Ricky Steamboat Comments On WWE Departure In 1988 And His WrestleMania 25 Match With Chris Jericho
On a recent interview with Wrestling Inc , WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat spoke about his departure in 1988 from WWE and his match with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25.
Regarding his departure, Steamboat had the following to say:
“I never knew about rumors [of] dropping [the Intercontinental Championship] to Butch Reed. After Randy [Savage] and I had that match [at WrestleMania 3], we took the status of the Intercontinental belt, I feel, to another level. We took it up a notch. And I wanted to take time off because my first born, Richie, was going to be born, and I wanted to be there, and be there for my wife, and I just didn’t want to miss it. I had been gone and I had been on the road a number of years. I just wanted to be there for the moment. I understood that the championship being brought to that new level, it’s business to me being away and it laying dormant. I understood that. For me to drop it to Honky Tonk [Man], I think I took about four or five months, maybe longer, of time, business-wise when you have a championship belt that [has] just been elevated like that and then it’s not being seen, we’ve got to keep the belt moving, so yeah, I dropped it to Honky Tonk.”
The WWE Hall of Famer had this to say about his match with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25:
“At that time I was older and I had that match with Jericho at WrestleMania 25 with [Jimmy] Snuka and [Roddy] Piper, a few moments in that match, I knew I had lost a step and it was just mother nature and age. I knew it. The fans, a lot of them said, ‘you haven’t lost a step,’ but I knew it. And then, three weeks later, unbeknownst to me, I got a single’s match with Jericho at Backlash. Vince was so impressed with the way I was carrying myself at WrestleMania 25, and I think Jericho too, that he went to Vince and said, ‘hey, I’d like to work a single’s match with Ricky,’ and without a hesitation, the next thing you know, I’m on Backlash. And then, we went overseas, on a tour and I was one of the road agents at the time, and working every night with Jericho, we came back to the States and in the States, every night, I was working with Jericho. And that one match at WrestleMania 25 ended up being 20 matches with Chris! That was never set before WrestleMania 25. It was only because of my showing that that developed and I was like a kid in a candy store, back again working just like one of the boys, like one of the boys every night and having some really good matches.”
Transcript courtesy of Wrestling Inc
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