Ricky Steamboat talks 'WWE All-Stars,' Randy Savage, and turning heel
THQRicky "The Dragon" Steamboat takes on The Big Show in "WWE All-Stars."It only takes two words to make Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat break out in laughter.
Two words that roared as he sat on stage to talk about the new video game, "WWE All-Stars," at THQ's recent preview event in New York.
Two words that are unmistakable in the world of professional wrestling as they helped define Steamboat's biggest rival.
"Oh yeah!"
"Talk about brining back memories," Steamboat tells me after watching a video of "Macho Man" Randy Savage announcing that the madness is returning to WWE via the video game. "How can you not remember that gruff, growl that he had. It was a classic. I had flashbacks of him coming off the top rope with the bell or with the elbow."
Steamboat and Savage are featured alongside other legends like Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Andre The Giant in "WWE All-Stars," THQ's impressive new game that pits old school versus new school as fans finally get the chance to see who would win in a fight between the likes of John Cena and The Rock or Randy Orton and Bret "Hitman" Hart.
"What a great deal for fans," Steamboat says about the game. "There are so many young fans out there who have only seen me wrestle on tape. There are fans out there who have never seen Andre The Giant wrestle but have heard the name and heard stories about his career and have seen the highlights of Wrestlemania III. Now they get to play as me. Now they get to play as all of these legends and superstars and see who would win in matches we could only dream of.
"Besides, sometimes it's just fun to shout, 'Oh yeah!'"
Jon Robinson: When Randy Savage hit you with the ring bell, it sparked one of the greatest feuds professional wrestling has ever seen. Why do you think that one attack resonated so well with fans?
Ricky Steamboat: It was as close as you can get to off-the-charts violent without having blood. And if you look at the slow-motion replay of how he came down and nailed me, people couldn't dispute it. You can watch all of the different angles and you can't dispute it. We work with such a close margin, and with stuff like that, how do you rehearse it? You don't. And then, I didn't wrestle for a couple of months after that. Here I am trying to gear up for our biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania, and all of the guys are coming up to me and telling me that I'm not in ring shape. A guy can do a stair-stepper for an hour or go out and run five miles, but there's a big difference between doing that and going out into the ring and being ready to go-go-go-go-go! I know one thing, after the match with Savage at Wrestlemania III, I was gassed. I went back to the locker room and fell on the floor. I was just trying to hold myself up riding back in that little cart.
Randy Savage was a major competitor with a major role back then in the company. There was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, but everything blossomed at the same time.
ESPN ARCADE
- Return Man 2
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