WWE Hall of Famer Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat recently appeared as a guest on Sportskeeda WretleBinge for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Steamboat talked about his angle with Ricky Starks and he confirmed that there were other plans for his angle but Steamboat wanted to put Starks over.
“They suggested an outcome that I didn’t like,” Steamboat said. “I said, ‘Look, you’re doing a slow turn with this kid, Ricky Starks, and trying to turn him heel and what you’re suggesting is, there’s not going to be any heat on him. So I made the suggestion of what everybody saw, and I said, ‘I’d like to put some heat on this kid’, and so everything carried out to the tee.”
Steamboat went on to say, “They had a result where everything would go down as it was and then as he would spin me around and try to take a shot, I would block it and give him some big chops and he take a bump through the ropes out on the floor and then scurry up the ramp. It would be like a happy, happy moment. I’m thinking and I’m picturing this, and I said, ‘Well, where’s the heat there? Where’s the heat for the kid?’ Number one, I caught him with his foot on the ropes. So that was a happy moment. The referee got knocked down, so I did my job. I was the second, so I got in the ring and he got counted 1-2-3, so there’s another happy moment. Then to spin me around, I block the punch, the cheap shot, and then hit him with big chops and then a big double chop and he takes that bump on the floor, and then tail between his legs and scurrying up the ramp to the back. There’s absolutely no heat and plus the fact you know, I’m 70 and they’re gonna say,’God, Stark, a 70-year old man, you know, an old timer just whipped up on you.’ I said, ‘We got to turn this around to where, you know, he’s got to catch me off guard and sucker me and get me down and do something to where it’s almost to the point of disgusting and shameful.’”
On recommending John Laurinaitis take a look a CM Punk when Punk was still in Ring of Honor in 2004:
“They (ROH) brought me in as the special guest referee for the match, the main event match, and they were going to do an hour Broadway, and so I was the third guy in the ring. I was there and I listened to CM Punk lead the whole match for the whole hour. That told me right there this kid’s got it, you know, the psychology part. You know, what to do, when to do it, why you do it at this time, why you do it at the beginning and not at the end, so forth and so on. I mean, he had all the nuts and bolts connected, and that impressed me. At that time, I went back to John Laurinaitis, who was in talent development, and said, ‘You need to take a look at CM Punk and get him up here for an audition. ‘John said, ‘Oh, we’ve had him up here a couple of times.’ I said, ‘Well, what did you do?’ He said, ‘We put him in the ring with one of our regulars for about five minutes, you know, didn’t see much.’ I said, ‘Well, I was in a match as a referee and he went to an hour Broadway and he called the whole match. This kid has the, I got it. He’s got the IT thing. You know, the IT and I think you should take another look and maybe put him in there with one of our better, topper guys, and let him do a 15 or 20 minute audition instead of a three to five minute quickie in and out. So they got him up there and got in the ring, 20, and he got hired.”
You can check out the interview below:
