Why was Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi not a bigger star?

I just watched Jackie Chan’s Furious Hyena, and I adored the underrated fight he has with Ricky’s “Willow Blade” character, which ended up being a pretty minor subplot in the film. I thought Ricky had a great charisma and was a smooth performer in his choreography, and was surprised to discover afterwards that he never really did much else beyond his collaborations with Chang Cheh, which I will definitely have to check out.

Does anybody know why Ricky never took off more as a performer?