Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
The WWF/WWE has had some type of developmental system for years now. Whether it was the USWA, Ohio Valley, Power Pro, Heartland, Deep South, Florida Championship Wrestling or NXT…many of the company’s top superstars got their start in at least one of them. While some developmental names like John Cena, Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, The Miz, Brock Lesnar and Charlotte Flair all made big stars of themselves by first training in developmental, others never got to see the light of day. This series will focus on those wrestlers…the ones that at some point were a lock to get called up to the main roster and never quite made it. What once was hot, suddenly became a “not” as a WWE superstar.
Richie Steamboat
Richie Steamboat was a second generation wrestler (Son of Ricky Steamboat) who had always been involved in professional wrestling in some way. As a small child, Richie used to accompany his father to the ring on a few occasions including Wrestlemania IV and a couple of times in WCW. He started wrestling as an amateur as early as age five and won several championships at the high school level. He would even compete against Ric Flair’s son Reid on the high school circuit.
Richie would eventually follow in his father’s footsteps and make the leap to the professional ranks. He was trained by both NWA journeyman George South and world champion Harley Race. Richie would wrestle for several independents in the Mid Atlantic area, before traveling to Japan to further his training. Steamboat trained and wrestled for Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan and would later travel to Europe and Puerto Rico to wrestle.
Steamboat would be signed to a WWE developmental contract in 2009 and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling. He would eventually become a triple crown champion (winning all of FCW’s titles) and feuding with several future stars like Husky Harris (Bray Wyatt), Seth Rollins and Roman Leakee (Roman Reigns). Richie Steamboat was considered one of FCW/NXT’s top young prospects. He was extremely quick and agile and had a solid knowledge of wrestling.
It was speculated that Richie Steamboat was scheduled to make his main roster debut in a program against then Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett. Before he could be called up, however, Steamboat suffered a back injury after attempting a moonsault on Kassius Ohno while wrestling in NXT. Steamboat would continue to wrestle through the pain for a couple more weeks until he finally saw a specialist. Steamboat’s back injury required surgery….and no timetable was given for his return.
As it turned out, the injury was career ending and Steamboat never returned to a wrestling ring again. Steamboat’s promising career ended at just 25 years old. In the years since Steamboat’s career ended, Richie married and started a family. He currently resides in North Carolina where he owns his own business.