Steamboat debuted in 1976 as a babyface in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) under the name Rick Blood.
In 1977, Steamboat entered World Championship Wrestling, where he would remain for the next eight years of his career. Steamboat was initially billed as a babyface protege of Wahoo McDaniel, and barely spoke above whispers in interviews. Matching him with his brash young counterpart, Ric Flair, was a natural fit. Steamboat was doing an interview when Flair began goading him. Steamboat knocked Flair out with a backhand chop to set up a match between the two. Steamboat's star-making performance came when he pinned Flair after a double thrust off the top rope.
Over the next eight years in WCW, Steamboat captured the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship three times and the WCW World Tag Team Championship six times (once with Paul Jones and five times with Jay Youngblood). He also won the WCW Television Championship a second time.
In 1985, Steamboat was offered a contract by Vince McMahon and he joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Shortly after his debut (where he defeated Steve Lombardi on Championship Wrestling), Steamboat was given the gimmick of a babyface nicknamed "the Dragon"; Steamboat's jacket-and-trunks attire was replaced by a keikogi and long tights. Steamboat kept the nickname and gimmick for the remainder of his career.
He appeared at the inaugural WrestleMania where he defeated Matt Borne in the third match on the card. On the September 14, 1985 edition of Championship Wrestling, Steamboat defeated Mr. Fuji, but after his victory he was attacked by Fuji's protege Don Muraco, pitting Steamboat in a feud against Muraco and Fuji. During a televised episode of WWF Championship Wrestling, Steamboat and Muraco were scheduled for a match that never officially started after Muraco jumped Steamboat before the bell. Following the beat down, Muraco and Fuji then used Steamboat's karate black belt to hang him outside the ring from the top rop before Steamboat was finally saved by Tito Santana and the Junkyard Dog. On the November 2 Saturday Night's Main Event III, he defeated Fuji in a kung fu challenge. On the January 4, 1986 Saturday Night's Main Event IV, his intense feud with Muraco ended after he and the JYD beat Muraco and Fuji in a tag team match.
In the opening round of The Wrestling Classic, Steamboat faced Davey Boy Smith in a rare match pitting two fan favorites against each other. The match moved back and forth until Smith landed in the ropes trying to attack Steamboat, but Steamboat sidestepped and Smith injured his groin and was unable to continue, so Steamboat was awarded the match by forfeit. He then faced off against Randy Savage in the quarterfinals. The referee was distracted by Miss Elizabeth as Savage took advantage and pulled out brass knuckles from his tights and hit Steamboat before pinning him to win the match.
After a victory over Hercules Hernandez at the Los Angeles portion of WrestleMania 2, Steamboat began his next feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Their feud began when Roberts attacked him before their match on the May 3 Saturday Night's Main Event VI, which did not occur due to Roberts assaulting Steamboat. They later battled each other in a Snake Pit match (no disqualification) in front of 74,000 fans at The Big Event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which Steamboat won with a small package despite Roberts dominating virtually the entire match to that point. Their feud finally ended on the October 4 Saturday Night's Main Event VII, when Steamboat defeated Roberts in their Snake Pit rematch. Following the match, Roberts continued to attack Steamboat and was about to place his snake Damien on him, but Steamboat took his crocodile out of his bag and scared Roberts from the ring.
On the November 22, 1986 edition of Superstars, Steamboat got a shot at the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship against Macho Man Randy Savage. Steamboat lost the match by countout but after the match, Savage continued to assault him and injured Steamboat's larynx (kayfabe) with the ring bell, beginning an angle between the two. On the January 3, 1987 Saturday Night's Main Event IX, Steamboat returned from his injury and prevented Savage from attacking George Steele like he had done to Steamboat six weeks prior. At WrestleMania III, Steamboat defeated Savage for the Intercontinental Championship.
Steamboat dropped the title to The Honky Tonk Man on the June 13 edition of Superstars. Steamboat came back in time for the Survivor Series in November 1987. After defeating "Ravishing" Rick Rude by disqualification at 1988 Royal Rumble, Steamboat was entered into the tournament for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania IV in March 1988. On WWF television prior to the match, Steamboat appeared in a vignette where he stated that he hoped Randy Savage would win his first round match, thus setting up a rematch of last year's WrestleMania match and "one more classic confrontation". However, Steamboat would lose to his first round opponent Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. Although television segments were shot immediately after WrestleMania IV that made it appear that Steamboat would be facing Valentine in a series of matches, Steamboat left the WWF shortly thereafter.
Steamboat returned to World Championship Wrestling on the January 21, 1989 edition of Saturday Night as a surprise tag team partner of "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert against WCW World Champion Ric Flair and Barry Windham in a tag team match that saw Steamboat pin Flair. This earned him a shot at the title at Chi-Town Rumble where Steamboat defeated Flair in the main event for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. After Steamboat retained the WCW title against Flair in a controversial ending on the April 2 Clash of the Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun, Flair and Steamboat would then face each other in their final rematch at WrestleWar in May, where Steamboat dropped the title to Flair.
After losing the title, Steamboat remained the number one contender to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, a fact that irked fellow babyface U.S. Champion Lex Luger. This dispute culminated in Luger attacking Steamboat on the June 14 Clash of the Champions VII: Guts and Glory, thus turning heel. Luger stood over the fallen Steamboat and arrogantly said, "There lays your number one contender!" Steamboat then demanded a no disqualification match against Luger at The Great American Bash for the title, but just before the bell Luger demanded the clause be dropped or there would not be a match. Steamboat lost the match by disqualification after hitting Luger with a chair. Due to a contract dispute this would be Steamboat's last match of note in WCW in 1989.
In 1991, Steamboat would return to the World Wrestling Federation after signing a two-year contract. Billed simply as The Dragon, a series of vignettes began airing in February 1991 that featured him breathing fire. Despite his previous success in the WWF as a one-time Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, Steamboat was mainly treated as a brand-new wrestler, save for the announcers occasionally making reference to his WrestleMania III match and former title reign. Steamboat's first match came on a Superstars taping on March 11 in Pensacola, FL when he defeated Jeff Sword. His first televised match was on the March 30 edition of Superstars when he defeated the Brooklyn Brawler with his signature diving crossbody. On subsequent episodes of Superstars and Wrestling Challenge, Steamboat would go on to win numerous squash matches. He would also be victorious on televised Madison Square Garden events, defeating the likes of Haku, Demolition Smash, Paul Roma, Col. Mustafa, Pat Tanaka, and The Warlord.
Steamboat's only pay per view appearance during his second WWF tenure was at SummerSlam. Teaming with Kerry Von Erich and Davey Boy Smith against the Warlord, Hercules, and Paul Roma, Steamboat got the victory for his team by pinning Roma.
The Dragon was undefeated on television during his 1991 run and lost only one match, a house show bout against Skinner. The day after his dark match loss, Steamboat gave his notice to WWF management and then quit the company shortly thereafter.
On the November 19 Clash of the Champions XVII, Steamboat returned to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as the surprise tag team partner of Dustin Rhodes, substituting for an injured Barry Windham. Steamboat and Rhodes defeated the Enforcers (Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko) to win the World Tag Team Championship, Steamboat's first World Tag Team Title under the WCW banner. They lost the titles to Arn Anderson and his new partner Bobby Eaton at a live event in January 1992. Steamboat began feuding with the Dangerous Alliance at this point, facing them in a critically acclaimed WarGames match at WrestleWar. He unsuccessfully challenged Dangerous Alliance member and United States Heavyweight Champion Rick Rude for the title at SuperBrawl II. Their rivalry culminated in a non-title Iron Man Challenge at Beach Blast, which Steamboat won.
On the September 2, 1992 Clash of the Champions XX: 20th Anniversary, Steamboat defeated "Stunning" Steve Austin to win the Television Championship. He lost the title to Scott Steiner at a television taping on September 29. He however, won both the WCW World Tag Team Title with Shane Douglas on the November 18 Clash of the Champions XXI by defeating Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes. On the March 27, 1993 edition of Power Hour, they lost the WCW titles to the Hollywood Blonds (Brian Pillman and Steve Austin). On the August 18 Clash of the Champions XXIV, he defeated Paul Orndorff to win his final WCW World Television Championship. In September 1993, at Fall Brawl, Steamboat's TV title reign was ended when he lost to Lord Steven Regal. At Starrcade, the two fought in a rematch for the title which resulted in a time-limit draw.
Heading into 1994, Steamboat engaged in one last feud over the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with longtime rival Ric Flair, which culminated in a match in the main event of Spring Stampede where the title was briefly held up due to both men's shoulders being pinned at the same time. On the May 14 edition of Saturday Night, Flair defeated Steamboat to reclaim possession of the title. Their final singles match was on Main Event in July which ended on a disqualification when Steve Austin interfered. Steamboat and Flair's last encounter was in a tag team match on the July 31 edition of Main Event where Steamboat teamed with Sting against Ric Flair and Steve Austin.
He then feuded with US Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin and earned a US title shot at Bash at the Beach but lost. On the August 24 Clash of the Champions XXVIII, he got a rematch against Austin where Steamboat hurt his back, but managed to pin Austin for the United States Heavyweight Championship. However, he had to give up the belt due to the injury at Fall Brawl; he was replaced by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, who made his WCW debut after Duggan left the WWF. The match was started and Duggan defeated Austin to become new United States Heavyweight Champion. In September 1994, Steamboat was released from WCW.
In early 2005, Steamboat returned to WWE as a producer and was introduced as a WWE Legend on the "Homecoming" edition of Raw in October 2005. In 2006 at the Raw SummerSlam Tour in Sydney, Australia, he was a referee for a match between John Cena and Edge for the WWE Championship. He also refereed another title match in July 2007 between John Cena and Randy Orton in Anaheim, California. On April 1, 2007, he made an appearance at WrestleMania 23 while various other legends were having a small dance party in the background. He also briefly appeared at the Vengeance: Night of Champions pay-per-view, being recognized as a former Intercontinental Champion. He made another appearance on WWE television during Ric Flair's farewell on the March 31, 2008 edition of Raw.
He appeared on the February 23, 2009 edition of Raw, after being named one of the members of the 2009 WWE Hall of Fame class. However, Steamboat was attacked by Chris Jericho, who began to feud with the Hall of Famers. In his first match in nearly 15 years, Steamboat returned to the ring alongside Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka to take on Jericho at WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009. While both Snuka and Piper were swiftly eliminated during the match, Steamboat held his own against Jericho, performing his legendary diving crossbody and even a plancha, although Jericho would eventually go on to win the match. Steamboat was then scheduled to face Jericho in another match at Backlash. However, he lost the match after submitting to the Walls of Jericho.
On June 28, 2010, he returned to WWE Raw to promote his new DVD only to be attacked and injured by The Nexus. On WWE's website the following day, it was announced that in storyline, Steamboat suffered injuries from the attack.
On the February 25, 2019 episode of WWE Raw, Steamboat along with special guests Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle and Sting appeared during the main event segment to celebrate the 70th birthday of Ric Flair. However, Flair would be attacked by Batista instead of appearing onscreen.