His WrestleMania III match with Randy Savage, considered one of the greatest of all time, and even upstaged the iconic Hulk Hogan vs. André the Giant main event.
The Holy Trilogy: 1.Steamboat defeats Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Title, NWA Chi-Town Rumble 89, February 2, 1989. 2.Steamboat-Flair, 2/3 Falls, NWA Clash of the Champions #6, April 2, 1989, Steamboat retains. 3.Steamboat-Flair, NWA Wrestle War '89, May 7, 1989, Flair regains the title. ALL Five-Star Classics.
WCW Halloween Havoc 1991, October 27, 1991, had started with Larry Zbyszko slamming a car door on Barry Windham's hand.note (This led to both Larry getting his Red Baron "The Cruncher," and was a foreshadowing of the debut of the Dangerous Alliance.) This left Dustin Rhodes without a partner going into his match against Zbyszko and Arn Anderson for the WCW World Tag Team Titles at WCW Clash of the Champions XVII on November 19th. Fast forward to the match itself. The champs are in the ring, and Dustin brings out a guy in a dragon suit, who unmasks to reveal, of course, Steamboat, scaring the heck out of AA and Zbyszko. The match is terrific, with AA muttering in exasperation "Not Ricky Steamboat", and later trying to rationalize to an increasingly unglued Zbyszko what turned out to be a hopeless situation by saying, "He's just a man!", being the icing on the cake.
, NWA Chi-Town Rumble 89, February 2, 1989. 2.Steamboat-Flair, 2/3 Falls, NWA Clash of the Champions #6, April 2, 1989, Steamboat retains. 3.Steamboat-Flair, NWA Wrestle War '89, May 7, 1989, Flair regains the title. ALL Five-Star Classics.