Richard Blood

Retired American professional wrestler of Japanese descent as Ricky Steamboat. He trained under Verne Gagne, and first made his name in the old Mid-Atlantic territory in the Carolinas. He had many legendary matches and feuds with Ric Flair, culminating in their epic "Holy Trilogy" of matches at WCW/NWA Chi-Town Rumble (1989), Clash of the Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun (1989) and WCW/NWA WrestleWar (1989). He had a major feud with Randy Savage over the WWE Intercontinental Title, which Steamboat won at WrestleMania III (1987) in what many consider the greatest WrestleMania match of all time. Over the course of his career, he was a 1x NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a 1x WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, a multiple-time NWA World Tag Team Champion, an NWA United States Heavyweight Champion, a WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and a WCW Television Champion. At different points in his career, he had "retired" so he could spend time with his family and run his gym. He was forced into retirement due to a back injury suffered in a match with "Stunning" Steve Austin at Clash of the Champions XXVIII (1994). He was one of the few wrestlers to work as a babyface (good guy) for his entire career. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002 (charter class), the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009 and the NWA Hall of Fame in 2012. Was given the name "Ricky Steamboat" by wrestling promoter Eddie Graham due to his strong resemblance to wrestling legend Sammy Steamboat. Sammy even endorsed the name change and allowed them to bill the "Ricky Steamboat" character as his nephew. Ricky and Sammy remained friends until Sammy's death. Played an on-air executive role in the early days of NWA TNA. He was the "Inside Wrestling" Rookie of the Year for 1977. Received the 1995 PWI Editor's Award. After he won the Intercontinental Championship, he asked Vince McMahon for some time off to be with his wife who was expecting the birth of their son Richard Blood Jr. This did not sit well with WWF management and shortly after he was forced to drop the belt to the Honkytonk Man (Wayne Farris). Still bitter, the WWE did not push him or give him any meaningful matches upon his return. He left for WCW shortly after.