Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

[Dragonslayer]

I agree on this - I was literally sitting open-mouthed in front of the screen when Steamboat started gathering steam at WM, as I was so surprised and impressed by his in-ring abilities at his age. Seriously, this almost brought a tear to my eye.

But he definitely should not return as a full-time wrestler. Flair overstayed his welcome by doing that - if he had just been wrestling off and on a couple of times a year while maintaining a manager/backstage role, it would've been better. And seriously - I doubt Steamboat, no matter how good he looked at WM and RAW, could go for a year or two straight on a schedule like the rest of the younger guys. But the fans ate him up this weekend, and WWE definitely should make use of that. I would honestly love to see him as GM of SD or RAW or something like that, as others have pointed out - finally they'd have a GM you could take seriously, as he obviously has an idea about how the business works, and besides he could whoop some a** if you cross him.

But on a side note - I believe it must definitely have been a very special moment for Y2J to wrestle Ricky Steamboat (and a Steamboat in such a condition) at WM25...

 

[Jersey Wannabe]

Going in to Mania, i was really wondering what Steamboat could do.
We all knew that Snuka and Piper were shells of what they used to be.

But Steamboat did not disappoint.
Part of me says that he should stay retired and be happy with the legacy he left behind.
Does anyone really want to see Steamboat end up like Flair?

But on the other hand part of me would love to see him win the IC belt and be the one to return it to prominence.
A legend that can still go and who was involved in one of the greatest IC title matches of all time could be just what that belt needs.

 

[mrkite619]

i was thinking jericho goes to smackdown in the draft & steamboat becomes gm.they can continue the feud with steamboat putting jericho in matches with kane & kahli & other big dudes he wouldn't wanna face or something like that.& hopefully it can lead to a 1 on 1 match with jericho & steamboat at summerslam in a classic 20 minute match.steamboats last match or he could wrestle actively between now & summerslam, rack up a few wins to make him look good & head into summerslam with a ton of momentum & there jericho can defeat him & ricky can retire or be gm or a manager

 

[SquareSix]

Like cool_guy_12, I wasn't born when Steamboat was in his prime, but being the wrestling fan that I am, I have found many of his matches online and on several dvds. The man was incredible and after watching his match last night on Raw, I have to say that he is still just as incredible. He is fun to watch, it has great nostalgia to it and he doesn't appear to have lost a step. No, he probably isn't able to do everything in the ring he used to but damn he looks just as good as 80-90% of the younger guys he was out there with.

As fun as it was to watch him still putting on a hell of a show this many years after what many people considered to be his prime, I don't want his reputation to become tarnished by staying around too long. He doesn't deserve that at all. At the most I say let him face Jericho at Backlash. After what transpired on Raw last night, the feud is still over enough with the crowd that they could pull it off. Not to mention it would be entertaning as anything else WWE decides to put on the card. After that though they should put him in some kind of on screen role for sure, just not necessarily in the ring. The Smackdown GM role would be cool. I have no idea what he would be like at commentary, but that might be an option for him also with Tazz leaving a position open.

 

[ilivewrestling]

well, i dont know guys. I hear what you guys are saying about flair, but i dont necessarily think it was a bad thing for him to stay as long as he did, i guess i only feel that way because i LIVE wrestling (hence the name lol) & i watch any wrestling i get my hands on. I watch old tapes wishing i could be there so i dont know but it's very exciting for me to see wrestlers who's prime was 15+ yrs ago wrestle today. I watch the matches from Ric Flair's dvd collection & Steamboat was jus always constant motion in the ring, so damnit when i saw him at WrestleMania then again last night on RAW my jaw was dropped the whole time. I literally had goosebumps watching him. I just couldnt believe i was getting a chance to Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat wrestle LIVE, TODAY, RIGHT now, like it wasnt a tape, it was RIGHT NOW. I mean the chant the fans gave him on raw "YOU STILL GOT IT". it couldnt get more appropriate than that. & at WrestleMania when he started whipping out his trademark Arm Drags on Jericho, i think that is the point where we all started to eat him up. Do I think he should return full time? I dont know. The only way to tell if he could would be for him to actually do it & find out.......But if that never happens (which we know it won't) , i will never forget 04/05/09 & 04/06/09 because i FINALLY got to see Ricky Steamboat live

 

[JGlass]

Like others have said, though Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels was the match of the night, Steamboat still stood out. He was absolutely fantastic, my jaw literally dropped when I watched him hit those vintage arm drags, and I was left in straight up awe when he hit the diving cross-body off the top rope.

With that being said, I was already disappointed when Steamboat came back for that dopey tag match. He had one hell of a weekend, being inducted to the hall of fame, and then putting on a match that had all sorts of shades of Steamboat vs. Macho Man. If he came back, it'd totally tarnish that epic performance he put on at Wrestlemania. It'll be more memorable this way.

 

[NSL]

Steamboat definitely did great at WrestleMania, and impressed me even more with his action on Monday. He should definitely continue to make TV appearances, but I think that was done, when he was allowed to take center stage in the ring after the match. It had the feel of a send off, and would work well if that was the case.

What I want to know, is why he wasn't making appearances for the last few years? Why have they paraded out Piper, who was fat, drunk, and couldn't make it down the aisle, much less wrestle?