What if Ricky Steamboat didn't leave NWA / WCW in 1989?

[GhettoV1]

If "The Dragon" didn't leave WCW in 1989 after his Bash match vs Lex Luger would he dethrone Luger to win the U.S. title at the first Halloween Havoc and have a run vs the Great Muta in 1990 or challenge Flair again until Sting is ready for the Bash PPV?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Steamboat's NWA World Heavyweight Championship run was the peak of his success and I think he would've just been relegated back to the middle of the card or tag team picture, which is ultimately where he wound up when he came back to the company years later. Steamboat was a fantastic in-ring worker, no question about that, but this was also very much the era where very big, over the top personalities with lots of flash and color in pro wrestling was what fans were paying more and more attention to and Steamboat just wasn't one of those guys and never really had been.

Had Steamboat failed to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship for what would have been the 4th time, which he was later do in 1994, I could have seen WCW going the route of having him feud with the Great Muta over the Television Championship. Muta won that title in September of '89 and I could easily see WCW trying to market some sort of clash of "martial arts masters" or something between Muta and Steamboat. I think he'd have generally stayed a TV Champion or challenger up until he started teaming with Dustin Rhodes in 1991, Shane Douglas about a year later, both of which he had forgettable tag title runs with, before ultimately doing what he wound up doing: having one last forgettable run with the TV Championship and later US Championship.

 

[Goldie]

Steamboat's NWA World Heavyweight Championship run was the peak of his success and I think he would've just been relegated back to the middle of the card or tag team picture, which is ultimately where he wound up when he came back to the company years later. Steamboat was a fantastic in-ring worker, no question about that, but this was also very much the era where very big, over the top personalities with lots of flash and color in pro wrestling was what fans were paying more and more attention to and Steamboat just wasn't one of those guys and never really had been. .

I think this is spot on. As gifted as Steamboat was in the ring, and as much as he is revered by the internet wrestling community, he wasn't the most charismatic of babyfaces.
Had he stayed on from 1989 onwards.... I still think he would have been surpassed by Sting (who wasn't the worker Steamboat was, but had he charisma to connect with the fanbase and audience and draw more money).
By 1980s standards, his 3 month title reign in 1987 was relatively short..... though I still think Steamboat would have been used as a world title challenger from time to time, as the guy chasing rather than holding the world title.
He would have cleaned up the secondary titles (US and TV belts).... much as he did from late 1991 to 1994. There is no reason why his 1992 fued with Rick Rude wouldn't have happened