Quotes from Ricky Steamboat

I had virtually a three-month layoff from an injury angle we ran so I didn't wrestle at all. I was worried the most about my cardio and I tried to stay in cardio shape using a Stairmaster and treadmill but there's nothing like being in ring shape.

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.

I've got 8 and 10 year old kids telling me about the match I had with Savage at WrestleMania III and that was 30 years before they were even born. But with the magic of the Internet, their dad tells them to watch a little bit of what they used to watch... It amazes me that we're passing it on from generation to generation.

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

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.

Coming up the ranks, I've got to see those who were sons of professional wrestlers get in the ring when they were five years old. I would wrestle around with them. Guys like The Rock and Randy Orton.

It is one thing that I get a lot of joy out of, and that is passing the torch. Some stuff I show young wrestlers, people haven't seen in 15 years. I show it to them and the gratification I get is when I see them do it out there in a match.

I had a good run with the WWF. A lot of good matches, a lot of fun.

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.

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 doctors have said that they don't want me in the ring bouncing around or getting picked up and slammed down. They said the old head just can't survive anymore trauma.

Big moments, you've got to let it soak in. It actually adds to the drama so you don't throw away the move and the moment.

A memorable moment was when I got inducted into the hall of fame in 2009.

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'll say there's a lot of good athletes out there, but the key thing that I see missing is being able to put it all together in order to tell a story. In every match you can tell a story.

Me being in a managerial position has never crossed my mind. Even in the twilight of my career.

I understand that wrestling now has changed as opposed to what it was when I worked, but I still think you can apply some of the things that I talk about and just put your 2018 twist on it and still make it work.

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.

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.

For every 100 times you can nail a big move, it's that 101st time where you over-rotate and it can end your career.

Jim Crockett could just advertise Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair, and we would do great numbers just off of the two names being hooked up for the evening. Fans knew we'd go out there and give them a hell of a match, win, lose or draw.

A lot of times we would feed off of the crowd. A lot of things that we were doing in the match was called on the fly. For example, Ric Flair and I would go into a match and have a couple of spots and moments set up. And then, of course, we would line up the finish. But the rest was called on the fly.

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.