Balistik Blabber: Dr. Death... Aka Steve Williams

Greetings and welcome to Balistik Blabber 23! This series of articles is called “Ex-WWE Talent”, where I dig up long forgotten wrestlers who’ve been with the World Wrestling Entertainment company and have moved on… or not… Today we take on one of the World Wrestling Entertainment’s biggest mistakes… EEEVEEERRR! This is the man who popularized the gutwrench powerbomb before Jack Swagger (who in part, helped inspire this issue)…

“DOCTOR DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS!

Name doesn’t ring a bell? I can’t really blame you… and after a few paragraphs you’ll see why. Another addition to the “brains & brawn” package, STEVEN WILLIAMS graduated from the University of Oklahoma bringing with him the title of “All-American” for his stellar performance in American football. At the same time, he competed in amateur wrestling where he almost won a National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. Who denied him of this achievement? Future Olympic wrestler Bruce Baumgartner… it took an Olympic caliber wrestler to beat Williams… that alone should be enough for anybody to gauge his abilities!

Early on, Williams had entertained the thought of doing professional wrestling… so much so that he already thought of his in-ring gimmick, inspired by college life: either he lost a bet or something but once he was made to wrestle wearing a hockey mask, a matter which made one of his coaches call him “Doctor Death” (Jason?)... Thus one of pro wrestling’s most clear-cut gimmicks was born! He was scouted and trained by Bill Watts, a wrestling veteran who feuded with Bruno Sammartino in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and the man who established his own promotion called “Mid-South Wrestling” (which would later evolve into World Championship Wrestling) in which Williams made his pro wrestling debut. In Mid-South, he teamed up with eventual WWF superstars Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase respectively, even winning the Mid-South Tag Team titles with the latter! Soon the promotion was renamed into the “Universal Wrestling Federation” (UWF) and Williams eventually reached the pinnacle of the company by defeating Big Bubba Rogers for the UWF Heavyweight title!

Throughout the years Williams would be able to wrestle in nearly every major wrestling promotion to live and die… I think… In National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), he encountered even more future WWF stars such as Barry Windham, Ron Simmons (……DAMN!!!), Dustin Rhodes (aka Goldust), The Road Warriors and even the Steiner Brothers. He also participated in one crazy match: a “Triple Cage Tower of Doom” match in the “Great American Bash” event of 1988! That same year, in grand fashion at the “Starrcade 1988” event, he won the opening match of the show and earned the NWA United States Tag Team championship with Kevin Sullivan (one of, if not, the biggest rivals of Chris Benoit) against “The Fantastics” team of Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers! It should be noted however that in his early times in WCW, Williams used to fight AGAINST Sullivan who, together with Simmons and Mike Rotunda (aka “Irwin R. Schyster”) formed “The Varsity Club” stable. He would later join the stable which lead to the NWA title win. After they were stripped of the title and disbanded, he left the NWA and made the fateful trip to Japan… where he signed up with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)! In an unbelievable match on March 6, 1990 he and his partner Terry Gordy defeated Stan Hansen AND Genichiro Tenryu to WIN THE "ALL JAPAN TAG TITLES"! Their alliance was named “The Miracle Violence Connection” (MVC… NOT to be confused with a crossover arcade fighting game!) and it would become one of the most successful international tag teams of all time! Their achievements include 5-time “All Japan Unified World Tag Team Champions”, 2-time “World’s Strongest Tag Team League winners” (1990 and 1991), WCW World Tag Team champions after beating the Steiner Brothers in 1992 as well as NWA World Tag champions beating Dustin Rhodes (GOOOLLLD…USSST!) and Barry Windham the same year! Many dispute whether or not the NWA recognizes this particular reign but let’s not dive into that any further. I would however like to point out another claim that apparently, there was a time in his career that Williams was completely UNDEFEATED ON U.S. SOIL FOR A DECADE…!!! The records don’t exactly point it out but majority of the early 90’s, all he had were either pin fall victories or draws; no losses… across various wresting promotions… wow… even I didn’t know that until I did my research. Real or not, that’s an even better record compared to multiple title reigns in my opinion!

After 1992, he went back to Japan and exploded… NO, NOT LITERALLY FOOL (you know who you are)! To put it simply, Williams was on a roll: on January 30, 1993 the MVC beat the team of Mitsuharu Misawa (TAAAIGAAAH DURAIBAAA!!!) and Toshiaki Kawada (GAAAMENGIRIII!!!) to win the “All Japan Tag Team” titles. They just beat an awesome All Japan tag team, how else can you top that? By beating Misawa one-on-one to win the prestigious “ALL JAPAN TRIPLE CROWN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE” THAT’S HOW! Williams won his first and only Triple Crown against the “Master of The Stiff Elbow” on July 28, 1994, obliterating Misawa’s mind-numbing-near-TWO-year reign as Triple Crown champion! What separated this match from other Misawa matches is how Williams prepared for this bout. Other challengers would just take that elbow shot from Misawa and throw some lame counterattack… usually resulting in a beating. What Williams did was different: every time Misawa attempted those elbow shots, Williams gave him a push; not just a regular standing “that all you got?” push… a REALLY STRONG PUSH! It knocked Misawa off-balance and completely messed up his main offense! That, and some vicious back drop drivers, dangerous German suplexes and of course, some badass “DOCTOR BOMB”s earned Williams the victory! No, you didn’t read that wrong: in Japan, your finishing maneuver needs to be applied more than the average 2 times for it to be effective… yeah~ Anyway, after what can easily be considered a brutal match, who else would challenge him for his shiny new belt? Why, none other than a young, then-orange-trunks-wearing guy named KOBASHI KENTA who fights to a brilliant but losing effort. Finally, after a reign of 86 days, Williams lost the Triple Crown to Toshiaki Kawada in October 1994. Taking into account the talent he’s faced during his reign, Williams has pretty much tasted every bit of All Japan had to offer: a nice mix of chops from Kobashi, some crisp elbows from Misawa and a sprinkle of brutal kicks from Kawada… and lived to tell the tale! Other AJPW “gaijin” (foreigners) wrestlers who have had the pleasure of teaming up with this monster player include Johnny Ace, Gary Albright and Bam Bam Bigelow.

In 1998 Williams was encouraged by fellow Oklahoma native Jim Ross to sign up for the WWF which he did. For the sole purpose of selling his brute strength and dangerous technicality, the creative minds of the federation created the “Brawl for All” Tournament! The plan was to have Williams go through the other entries, win the event and gain a sort of “powerhouse” gimmick. First round went fine and dandy when he beat Carl Quellet but in the next one… something went utterly wrong… Williams was “knocked out” (notice the quotation marks) and legitimately injured by Bart Gunn. The aftermath was a blow to his pride and all plans for his big push shelved indefinitely… the only consolation he got from the mess is a few more months with the WWF until he was released from his contract… what a screw up!

Thankfully, not all ties were severed between Williams and the WWE. Five (5) years after the nasty ’98 embarrassment, he appeared in a WWE house show TWICE (May 23 and 24, 2003) winning and losing against Lance Storm resulting into a tie between the two! A month went by and a proposal to become a trainer was made to Williams but it didn’t reach a favorable end. On September 19, 2003 he participated in the “Major League Wrestling (MLW) WAR GAMES” as a member of “The Funkin Army” (led by Terry Funk, members include Sabu, Sandman & Steve Williams) versus “The Extreme Horsemen” (led by Steve Corino, members include Justin Credible, Arn Anderson and Barry Windham) which the Funkin Army won. Williams also had the prestige of being a part of one of the first ever professional wrestling events to be held in China! On December 30, 2003, NWA Mid-Atlantic toured there where he beat Terry Taylor for the “NWA Mid-Atlanctic Heavyweight” title! This guy is LOADED with titles! It’s all so good you’d think life was perfect for him… and you’d be dead wrong… In April of 2004 he announced that he was battling throat cancer following a shoot match for K-1 (the kickboxing federation) Japan… the treatment involved surgery to remove a growth in his throat as well as possible removal of his voice box to get to it… scary stuff! I’ll just summarize the battle for you: HE BEAT THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF CANCER!

Steve “Doctor Death” Williams has had an amazing career in professional wrestling, one full of titles, memorable matches, unforgettable OMG moments and lots of that manly drama only professional wrestling can provide. Only recently in September 2008 did he announce his retirement from the business. He still sometimes makes appearances for the “Sooner World Class Wrestling” (SWCW) federation in his hometown of Oklahoma, wrote his biography entitled “How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life” and is a regular employee at the local Southwest Airlines airport there. Despite lacking the charisma and appeal sought after in today’s superstars, Williams has created a class of his own: he worked hard… he watched his health… not entirely a face… not entirely a heel… not even entirely neutral! ALL CHAMPION! The WWE may never include him into their hall of fame but it doesn’t matter… Steven Williams has done it all and doesn’t need to prove anything anymore! Even if the only people who remember him are his closest friends, colleagues and biggest fans… even that number can beat the fan boys of other less hardworking wrestlers out there today!

Thank you for your time! Tune in next… errr… TIME for another trip down memory lane with me as we tackle more ex-WWE performers!