Jay Youngblood: A daughter remembers
Mike Mooneyham
There’s not a day goes by that Ricca Jonas doesn’t think about her dad.
She was only three years old when her father, the late Steven Nicky Romero — better known as pro wrestling star Jay Youngblood — died on Sept. 2, 1985, in Parkville, Victoria, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne, during a tour of the South Pacific.
His death at the tender age of 30 was attributed to a heart attack that had been precipitated by hemorrhagic pancreatitis. He was in a coma for nearly two weeks before passing away.
“He and his brother Mark were on tour and my dad told him he needed to go to the hospital,” relates Jonas. “He was diagnosed with pancreatitis when he first went into the hospital, and they did a laparotomy to confirm the diagnosis.”
Jonas believes her dad, who was experiencing pronounced abdominal pain, realized the severity of his condition but didn’t want to disappoint his fans.
“He started to get better and actually thought he was going to get out of the hospital … then his organs started to fail.”
The official coroner’s report listed a series of physical breakdowns that led to the young wrestler’s death: acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis (one month), acute renal failure (one week), abdominal sepsis (two weeks), pneumococcal septicemia (four days), and finally cardiorespiratory arrest.
“He was really sick for a week, got better and had surgery,” says Jonas. “He had a series of heart attacks and had hemorrhagic pancreatitis. He developed septicemia and other abdominal problems. He thought he was getting better, and then it happened. I think he probably knew what was going on.”
Steven “Nicky” Romero’s final resting place is a spot near his parents, Ricky and Stella Marrujo Romero, at a family gravesite in Amarillo, Texas. The elder Romero, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 74, also was a pro wrestling great and one of the top stars for Dory Funk Sr.’s Amarillo-based promotion during the ’60s and ’70s.
Two more sons, Mark and Chris Youngblood (Romero), would follow in their father’s footsteps and step into the squared circle.
Jay’s pro career lasted only 10 years, but in that one decade he earned a spot among wrestling’s hierarchy.
Portraying a Native American, though actually of Hispanic decent, Youngblood hit his stride in the late ’70s when he formed one of the top teams in the profession with partner Ricky Steamboat. With good looks and ability to match, the two would quickly be regarded as one of the greatest babyface teams in the business.
Jonas, a 33-year-old dark-eyed, dark-haired mother of two whose striking features resemble those of her dad, was just a toddler when Youngblood was stricken overseas. All she has to remember him by are photographs and stories from her mom.
A self-described “ghost hunter,” she admits that her search may never be over.
“No matter where I look, how deep I go, I just can’t seem to find it,” she wrote in an essay on her dad. “I’m not even sure what ghost I’m chasing. My father is out of my reach. An enigma, an actual legend, a flicker on my TV screen. A ghost that so many others have seen, witnessed, communicated with. He’s brought light and happiness to others. He brings me questions, emptiness.”
For most of that last year, she says, her father was gone. “I only know what my mom and others have told me.”
YouTube, she says, has been a tremendous help, allowing her to see footage of her dad in his prime. “I’m lucky I have the Internet to fall back on,” she says. Along the way, other wrestlers would tell her stories about her father, and how he loved performing and loved his fans.
But those stories, like the images, are all fleeting.
“Others recall how his eyes lit up when I was around. He mentions me in his letters, yet he’s still just a spirit I’m chasing after, yearning to make a connection with. He is the ghost of the past. My memories of laughter, joy and unapologetic happiness have made me who I am today. I hold onto these memories like artifacts, able to connect me to the legendary apparition of my past.”
Dynamic duo
Youngblood broke into the wrestling business in 1975 in the Amarillo territory. Working under a mask as “Silver Streak,” he moved to the Pacific Northwest before becoming a main-event act in the Carolinas teaming with the popular Steamboat.
The two clicked like a well-oiled machine and were considered one of the best teams in the business. And they left a lasting impression on fans in the Carolinas.
“Jay and Ricky were both laid back, and they made an excellent tag team,” recalls longtime Mid-Atlantic wrestling photographer Eddie Cheslock. “They did some unique stuff in the ring that was unbelievable.”
Steamboat, a WWE Hall of Famer, thinks often about his late partner. The two were inducted as a team this summer into the Mid-Atlantic Legends Hall of Heroes.
“Jay was the best tag-team partner I ever had. We were like brothers. We could translate information to one another without having to speak it. All we had to do was look at one another during a match. I’d give him a nod and would say, ‘I know what you want brother, I know what you want.’ And we did it together for almost five years.”
Two of their most remembered programs would take place in the Crockett-run territory with the teams of Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle, and Jack and Jerry Brisco.
A classic bout on March 12, 1983, with Slaughter and Kernodle — part of a program billed as “The Final Conflict” — drew 15,000 fans to the Greensboro Coliseum, with thousands more turned away and traffic backed up for miles off I-85 and the streets lined up with fans hoping to scalp a ticket at the eleventh hour.
Photographer Cheslock was on hand that night.
“I was in the back with Susan (Romero/Youngblood) and Susan (Blood/Steamboat). We all three had a group hug. It was such an amazing event. The police told me that they had turned away almost 20,000 cars. It was just unbelievable.”
The two teams worked every night for a month and set records everywhere they went.
So strong was the duo’s popularity that promoter Jim Crockett was convinced to allow the Briscos to turn heel for a program with Steamboat and Youngblood.
Jerry Brisco, now a talent agent for WWE, recalls that it took a lot of goading from him and his brother, along with Steamboat and Youngblood, to get Crockett to go along with the plan.
“We had a lot of conversations with Jimmy Crockett trying to get him to approve,” recalled Brisco. “Jack and I had been strong babyface draws for so many years. Jimmy didn’t think it would work. But we assured him we weren’t really going to change our wrestling styles. We were just going to be more aggressive.”
“Of course we had the perfect foes in Youngblood and Steamboat,” he added. “They had just come off that big run with Don Kerndodle and Sarge. We stepped right into it because they were still real hot from that.”
“How in the world are you going to be able to even come close with Jack and Jerry Brisco?” Steamboat recalls Crockett asking him.
It wasn’t an unfair question. The Briscos were the No. 2 babyface team behind Steamboat and Youngblood in the Carolinas.
The switch from fan favorite to hated heel came subtly when Jack “accidentally” injured Steamboat’s leg by falling on him while Steamboat was trapped in Jerry’s figure four leglock.
The fans blamed the Briscos for purposely injuring Steamboat despite the brothers’ denials.
An all-out war between the two teams broke out when the brothers swiped Youngblood’s Indian headdress and claimed it for their own.
The Briscos achieved their goal of winning the world tag-team belts when they won took the straps from Steamboat and Youngblood on two occasions during 1983 before losing them to the popular duo for the final time on a Thanksgiving Day show at the inaugural Starrcade in Greensboro, N.C.
“Those guys told Jay and I after it was all said and done that it was the most fun they had in their entire careers,” says Steamboat, who shared the NWA world tag-team title with Youngblood on five different occasions.
“The matches that we had with Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle, and later when we turned the Brisco Brothers into heels, you can’t dispute the crowds we drew and the accolades we got,” adds Steamboat. “There wasn’t a lot of tape on those matches; many were at house shows. But we had tremendous matches with these guys.
“It was so much fun during that tag-team time in my career. I learned so much. Even though I was a main-event guy, there was stuff going on in the ring while I was standing on the apron, and I’m watching Jay sell or Jay fire back and the heels are getting heat. And I’m standing there so close, and I’m still learning. It was a lot of fun.”
Youngblood went to Florida Championship Wrestling in September 1984 where he and brother Mark captured the Florida version of the United States tag-team title. He would wrestle in Memphis, Mexico and for Pro Wrestling USA that next year prior to his final, fateful tour in Australia.
Daddy’s ‘princess’
Ricca Jonas spent her first 23 years in North Carolina before moving to Independence, Mo., outside the Kansas City limits, with her husband Adam. Her mother, Susan, remained in North Carolina and didn’t remarry until 15 years after Jay’s passing.
Now 33 and a mother of two (son, Caleb, 15, and daughter, Taylor, 11), Jonas works as a
laboratory technician involved in medical research.
A self-described Kansas City Royals baseball fanatic, she is well-versed in everything having to do with history (“especially JFK and Lincoln”) and is an accomplished painter. She “adores” animals and loves playing most any kind of sport with her family.
Bright, talented and attractive, she’s the embodiment of the all-American girl.
When Ricca was young, she would spend summers with her grandparents in the Texas Panhandle.
Her grandfather, “Rapid” Ricky Romero, was a professional wrestler for more than 50 years and was well known for throwing miniature sombreros to fans at matches. A close friend and frequent tag-team partner of Amarillo promoter and wrestling great Dory Funk Sr., Romero was one of the most popular stars in the southwestern United States and Mexico during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, battling the likes of Lou Thesz, Gorgeous George and Jack Brisco.
A consummate professional and affectionately known as “SuperMex,” Romero was one of first Hispanic wrestlers in that area of the country.
Romero, who had played minor league baseball in the New York Giants organization, retired from wrestling in 1985 after the death of his son. He died in 2006 at the age of 74 after years of complications from diabetes.
“I absolutely adored my grandfather Ricky and grandmother Stella,” says Jonas. “I went to Amarillo every summer as a kid to stay with them, the last time was when I was around 12 years old. They loved telling me stories about their ‘Stevie,’ how he got along with all of his siblings, how he liked to go to the lake in the summertime. But mostly they told me over and over again how much I look just like him and how much he loved me. We actually didn’t really talk much wrestling, which seems kind of funny considering almost the entire family was in the business.”
Uncles also lived in the area, and Jonas says she still keeps in touch with her cousins.
She has an older sister (Tiffany, 39) and brother (Daniel, mid-30s), and a younger sister (Kaylee, 29).
Ricca also has fond memories of seeing her godfather, Ricky Steamboat, when he made an apperarance at Harley Race’s wrestling school in Missouri a couple of years ago.
“I had on my Jay Youngblood shirt and my mother-in-law Tammy, father-in-law Franny and my two kids were standing in line with me to get his ‘autograph.’ I handed him a photo of my father and he and looked up at my shirt and just said ‘Jay … haven’t seen that in a long time.’”
“He hadn’t really looked up at my face yet, and as he was signing my picture, my mother-in-law couldn’t hold it in anymore,” says Ricca.
“This is Jay’s daughter,” she told the surprised wrestler.
“He actually looked at me, really looked at me, and sat back and said ‘Ricca!?’ I’m pretty sure it took him a good long while for the shock to actually wear off.”
Ricca knows her dad shared so many great times with Steamboat.
“I wish I could have spent more time with him. I really would love to actually sit down and talk to him about my father. After all, he is the one person that really, honestly knew my dad and who he was on the inside.”
People reach out to her, she says, and now that she’s older, she sees what an impact he made on others.
“I think the greatest and most important thing that I’ve about my father is that while he wasn’t perfect — he had his issues just like we all do — he did do something meaningful with his life the short time he was here.
“I have so many people reach out to me and tell me how much they loved watching him wrestle, that he was truly an artist at what he did, but the thing that means the most is when they tell me how kind he was.”
“Jay was one of the most down-to-earth people you’d ever want to meet,” echoes Cheslock. “He was always kind and respectful. When my wife was pregnant with our son, every time we saw him he’d rub her belly and say that he couldn’t wait to see the baby.”
Sadly, though, it never happened, says Cheslock, whose son was born the week of Youngblood’s passing. “He never got to see my son. I really regret it.”
“All he ever talked about was Ricca,” says Cheslock. “He was always talking about ‘his princess.’ He would have been so proud. She turned out to be such a beautiful and talented young lady. She and her mom were downright angels. You couldn’t ask for two nicer people.”
“The entire Romero family … they’re just great,” added Cheslock. “Mark and Chris are also super guys.”
Tying the knot
Susan Nessell was introduced to pro wrestling at a young age. She remembers her father watching the weekly matches on TV and cheering on favorites like George Becker and Johnny Weaver. She would later tag along with him to the Tuesday night shows at Dorton Arena in Raleigh where he had weekly reserved tickets.
Although she didn’t consider herself an avid fan, her main job was keeping an eye on her younger half-brother, who wasn’t much older than a toddler, and keeping him occupied while her dad watched the matches and mingled with fellow fans at the concession stand.
“I mainly went so I could help him,” she says. “But I enjoyed the matches too.”
It was at one of those shows where she caught the eye of a handsome young wrestler named Jay Youngblood.
“I had been running after my half-brother,” she recalls. “It was before the show started, and he was walking across the arena. He struck up a conversation, and that’s where it all started,” she laughs. “At Dorton Arena.”
Both were in their early 20s, and an immediate connection was made.
““I thought he was handsome. He just seemed like a good fellow. He asked me for my number. I really didn’t expect him to call, but he did.”
The two dated, off and on, and she eventually made the move to Charlotte where Youngblood was headquartered.
“Jay came from a long line of wrestlers. I wanted to marry him, but I didn’t know if I could handle that lifestyle,” she says. “That’s one of the reasons I moved to Charlotte and lived with him.”
They were together several years before finally tying the knot on Halloween of 1981.
Ricky Steamboat and his then-wife Susan were best man and maid of honor. Paul Jones smoked a turkey for the reception.
“I still remember that smoked turkey,” she laughs. “It’s just one of the things I’ll never forget.”
Before Ricca was born, Susan and Jay moved from territory to territory, living the nomadic life that wrestlers endured during that era. From Charlotte to Oregon to Tampa and back to Charlotte.
She also came to understand some of the unwritten codes of wrestling.
“When I would ride with Jay, I would usually go shopping, go eat or sit out in the car. I felt like that (wrestling) was our bread and butter, and I didn’t want to interfere with that. A lot of the fans — especially the female ones — weren’t crazy about girlfriends or wives.”
Like his colleagues, Youngblood was often on the road. He broke his foot prior to his final overseas tour, and got to spend some quality time at home.
It was a rare occasion when Jay had the opportunity to take time off from work and spend time with his family. He and Steamboat went on an extended tour of Japan just weeks after Ricca was born.
In addition to his wrestling duties, Jay ran a juice bar — aptly called “The Reservation” — at a gym Steamboat owned in Charlotte.
But Jay was passionate about the business, and was regarded as one of the rising stars in the profession. “A great, great worker with lots of fire,” whose comeback was second to none, Steamboat would reflect.
Susan knows that while Jay and Steamboat were as close as brothers, a tension existed. As Jay’s drinking increased, Steamboat’s tolerance grew shorter.
Steamboat would later say that he became like a “baby-sitter” as Youngblood battled problems with alcohol abuse. “It just became too much for me to even try to watch him.”
Susan recalls the fateful final month of her husband’s life.
“Jay was drinking a little bit more then. I don’t know if Rick was in the dark like I was, because no one knew he was sick. I think Rick didn’t understand. You can’t help somebody if they don’t ask for it. When Jay was in Australia, he was in so much pain they put him in the hospital.”
Even she had no clue that her husband was battling pancreatitis.
“There were several things that the doctor later told me that might have attributed to it — things like alcohol, seafood. I don’t think the licks (bumps) he took helped at all. I think he was in a lot of pain and just didn’t tell anybody.”
“I think a lot of people could have understood and not have felt as disappointed or angry if they knew,” she says. “I know I could have helped a lot more if he had told me that he was hurting.”
Jay didn’t know of the condition until he was hospitalized, she says. She recalls that he had been in a cage match where he suffered an infection after being cut on the forehead.
“He was on some really strong antibiotics. I think he had had that condition for quite a while.”
“He loved his family,” she adds. “He would go up and see them as much as he could. He liked people. He really enjoyed what he did.”
Today she lives in Rockingham, N.C., and works for the Chesterfield (S.C.) County Public Defenders’ Office.
She remarried her “first love” 15 years later. The two had been friends since high school.
She sometimes wonders what Jay might have become had he lived the 74 years his dad had enjoyed.
“He talked about wanting to be a butcher. He said they made good money, and it was a steady job. I know he would have gotten into something he enjoyed. Jay would have been good at anything he did.”
Photographs and memories
Jay Youngblood would have turned 60 years old in June. Tag partner Steamboat, who turned 62 in February, only got better with age and looked as good the day he retired as he did when he came in.
There’s no reason to believe that Youngblood would have looked his age either. He had reached a wrestling zenith in his mid-20s, and his potential seemed unlimited.
The “what ifs” and “what could have beens” still haunt family and friends.
While his daughter is grateful for the time she got to spend with him and the memories he left behind, she will forever lament that she didn’t get “the Jay Youngblood the world got.”
“I didn’t have that much time with him,” she says. “But I am so honored and beyond grateful to have had the chance to share him with the fans.”
For Ricca Jonas, Jay Youngblood’s legacy will always live on.
“His light shines brightly and his love is always here, and I will forever be his daughter.”
She gazes at an old scrapbook that contains priceless images of her and her dad.
“I definitely resemble my dad in my looks,” she says. “Even as a newborn, we could have been twins, between our jet black hair and dark brown eyes.”
Ricca is personable and funny, traits that she attributes to her dad.
“I also think I got my sense of humor from him. There’s nothing that makes me happier than a giant belly laugh, even if I’m only making myself giggle. He was determined, hard-headed and very passionate, traits he definitely passed on to me.”
There is one memory of her dad, she says, the one where he’s standing in the bathroom with a hot rag covering his face. The toddler goes in to watch, unable to say any real words, but she remembers her dad looking down and smiling after she takes the rag off his face.
“Do you want to try Mija?’ he asks. “Mija” (shortened from “Mi hija”) is Spanish for “My daughter.”
The image is permanently etched in her mind.
“I remember him putting the rag on my face and telling me to breathe in the warmth. I of course didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter because he then tickled me and I ran out of the bathroom giggling, with him laughing and running right behind me.”
Those are the memories Ricca holds on to. It makes her happy when she thinks about those times back in North Carolina. It also makes her happy thinking about how he made others feel.
“He was always willing to talk with a fan … he made them feel like they were the most important person in the room and it’s something they always remember. His gift was not only the athleticism of doing what he loved, but that he was loved for being himself. And I’m extremely proud of that.”
For photos, plus lots more by Mike Mooneyham, go to
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20151115/PC20/151119497/jay-youngblood-a-daughter-remembers
Reach Mike Mooneyham at 843-937-5517, or follow him on Twitter at @ByMike Mooneyham and on Facebook at Facebook.com/MikeMooneyham.