Top 91 Quotes & Sayings by Ricky Steamboat

The matches that I've been involved with as a referee, sometimes the heel likes to get up in my face a little bit and even at 65 years old, I don't put up with that crap. Most times or not, the poor guy gets chopped down a few times.

Competition has always been good.

I learned to listen as a good guy, how to fight back without throwing away the heat, and how to fight back while I was still hurting. That part would always keep you in the game and keep you in the match.

The phrase that I use a lot is you've got to connect the dots and keep connecting them up to the finish.

I remember when we were having cage matches and Superfly Snuka was the first to do this - both of us were doing dives off the top rope - but at MSG he did off the top of the cage onto Don Muraco.

Without our fans, we wouldn't have anything. I owe everything I have to the ones that paid money. It trickles down to them paying my salary, so I'm always thankful.

I like to listen to the crowd, I really do. The crowd helps give me that extra boost of adrenaline.

The roar of 93,000 people was just... I had nothing to compare that to.

Things can be fast paced in the ring but I was very particular in knowing to be in the right time at the right place.

What was old can be brought back new, and I bring that to the table. I bring mannerisms, facials, body language, positioning.

I'll say there's a lot of good athletes out there, but the key thing that I see missing is being able to put it all together in order to tell a story. In every match you can tell a story.

When you get two guys that gel together, you can feel greatness in the ring.

I'm back in the gym doing squats. I still do the old school stuff. I'm just not concerned about putting the weight on as much as just going through the motions to keep things lubricated and stretched out.

I learned early on as a baby-face you had adapt to their style. Ravishing Rick Rude had his own style and his own way with a little bit of some Ric Flair-isms. But I always learned to adapt myself.

You know I'm very happy with WWE, the company in which I still work.

I've got 8 and 10 year old kids telling me about the match I had with Savage at WrestleMania III and that was 30 years before they were even born. But with the magic of the Internet, their dad tells them to watch a little bit of what they used to watch... It amazes me that we're passing it on from generation to generation.

I'd like to work with Seth Rollins, and I'd put him over right in the middle.

I've been in the business over 35 years and had over 6,000 matches and I am helping guys who have only been in the business maybe a year or two and 100 matches. I am taking my 6,000 matches and passing it along.

I don't like to use the word 'fake.' A lot of our stuff is choreographed. But there is a lot of physicality that happens during the course of a match and our careers. There's a lot of physicality that happens to us and you can't deny that.

Jim Crockett could just advertise Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair, and we would do great numbers just off of the two names being hooked up for the evening. Fans knew we'd go out there and give them a hell of a match, win, lose or draw.

The fans have always played a major role for me and have helped me do what I need to do in the ring.

There are so many young fans out there who have only seen me wrestle on tape.

I have never, ever met a performer that was a stickler to critical moments and moves as they fit. Savage was a perfectionist.

A lot of guys, if they're a face and they see their drawing ability start to falter, they'll turn heel and they're right back on top again. Same thing with a heel. All of a sudden they'll turn into a good guy. Ric Flair has done that throughout his career a number of times.

The one moment above all that fans bring up from my career when they run into me is the Savage match. Here it is, 30 years later, and everywhere I go that's what people want to talk about.

I worked with Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt. Those guys have come along and are doing very well now.

The fans can bring a better match by getting more involved. So when a match is over, they might be talking about how good the match was, but little do they know, that great match was elevated because of them.

I've wrestled in Hamilton and Toronto and the fans have always received me well there... It's always been one of my favorite areas to come in.

In the mid-'80s when the business took a big change, everybody was living their character.

I want to be remembered as one of the best entertainers that had come along. That is what I'd like fans to talk about when they mention Ricky Steamboat.

I started right off with this character-type guy and blowing fire from the get-go.

I was in the business for 20 years and look at Flair. He was probably approaching 35-40. But today, if a guy has good 8-10 year run, he is either considered that damn good or lucky.

Me being in a managerial position has never crossed my mind. Even in the twilight of my career.

Guys like myself and Arn Anderson, we're always trying to pass knowledge along.

You can have a good run for several years with one company and then be able to extend it with another.

I always felt that whatever I was asked to do that my ability in the ring would speak for itself.

I feel that we really had some good, athletic women wrestling out there and they work just as hard as the guys and put on a heck of a show.

I remember the first couple of years when I was coming up through the ranks, some of the old-timers would take me aside after the match and critique me.

Having a brain type aneurism, a brain bleed, really put things in perspective of what a good life and being a good person is really about.

Fans watching need to be able to connect the dots in your match and the story that you're trying to tell.

A lot of guys would say that I was like a 'damn chameleon'. It doesn't matter who you are in the ring with, you can adjust and adapt.

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.

You can feel greatness in the ring. You can get two guys that gel together and it's just like poetry or a work of art.

The doctors have said that they don't want me in the ring bouncing around or getting picked up and slammed down. They said the old head just can't survive anymore trauma.

I think of myself as rarity in the business, and one of the reasons is that I wrestled my entire career as a baby face.

I've got a bad back from being in the business for more than 20 years, but if I did have that opportunity, I'd love to have one more go-around with Flair.

Every match should have a story in it and I see a lot of that lacking. I see a lot of guys doing a lot of good stuff, and I call it stuff, filling in the blanks in their match, but the stuff doesn't tie in.

It is one thing that I get a lot of joy out of, and that is passing the torch. Some stuff I show young wrestlers, people haven't seen in 15 years. I show it to them and the gratification I get is when I see them do it out there in a match.

I walked into Eddie Graham's office, he took one look at me and said, 'You look a lot like Sam Steamboat. We're going to make you his nephew - Ricky Steamboat.'

When I went to WWE, the level of work I put out every night was just balls to the wall.

I just wanted to experience what it felt like on the other side of the fence. As we all know, the heels have the most fun out there in the ring.

I honestly think that we're getting away from the basic structure of wrestling and it causes wrestlers' careers to come up short because of injuries.

When I take a moment and listen to the wrestling fans and they're shouting, 'C'mon Ricky, you can do it!' It helps me in my heart to know that there are people out there who paid good money to watch guys like us go out there and perform.

When I started in the business, getting in the ring, most nights I'd look across at a 15-20 year veteran. And every night, he would take me to school.

When you are a face for a long time and you turn heel, your stock value immediately goes up, especially if you're able to pull it off in the ring and on the mic. Then you ride that horse as long as you can. When it starts to falter, and when attendance drops, then you can turn back babyface. And your stock value goes up again.

I was one of the rare guys who never wanted to sign a contract.

You can call me 'Tons of Lard' for all I care, as long as I get to work.

I learned so much from Ric Flair... just listening to him guide me early in my career.

I remember the first time I climbed the cage - it was almost like a challenge from Snuka. I said, 'This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy!' I went ahead and did it but I only did it a couple of times. It scared me half to death.

I understand that wrestling now has changed as opposed to what it was when I worked, but I still think you can apply some of the things that I talk about and just put your 2018 twist on it and still make it work.