Richie Steamboat Explains Putting His Family Before His WWE Career

As the son of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, fans naturally expected his son, Richie Steamboat, to become a star when he appeared on television in 2012 as a member of the rebranded "NXT" roster. However, a botched moonsault ended his career that year, as he sustained a serious back injury as a result. Instead of trying to work his way to recovery, Steamboat has prioritized his family, and recounted all the details during an appearance on "Developmentally Speaking."

"I lost feeling in my whole body as soon as I hit the mat, I could move everything, I just couldn't feel anything," he recalled. "I immediately knew something was wrong and went to the back and I'm like dude, I went straight to the doctor." After some x-rays and MRIs, Steamboat discovered that he had herniated three discs in his back and bruised his spinal cord, which doctors said should've resulted in him becoming paralyzed.

Despite this, Steamboat continued to wrestle and explained that it was hard to step away from the industry after building himself up for so long. "For about six months I wrestled on the injury and really tried to push through it," he said. However, once he wasn't able to pick up his child and play with him, he knew it was time to step away and now believes that he made the right decision.

Richie Steamboat parted ways with WWE in December 2013, a year after suffering the injury that nearly paralyzed him, but reports at the time contradicted this. During the interview, Steamboat confirmed that he parted ways with WWE once he realized that he couldn't continue to wrestle anymore.

"I had serious back problems going on and had to deal with that, so getting that squared away took about a year/year and a half," he claimed. "I had seven percent joint nerve blocks on my back." 

Steamboat also claimed that he refused surgery because he'd have been left with a hump on his back and has instead been looking after himself naturally, managing the pain well. However, leaving wrestling behind had a mental effect on him. "It was tough because it was the first time in my life where I didn't have a direction."

Steamboat also revealed that, outside of his responsibilities as a father and husband, he's busy writing an autobiography, which is set to come out in a few months. as well as several other projects around wrestling. On the topic of his autobiography, he teased that he'll be revealing some truths in his book. "I just got to clear some things with people before I — it's a respect thing," he said.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Developmentally Speaking" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.