10 Things You Didn't Know About Ricky Steamboat

When Rick Blood arrived in Championship Wrestling from Florida in 1977, promoter Eddie Graham decided that he needed a new name - "Rick Blood" wasn't suitable for a babyface. He felt that Blood bore a resemblance to Hawaiian star Sammy Steamboat, so the name "Ricky Steamboat" was born. At times, Ricky was said to have been either the son or nephew of Sammy, but there was no relation between the men.

The association with Sammy Steamboat also led to Ricky Steamboat's career-long history of being billed from Hawaii, despite the fact that he was born and raised in upstate New York and had no Hawaiian heritage whatsoever. Steamboat would go on to be stereotyped due to his race later in his career - at the beginning of his WWE tenure, he was given a vague martial arts-inspired gimmick (despite no background in any martial arts), complete with the nickname "The Dragon" and a keikogi (commonly called a "gi" in English) that he'd wear to the ring.