Conrad Thompson Is 'Disappointed' By Ricky Steamboat's Recent Statement

Conrad Thompson recently spoke with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman on The Wrestling Inc. Daily about Ricky Steamboat turning down the chance to face Ric Flair.

It had been reported that 'The Dragon' would be stepping out of retirement to face the Nature Boy in his final match, which is taking place at Starrcast V during WWE SummerSlam weekend. But since then Steamboat has come out publicly and revealed he turned down the opportunity. That was a decision he made because Ricky wants fans to remember him for his Chris Jericho match, which took place at Backlash in 2009. Steamboat does not want fans to be left thinking that he should have retired, even though he knows that it would be a good payday for him.

Hausman asked Thompson how he felt about Steamboat's statement announcing he had declined the invitation to come out of retirement for the match.

"There's no way for me to have that conversation with you and not be negative, or hurtful or rude and I am not going to comment on it because I think a lot of Mr. Steamboat and hold him in high regard," he said. "I know what really happened and he knows what really happened and I am disappointed that he put a statement out before we had an opportunity to put a bow on things. But, that's not the whole story and what the whole story is, is nobody's business I suppose."

Even though Thompson was disappointed that Steamboat made a public comment, he does very much still respect him, "I appreciate his body of work very much and I am always going to be a fan of his, but I am not going to get into a, 'he said, she said,' mudslinging situation when it is someone that I know, like, and trust, and respect a great deal."

Ever since the Flair match was announced, there has been a lot of speculation about who might be stepping into the ring against him from a singles bout with Ricky Steamboat to a six-man tag team match involving FTR and The Rock 'n' Roll Express.

"I do want to say though, I am not upset about the Ricky Steamboat thing," Conrad Thompson stated. "I know that sometimes, I said something the other day on Jeff Jarrett's podcast, and boy it just got click baited everywhere. Just want to add the proper context here, lots of conversations have happened about, 'what if,' and we got everyone that we asked about it, everyone said, 'yep, I am in.'

"So, we have had conversations, but ultimately that's not the match you're going to see, but I have never said what the match was going to be," Conrad stressed. "So, when people are saying, 'what's the match now?' Well, what was it ever? There's a lot of hypotheticals, we could say hypothetically right now next year's WrestleMania is The Rock vs. Roman, everyone has said that hypothetically, but when has WWE announced that? When has Rock said that? It's all just conjecture at this point."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit The Wrestling Inc. Daily with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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