What If?

Ricky Steamboat is regarded as one of the all-time greats despite his career being cut painfully short due to an injury suffered in a match where he defeated Steve Austin for the WCW United States Championship. Granted, he was on the long side of 40, but his contemporaries - Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Roddy Piper for example - all wrestled well into the 90s, with Hogan still somewhat active and Flair only having retired a little over a year ago. Steamboat himself looked to be in fantastic shape at WrestleMania XXV and the night after on RAW, lending credence to the theory that he would have been serviceable at least into the early part of this decade in the ring.

That made me think... what if Ricky Steamboat was never injured in that match against Austin? There are so many different directions I can take this scenario. The most compelling would have him staying in WCW after that and continuing his ultra-hot feud with the Hollywood Blondes, continuing his ancient rivalry with Ric Flair, retaining the status quo until Scott Hall and Kevin Nash form the nWo and promise a third member. History would know this one as Hulk Hogan, but what if that third man was shockingly Ricky Steamboat?

Steamboat historically was the ultimate anti-heel, a guy whom the fans would cheer no matter what he'd do. In fact, this anecdote shared by the poster Wone at the PrimeTime Central boards shared this nugget:

Did you know that Ricky wanted to go heel once in his career. He was told and I quote;

"We could replace your arms with chainsaws and have you come out and cut off both of Hulk Hogan's arms and legs and no one would believe it."

However, the nWo did wonders for heeling everyone associated with it in the first phase, before it got watered down. Yeah, they sold shirts and got viewers, but they were unmistakably heel. Could this have been the vehicle that got the Steamer over as a heel? He'd definitely have a few reasons to. Getting back at Ric Flair for years of never finding a way to beat him is the best.

The biggest flaw with that would be that he'd have no reason to join with the other WWF expatriates. He was always treated better in the NWA/JCP/WCW, and he wouldn't join with Hogan (assuming that Hogan still joined the nWo) given that the nWo ushered in the era in which wrestlers became "smart" on camera and referenced things that happened backstage.

Steamboat would have fit into WCW's nWo era even as a member of the face resistance. I would imagine the pop from him and Flair teaming up to take on the black and white menace would have been nuclear. Plus, there would have been the bonus of seeing him in excellent matches against guys like Jericho, Benoit, Malenko, Scott Steiner, DDP and others.

Now, had Steamboat gone back to the WWF, he might not have had as many main event options. I doubt he would have been lost in the shuffle like he was on his second run in the company as simply "The Dragon", but it's hard to imagine him really doing more than what he would have done in WCW with the rises of guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and later on, Steve Austin, Mick Foley and The Rock. However, imagine the matches with those guys as well as with wrestlers such as Davey Boy Smith, Owen Hart, Bob Backlund (who could still go in his second main event run) and later on, Jeff Jarrett, Triple H and even Kurt Angle. Of course, the Stain of Russo might have done vile, awful things to Steamer, like say, have him get conked on the head with a coconut and then act like a hula dancer. I'd rather not think of that.

Would Steamer have fit into ECW? Maybe, maybe not, although I'd think he might not have wanted to risk getting hurt with all those weapons since he would nearly have had his career ended in that match with Austin.

There are very few guys who'd have more compelling what-if scenarios than Steamboat. I think we can all agree that he was robbed at least one more run with a World Championship, and we were all robbed of years of fantastic matches against some of the best opponents in wrestling history. Still, he couldn't have had that bad a career if he warrants a week of appreciation from grateful wrestling fans or induction into a few major wrestling halls of fame. Though grateful, we fans can be greedy at times, and part of that greed involves giving various appendages to have seen a match between prime Shawn Michaels and Ricky Steamboat.