50 Fascinating Facts About WWE in The 1980s
42. Ricky Steamboat Almost Played A Masked Heel
Any big fan of wrestling output in the 80s and 90s could tell you that Ricky Steamboat was born to be a permanent babyface. 'The Dragon' fit that bill so well. He was fair, professional, friendly but competitive and had forged a sweet connection with fans all over the place. So, it may come as a slight surprise to learn that the WWF considered turning Ricky heel before he left the company in 1988.
Steamboat held talks with McMahon and Pat Patterson about possibly going under a mask as a villain. That would've been the soft approach, because then at least Ricky could revert to type if the heel turn flopped. Eventually, all three guys agreed that trying to turn Steamboat bad wouldn't work unless there was some sort of seismic twist to his character. In other words, he needed a better reason.
In theory, 'Dragon' could've played both sides of the babyface/heel alignment fence at the same time. He might've been baby without the hood and heel with it. It would've been impressive had he been able to pull that off, especially when Steamboat wrestled such a visibly distinctive style. This was all conjecture anyway; he ended up going back to the NWA/WCW instead for a World Title tilt opposite Ric Flair.
Ricky would never contemplate going heel again. It looks like 1988 was his one and only chance to make that reality, but who knows for sure if fans would've accepted it. They might well have continued cheering Steamboat anyway, which would've irked McMahon and been a waste of a turn.