Ricky Steamboat

“If you think of the guys that I was in the ring with, when I looked across the ring at the other guy, whether it be Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Rick Rude, Don Muraco or Jake Roberts, a carpenter is only as good as the tools he has to work with.”

“Whenever you do big stuff in the ring - a big move or a big hit - you have to let that moment breathe. That allows a moment to sink in for the fans so they can reflect on it.”

“I remember the first couple of years when I was coming up through the ranks, some of the old-timers would take me aside after the match and critique me.”

“I learned early on as a baby-face you had adapt to their style. Ravishing Rick Rude had his own style and his own way with a little bit of some Ric Flair-isms. But I always learned to adapt myself.”

“Guys like myself and Arn Anderson, we're always trying to pass knowledge along.”

“I said we would have WrestleMania on Mars one day. I think that would be a match to see.”

“I walked into Eddie Graham's office, he took one look at me and said, 'You look a lot like Sam Steamboat. We're going to make you his nephew - Ricky Steamboat.'”

“On my wish list, a guy I would have loved to work with in our prime would have been Shawn Michaels.”

“Look at the talent that has broken through. Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Cesaro. There are a number of talents there. Everyone wonders if you give them the ball, are they going to score or are they going to fumble? Obviously, all the names I mentioned have scored very well.”

“I would have to say Ric Flair and Randy Savage were two of my favorite guys to work with; I had some good main-event type matches with both.”

“I was one of the rare guys who never wanted to sign a contract.”

“Flair and I would work with one another sometimes seven nights a week, and with four weeks in a month, we had to keep changing up the matches with fans following the circuit every night. It would always test me and Ric to do something different.”

“The fans can bring a better match by getting more involved. So when a match is over, they might be talking about how good the match was, but little do they know, that great match was elevated because of them.”

“I remember when we were having cage matches and Superfly Snuka was the first to do this - both of us were doing dives off the top rope - but at MSG he did off the top of the cage onto Don Muraco.”

“Competition has always been good.”

“A lot of guys, if they're a face and they see their drawing ability start to falter, they'll turn heel and they're right back on top again. Same thing with a heel. All of a sudden they'll turn into a good guy. Ric Flair has done that throughout his career a number of times.”

“Having a brain type aneurism, a brain bleed, really put things in perspective of what a good life and being a good person is really about.”

“I was in the business for 20 years and look at Flair. He was probably approaching 35-40. But today, if a guy has good 8-10 year run, he is either considered that damn good or lucky.”

“I've wrestled in Hamilton and Toronto and the fans have always received me well there... It's always been one of my favorite areas to come in.”

“In the mid-'80s when the business took a big change, everybody was living their character.”