Ricky Steamboat Quotes

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.

I think there was an opportunity as Bad News Barrett to turn me in to a babyface. I am not saying that I would have gotten to the level The Rock got to but it was certainly a chance for me to do something different and keep me motivated and stimulated by what I was doing on the show.

People always talk about my heel/face turns. One of the jokes in America is I've had more turns than NASCAR.

I really think that some of the best heels are also those people that can really get reactions as babyfaces, too.

I play a character in the WWE and everybody hates my character. I'm the evil villain bad guy. Whenever people meet me, they're like, 'Wow, you're such a nice guy. We never expected that.'

People ask me how I am such a good heel, but I don't know; I just try to be me and go and do what I need to do to get the job done on any show that I am on and achieve the work that is set up in front of me.

There was a time when people were like, 'Oh my God, Sheamus' character is boring.' Well, when you're just in wrestling matches all the time, and you're not doing character stuff, then it can be a bit monotonous.

I wasn't in NXT for very long, but what I learned there was very valuable once I got onto the main roster - how to communicate to a larger audience, stuff like that.

There is so much more than just what you do in the ring and what you do on the microphone.

Like any compelling show on television, what works best in WWE is relationships. What's the relationship between these two people, and how does the conflict manifest itself into box office?

My whole intention at 'WrestleMania XIV' was to drop the belt to Steve, but I was going to make everybody sweat it out and make them think I wasn't. Obviously, I got that accomplished. That's extremely unprofessional, but that's exactly who I was and what I was doing.

To be a true star, you need to find that balance in between shining the light on the professional wrestling aspect, of being the absolute best in the ring, but also being the best character and finding that balance in between them.

I like to lean on making wrestling the most believable, realistic form of entertainment as possible for the most part.

When I developed the Ultimate Warrior character and kept evolving the character, I knew, there was no question that it would work because it was working.

Sometimes you have to set the angle within the match, but you gotta give a reason for one guy to be loved and one guy to be hated.

This isn't a competitive sport. Wrestling is not the NFL or the NHL. It's not really sports. It's entertainment. And in order to be entertaining, you have to create emotion. And you can't create emotion by simply having a wrestling match.

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.'

Especially watching him struggle, cause I was with him when he was struggling - changed his name to The Rock, all of a sudden he has the attitude a little bit, he started getting the mic, started cutting promos. His character just developed.

WWE definitely gives you the forum, the stage to do different things and see what works. That's the cool thing about being in front of a live audience every single week in WWE. You get instant feedback.

You're out there to perform. You're out there to entertain. Whatever position that you're put in, be it a heel or a babyface, go out there steal the show.

We use wrestling moves to tell a story but it boils down to the character and being able to bring either love or hate out of your crowd.

When I started doing pro wrestling, it wasn't the physical aspect doing the moves or taking the moves that was hard: it was interacting with the crowd, body movement, selling, getting that emotional attachment with people so they're invested in a match. That was the hard part.

That's what we do in the WWE: we tell stories; we're characters. We go into the ring, and my character is telling a story in the ring against another character.

At the end of the day, whatever you're doing in the ring, you want it to look real, and genuine, and authentic.

You can't be a PPV star if you don't put on an exciting performance.