Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat
Walking the Aisle: The Ric Flair Story
In 1976, a twenty-four year old Floridian by the name of Richard Blood arrived on the scene. A graduate of the Gagne school, where he was trained by Khosrow "The Iron Sheik" Vaziri, Blood quickly earned a reputation as a hard worker and a fast learner, with precision timing and incredible stamina.
Because of his uncanny resemblance to Sam Mokuahi, who wrestled as "Sam Steamboat" throughout the 50's, 60's, and 70's, Blood was originally billed as "Sam Steamboat Jr." The irony here is that for years following World War II, wrestling promoters had taken grapplers from Hawaii and billed them as Japanese. Now, here was Blood, legitimately part-Japanese, and they were saying that he was from Honolulu, Hawaii.
As a trivia sidenote, when Tito Santana (Merced Solis) worked in the Carolinas in the late 70's, it was thought that since most of the audience was white, that he should have a more "American" name. Thus, for a brief time, Santana wrestled under Steamboat's given name, "Richard Blood."
After competing in several territories, including the Minneapolis, Tampa, and Atlanta circuits, the real Richard Blood, by now known as "Ricky Steamboat," was brought to Charlotte in 1977 by Jim Crockett and George Scott, again on the recommendation of Wahoo McDaniel.
A student of the martial arts, Steamboat barely spoke above a whisper in his ever-so polite interviews that were the norm for babyface wrestlers in those days. Billed as a McDaniel protege, he would break boards and concrete blocks on TV, getting across his silent-but-deadly persona ala Bruce Lee.
Meanwhile, Flair, who had just recaptured the Mid-Atlantic TV belt from Rufus R. Jones, began to goad Steamboat, the rising star, on a weekly basis. Finally, after pushing, slapping, and taunting Steamboat by calling him "a punk," Flair stepped across that invisible line in all great wrestling angles, and found himself lying "unconscious" on the cold studio floor courtesy of a Steamboat backhand chop.
A title match was then scheduled between Steamboat and Flair, on Wednesday, June 22, 1977, during a taping of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in Raleigh's WRAL studios. A star-making showcase for both men, the match ended when Steamboat pinned Flair following a double-handed karate thrust off the top turnbuckle. Afterwards, as Steamboat was holding the TV belt aloft, Greg Valentine, who was doing commentary at ringside along with Bob Caudle and David Crockett, jumped into the ring and helped Flair give the new champion a beating.
To gain a measure of revenge, Steamboat then teamed with the popular Paul Jones to defeat Flair & Valentine for the Mid-Atlantic tag team title on August 22, 1977 in Greensboro. Flair & Valentine had won those belts a short time earlier from Tiger Conway Jr. & Dino Bravo (Adolpho Brescino).
It was just the start of a fued that would last nearly two decades, providing
matches that would no doubt be talked of for decades to come.
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