10 WWE Developmental Champions Who Came To Nothing

9. Richie Steamboat

Eric Escobar WWE
WWE.com

Son of the legendary Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, Richie Steamboat was actually the final FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion before NXT took over the WWE developmental game. Richie won the title on 20 July 20 2012 by defeating Rick Victor (aka Viktor of The Ascension), but just 25 days later it was deactivated.

Richie's own career was deactivated way ahead of its time, as he eventually retired young due to injuries. Steamboat made the transition to NXT fairly well, and was involved in a pretty decent feud with Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero) when his back gave in. Richie would miss a year of action before rumours began to circulate he had been released, but Papa Ricky eventually confirmed that his son had to stop wrestling.

We don't know what would have happened with Richie Steamboat if injury hadn't forced him to retire young, and we never will. What we are left with is how things went, and Richie Steamboat's wrestling career will always be one big question mark.

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Mason Ryan FCW
 
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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.