Ricky Steamboat reveals who impressed him when he was a coach in Florida Championship Wrestling.
Steamboat is without a doubt one of the most underrated wrestlers of WWF in the late ‘80s. He wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions before joining WWF. He had what many consider the best match of WrestleMania III. That is saying a lot because that is the WrestleMania which saw Hulk Hogan suplex Andre the Giant. Steamboat also went to war with Macho Man Randy Savage over the Intercontinental Championship.
After leaving WWF he wrestled for WCW making a stop in WWF before returning to WCW. He was a multiple time United States champion and TV champion, but most of his gold came in the tag team variety winning them with Jay Youngblood, Dustin Rhodes and Shane Douglas.
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Ricky Steamboat wrestled throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s until he eventually retired in 1994 before returning in 2005. In the early days of FCW which eventually became NXT he was one of the trainers for the new wrestlers.
While a guest on WrestleBinge, Ricky Steamboat reflected on his time coaching in FCW and named one standout who is currently one of WWE’s biggest stars:
“I had my hand in helping Seth Rollins and think he’s a pretty good worker,” Ricky Steamboat said. “The [WWE] protocol is they don’t care how good of a worker you are, you have to go through the school. You might be here a month, you might be here a year, but you still have to go through the school.
He was one of the guys that you could tell [was invested] when you were talking to him about psychology. Basically, all of the guys knew how to do moves. But I found my role was to talk to them and tell them the psychology of the reasons why we do things in the match that helps tell the story of the match. And I could tell when I was talking to Seth that lightbulbs were clicking on around his head, [unlike] other guys who give you the deer in the headlights look.”
H/T To Wrestling Inc. For Transcription
Ricky Steamboat Added A Little Polish To Rollins
Rollins spent 15 months in FCW/NXT even though he had wrestled for Ring of Honor for a few years. He needed a little more polish and who better to apply that polish than Ricky Steamboat?
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Rollins was the inaugural NXT champion and was eventually called up to join the most important factions of the last 20 years in WWE and one of the most important in wrestling. This little group was called the Shield and included current standouts in wrestling Roman Reigns and Jon Moxley known as Dean Ambrose in WWE.
A Founding Member Of A Little Known Faction
Since Rollins’ days in the Shield he has proven himself as one of the most dependable wrestlers in WWE. His feuds are always very entertaining and his matches are always one of the best of the night, if not the best. With the revelation of Ricky Steamboat taking time to mentor him it brings up the question of how much did he rub off on Rollins? If Steamboat wasn’t in FCW would we have Seth “Freakin’” Rollins coming out every Monday night on Raw or would he be some random mid-carder?
Will Rollins Leave Elimination Chamber With Gold Around His Waist
This Saturday at Elimination Chamber Rollins will compete in the titular match for Austin Theory’s United States Championship. He will have very stiff competition as he will have to overcome not only Theory, but also Johnny Gargano, Bronson Reed, Damian Priest and Montez Ford.
Rollins has also said some disparaging things about Logan Paul to possibly set up a WrestleMania match, so don’t be surprised if Paul makes an appearance after the match to show Rollins what he thinks of him.
Out of Rollins’ FCW class do you agree with Ricky Steamboat that he was the most impressive early on? Do you see Steamboat’s influence on Rollins? Do you think Rollins would be the major star he is today without Steamboat? Would you consider Rollins the Steamboat of the modern era? If not, who would you give that honor to? Let us know if you think Ricky Steamboat was the most underrated wrestler of the ‘80s in WWF.
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Sources: WrestleBinge, Wrestling Inc.
