammy Steamboat,

and the fans here in Florida loved him."

I'm going to start advertising you as his nephew.

- [Speaker] In the blue corner, from Honolulu,

Hawaii, 263, Sammy Steamboat Mokuahi.

- My mom, I remembered her saying, "Steamboat?

Why?

No.

Ricky's no Steamboat son."

"It's on the stage, Mom.

It's a stage.

That's the stage name."

"Oh.

But Steamboat?"

Ah. (laughing)

- When I was wrestling in Minneapolis, I was a nobody.

They announced Dick Blood, and I'd get this.

(hands clapping)

They announced me as Ricky Steamboat,

and the fans jumped out of their seats.

Thousands of fans jumped out of their seat, and I'm going,

"Oh my goodness, so this is what it's like."

- [Speaker] The plane spin, falls back.

Oh, beautiful.

- I saw Ricky on TV, and I went back

and told Jimmy Crockett, I said,

"There's the kid that can be second to none."

I was adamant.

I said, "This guy is going to be it."

- I'm going to say May, June of '77 is

when I got introduced to working with Ric Flair.

- Whatever Ric Flair wants, Ric Flair gets.

- If you got involved in a program with Ric Flair,

you got the rub, meaning your star was elevated.

- My parents, only on a few occasions,

actually watched me live live.

The very first time, we were driving,

and dad's sitting next to me, mom's sitting in the back.

So I started telling them the ins and outs of the business.

And in so many words, I wanted to explain to them that,

"Don't worry, I may show that I'm hurt,

but your son's okay."

I was working with Ernie Ladd, the Cat.

- [Speaker] Ernie "the Big Cat" Ladd.

- So we do the match.

I get my hand raised, and here,

Ernie attacks me from behind, boom, boom, boom.

Down I go, and he's stomping on me.

I'm laying on the mat like this, trying to cover up,

and over here to the side.

I see this commotion going on.

So I look over and it's my dad standing on the apron.

He's got a folded steel chair in his hand.

He's got one leg in the ring.

Security has got the other leg.

Guys trying to yank him off the apron.

Another security guy has got his hands on the chair,

and I could see my dad pulling on the chair,

and he's trying to get in the ring.

My dad yells out, "Don't worry, son, I'm coming for you."

So I roll out, I run around to the ring,

and I grabbed the two security guys,

and I said, "Hey, that's my dad."

They looked, "Ricky, that's your dad?"

Ah.

Now we're driving home,

and for about the first half hour is dead silence.

I look over at my dad, and I said, "What are you doing?"

He goes, "What do you mean?"

I said, "I tell you not to worry about your son,

that everything was going to be okay?"

And then, my dad, whose from Boston, military,

"Don't blame me, blame your mother."

And I look up in the mirror and I go, "Mom," I said,

"Didn't I tell you not to worry about it?"

And she's from Japan, she's Japanese.

She goes, "I don't care.

He a cheater.

Match over.

I said, 'Daddy, do something.

Help our boy.'"

- Everywhere I've gone,

every letter I've gotten has said, Rick Steamboat.

I'm talking to you.

You listen to me, boy.

I first met Ricky when I saw him in Atlanta,

and I saw someone for me to wrestle

that I thought would be a new face

of that company because he was so handsome, great body,

nice guy, and Ricky Steamboat could wrestle from day one.

- When Ric Flair went to Jim Crockett Promotions

and told Jim Crockett, the promoter,

that he saw something in me, I was like,

"Holy moly, this is the number one guy in the region."

- I just played, whether you like it or not,

am the greatest wrestler in the world of all time.

- I realize Steamboat's a pretty young guy.

So to be spotted like that and told,

"I want this guy main eventing with me,"

that's a dream come true.

- [Speaker] Steamboat, an outstanding wrestler

and competitor in the ring.

- Rick Steamboat and Ric Flair

were very much like the characters they portrayed.

Ric Flair was very much the brash, flamboyant,

limousine riding, jet flying, kiss dealing,

wheeling, dealing son of a gun.

And you know Rick Steamboat was a straight guy.

- Ricky Steamboat, probably sitting

in a corner somewhere, sucking on something.

While Nature Boy, Ric Flair stands

before the whole world with two

of the most gorgeous human beings on on the face

of this Earth.

- In and out of the wrestling ring,

I was known as the good guy.

I had those values, with my dad being in the military

and my mom being from Japan, with family values very high.

They supported me in my wrestling career.

The drawback was my mom couldn't stand

to see her son getting hurt.

- He must be serious.

He wants to wrestling me one-on-one?

- Maybe you didn't hear me.

I said get in there and wrestle me right now.

- Yeah, he's serious.

- You got to it.

- This was the start of a lengthy, successful rivalry,

and fans needed to believe

that there was something legitimate behind it.

- [Speaker] I've never seen anybody handle

that way on the mat.

He's out on the floor now.

And here comes Flair after him.

- And at one point Ric Flair whispered,

"Rick, I'm really sorry, but I have to do this,"

and he hit him with a hard way shot.

- [Speaker] Rick Flair has gone mad.

He's dragging him (indistinct)-

- The expression "the hard way" means,

"Can Flair give you the real shot?"

No holding back, one shot.

So here's the moment.

He jumps me, he beats me up.

We're outside on the floor.

I'm on my knees.

He's standing behind me.

He pulls me back by my hair, and he goes,

"Here it is."

Boom, right there.

- Oh, right in the eye. - Right hand,

right into the eye again.

He rubbed that eye.

- Then he took me down to the cement floor

and started of scraping my face on the cement floor.

- [Speaker] Steamboat really hasn't had a chance.

- So after they did this angle, the great Harley Race,

multiple NWA champion, took Rick Steamboat

into a private area,

and he cut his face all over

and then he rubs sandpaper into the wounds.

- I'm sitting there in the chair,

Harley says, "I need a couple of wrestlers

to hold Ricky down."

So they got these two guys holding me down like this.

He pulls me back, he's got that sandpaper,

and he starts doing this to me.

- It took a year for the pigmentation to come back.

- The scar is really just starting

to heal real well now.

It looks better.

How's the eyesight?

- Well, vision is still not on the 100% scale yet.

Hopefully, it's going to look better

with the next coming months coming up.

Now it's time for Ricky to get back at Flair.

(dramatic music)

I get out there, and jump him.

He says, "Tear my suit off me."

- [Speaker] Brand new suit shirt.

Oh, that's right.

And it's all Ricky's Steamboat now.

That's right, it is.

He's got him down now.

- The only thing left is Ric Flare's briefs

and Ric Flair's dress shoes.

- I got the shirt, the suit, the pants, and beat him up,

and left him laying,

and went down to the announcers table and said,

"You just saw an example of what's going to be happening

in the future for that man up there."

After that aired, we went and sold out,

sold out everywhere, turning away people.

Now previously, up to that time in my career,

I was first, second, and third match guy.

Now, I'm in the main events.

(dramatic orchestral music)

My growth in the ring with Rick Flair went

to another new level.

- Ricky had that ability to be able to work with anyone

and everyone.

If there was a newbie like myself, I could go in,

and if I just followed his lead,

I knew it was going to be a great match.

- [Speaker] Ricky Steamboat,

one of the most electrifying wrestlers ever to wrestle.

- To be a main inventor, which is what Ricky were,

you have to be dependable, you have to be reliable,

and you have to know how to draw a audience.

It was more than just the wrestling part.

He had the ability to draw fans.

- Ricky Steamboat for the fans, he was like a god.

Their desire for him to win was so strong.

- [Speaker] Steamboat, one of the favorites

of fans everywhere.

- There was a brief time in my career

for about a little bit over four years

in which I got involved with tag teams with Jay Youngblood.

We set some records throughout the Carolinas,

30 straight sellouts.

My career just kept snowballing.

It seemed like year after year after year.

- [Speaker] Nobody could be any more popular

than they are right now.

- Jay Youngblood and I had a good run.

It was time for maybe adventure off into singles.

You wondered, do I have an opportunity to win the world cup?

- Rick was a matinee idol.

He was the perfect good guy.

- [Speaker] Listen to the crowd.

Here comes Steamboat down on the range.

- The Mid-Atlantic territory had a lot of good,

believable, tough guys there, but not a lot of heartthrobs.

A teenage girl would put a poster up of Rick on her wall.

- By that time, I was a main event guy for going on a number

of years.

I know the fans have been wondering

what I've been doing.

For the past eight months,

I've been making tours over to Japan.

I've had three now.

All it is for myself as a learning experience.

1984, we went over to Japan and toured Japan,

and the promoter, Giant Baba, I went to him and I said,

When my mother married my father, and they left Japan,

my mother lost contact with her family,

they were from Kyoto, so I went to Giant Baba,

I said, "During my match, could you maybe announce

or have him tell the story that my mother is from Kyoto,

her last name is Ito, and tell them the story

that she married an American GI.

Last name was Blood.

If there's any family members

that are watching the wrestling show,

please contact the office."

Ultimately, my goal is I'm searching for my mother's family.

And the very next day, this Japanese runner,

young boy knocking on my hotel door, says, "Ricky,

we have people call office about your mother."

I said, "Really?

Oh, how many?

He said, "We have 200 people."

I said, "It must be fans."

The very first phone call that he made

was my mother's oldest brother, very first.

I said, "Ask the older brother

if he has any wedding pictures."

Because I've seen all the wedding pictures.

I had the interpreter.

So they're talking, the introduction,

opens up the photo album,

they're the same pictures from the wedding, same pictures.

So I got back to the States, back to Carolina,

I went over to my mom and dad's and my dad

was in the kitchen, and I showed him this phone number,

and the oldest brother's name was written on it,

and he broke down crying.

Mom was sitting in the living room, and she was sewing,

and I took the paper, and I went out and I said,

"Mother,

it's your oldest brother."

(soft music)

I arranged to bring my mother home.

So we get our bags, go through customs,

and as soon as we get through the doors, they embrace,

big hug.

They haven't seen each other for over 30-some years.

Flash camera. (imitating camera shutter clicking)

Well, in the Tokyo paper, there's a picture of my mother

and her brother hugging each other.

and pro wrestler,

Ricky Steamboat through the company of Giant Baba,

brings mother home to be with family.

And the next morning I get up and I get a phone call

and that's my mom.

"I'm ready to go home."

I said, "Mom, it's only been two days."

"I don't care.

I finally finish big argument I have with oldest sister.

I'm ready to go home now."

She had an argument before leaving

because her oldest sister did not like the fact

that my mother was marrying an American GI right

after the Second World War.

I said, "I'm under here under contract for Baba

for two weeks.

He paid for your plane ticket.

You have to fix it, Mom."

"Okay, I do it for you."

Two weeks later, we're meeting back at the company hotel

end of tour, and there's my mom

sitting there with the family,

even the oldest sister.

They made amends.

I think one of the things that I've ever done

in my life that I was so happy to be able

to pull off was reuniting my mom with her family by now.

My mom passed away three years ago, she was 91,

but they had the moment.

(speaking foreign language)

There was a way that Japanese

would show you their appreciation

by throwing this spool of ribbon into the ring.

And prior to bringing my mom home and I would get some,

but this time it'd be so much they would fill the ring.

(crowd cheering) (speaking foreign language)

They'd bring out sweeping brooms to sweep it out

of the ring so we could have the match.

It made me feel proud to be Japanese.

- [Speaker] I understand that Ricky Steamboat

is a master of the art of karate.

- [Ricky] When I went to WWE,

they had moved to a national level

on cable coast to coast on national television.

I'm getting national exposure.

I wanted to change my appearance to fit more

of this martial arts guy.

- It is my distinct privilege to present

to you Hulk Hogan.

(crowd cheering)

- By the mid '80s, the professional wrestling business

is being transformed rapidly.

Vincent Kenny McMahon had a radically different view

of the business than his predecessors.

Vince McMahon still receives some criticism

for ushering in what's known as sports entertainment.

- [Speaker] Ladies and gentlemen,

we have got a crowd that is coming on good.

They're loving it.

- The company was going in a direction of making everybody

like a superhero.

They actually came out with the cartoons and the comics

and taking the pro wrestling in a whole different direction.

- I got to give Vince credit on this.

He knew his audience.

The gimmick got more outrageous.

The costumes got more outrageous.

- [Speaker] The Macho Man, he always looks sharp.

- Suddenly everyone's attention was going to WWE.

- [Speaker] Holy cow, they do love him everywhere.

- Now, professional wrestling was at a level

it had never been at before.

- I went into the office, spoke to Jimmy Crockett, said,

"You know, I've been here for almost eight years.

It's time for me to move on."

- Well, I know Ricky was really eager

to go that route and now this is his chance to get

to that next level of what we were looking

at the business then is,

"This is wrestling and this is sports entertainment."

- I was a Bruce Lee fan, "Enter the Dragon" movie.

And then that name The Dragon that sort of, boom, popped.

- Scene two, take two.

Gene Okerlund here on location

at the temple of Ching Lau with Rick "The Dragon" Steamboat.

Ricky Steamboat, it is right here on these premises

where you and others have gone through

and will go through intense training in preparation

for not only professional wrestling but for life itself.

- Mind and body as one.

Physical and mental preparation in the martial arts.

- [Speaker] From Hawaii, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- [Speaker] Boy, is this Steamboat exciting.

He's just electrifying.

- He came in as this super athletic,

muscular martial artist.

And he had the headband and he would wear the gi

and he would present himself in a way that nobody

had really done before in the WWE.

- He was like an action star.

He was definitely one of my favorites.

- [Speaker] Beautiful karate kick.

There's another one devastating karate kicks.

Oh, look at that.

Shot to the back of the net and over the top goes the champ.

- It was going to be Ricky's thing with the performance arts

and the karate and judo and fancy moves and all that,

and it made him more aggressive.

- [Speaker] And a dropkick right at a kisser.

- Ricky would do this incredibly athletic

off the top rope dive,

which not that many people did moves

off the top rope in that era.

- [Speaker] High cross body.

- But back then, if you were diving off the top rope,

it was your specialty.

And Ricky made it special.

- [Speaker] The Dragon on the top rope.

- [Speaker] Steamboat, leaping.

Flies through the air, high cross body.

Down one, two, he got it.

- [Speaker] He definitely got it.

- He was amazed that he could do that.

He was just so excited about it.

- [Speaker] Flies through the air, high cross body.

- If you want to see what separates Ricky

from everyone else, take a move as simple as the arm drag.

Everybody does an arm drag, but Ricky's arm drag

is a work of art.

- [Speaker] Whoa, what a deep arm drag.

And another one.

- He would take a guy, snap them over him and it would look

like he was going to throw the guy into the rafters.

It was electrifying.

- [Speaker] Arm drag, take down again.

- [Speaker] And an arm drag, well executed.

- I love that arm drag.

I love that arm drag.

- He could fight on the ground, he could fight in the air.

- It sort of made me different from all the other wrestlers

in the business and the fans loved it

because my style was different.

- The dragon just brought something different to the table

that caught on really fast.

- [Speaker] Standing ovation for The Dragon,

Ricky Steamboat.

- My popularity was growing.

They saw me that I would be a good cast

to put in with Macho Man, Randy Savage.

- All the world will realize that The Dragon

cannot go against the Macho Man Randy Savage.

- You're you're not nervous?

- I'm not nervous.

- We hooked up in December of '86.

He was over the threshold of the up and comer

and now the star.

- Macho Man Randy Savage, it's totally impossible

that I could be intimidated.

- Randy Savage was the WWE Intercontinental Champion

and Rick Steamboat challenged Randy for the title on TV.

And it led to a very disturbing incident.

- Every wrestling fan of the era remembers where they were

when Randy Savage took out the throat

of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- [Announcer] Get him down from there.

From the top rope.

Whoa.

- Randy Savage attacked first with a double ax handle

that knocked Ricky's throat across the guard area.

- [Speaker] Steamboat's grabbing his throat.

- Once they were back in the ring, the evil Macho Man

took the ring bell, which is a metal bell

that has plywood under it.

Took it with him to the top rope

and performed his elbow drop with the ring bell.

- [Speaker] Look, he's got the bell.

Whoa.

- The story that we were told was as he came down

and made contact, he destroyed the larynx

of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- I remember Vince is telling me,

"You would not believe the hate mail

that's been delivered to the office.

We got duffle bags full of hate mail about Savage doing

that to you."

(crowd cheering)

- [Speaker] Whoa.

Steamboat can't breathe.

- The WWE sent cameras to a local medical facility

and week by week they tracked the progress

that Ricky Steamboat was making.

- [Speaker] Ricky Steamboat suffered a crushed larynx

in that accident and tremendous trauma to his vocal cords.

- They showed him going through speech therapy.

- What we're going to do now is

to increase the strength of your vocal cords.

I'd like you to say this vowel after me.

E.

- E.

- [Speaker] Okay.

Now, you're trying, but I want it to be more crisp.

E.

- E.

- This was one of the biggest stories up until that point

that Ricky Steamboat had been a part of.

- Now I'm talking to you.

You are a priority in my career right now.

- Suddenly it was announced Rick's Steamboat was recovered

and he was coming back and he was coming after Randy Savage.

They were able to stretch this thing out all the way up

to WrestleMania and he was going

to take that Intercontinental Championship.

(crowd cheering)

- [Speaker] 93,000 here at the Silverdome.

This is a vendetta that's been coming down

for quite some time.

(soft music)

- When we started to work for the WWE

and we found out they were flying everywhere,

Vince decided to get on cable and go coast to coast.

So we're flying all of these major markets.

- [Speaker] Ricky Steamboat, getting a big hand

from this capacity crowd in Madison Square Garden.

- And if you're a Main Event guy and you're doing well

with the company and you know they're selling tickets,

you might be home for just a couple of days

and then you're gone for three or four weeks again

and then home for two or three.

Then it hits you in the head of reality that,

"God, I'm hardly making it home."

At the time when I was married, that led it

to be very hard on families.

The hardship was being away so much

and then finding out that your wife was pregnant.

Around 1986, towards the end of November,

I brought it to Vince's attention that,

"I have a son that's coming due in the first week of July.

I'd like to have that week off and a week following,

two weeks off."

We're on a schedule.

We wrestle 365 days a year, Thanksgivings and Christmases,

and I said, "I just want to be there for my firstborn."

"No problem," was the response.

And that was back in December, before WrestleMania III.

- We have established a brand new

indoor attendance record of 93,173.

Give yourself a big hand.

- I was at WrestleMania III.

The crowd at the Silverdome was so immense.

It was like the biggest mass gathering of people ever at

that point indoors.

- For guys like Ricky and Randy, this was literally the eyes

of the world on them.

The planet has stopped and is paying attention to this.

- [Speaker] This is a vendetta that's been coming down

for quite some time.

- [Speaker] You got to get up pretty early in the morning

to outsmart the Macho Man.

- As soon as the curtain opened up,

the stress just went away.

For some reason, it all went away

and it came down to the ring.

- [Speaker] He has to concentrate

on "The Dragon" Ricky Steam boat and the defense

of this Intercontinental Championship.

- WrestleMania III, the match with Randy Savage,

this had as much attention almost as Andre the Giant

and Hulk Hogan.

(crowd cheering)

- [Speaker] Going to work on him.

- Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan were headlining the show.

They were the main event, but our objective was to go out

and have the best match of the evening.

And if it meant to upstage the main event, so be it.

- [Speaker] Look out, Irish whipping.

Ducked underneath The Dragon.

Oh, look at that deep arm drag.

Off the ropes, through the legs, and another deep arm drag

by The Dragon.

Oh, and catches him right around the throat.

- Steamboat and Savage stole the show of WrestleMania III,

no doubt about it.

They worked so well together.

It was incredible to watch.

- [Speaker] Whoa, look at that.

- [Speaker] Look at the leverage on the wrist line.

- That really cemented in to my psyche

what a good wrestler he was because of that match.

And it introduced me to a style of wrestling

that I didn't realize existed.

- [Speaker] Look at this, wide open.

- [Speaker] And he's going after the throat.

- [Speaker] He's going after the throat indeed.

The reigning champion, Macho Man Randy Savage.

Oh, what a clothesline.

- I mean, these are two really apex predators

in our business.

These are really incredible talents.

- [Speaker] He dropped right in the sternum area,

overhooks the leg again.

Two count and The Dragon comes out once more.

- It was just a real quality match and both guys delivered.

- [Speaker] This is beyond wrestling ability.

This is guts personified right now.

- So the beauty of that match is that you have something

like 20 near falls throughout the whole story.

- [Speaker] Could be all over right here.

Two count- - No.

Macho Man throwing everything but the kitchen sink

and can't keep The Dragon's shoulders down.

- [Speaker] I don't know how.

- [Speaker] Savage doesn't know where he is.

Oh, what a karate shot right between the eyes.

This (indistinct) has gone bananas.

- [Speaker] No, his foot was on the rope.

His foot was on the rope.

- There was near fall after near fall.

There was drama, it was back and forth.

It was breathless.

- [Speaker] Macho Man, poised in his favorite position.

Bombs away.

- [Speaker] He got him.

- [Speaker] He nailed him with it.

Bombs away.

- [Speaker] He got him.

- [Speaker] He nailed him.

- And when the match finally ends,

it's because Ricky Steamboat was able to lock in

a small package.

The fans were not expecting the match to end there,

and when it did, you wouldn't believe the reaction.

- [Speaker] But the championship still in control.

No, a small package by The Dragon.

He got him.

(crowd cheering)

- But after the one, two, three,

and I'm laying there looking up at the Silverdome,

my body completely melted.

It is over.

(crowd cheering)

The feeling of accomplishment.

I thought we had one hell of a match.

- [Speaker] Ladies and gentlemen,

the winner of this contest,

our new Intercontinental Champion.

(soft music)

- The common consensus was that the clash

of WrestleMania III between Steamboat

and the Macho Man was the greatest match ever.

- I'll tell you when it hit me.

Vince McMahon would always have this after dinner party

after a WrestleMania, and it was nonstop how wrestlers

were coming up to us and saying, "What a match."

It was nonstop through the evening.

You see Hogan over there sitting at his table

and nobody's going over there.

That meant we did something special.

- The measure of an incredible performer

is when you can inspire generations to come.

- For me, as a kid, I literally watched that match

on videotape till it wore out.

- To be able to reach that plateau and to wrestle, what,

90 some thousand people, screaming ass people, very proud.

(soft music)

- I think I had the IC belt for nine or 10 weeks.

It's around that time.

I walk into TV and Vince comes up to me and says,

"Got to have you swish the belt."

And I say, "Well, why?"

He says, "Well, it was two weeks you asked off."

And he's like, "We can't leave the belt dormant."

- The mentality was that the company couldn't afford

to have the Intercontinental Champion out of commission.

- He said, "Well, we have decided you're going

to have a match with Honky Tonk

and you're going to drop the belt to him."

- [Speaker] Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest

is for the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

- I thought that was totally ridiculous just

to have this rug pulled out from under me,

but any explanation other than the fact that,

"We don't want to leave the belt dormant for two weeks."

(crowd cheering)

- [Speaker] Party dog man scoop.

- [Speaker] He's in the ropes.

- [Speaker] Wait, a minute.

(bell ringing)

Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of this contest,

the new Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion,

The Honky Tonk Man.

- Maybe in terms of a business decision,

it was the right move,

but I would imagine Ricky felt a little bit humiliated.

- [Speaker] A major, major upset.

- So right after the match, I went to Vince and I said,

"You know those two weeks I asked off in July?

I'm taking six months."

- In a position that he was in, it's a good thing.

A lot of people don't have that opportunity

or position to do so.

- I will have to say that my pride and ego had a lot to

play involved in deciding to take the time off

to go from two weeks to six months.

(soft music)

I chose my family over wrestling

because I thought at that time I had given so much up

to be a team player.

It was something else.

Nothing I ever experienced to that level of happiness.

All the championships in the world,

all the sellouts that's under your belt

and the notoriety of who you are and what you worked for,

it doesn't compare to that.

I kept saying to myself, "If I was on the road,

I would miss this moment.

If I was on the road, I would not be able

to capture what's going on right now with my son.

If I was on the road, there would be things

that I would regret."

- That's a good decision.

First six months, I think the first couple of years

is the most important part of the child's life.

- What a dad should do.

Just shows what kind of person he wanted to be, be a dad.

It's your first son, and to be there.

I don't know how many diapers he changed now,

but I'm sure he was there.

- Here I've got a brand new son and it's the joy of my life,

but it made me sad to know that I was going to leave.

I had six months to spend as much time as I could.

- [Speaker] Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

against "The Hammer" Valentine.

- When he got back from taking time off,

nothing was the same.

- I always thought that even if I took the six months,

I'd come back and I'd still be...

Maybe that was the arrogance of my thought process

that I could pick up where I left off, but it didn't happen.

I don't regret making this decision to be at home.

I've been hitting it hard for 12 straight years.

It's almost like a double-edged sword.

You're looking at your family and trying to be with them,

and then at the same time you got a career

you haven't completely finished yet

and you still got a good ways to go.

So it was a balancing act.

- [Speaker] High cross body.

The Hammer turns it over.

He got him.

- After a certain period, The Dragon stopped mattering.

- Every two weeks I'd talk to Vincent on passing.

Most of the time I'd say,

"Hey, any Main Event spots come open?"

He goes, "No, not yet, Ricky."

Weeks went into months and then all of a sudden here it is,

about nine or 10 months later,

I just called the office and gave them my notice.

- Ricky left to go be with his family.

Rick didn't want to be on the road anymore and wanted

to spend time with his family and see his son grow up.

So he made the decision to leave.

- Honest truth, I would go back.

I would only do two weeks and then come back.

But it rubbed me the wrong way, at that moment.

I don't look back at it as a regret.

There might have been an opportunity that I missed.

I think was home for just a couple of months

and then I went back to WCW in January of '89.

- [Speaker] Jim, that's Rick Steamboat.

It's The Dragon.

- It was an intriguing matchup.

It was Ric Flair and Barry Windham were going

to wrestle Eddie Gilbert and Rick Steamboat,

returning to the place where he became a star.

- [Speaker] Steamboat on fire here dominating the action.

Flair goes for the ride.

He's elevated.

The heavyweight champion of the world is in deep trouble

in this television Main Event.

- It's a very intense match.

The fans pop in the arena, the fans pop at home.

I popped at home when I was watching it.

And Ricky beats the champion, Ric Flair

with the high cross body block, his signature move.

And big things are ahead.

- [Speaker] Ricky Steamboat has

just pinned the Heavyweight Champion of the world.

The Dragon has returned to the NWA.

- Ric Flair versus Ricky Steamboat in 1989 is the Star Wars

of wrestling trilogies.

- [Speaker] What a cute little kid.

- [Speaker] This is the motivation magnum

that Ricky Steamboat is using for this contest.

- Ricky's matches with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair

were some of the best of the best ever to be recorded.

- [Speaker] Each man has taken the best

that the other could dish out.

- They knew each other like the back of their hand.

They were just so familiar with each other.

- [Speaker] Each time that these two

admit they've been monumental matches.

- To me, it was like falling off a bike and you get back on

and ride it again.

We didn't miss a beat.

We didn't miss a step.

- It was like just having fun.

We knew nothing could touch it.

- [Speaker] The two finest wrestlers in the country today.

- They would be pulling out all the stops.

You knew when you were watching,

you were watching something special.

Something that people are going to talk about for years

and years to come.

- [Speaker] The people here are in awe,

the physical nature of this event.

- When you think about it, Ric Flair and Ricky

did the same thing with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Ali met his match.

He got somebody to stand ground with him,

somebody could hold their own with him.

And that's what Ricky was.

He was somebody that could hold their own with Ric Flair.

- [Speaker] But now Flair,

he twists the leg inside (indistinct).

Can he hold him?

Yes, he can.

(bell ringing)

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat has won the world title.

- The returning Ricky dethrones Ric Flair

for the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship.

- [Speaker] The winner and new world heavyweight champion,

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- Whooo, whooo!

- Never had a champagne bath before, Rick.

- Never, never.

I came my way to win the championship that night.

Big moment.

Big moment.

I even broke down at the end of the match.

This is a prize that we all strive for in our business,

trying to be some kind of a world champion.

I was real happy that finally they felt the nod

to go in my direction.

And like I said earlier, that there are things

in the horizon that may not be so bright

all the time when you think you become the world champion.

And then, what was it?

A month later, I lost it to him in Nashville.

- [Speaker] Steamboat's got him up.

A slam.

(indistinct)

- He did it. - He's done it.

(crowd cheering)

Steamboat's leg buckled and Flair has done it.

Flair has done it.

(dramatic music)

- When I lost the championship,

I was looking down the road at a number

of return matches between Flair

and I to see if Ricky was going to win it back.

But unbeknown to me, an angle was brewing.

- As much work as Ricky and Flair had done together,

I think Ricky might have felt slighted that they were

so quickly in the same night, in the same moment,

moving on to the next thing for Flair,

and didn't necessarily have anything planned for Steamboat.

- After I lost, Terry Funk comes running out,

grabs Flair, beats him up and pile drives him

on the announcement table.

And right before my very eyes, they created an angle.

No return matches with Ric Flair.

I only had a one-year deal,

and I thought that I could prove myself in one year

to the company to warrant a good contract.

And when I had a meeting with the higher ups,

they wanted to cut my pay in half.

And I said, "I don't think so."

- [Crowd] Steamboat, Steamboat, Steamboat.

- From '87 up to '89, for almost those two years

was high emotions, low emotions.

From '87, that WrestleMania match with me and Savage-

- [Speaker] (indistinct) and Steamboat,

the new Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion.

- And then I got fired.

Highs were so high for winning the world championship

and having classic matches with my old friend,

and number one guy that taught me so much,

just to get squashed out.

High emotions, low emotions.

It would play a factor on, believe this or not,

maybe it's time to bow out?

I was also thinking that I've got a newborn

and a couple good years for college money,

and I was still physically sound.

I will tell you this, I didn't question my inability

to work at another company.

I never questioned that.

I knew my stock value was good, and if I wanted to go back

to WWE, it was just a phone call away.

In '91, when I came back to WWE, Vince said,

"We want to repackage you."

- I think Vince McMahon felt he needed

a little something extra to connect with the WWE audience,

and that's where we got The Dragon.

(dramatic music)

So when Ricky comes back, he's wearing a giant headdress

and he's got a cape that looks like dragon wings

and a tail that comes down.

And of course, like any great athlete,

he has to learn how to breathe fire.

- In looking at the presentation of Rick Steamboat,

it was just a guy that called himself The Dragon,

but we wanted to turn Rick Steamboat,

"The Dragon" Ricky Steamboat,

into an actual dragon, a fire breathing dragon

because that's what dragons do.

(dramatic music)

- You've been Ricky "The Dragon",

you need to get a dragon's outfit,

and I'm going to have you learn how to blow fire.

- We went on a search for fire breathers,

and we spent a couple weeks with a fire breather

in a circus learning how to breathe fire.

- I learned from a guy in Florida named Brian LaPalme.

LaPalme was so excited on showing me he wanted

to show me outside, and it was a bit windy

down there in Florida.

So he got a mouthful of kerosene,

and just as he went to blow into the torch,

the wind shifted and he blew it all in his face.

And now, I'm looking at this guy running

around with his face on fire.

- Rick looked at me and said, "I'm not doing that."

- He said, "Man, it's okay.

It's just superficial.

Just, look, superficial."

He says, "Come on, let me teach it"

- [Speaker] First, he's going to start with his hands up.

Fire lit.

Then he's going to take it, blow it.

- Holy (beeping). (blowing)

- First time Rick came out with the fire,

the crowd's ooh-ing and ahh-ing, and then, spectacular.

(dramatic music)

- It's cool seeing Ricky come out dressed as a dragon

and breathing fire and everything,

but he didn't have any meaningful stories

the entire time that he was a fire breather.

- [Speaker] Nothing worse than a sagging dragon.

- He won matches or he might have lost matches.

Nobody really remembers because none

of the matches really had a lot of meaning to them.

- [Speaker] Oh, right through the legs.

Look, now.

- [Speaker] Something about The Dragon,

he takes it right to you.

- [Speaker] Cross-body, a beauty.

Forget it.

- I was not in a position of main events.

The Dragon's outfit and the blowing fire

didn't last but maybe 10 months or something,

and then I went back to WCW.

- [Speaker] What an entrance.

Fans going nuts.

- And I was with Shane Douglas and we were a tag team.

- It really was the blessing of my career,

getting put with him.

He's Ricky Steamboat.

He's on the Mount Rushmore.

- [Speaker] Steamboat and Douglas now,

with some explosive offense.

- We would get into the car at night

and have these long drives.

I mean, you go on the road and you're home

for about that much of the year.

And so, I know that Ricky just was gaga over being a father.

And when we were together, Richie was four,

and he wanted to be home and be a dad and provide.

Ricky wrestled with that.

It was a real, like this for him.

His marriage was starting to falter a bit

and he was not around Richie as much as he wanted to be.

- It's hard to be a family man.

It's hard to be a husband, it's hard to be a father

if you're a pro wrestler.

It weighs on a family and it weighs on a husband

and wife relationship when you were gone 250

to 300 days a year.

- That was one of the sacrifices that he made was

to be on a road to support his family,

to give them that good life to live.

I'm sure at times, it probably broke his heart.

- I would be gone a lot, be away a lot,

be away from home a lot.

And I kind of felt I need to do what I need to do now

to help prepare myself for the future.

- For someone who's not been in the ring,

you have to understand that there's so many

of these ingredients that go into it.

You're on the road, you're tired,

you're away from home forever,

but you got to go out and give this audience their match.

- [Speaker] All right?

The youngster, Shane Douglas, who's aligned himself

with a veteran, Ricky Steamboat.

They know each other quite well.

Oh, it's the team work and the champions

coming through here.

- I wanted to be there in the last twilight years,

and maybe coach or pass the torch and help out and teach.

- I credit it with having taken me

from being a junior partner in tag team

to being a main event later in ECW,

because most of what I was doing there was built on

what I learned with Ricky there.

- This was the next group of guys, right?

This is the next generation, the Shane Douglas'

and the Steve Austins.

- [Speaker] Stunning Steve Austin.

- I went to WCW and said, "This kid Austin, he's got it."

I told the WCW higher ups, I would suggest

to give him some more air time on TV

and maybe feature him a little bit more.

- [Speaker] I see a lot more confidence zooming off

of Austin.

- [Speaker] Personally, my favorite guy I'd ever get

in the ring with because he was so good.

- Ricky saw that I had something back then,

and because he'd already been with the WWE before,

he was a great guy that I could ask advice from.

- [Speaker] Steamboat and Stunning Steve, now the new battle

for the US title.

- We're having a match in Roanoke, Virginia,

and lost my balance.

- [Speaker] And Stunning Steve, they just continue

to battle on this turnbuckle.

- [Ricky] I slipped and ended up herniating a disc,

putting an hairline in a vertebrae fracture.

Very last match of my career.

- [Speaker] Steamboat and Stunning Steve now, to do battle

for the US title.

- Steve Austin, who is my very last match of my career.

A lot of guys put baby oil, including myself,

just to give a little shine,

and a lot of that gets rubbed off on the corners.

And you could stand on it and slip.

I was supposed to take a bump backwards into the ring.

As I was pushing off to get some distance, I slipped,

landing in almost a sit-up position on my tailbone.

- He had probably done that 10,000 times in his career.

But if you go out and you do something 10,000 times,

there might be a chance that

on that 10,001st time you might trip.

Something might not be in the right place.

And when he took that bump and he went

to do the backward roll, I saw him throw his hand back.

For me, I knew that with Ricky,

if he's selling this like this, he must really be hurt,

because Ricky would never go to the hospital on his own.

- And when I got back home to Charlotte,

I went to the Charlotte Spine Center and they said,

"Yeah, you've got a pretty serious herniated disc."

They did say it looked

like it might have been accumulation of over the years

of wrestling, those two vertebraes being compressed

so many times for it to finally herniate out the side.

After being in the business of wrestling

for almost 20 years,

this was the first real serious injury that I suffered.

That injury forced me to retire,

or to take a serious consideration.

It was almost like a double-edged sword on my feelings.

I was kind of sad that I was getting out because I'd been in

and I was still doing well,

and then because of this injury, it left a little bit

of a sour taste in my mouth.

- [Speaker] The winner and new United States

Heavyweight Champion, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- When I decided to get out, I forfeited the belt.

Things that were going through my mind obviously was,

what do I do now?

I started spending some more time being around the house

and being able to do that, but I guess that didn't work,

and I was getting divorced.

Didn't see that coming.

Here I was, off the road and home.

I was reading the Sunday paper.

She goes, "I want a divorce."

"Okay.

What are you talking about?

Why do you..."

None of that.

I don't know why.

I don't know, maybe she liked me being away. (laughing)

(soft music)

My love for cars started just as I became an early teenager.

My father retired from the military,

moved to St. Petersburg, Florida,

and the first thing he went out

and got me was a go-kart.

I got to learn the basic mechanics off of this go-kart.

Then I had '65 GTOs and I had '67, '68 Camaros.

When I had the Camaro, that's when I started venturing

to the drag strip and doing very well with the car.

That was my first introduction.

I was 17.

But up until about five years ago,

I really didn't have anything in the garage.

And five years ago, I started looking around.

I wanted something a little bit newer,

and so I started looking at Shelby, Cobra Mustangs.

Take a look.

What attracted me to this year car of Mustang '07,

is that the body lines are like second generation Mustang,

'69, '70, because that was the era I grew up in high school.

So I wanted to have that look,

so I ended up cutting a hole in the hood.

Then I cut these relief holes here.

There's vents up top where the heat that's coming off,

the headers can go up through here.

Over there, as the rear end that came out of it,

and I put it in a heavy duty nine inch Currie

made rear end to handle the horsepower.

That was the weak link on the drivetrain.

- That's one big thing I see of my brother.

He's a fairly quiet man until he gets in his hot rods.

- I'm pretty mechanically inclined,

so that's how Richie got started.

And Charlotte being the hub for NASCAR,

they had racing for kids.

The cars were called Bandoleros.

We raced it for about three years.

Lot of hours together, lot of hours together.

It was a good bonding time.

My son and I grew really close with this racing,

but at the same time, I missed the time in the ring.

Every other aspect of the business, I was not a fan of.

The travel, the being away, the politics.

- [Speaker] Welcome back.

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- [Ricky] The time in the ring is what I missed.

- In 2005, I got a call from talent relations.

"How'd you like to be a producer for WWE?

You will be assigned a couple of matches to oversee them

to make sure that the end of the match, the product

is what the company wants."

I said, "I'd be happy to come in and help out,

but you need to talk to Vince

because we did not have a good departing."

I'll never forget, as I walked into the building,

lo and behold, the first guy I run into was Vince McMahon.

And he came right up to me and shook my hand and said,

"Welcome aboard."

The last time we talked, he said, "You're fired.

Find your own way home."

So, what a change.

- I liked it when Ricky was a producer at WWE.

I was a fan of his.

I think everybody was, so it was cool

to think maybe he could help give some insight to my match.

- Boom, bang, bang, bang.

- But I got a chance to have him as my agent in many

of my matches.

I'm grateful to been able to have given that opportunity

to pick his brain just that much.

- I'm back into this routine now of being gone.

At this point, around 250 days a year,

which then at that time was also hard on family.

At the time, I had to remarried, and I could see how

that was wearing on the marriage,

but I wanted to get back to the wrestling business.

(dramatic music)

When you start out in the wrestling business,

you start knowing where you're going

to be on the ground level, opening matches.

And then you wonder, "Will I ever be good enough

or get good enough to make main events?"

- So, you want to slip them up or down?

- And once you reach main events, you say,

"Am I going to ever have a championship?"

Then you wonder, "Will I ever be inducted

in the Hall of Fame?"

The last piece.

And that happened.

- You worked hard for this.

Congratulations.

- Thank you, boss.

I mean that.

I mean it.

(crowd cheering)

- Over a 36-year period, when I'm asked

who my greatest opponent was, the answer

is always Ricky Steamboat.

(crowd cheering)

Ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor

to induct my friend, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

(crowd cheering)

- [Crowd] Steamboat, Steamboat, Steamboat, Steamboat.

(crowd cheering)

- He couldn't believe it.

Not worthy of this.

He didn't felt worthy.

That's why people like him

so much is that humbleness about him.

He rather brag about you than he'll brag about himself.

- I knew I was going to break down, but I didn't know it was

before I was going to start talking.

When I look back 35 years ago and visualize

what this business has given me,

I cannot help but be passionate and humbled

with what I've been blessed with.

(audience applauding)

You see, ladies and gentlemen, my rewards are not measured

in wins and losses.

It was about the performance, the match,

to know you left everything you had in that ring.

I want to stand here and thank all of you

for giving this moment, this Hall of Fame moment.

I'd like to give a special thanks, Richie Steamboat,

where are you?

Hopefully, someday, a future WWE superstar.

I stand before you, so proud, so humbled,

to be in the 2009 WWE Hall of Fame.

Thank you, everyone.

(audience applauding)

- The night after Rick was inducted into the WWE Hall

of Fame, he took part in a legend's match at WrestleMania.

- [Speaker] Welcome to the wonderment

of the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania.

- [Ricky] I was more worried about, I'm 56 years old.

I had not had a match in 15 years.

- [Speaker] And here comes The Dragon.

Well, Steamboat looks in great shape.

- It's a three-on-one handicap match at WrestleMania 25.

Chris Jericho versus Rowdy Roddy Piper,

"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, and for the first time

in a ring since 1994.

- [Speaker] Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

- As a fan, I remember looking at this match as a spectacle.

It'll be fun to see the old timers again.

And all of a sudden, Ricky's Steamboat gets in the ring,

and it's like he jumped into a time machine.

- [Speaker] Whoa.

That's will, ladies and gentlemen.

Ooh, that's passsion.

Look at Steamboat go.

We've turned back the hands of time.

- And my jaw was on the floor.

And I go, "Oh my God.

Ricky's still got it."

- [Speaker] I love the vintage.

Oh, and a great arm drag.

The Dragon.

(indistinct) Ricky Steamboat.

- Him and Jericho had a hell of a match.

(indistinct)

(crowd cheering)

- Jericho was so impressed, and even Vince was so,

watching me working the ring.

Vince shook my hand.

He said, "You ain't lost a step."

Well, three weeks later,

they have another pay-per-view called Backlash.

So I'm looking through it and I'm looking

at match number one, match number two, match...

Then I also look, oh, Steamboat versus Jericho.

And I went, "What?"

I look up at Vince and Vince is going-

I said, "What's going on?"

He says, "Well, you did so good with the legends match,

but Jericho wanted to really have his hand

at you in his singles."

- [Speaker] Can Jericho believe that that

just happened to him?

Don't you have to admit that this

is far more competitive a match

than you thought it would be?

- [Speaker] Magnificent effort from this WWE Hall of Famer.

Oh no.

- [Speaker] You got to be kidding me.

- [Speaker] Look at this.

You have got to be...

Oh my goodness. - You still got it, baby.

- It felt great because I was getting a bunch of pat

on the backs from some of the younger kids

that were watching my match.

But I'll tell you this, at 56 years old, my skeleton,

my joints, I was happy that I did it,

but then I was happy, "Okay, I've done it.

It's done.

It's over."

- [Speaker] Magnificent effort from this WWE Hall of Famer,

who we could have seen here for the last time.

Oh, got one more.

- I feel it was important to continue training

even when I retired from wrestling.

- [Speaker] Go back towards me.

Back towards me, Rick.

Good.

Up, good.

- The difference between now

and when I was actively wrestling, as you know,

when you're working out, you do a tearing down process

with the muscle and then it rebuilds itself.

But as I got older, I understood that that slowed way down.

- Bang it out.

Come on, Ricky.

Get it.

Get it.

That's all you.

Stand up and show them off.

Stand up and show them off.

(Ricky laughing)

- I got into the notion to where, if I just use lightweights

and do a lot of reps, I could also help my joints out.

A range of motion would still be good as opposed

to not being able to raise my arms

because of my shoulders or my elbows or my hips.

But just doing some form of exercise

to keep the blood flowing in those areas

has really helped me out.

- [Speaker] Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

(crowd cheering)

- In 2010, we did this skit on Monday Night Raw.

They were going to bring a three disc DVD of my career.

- It's going to take more than three DVDs

to hold your career, my friend.

Congratulations.

You've earned it.

- They said, "Ricky, we want to send you out, and the fans,

and introduce this three disc DVD.

We'll talk about it, and then we're going

to send this NXT guys up"

- [Speaker] The Nexus.

- And he said, "They're going to jump you and beat you up

and leave you laying.

And of course, you're up, and you're 57 years old.

It isn't like they're jumping at a 25-year-old.

So we're going to get a lot of heat."

And everybody, "Oh my God, they're going to beat Rick up."

You could hear the buzz and the audio.

Oh no, oh no.

They're going to, oh no.

- [Speaker] Oh my God.

This is not good.

- I get picked up and slammed down so hard

that I ended up with a brain bleed.

(all chattering) (dramatic music)

I was in intensive care for almost three weeks.

(machine beeping)

They call it a subarachnoid hemorrhaging.

This is down in between your two halves of your brain,

your left and right side.

You got connecting blood vessels or capillaries,

and they got torn apart during the G-force,

during the impact.

He said, "The problem we have is that we cannot get to it.

It has to stop on its own, and if it doesn't stop

on its own, you're going to die."

- I go to the hospital and I sit down next to him

and he doesn't recognize you.

He sit there and stared at me for 10, 15 seconds

and it freaking dawned on him that it's Victor,

his brother next to him.

That was, oh boy, such a frightening experience,

so heartbreaking.

- They were doing CAT scans and MRIs about every three days.

They were checking it.

And after about almost two weeks, they said,

"God, it looks like it might be fixing itself."

All right.

Meanwhile, my wife at that time was Claudia.

They flew her down from Charlotte.

She sat in that hospital room every single day

for almost three weeks.

I was in and out of it.

There was times that I was angry at the nurses

and there was a time to which I ripped everything

out of my neck and pulled it all out of my arms

and "I'm getting out of here.

God, I'm tired of this."

That was hard on her.

And I had an attitude of, I'm not going to say angry

at the world, but I had a chip on my shoulder

and this wore off on her.

So being gone for so many years and then capping off

with coming back home and having an edgy attitude

all the time culminated into us finally separating.

And that's when I picked up and left Carolina.

Hey, how you doing? - I'm like, normal.

- Good morning. - Good morning.

- I already had my coffee.

- Yeah? - Yep.

Going to make some toast.

You want some? - No.

I'm just going to have my coffee this morning.

Going to have my coffee this morning.

Oh, so sweet.

Always so sweet.

Thank you for my note, baby.

Ricky and I met about seven and a half years ago.

They had a fanboy convention in Knoxville

and my best friend wanted to go.

So we're walking through, we hear this voice go, "Hey."

So we take a picture together and we stood there

and talked, I guess 10 or 15 minutes and we walked off.

- I write down my phone number and I go out

and I search in the crowd and I find her

and I tap her on the shoulder and I say, "Shoot me a text."

- We started talking and it just went from there.

- You want to try another one?

Hmmm?

It might be your day if mama wasn't here, right?

Where's pops?

- Pops give you toast? - Pops give you toast, huh?

- Ricky is very tender-hearted, very tender-hearted.

I mean, he's a tough guy on the outside,

but he's very tender-hearted.

- They say if you have a stressful day

and you go out and sit at a dock and look out at the water,

it sort of just takes it all away.

Sandi, we've been together for seven years

and I wasn't doing a whole lot on the road and being away.

I've had past relationship and marriages

that the sport has made it very difficult to maintain.

I don't know if even she would be with me

if I was on the road 300 days a year.

It's hard for your other better half to put up with that.

Unfortunately for me on some of my other situations,

it never worked out that way and I accepted and moved on.

Having her there plays such a big factor in my life now.

You always wonder when you get into the twilight years,

where are you going to be?

Are you going to be with someone that cares about you

or are you going to be alone?

And this is so comforting to me that I know

that she'll be there.

I'm in a good spot.

I got a nice home.

I got a great wife, Sandi.

I got a little hoppy car.

- [Announcer] And Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat folks

right here.

One of the legends of the ring right here in the house

in Knoxville Dragway.

- I've had a number of cars throughout my life.

There were some that I was really passionate about.

This car is the fastest car I've ever owned.

(dramatic music)

The first time I took this car down the track,

it was like somebody hit you in the gut.

Yea

It was that kind of holy (beep) moment.

I'm over the moon.

I am over the moon.

Got the heeby-jeebies every time I went down the track.

For me tonight, it's like winning the world championship.

- [Announcer] The winner and new world heavyweight champion.

- Steamboat was in a league of his own.

- God, it seemed like he was born for it.

- [Announcer] What an outstanding athlete he is, with a lot

of natural ability.

- If there was ever a wrestler to be built and be molded,

it would be molded after him.

It was almost like a chess player that would think two,

three steps ahead.

- Everything he done was phenomenal.

Every move was crisp.

Every move was like poetry in motion.

- [Announcer] And that is poetic.

That is a piece of art.

- [Speaker] I'm just getting this picture in my mind

right now, just visualizing how smooth he was.

- [Announcer] One of the most respected

and talented athletes to ever compete.

(soft music)

- The only way I can look at him

is he was the consummate professional.

- Well, why you just laying there?

- If Ricky was in football, he'd be Tom Brady.

Laser focused.

He took his job seriously.

- He was that guy that the parents wanted their kid

to meet because this guy's doing it all right, son.

- My upbringing with my parents played 99%

of who I am today.

- [Announcer] This youngster's a gentleman 24 hours a day.

- And this comes from the bottom of my heart.

I'd like to give thanks to all the fans

that have supported me.

I've had ups and downs in my life, but you're missing out

a big part of living if you're never grateful.

That spins off into finding some form of happiness.