Ricky Steamboat Talks About Coaching Shane Douglas and Steve Austin In WCW

In an interview with VOC Nation’s In the Room, Ricky Steamboat spoke about coaching wrestlers like Shane Douglas and Steve Austin in WCW and how eager to learn they were. Here are highlights:

On highspots in today’s product: “This generation has taken all of that high flying to different levels…these guys are falling out of the sky; as we know it does take a toll on their bodies. I honestly think that we’re getting away from the basic structure of wrestling and it causes wrestlers’ careers to come up short because of injuries.”

On working with young talent: “Most times than not, the guys and girls come up short (in telling a story). They understand what I’m trying to say (but they don’t put it into practice); you just don’t put moves and holds in your match for the sake of filling in time. You need to be able to connect the dots. Fans watching need to be able to connect the dots in your match and (follow) the story that you’re trying to tell.”

On his Wrestlemania 3 match with Randy Savage: “I go back and watch myself do those little segments and I cringe. I say to myself ‘damn Ricky you’re terrible when it came to that speech therapy stuff.’ Get me in the ring and it’s a different story. With big shows and pay per views, most of the main event guys would get to have tune up matches prior to the big shows (in house shows). Unfortunately, Randy and I didn’t have that opportunity. I got with Randy and (told him) that we need to collaborate…we wanted to go out there and have the match of the night. We had 21 false finishes in a match that went less than 17 minutes. When we finished the last step in writing it all down, we thought we were going to go out there and have one heck of a match.”

On his rivalry with Ric Flair: “We went back and forth in different companies spanning 17 years. We wrestled each other hundreds of times, especially back in the mid Atlantic. We even had a month of 90 minute matches…I tell that to some of the young kids today and they can’t believe it.”

Ricky Steamboat on mentoring the young talent during his WCW run: “(Shane Douglas) was a young man that was eager to respectfully learn. (When I was talking to him) you could see his eyes light up; that was the light bulb clicking in his brain. He was very coachable, like a sponge. Austin was the same way. I said to the office that (Austin’s) got it and you need to do more with him. It wasn’t too long after that he moved to the WWE and became Stone Cold, and the rest is history.”