Stevens debuted in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1971, where he enjoyed success as a four-time AWA World Tag Team Champion (three with Nick Bockwinkel, one with Pat Patterson). It was on January 20, 1972 when Stevens and Nick Bockwinkel first captured the AWA World Tag Team Championship from Crusher Lisowski and Red Bastien in Denver, Colorado. The team was managed by Bobby Heenan beginning in 1974.
While working with the AWA in 1972, Stevens had a television match with a masked wrestler known as Doctor X in which he applied the Bombs Away coup de grâce to win the match while Doctor X's leg was tangled between two ring ropes. This resulted in the "breaking" of Doctor X's leg and also led to the outlawing of the Bombs Away maneuver by the AWA. It was shortly after that match when Ray Stevens was no longer called the Blond Bomber and became known as "The Crippler."
In 1976, Stevens and Bockwinkel were still the team to beat, but friction was growing within the team. An angle developed where Heenan and Bockwinkel did the talking during their promos and cut Stevens off whenever he tried to speak. When Bobby Heenan was named the 1976 Manager of the Year by a pro wrestling magazine on a Christmas Day episode of AWA All-Star Wrestling, Bockwinkel attacked Stevens. This happened because the Crippler pushed Heenan, while Bockwinkel was trying to congratulate Bobby on being manager of the year; however, Stevens was able to get the upper hand and eventually destroyed a trophy presented to Heenan for his being named "Manager of the Year." This led to the eventual break up of the team and a feud between the two to start the year 1977.
In the early 1980's, he moved to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In the WWF, he was managed by "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Stevens and Captain Lou Albano turned on Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka (Albano was Snuka's manager) in 1982. This angle had the Crippler piledriving Snuka onto the concrete floor two consecutive times.
Stevens briefly did color commentary alongside Vince McMahon in 1984.
After leaving the WWF, Stevens returned to the AWA, where he joined forces with Larry Zbyszko in feuding with the babyface-turned Nick Bockwinkel, only to turn face himself after Zbyszko turned on him. Stevens was doing color commentary for AWA Championship Wrestling during the AWA World Heavyweight Title match between champion Bockwinkel and Curt Hennig in San Francisco on May 2, 1987, when interference by Zbyszko (who handed a roll of coins to Hennig from ringside to use against Bockwinkel) led to Hennig winning the title from Bockwinkel. Stevens and Bockwinkel protested the outcome of the match to the AWA Championship Committee, which held up the championship immediately after the match, but the original match decision was upheld days later after the committee ruled that there was no evidence that Zbyszko had illegally aided Hennig. As a result, the championship was returned to the now heel-turned Hennig. Stemming from the events of that match, Stevens feuded briefly with Zbyszko before finishing out his career in 1992.
One of his final appearances was for WCW at Slamboree 1994 with other wrestling greats.
On May 3, 1996, Stevens passed away.
On April 6, 2021, Stevens was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of its Legacy wing.