WWE legend’s son says he was supposed to face Seth Rollins in career-altering title match

Seth Rollins made history in 2012 when he beat Jinder Mahal to become the inaugural WWE NXT Champion. Richie Steamboat, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat, recently revealed he was originally due to compete in the title match.

Steamboat was viewed by many as a future main roster star. The former WWE talent defeated Leo Kruger in the quarter-finals of the NXT Championship tournament before losing to eventual runner-up Mahal in the semi-finals.

On Developmentally Speaking, Steamboat recalled how he was due to wrestle Rollins and potentially move to the main roster:

“I was slated to go to the finals for the NXT title. I think it was going to be Seth and I in the finals. I don’t know where that was gonna go. I don’t know because that match never happened, but that was the direction, and I had just gotten my contact for road travel, so I had done one house show. I assumed it was preparing for it to continue to go up [to the main roster].” [34:30 – 35:09]

Steamboat competed in his final WWE match shortly after the tournament. He was later forced to retire from in-ring competition after suffering a serious back injury at a non-televised NXT live event.

Richie Steamboat on WWE’s lack of creative ideas

Some second-generation wrestlers receive a new character when they debut on television. Bron Breakker, for example, does not use the Steiner surname despite being the real-life son of WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner.

Regarding his on-screen presentation in the early 2010s, Richie Steamboat said he was never approached about performing under a different name:

“I think that’s something that I think was kind of a drawback for me. There wasn’t any of that. ‘You’re Richie Steamboat,’ and that’s who they wanted me to be. I wasn’t really given any other options, nor did creative help me at all or want to, I feel, but that’s water under [the bridge]. It is what it is. I think that there was definitely things in place to make it very difficult for me and, listen, that’s nothing new to me. I’m used to that. Not surprising.” [35:39 – 36:33]

Steamboat also recalled how he originally refused to perform the high-risk move that resulted in his career-ending injury.

Do you think Richie Steamboat should have faced Seth Rollins instead of Jinder Mahal? Hit the discuss button and let us know.

Please credit Developmentally Speaking and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.