Steve Williams (wrestler)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Stone Cold Steve Austin, a professional wrestler whose legal name at one time was also Steve Williams, or "Dr. D" David Schultz, Paul Lincoln, who also wrestled as "Dr. Death", or Harold Shipman, a general practitioner and serial killer who was nicknamed "Dr. Death".
Steve Williams
Shreveport, Louisiana
Trained byBill Watts[3]
Buddy Landel
Debut1982
Retired2009
Sports career
Medal record
Collegiate Wrestling
Representing the
Oklahoma Sooners
NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1981 Princeton Heavyweight
Silver medal – second place 1982 Ames Heavyweight

Steve Williams (May 14, 1960 – December 29, 2009), better known by his

amateur wrestler. He was best known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling
(AJPW) throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

Williams was a two-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion, having won the Herb Abraham's UWF World Heavyweight Championship on and in 1994, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship once. He also won Bill Watts' UWF Heavyweight Championship in 1987. In addition to his singles success, Williams achieved notoriety in Japan in tag team competition, winning the World Tag Team Championship eight times with notable tag team partners Terry Gordy, Gary Albright and Vader. His tag team success continued in North America, winning tag team titles in the Mid-South (UWF), World Championship Wrestling, and NWA United States Tag Team Championship as well as winning the World's Strongest Tag Determination League twice with Gordy and Mike Rotunda.[1][4]

In 2004, Williams was diagnosed with

throat cancer, and underwent successful surgery the following year. He continued to wrestle on the independent circuit until his cancer returned in 2009, dying that year at the age of 49. Williams was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021
as part of the Legacy Wing.

Early life

NCAA amateur wrestling
achievements.

Williams was born and raised in the

junior high wherein he had to wrestle in a hockey goalie
's mask due to shattering his nose and was jokingly labeled "Dr. Death" by one of his school's coaches and his sister.

Football career

College

Williams started every game in 1982 for the Oklahoma Sooners at right guard. He was named to the UPI All-Big Eight first team and played in the 1983 Fiesta Bowl. He was also a member of the Sooners 1980 Orange Bowl and 1981 Sun Bowl squads. Williams played both guard positions while at OU.[6]

Professional

Williams was selected by the

USFL
Territorial Draft on January 3, 1983. He signed with the Generals on January 31, just prior to the opening of training camp. Williams was converted to a defensive tackle in training camp. During camp, Williams suffered a bruised knee and was placed on injured reserve for the first six games of the Generals 1983 season.

After being activated for week #10 vs. the Birmingham Stallions on May 9, Williams was the starting nose tackle for the Generals in a 22–7 loss at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. The game was telecast live on ESPN. Williams started at nose tackle the following week on May 16, in a 31–24 loss to the Michigan Panthers at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI – a game also shown on ESPN.

Professional wrestling career

Early years (1982–1987)

Williams, trained for professional wrestling by

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling
.

World Championship Wrestling (1987–1990, 1992)

Williams became involved with

The Road Warriors and he and Mike Rotunda won the NWA World Tag Team Championship
in the process.

In May 1989, Williams and Rotunda were stripped of the title, and the Varsity Club disbanded. Not long after, Williams turned face again and had a short feud with Rotunda over who was responsible for the Varsity Club's breakup, before entering a feud with

NWA World Heavyweight Championship
, suffered a legitimate knee injury, Luger turned face and was moved from the US title match to the World Title match in Sting's place. He then departed the company.

Williams during a workout in 1988.

Following a one-time appearance for

NWA Tag-Team Championship
that summer.

At

Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham
in the tournament final. Their NWA title win, however, went unrecognized by the NWA.

Steve Williams and Terry Gordy then began feuding with the Dangerous Alliance, defeating

Starrcade and teamed with Sting to defeat Eric Watts and Jushin Liger. At the start of the event it was announced that he would be substituting for an injured Rick Rude to challenge Ron Simmons for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but lost by disqualification. He left WCW shortly thereafter.[9]

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1990–1998)

In February 1990,

André The Giant
.

Williams became the last wrestler to defeat André The Giant, which took place June 5, 1992.

Mid-South Wrestling. After André's death in February 1993, Williams began winning many matches against AJPW native main-eventers in singles such as defeating Akira Taue (April 1993), Kenta Kobashi (September 1993) and Jun Akiyama
(April 1994). Williams would go on to defeat Kobashi twice again in 1994.

Over time Williams gradually got traction and fanfare from the Japanese audience. Baba booked him to be a

main eventer for the company. After, Williams became one of the most successful foreign athletes in Japanese wrestling history, especially in reference to the 90s and early 2000s. On July 28, 1994, he defeated top AJPW star Mitsuharu Misawa for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship, holding it for three months before dropping it to Toshiaki Kawada. Williams became a mainstay gaijin on AJPW television along with Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy, Johnny Ace and Gary Albright. He would either team with them or fight them in singles from 1994 to 1998 in a variety of feuds during a wrestling boom in Japan, comparable to that of WWF's Attitude Era
.

On August 31, 1997, Williams won the World Tag Team Championship titles with Gary Albright.[13] Williams' last TV appearance for his first All Japan run was on the June 28, 1998 edition of AJPW TV. He and Wolf Hawkfield defeated Masao Inoue and Takao Omori before Williams to the WWF, giving a symbolic farewell to Giant Baba and the Japanese audience after the match.[14]

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1997)

He also sporadically wrestled in the U.S. on the independent circuit. That run was brought to an end during one of his appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). After defeating Axl Rotten in approximately 2 minutes, Williams had an impromptu ECW World Heavyweight Championship match, but lost after being pinned by then-champion Raven. The loss happened in February 1997 at Crossing the Line Again.

World Wrestling Federation (1998–1999)

In May 1998, Williams was signed by the

legitimate fights. WWF took interest in signing him due to his success in All Japan. Before entering the Brawl for All and signing a contract, he had only one in-ring match with the WWF, which was against 2 Cold Scorpio on a WWF Shotgun taping dark match (April 28, 1998). According to house show cards and recaps, Vince McMahon introduced him to the ring for this dark match.[15]

On the July 20 edition of

Bart Gunn in the second round. Gunn took Williams down, tearing his quad, then knocked Williams out. Williams missed several months following the injury. Upon healing in January 1999, Williams worked dark matches on Heat/Shotgun/Raw is War tapings, mainly against Bob Holly (then still a part of the J.O.B. Squad
) to open up the tapings. His first match after rehabilitating his quad was defeating Holly on January 12, 1999, in Beaumont, TX.

Williams was involved in a brief

angle where he was managed by Jim Ross in early 1999 before Williams was released. During his time with Ross, he would attack people with suplexes, debuting on the February 22, 1999 edition of Raw is War. He wore a kabuki mask and threw Bart Gunn off a stage during a match of his. On the March 1 episode of Raw, Jim Ross announced that Bart Gunn would fight Butterbean at WrestleMania XV
, and Gunn and Ross argued over the Brawl For All in a worked shoot. During the segment, Williams attacked Gunn with the backdrop driver, revealing himself to be the masked man. This story was played-off on WWF television as Williams getting revenge against Gunn for his Brawl for All loss.

After, Williams was involved in two storylines as a babyface, one where he was pursuing the

WWF Free For All, Williams cut a backstage promo on Bart Gunn, saying how "Bart deserved what he got" after Bart lost to Butterbean. The day after on March 29 Raw episode, Williams and Hardcore Holly fought in a hardcore match, which Williams lost because Al Snow interfered. On the April 5 Raw episode, Williams attacked both Snow and Holly with suplexes in the ring. Later in the week on the April 10 episode of WWF Shotgun
, Williams defeated Tiger Ali Singh in what would be his final match for the company.

While injured with a bad hamstring Williams decided to wrestle at the Giant Baba Memorial Show on May 2, 1999.[17] Despite wrestling injured he didn't want to miss out at this event due to not wanting to let his mentor Giant Baba down, who died at the beginning of the year.

In Williams' autobiography, as well as in his

Backlash: In Your House
for the WWF Hardcore Championship, but he did not appear due to his release.

According to a radio interview from November 1999,

WWF Smackdown! on UPN
.

Return to WCW (1999)

In November 1999, Williams healed from his hamstring injury and appeared briefly in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) again, with Oklahoma as his manager in a feud with Vampiro. As a result of this feud, he wrestled against Jerry Only from the Misfits on the November 29 edition of WCW Monday Nitro in a steel cage match. On December 2 on Thunder in Topeka, KS, Williams rebounded to defeat Silver King, Villano IV and Villano V in a three on one match. On the following Nitro in Milwaukee, WI, Williams teamed with Oklahoma to defeat Vampiro and Jerry Only. On December 13, 1999, he then faced Sid Vicious in New Orleans, LA, but was pinned. At Starrcade 99 on December 19, Williams faced Vampiro in a one-on-one encounter and was defeated via disqualification after he shoved referee Charles Robinson.[19]

Very shortly after, the announcement that he would return to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) was on December 26, 1999.[20]

Return to AJPW (2000–2003)

Steve Williams at an AJPW live event in January 2003 after defeating Satoshi Kojima in tag-team action.

Williams went back to AJPW and had a second full-time run from 2000 to 2003. In the early 2000s, Williams was a babyface with an antihero edge, portraying an AJPW loyalist keeping the legacy of the Baba family name alive, as well as a comeback story upon his injury in the Brawl For All. Williams made his return on January 2, 2000, winning the New Year's Battle Royal on AJPW TV. In the following weeks, Williams defeated Mike Barton to start up a revenge angle[21] and teased a program with Big Van Vader. In a match they kept slapping each other acting as if they were setting up an future angle, but both of them swerved the audience and excitedly high-fived to reveal themselves as tag-team partners.[22] Together they held a tag-team title reign when they captured the World Tag Team Championship titles from Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama in February 2000. They split in early April when Vader left the company.

Williams then feuded with success in singles against

Mike Barton again at the beginning of 2001 in a revenge match.[25]

In the summer of 2000, Williams had an unsuccessful feud against Toshiaki Kawada throughout AJPW TV episodes, which Williams lost, the angle being that Williams sought to get even with Kawada for defeating him for the Triple Crown Championship in 1994. On the December 9, 2000 pay-per-view Steve Williams and Mike Rotunda won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in the main event and honored Giant Baba after the match.[26]

Williams had a main event pay-per-view match against Keiji Muto on July 14, 2001, for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, which Williams lost. After leaving the backstage area Williams would then going on a huge swearing tirade, where he kicked a trash can, was about to cry in tears, and then throwing his armpads to the ground while swearing again.[27] Such scenes never happened in the traditional All Japan and was characteristic to the "crash TV" style of Vince Russo's writing. This would be an early sign of what would become the Pro Wrestling Love era, ultimately leading Williams into a grudge feud with Muto into 2002.

In later 2001, 2002 and early 2003 Williams often teamed with

Abdulla The Butcher's birthday and Williams supporting Barton's effort in fighting Genichiro Tenryu and Keiji Muto. However, Williams would turn on Barton on the April 15, 2002 pay-per-view, before befriending him again in October 2002.[28]

Williams would have sporadic singles feuds against Keiji Muto (defeating him in a singles match once out of revenge in March 2002) and George Hines,[29] as with his wearing hamstring he couldn't compete in singles like he used to. Staying in the tag division was safer for Williams' longevity in AJPW's upper-midcard and main events, as well as the popularity of tag-teams in Japanese wrestling at this time.

In the tag division, Williams notably feuded with Satoshi Kojima, where Williams took the role of the veteran AJPW loyalist and Kojima as the young NJPW invader, who served as the sidekick to Keiji Muto. Williams surprise attacked and suplexed Kojima on TV when Kojima was cutting an in-ring promo, and Williams would often mention Kojima in his backstage promos as someone he would like to defeat. After a series of three house show matches involving Mike Rotunda at Williams's side, where they defeated Kojima and his team each time, the Williams vs. Kojima feud ended abruptly in January 2003 when AJPW's sale finalized and Williams left the company, with no singles match payoff.[30][31]

William's last appearance during his second All Japan run was on the January 13, 2003 pay-per-view of AJPW. On this show, Williams,

George Hines, Hideki Hosaka and Johnny Smith.[32]

Cancer, return to wrestling, and retirement (2003–2009)

After leaving AJPW full-time, he wrestled a couple of matches for WWE on May 23 and 24, 2003 against

knocked out 22 seconds into the fight. According to Williams he was tested positive with throat cancer a couple days before the match. This was his first and only professional fight.[33]

In March 2004, Williams underwent surgery for throat cancer, the tumor developing and remaining undetected since September 2003. Williams made a surprise appearance on the July 22, 2004 AJPW pay-per-view while he was undergoing surgery. He and Genichiro Tenryu defeated Arashi and Nobukazu Hirai on the show. Williams also cut a promo in a very hoarse and sickly voice, saying that he still wanted to wrestle Kawada again and return to AJPW when Williams became healthy. This would be Williams's last appearance in the Pro Wrestling Love era as well as in AJPW.

Williams was declared cancer-free in March 2005, making the announcement on the March 27, 2005 edition of IWA Japan TV. This was also the show where he publicly unveiled his

WrestleReunion 2.[35] According to promoter Sal Corrente, Williams was initially hesitant to work with King Kaluha but was ultimately appreciative about the choice of opponent.[36]

Williams made an appearance at a

Jake Hager and briefly working as his tag team partner. He also made an appearance at an August 30 Raw
house show, during which he addressed the crowd and announced how happy he was to be cancer free for four years.

Later, he made appearances for Oklahoma-based independent federation Sooner World Class Wrestling (SWCW).[37] He also worked for Southwest Airlines in Colorado.[38]

After the death of longtime rival and friend Mitsuharu Misawa in June 2009, Williams made the decision to retire from wrestling after 27 years. Williams's final match took place August 15 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for Asylum Championship Wrestling. He defeated Franco D'Angelo for the ACW Heavyweight Championship, which he vacated after the match.[39]

Death

The throat cancer eventually returned and Williams's health gradually worsened. His last public appearance was at the K&S Wrestlefest Wrestling Convention on December 12, 2009, in Carteret, New Jersey. On December 29, 2009, Williams died at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver from throat cancer.[40] He was 49 years old.

Other media

Video games

The secondary protagonist of the 1999

Sega Dreamcast video game Blue Stinger, Captain Dogs Bower, is based on Williams's appearance in Japan after 1994, featuring a similar build with an identical black mullet and beard. Like Williams, Dogs also has a similar scruffy voice, goofy/serious personality, a wrestling fan (a shirt in the game) and is known for his strength. Both Williams and Dogs are also formerly divorced with a daughter.[41]

Personal life

Williams fishing, circa 1988.

Williams was of German descent and grew up in a Protestant background.

Born Again Christian early in his first AJPW run, and prior was a Christian believer who in general lacked interest in organized religion. He stated in his book that before becoming closer to God than he already was, he used to "skim the Bible" and also had a difficult time fitting in with more dogmatic and ritualistic churches.[43] Williams also took interest in East Asian religions, having attended Japanese temples while on tour in Japan.[44]

Beginning in late 1990, not long after he debuted in AJPW, Williams was known for praying backstage before each match.

Williams was known for his Christian motivational speaking in personal interviews both before and after being diagnosed with throat cancer, comparable in personality to Marc Mero, who he was also a friend of during their time in WCW and WWF.

During the time of the Chris Benoit double-murder/suicide case in the summer of 2007, Williams was highly critical of Benoit's actions, posting on his website that he found it "very disturbing" as Williams in his book considered Benoit to be a "very close friend". After the details of the case became known, Williams wrote that he "felt no sorrow for Chris Benoit", where he also wrote how he has "always asked God to give me life so that I could LIVE for my son". He also stated that he has "no idea how someone can murder their family and then stick a Bible next to them." Williams also criticized the mainstream media's disparaging reports on Vince McMahon and the wrestling business over the Benoit incident.[45]

Williams has routinely stated how he loved

marijuana
and other drugs and painkillers to help alleviate his depression from his divorce, sneaking them on a plane with him to Japan. Williams was barred from entering Japan for one year and suspended from AJPW until he got clean off drugs, returning to AJPW TV in April 1996.

Upon getting clean and his life back into sorts thanks to Giant Baba and Williams's faith, even after their divorce Williams and his ex-wife Tammy were still close, continuing to raise their daughter (Stormy) and son (Wyndham) and at one point remarrying only to divorce again later.[48]

Mixed martial arts record

Professional record breakdown
1 match 0 wins 1 loss
By knockout 0 1
By submission 0 0
By decision 0 0
Res. Record Opponent Method Event Date Round Time Location Notes
Loss 0–1 Belarus Alexey Ignashov KO (knees)
K-1 Beast 2004 in Niigata
 March 14, 2004 1 0:22
Niigata
, Japan

Championships and accomplishments

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This promotion, while operating out of the same area and using some of the same regional championships, is not the same promotion once owned by Jim Crockett Jr. and did not begin operating until the mid-1990s.
  2. ^ Gordy and Williams unified the WCW World Tag Team Championship with the NWA World Tag Team Championship after winning the NWA title in a tag team tournament. This happened nearly four years after Ted Turner's purchase of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from Jim Crockett Jr. He renamed the promotion World Championship Wrestling, but it remained an NWA affiliate until September 1993. As a result, the two titles were separated once more and Gordy and Williams were then recognized as having two separate title reigns with two different titles rather than one unified reign.

References

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  5. ^ "Williams dies; was 4-time All-American". ESPN.com. ESPN. 31 December 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  6. ^ "Ou's Dr. Death Now Operates in Starting Role". The Oklahoman. November 27, 1981. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
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  22. ^ "Japan's "Fingerpoke of Doom" (AJPW All Japan TV 01 09 2000)". YouTube.
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Further reading

  • Williams, Steve; Caiazzo, Tom (March 15, 2007). How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life. Foreword by
    ISBN 978-1-59670-180-9
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steve_Williams_(wrestler)&oldid=1216040044"