12 WWE Superstars Who Made It Big And Then Just Disappeared
6. Ricky The Dragon Steamboat
Would it shock you to know that after what is widely considered the greatest Intercontinental Championship bout ever, the champ only held onto the strap for less than three months, and he would be out of the company about a year after the groundbreaking match? Thats what happened to Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, who won the IC title at WrestleMania III in late March 1987 and lost it in June to the Honky Tonk Man. Now admittedly, it is impossible not to retcon Steamboats standing in WWE at the time. Looking at the Savage-Steamboat classic under todays eyes, both men were made by that match. And in many ways, it should have turned The Dragon into a made man. He ended Savages 13-month reign at the biggest event of the year, paying off a fantastic angle that fans bought into completely. Instead, the story goes that Steamer made the mistake of asking for time off to be with his wife as she gave birth. In retaliation, WWE had The Dragon drop the IC title to Honky Tonk Man before he left on sabbatical. Steamboat would return later in 1987, but he never really got any traction. Although he was entered in the WrestleMania IV tournament for the WWE Championship, he made a first-round exit and then made a quick exit from the company. Today, Steamboats WrestleMania III victory is revered by fans and superstars alike as one of the greatest matches of all time, and his NWA feud with Ric Flair is also considered top-notch. One can only wonder what could have been had his WWE career taken a similar trajectory as the man he beat at Mania.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
