[1992-05-16-WCW-Worldwide] Interview: Ricky Steamboat

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Ricky Steamboat is here to respond to all these allegations. Seriously, WHERE IS THE WAR GAMES BUILD UP?

 

Steamboat is still healing from a broken nose at the hands of Rude. I understand what they were trying to do to enhance Steamboat/Rude, which was the hottest program in the company, but they almost drowned it in the extracurricular stuff.

[Tim Evans]

Weren't they going between K allen Frye and Bill Watts booker stints during the build up for War Games? That's probably why.

[shoe]

I have gone on record and hate the stalker gimmick.

[Kevin Ridge]

This type of angle doesn't fit Steamboat. He tries to explain his previous appearance of blowing fire as sending a message. Wasn't really buying that myself. Steamboat makes it clear that he is after Rude's belt not his woman.

[WingedEagle]

Steamboat is out with bruised eyes and a busted nose so apparently we missed the angle where the DA smashed his face into the floor. Steamer stumbles over calling Rude his "nemesis" and we get zero mention of War Games, that PPV which is a week away.

[PeteF3]

Effective make-up job on Steamboat. I wish the concrete attack had gotten more play than the stalker angle. Steamboat cuts a pretty fiery (hah) promo.

 

No mention of WarGames--completely bizarre.

[MikeCampbell]

Great line from Steamer that he doesn't want Rude's woman, he wants Rude's title.

[garretta]

Actually, we got a WrestleWar mention at the very start, as Tony welcomed Ricky in for an interview "on this WrestleWar weekend".

 

This was pretty good, as Steamer says that he had to explain to Richie about the nature of his injury, but now Bonnie's mad at him over the stalker stuff. I thought the first part was a nice touch, but as I've said before, either Bonnie has to come on camera or not be mentioned at all, and it doesn't look like she's coming on camera. Maybe if she wasn't such a big part of his family man image, I'd be okay with this, but we saw her at ringside all over the place during his '89 run, so why not use her now if she's willing?

 

I don't think being a stalker was supposed to be a new gimmick for Steamer, Shoe. Sometimes people get their insider terms a bit confused. If it was (meaning that Dusty actually wanted the audience to think that Ricky was after Medusa in a threatening way, and would stalk other women similarly in the future), he missed the mark by a million miles; there are approximately a million wrestlers who would be more believable in such a creepy role. The thing is, I can't totally dismiss the idea out of hand, given some of his other ideas.

 

I don't think the "nemesis" thing was a stumble. I think Steamer wanted to call Rude "my friend", as he has with some other people he's feuded with in the past, but decided that the occasion needed something a bit stronger. We just happened to catch him thinking on his feet a little longer than he should have been.

 

Glad to see that I was right about the fire breathing being a message to Rude. Of course, scaring the hell out of Jesse and Paul was a nice little side benefit!

[dawho5]

Steamer cuts an intense promo that undoes some of the earlier damage that this stalker angle has done to the feud.  I tend to believe he wants the belt not the woman.

And yes, Tony did mention WrestleWar.  Glad somebody did.