--An interview with Ricky Steamboat regarding the WWE All-Stars video game that he's part of it at http://espn.go.com/espn/print?id=6058242&type=blogEntry He talks about his feud with Randy Savage in 1987, his favorite opponents not named Ric Flair, and about asking and being turned down when wanting to go heel:

It only takes two words to make Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat break out in laughter.

Two words that roared as he sat on stage to talk about the new video game, "WWE All-Stars," at THQ's recent preview event in New York.

Two words that are unmistakable in the world of professional wrestling as they helped define Steamboat's biggest rival.

"Oh yeah!"

"Talk about brining back memories," Steamboat tells me after watching a video of "Macho Man" Randy Savage announcing that the madness is returning to WWE via the video game. "How can you not remember that gruff, growl that he had. It was a classic. I had flashbacks of him coming off the top rope with the bell or with the elbow."

Steamboat and Savage are featured alongside other legends like Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Andre The Giant in "WWE All-Stars," THQ's impressive new game that pits old school versus new school as fans finally get the chance to see who would win in a fight between the likes of John Cena and The Rock or Randy Orton and Bret "Hitman" Hart.

"What a great deal for fans," Steamboat says about the game. "There are so many young fans out there who have only seen me wrestle on tape. There are fans out there who have never seen Andre The Giant wrestle but have heard the name and heard stories about his career and have seen the highlights of Wrestlemania III. Now they get to play as me. Now they get to play as all of these legends and superstars and see who would win in matches we could only dream of.

"Besides, sometimes it's just fun to shout, 'Oh yeah!'"

Jon Robinson: When Randy Savage hit you with the ring bell, it sparked one of the greatest feuds professional wrestling has ever seen. Why do you think that one attack resonated so well with fans?

Ricky Steamboat: It was as close as you can get to off-the-charts violent without having blood. And if you look at the slow-motion replay of how he came down and nailed me, people couldn't dispute it. You can watch all of the different angles and you can't dispute it. We work with such a close margin, and with stuff like that, how do you rehearse it? You don't. And then, I didn't wrestle for a couple of months after that. Here I am trying to gear up for our biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania, and all of the guys are coming up to me and telling me that I'm not in ring shape. A guy can do a stair-stepper for an hour or go out and run five miles, but there's a big difference between doing that and going out into the ring and being ready to go-go-go-go-go! I know one thing, after the match with Savage at Wrestlemania III, I was gassed. I went back to the locker room and fell on the floor. I was just trying to hold myself up riding back in that little cart.

Randy Savage was a major competitor with a major role back then in the company. There was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, but everything blossomed at the same time.

WWE All-Stars
Ricky's looking ripped in the new game.

Jon Robinson: When you're in the middle of a classic match like the one against Savage or the series of matches you had against Ric Flair, do you know while it's happening how good it is, or does it take time to reflect on a match's greatness?

Ricky Steamboat: I like to listen to the crowd, I really do. The crowd helps give me that extra boost of adrenaline. When I take a moment and listen to the wrestling fans and they're shouting, "C'mon Ricky, you can do it!" It helps me in my heart to know that there are people out there who paid good money to watch guys like us go out there and perform. The fans have always played a major role for me and have helped me do what I need to do in the ring. Ultimately, when you dig down deep, if you did it to a silent movie, I know I wouldn't have the same response as when I have thousands of people cheering. 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. They're helping me out. Look at Wrestlemania III. You had 93,000 fans screaming. That's probably a major reason why that match turned out so good.

Jon Robinson: When you look back at your career, which match is your favorite? Do you prefer the Flair matches to your match against Savage, or is there another hidden gem out there that you like best?

Ricky Steamboat: Every match to me was a Ricky Steamboat best because every guy had their own style. You look back to the times I wrestled Don Muraco and Jake "The Snake" Roberts, then you look at the matches with Savage and Flair, and even the few times I wrestled Bret Hart ... there was a great match we had back at the old Boston Garden. Every match was different because we all had different styles. Nobody wanted to be a copy of me or a copy of Randy or a copy of Bret, and everybody knew that no matter who I got into the ring with, I could adapt to their style and have a great match.

Jon Robinson: My favorite match of yours was when you wrestled Jake "The Snake" at the Cow Palace. It was just a house show, but you guys went 45 minutes on my birthday.

Ricky Steamboat: Back then, matches went 40 and 50 minutes a lot. I can't tell you how many times Flair and I wrestled 60 minutes to a draw. We probably did it 40-50 times. Great matches.

Jon Robinson: You were out of the spotlight for a while, then you came back a few years ago and wrestled an incredible match against Chris Jericho on pay-per-view. How surprised were you that you could still perform at that high of a level?

Ricky Steamboat: I'll be 58-years-old next month, approaching that big 6-0. We've had a lot of guys who wrestled when I wrestled and made appearances -- Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper -- and you watch them in the ring and remember how they were. I would watch and go, "Oh man, that's not the same kind of guy." I didn't want that to come across with me so I really trained hard. I had been out of the ring for about 14 years at that point, hitting the ropes so to speak, but never having a match. Then we had the match at Wrestlemania and everyone was so surprised to see me, but the fans were singing, "You still got it! You still got it!" Next thing you know, Vince McMahon came up to me and told me he was going to put me in a match against Jericho one-on-one. That's when I really picked up my training. I was happy just being able to pull it off at my age. The bones still hung together. It was a great moment and it really felt good.

Jon Robinson: When you look back, do you regret never getting a shot at Hogan and the championship? Why do you think you were never given that opportunity?

Ricky Steamboat: Timing. A lot of times when you find out you're going to get a shot at the World Championship, it has to do with the situation of the company and you need to be there at the right time for it. I think my time would have come up, but then I went to the other company that we don't want to mention. Then I came back, but it was just wrong place, wrong time. I've had fans ask me that a lot, "How come you were never WWE Champion?" It was just bad timing.

Jon Robinson: Would you have liked to have turned heel against Hogan, or would you have preferred if he turned heel against you?

Ricky Steamboat; Believe it or not, I went to the promotion and asked if I could be a "bad guy." I was probably in my 17th or 18th year in the business, but the board of directors told me that the fans wouldn't believe it. "They'll never believe you as a bad guy," they told me, "it's not in your heart." So I got shut down. But I wanted to wrestle all aspects of the business, and that was one part of the business I was never able to be. They didn't want me to let me fans down. They thought it would destroy them.

Source - F4W/Wrestling Observer.