Grilling JR - "Dr. Death" Steve Williams [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Steve Williams

Steve Williams was born on May 14th, 1960 in Lakewood, Colorado

When did you first meet Steve?

Steve attended Lakewood High School in Colorado, graduating in 1978. He was the youngest of four children born to Gerald (passed away in 1985) and Dottie Williams (passed away in 2016) 

He was on the track & field team, played football, and wrestled all four years. Williams graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1981 after a football career where he was named All-American. He also competed as an amateur wrestler, where he was a four time All American, finishing 6th as a freshman, 5th as a sophomore, 3rd as a junior and 2nd as a senior. 

His older brother Jeff was a starting tight end and convinced Williams, who coming out of high school was the most heavily recruited offensive lineman in the country, to come to Oklahoma.

Where else was Steve considering going to college at?

Steve 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. 

Steve was a starting offensive guard on the football team, noted as the lead blocker for Heisman Trophy candidates Billy Sims (who won it the year before Williams was on the team and finished second when Williams was a freshman) 

and Marcus Dupree. ESPN did a 30 for 30 on Marcus Dupree a few years ago. (I think JR was on that, but it's been a few years since I last saw it, so I can't recall)

Steve was a four-time All-American heavyweight wrestler and three-time Big 8 champion.

Steve and Ron Simmons played against each other in two Orange Bowl games

Ironically, they wrestled each other for the WCW World Title at Starrcade 1992, when Ron was the World Champion

His senior year, he lost in the finals of an NCAA tournament to future Olympic medalist Bruce Baumgartner. While in junior high, he had to wrestle in a hockey goalie mask due to shattering his nose and was given the nickname "Dr. Death" by one of his school's coaches and his sister. 

It's definitely worth mentioning that wrestling was Steve's second sport behind football. Because Oklahoma usually went to bowl games, he would be doing football through New Year’s Day, and then join the wrestling team with the season in progress. The two sports require a completely different level of conditioning, and Williams, doing about three months of wrestling per year, won most of the time against the full-time wrestlers. 

What was Steve's amateur wrestling style like? Did he try to finish off his opponents quickly by pin, or did a lot of his matches go the distance and be decided by points?

Steve defeated a number of notable wrestlers in college, including future UFC star Dan Severn, in fact, Steve was the only man to pin Dan Severn in college and future gold medalist Lou Banach. 

They would be in the WWF together in 1998. Was that ever talked about or did Dan have any resentment towards Steve because of that?

TJ Kerr one of the wininngest coaches in college wrestling history, has said that when the coaches were wanting to impose a weight limit on the heavyweight division, because the feeling was the 400 pound heavyweights who couldn’t really move but also couldn’t be moved easily, were leading to dull matches and making the heavyweight division appear to not be athletic. They decided to come up with an upper weight limit, and it was Steve Williams, who the 285 pound weight limit in the heavyweight division, which still exists to this day, came from. 

Did you ever hear about that?

Was Steve a fan of professional wrestling growing up?

Williams was selected by the New Jersey General in the 1983 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 and was a teammate of RB Herschel Walker. During camp, Williams suffered a bruised knee and was placed on injured reserve for the first six games of the Generals 1983 season.

Did Steve have aspirations to play in the NFL? He wasn't drafted into the NFL 

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 Pontiac Silverdome, the home of WrestleMania 3. That game was also shown on ESPN

Steve was known for legendary strength when he was a wrestler. Talk about his training regimine in college. How much could be bench, squat and dead lift?

When did Steve decide that he wanted to get involved in pro wrestling?

Stanley Abel, the wrestling coach at Oklahoma, contacted Bill Watts, the area promoter, in 1979, when Williams was a freshman, thinking with his intensity as an amateur, as well as his name from football, which was huge in the state, that he would be a natural for pro wrestling. 

Talk about the friendship that Steve and Bill formed?

How did Bill help form him as a wrestler while he trained him? Was it Bill's idea for Steve to use the Oklahoma Stampede, the running powerslam, where he picked the guy up for a body slam, ran him into the turnbuckle then into a powerslam 

How quickly did Steve pick up on the business? What did he have troubles with the most and what came naturally to him the most when he was training and when he first started to have matches?

Steve had his first match on May 26th, 1982 in Sherevport, Louisiana. He defeated Billy Starr. Steve actually had his 2nd match that same night, defeating The Turk

Did you see either one of those matches?

Steve would get his first shot at a title in the Mid-South Louisiana Title Tournament on July 6th, 1982. However, he'd lose to the One Man Gang in the 1st round

On January 7th and 14th, 1983 Steve defeated Marty Lunde.

Who would Marty Lunde later become?

In these early years of his career, who did Steve travel with, who'd he become friends with and who helped to mentor Steve?

Jim Cornette has told a story where during this time, Steve teamed with Hercules Hernandez against The Rock n Roll Express, and after the match, Steve & Hercules tried to leave the ring, Jim said Hercules was throwing people over his head to get them out of the way, and Steve was just dropping people and Jim had Steve's football helmet, because Steve wore it to the ring and Jim was hitting people with that

Jim also said one night in a bar, referee Pee Wee Anderson ripped his shirt off and got on the bar and started doing the Hulk Hogan poses and Steve and Hercules beat up about 10 guys.  Jim said they got in trouble for that, but they didn't get fired because they won the fight. If you worked for Bill Watts and you lost a bar fight, you got fired

Jim also said that one time Doc and Road Warrior Hawk had a confrontation in the locker room in Chicago. They got mad at each other and were cussing at each other and got nose to nose with each other. Jim said he was trying to crawl into a locker. Cooler heads ended up prevailing and they backed off of it. Jim said he loved Hawk, but his money would've been on Steve

Jim said Steve was the baddest, toughest wrestler in those days

In 1985, Steve was put in a tag team with Ted DiBiase. 

Talk about why that was done and how that helped Steve in his career

On May 3rd, 1985 Steve & Ted beat The Rock n Roll Express to win the Mid-South tag team titles

They'd hold the titles until August 28th, 1985 when Steve & Bob Sweetan, who was replacing Ted lost to Al Perez & Wendell Cooley

On December 26th, Steve & Ted would defeat Eddie Gilbert & Dick Murdoch, who was replacing The Nightmare, to win the Mid-South tag team titles for the 2nd time.

They'd lose them on March 16th 1986 to The Sheepherders, who'd later become the Bushwackers in the WWF

Talk about how different the Mid-South Sheepherders were compared to the WWF's Bushwackers

Not long after that, Mid-South was renamed the UWF; Universal Wrestling Federation, in Bill's attempt to go national. What'd you think of the name change?

On April 19th, 1986, Steve teamed with Terry Taylor, to compete in the first Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup tag team tournament

In round 1, Steve & Terry defeated Bill Dundee & Buddy Landell.

In the Quarter Finals, they went to a time limit draw with Ivan & Nikita Koloff; thus eliminating both teams.

What's your memories of the first Crockett Cup?

During Steve's time in Mid-South/UWF, he was wrestling Brad Armstrong and Brad went for an elbow and Steve was going to duck it, but Brad's elbow hit Steve and busted him open. Steve had to get 108 stitches around his orbital socket and eye and he wrestled the next night.

Brad Armstrong has said that he was scared Doc was going to kill him, but Steve said to him “Fuck it brother, it ain't ballet”

Did you see that happen?

On May 30th, 1986 in Houston Texas, Steve was involved in a tournament to crown the first ever UWF World Champion.

In round 1, Steve beat Rick Steiner. In the Semi-Finals, he was defeated by Terry Gordy, who'd go on to win the tournament and the World Title

Here's an interesting 6 man tag match. On June 13th & 14th, 1986, Steve teamed with Dusty Rhodes and Bill Watts to defeat Ivan & Nikita Koloff & Korsita Korchenko

On July 4th, 1986 Steve would make his first tour of Japan, for NJPW.

Steve would later have a very successful and legendary career in Japan. Do you remember his first tour there? How did he feel about it?

During that tour on August 5th, Steve would have his first match against Antonio Inoki; Inoki won the match

Steve would go back to Japan in October. In fact, his first match back on October 30th was against Inoki and that went to a double countout. 

Also on that tour, Steve would wrestle the Great Muta, which Steve won by DQ

At the end of 1986, Steve was involved in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated $50,000 tournament. Steve would win the tournament, defeating One Man Gang in the finals on December 12th

On July 11th, 1987 in Oklahoma City, during the Great American Bash tour, Steve defeated Big Bubba Rogers, to win the UWF World title

This was Steve's first singles title in wrestling. What did it mean to him to win the UWF World title?

Did you see that match?

Speaking of Big Bubba, one of Steve's legendary feats of strength was he would press Bubba over his head and do reps with him, when Bubba was a legit 350 lbs

Steve would never lose the title. It was deactivated on December 26th, 1987 when the UWF was bought by JCP and became apart of the NWA

Steve did successfully defend the title at Starrcade 1987, by defeating Barry Windham

How did Steve fit in the NWA locker room? Do you have any memories of when he first came in?

On May 6th, 1988 in Pittsburgh, Steve got his first shot at the NWA World title when he challenged Ric Flair. Steve won the match by DQ. They'd wrestle 2 more times over the next 4 days, with Steve winning the other two matches also by DQ

When Steve came in, did they look at him as a possible NWA World Champion?

Steve would wrestle in various matches through 1988, a lot of times in tag matches against the Horsemen often times with Sting

He'd also challenge Mike Rotunda many times for the TV title

However, in 1988, we'd see Steve turn heel and join the Varsity Club, along with Mike Rotunda, Rick Steiner and Kevin Sullivan

Why was it decided to turn Steve heel and join the Varsity Club?

Steve also had a new look when he turned heel, he cut hair hair and wore a singlet that said Oklahoma on it

At Starrcade 1988, Steve & Kevin Sullivan defeated The Fantastics to win the United States tag team titles

Kevin Sullivan was kind of the leader/manager of the group. How do you think he did in that role? He was known for his satantic gimmicks in the past, this one was pretty different

Steve & Kevin would lose the titles to Eddie Gilbert and former Varsity Club member Rick Steiner on February 28th, 1989

Right after that, Steve started teaming with Mike Rotunda and they started to have a lot of matches against the World Tag Team champions, The Road Warriors on house shows

At Clash of the Champions 6, which we recently did a show on, Steve & Rotunda beat The Road Warriors to win the World Tag Team titles

However on May 7th, they were stripped of the titles, after they attacked guest referee Nikita Koloff. Not long after that, the Varsity Club disbanded and Steve turned back babyface

Why was it decided to split them up? How did Steve feel about it?

At this point, did he like being a singles wrestler or tag wrestler more?

Steve was scheduled to face Lex Luger for the US title at Wrestle War 1990, on February 25. However, Sting, who was scheduled to face Ric Flair for the World Title that same night, suffered the knee injury, Luger turned face and was moved from the US title match to the World Title match in Sting's place

At the beginning of 1990, Steve left the NWA and went to All Japan Pro Wrestling. Why did Steve make that decision?

Around this time, a rookie in Texas started wrestling by the name of Steve Williams. He was sent to Tennessee, where Dutch Mantell told him that he couldn't be Steve Williams anymore, because of Dr. Death, so he named him Steve Austin. 

Do you think Doc would've been mad if Steve kept using his shoot name of Steve Williams, instead of changing it to Steve Austin?

While he was there, Giant Baba decided to team Steve up with Terry Gordy. They became known as the Miracle Violence Connection and they ended up going down as one of the greatest tag teams in the history of wrestling in Japan

What did you think when you heard they were put together as a team?

They quickly rose through the ranks, and on March 6th, 1990 they defeated Stan Hansen and Tenryu for the AJPW World Tag Team titles

Over the next several months, they'd totally dominate the tag team division, beating everyone they wrestled. Such as teams like Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey, Jumbo Tsurata & Kenta Kobashi as well as Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat, who'd be Phil LaFon in the WWF

June 1st – Williams & Gordy beat Bam Bam Bigelow & Davey Boy Smith

June 30th – Crusher Bigelow (Bam Bam) & Owen Hart beat Steve & Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit)

Steve briefly came back to the States in September 1990 wrestling for the UWF promotion

September 24th – Steve Williams beat Davey Meltzer

From there, Steve went back to AJPW where he and Terry Gordy continued their dominance over the tag team division. Including wins over the teams of Terry Funk & Johnny Ace, Dan Spivey & Doug Furnas, Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith and many others

On December 7th, 1990, Steve & Terry won the Real World Tag League tournament by defeating Danny Spivey & Stan Hansen in the tournament finals, to win the AJPW Tag Team titles

April 8th 1991 – Williams & Gordy beat Andre the Giant & Kenta Kobashi

April 18th – Spivey & Hansen beat Williams & Gordy for the AJPW tag titles

Steve would occasionally come back to the States and wrestle for UWF; not Bill Watts' UWF, but Herb Abrams' UWF, and on June 9th, 1991 at the UWF Beach Brawl ppv, Steve beat Bam Bam Bigelow to win the vacant UWF TV title

Did Steve ever talk to you about Herb Abrams?

And just a month later on July 6th in Japan, Williams & Gordy defeated Spivey & Hansen to regain the AJPW World Tag Team titles

They'd end up losing them on July 24th to Super Generation Army, Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada

Steve & Terry again competed in the Real World Tag League tournament in 1991

During the tournament, they defeated the team of Andre the Giant & Giant Baba

They again made it to the finals on December 6th where they beat Misawa & Kawada to win the tournament and regain the AJPW Tag Team titles again

They'd lose the titles on March 4th 1992 to Akira Taue & Jumbo Tsurata

In June of 92, Steve & Terry would return to WCW, to compete in the NWA World Tag Team title tournament. How did that come to be?

At the Clash of Champions 19 on June 16th, they defeated Jeff & Larry O'Day in round 1 of the tournament

Then later that night, they defeated The Steiner Brothers in the quarter finals

That was a surprising result to a lot of fans at the time, because we didn't see the Steiners lose very often in those days

On July 5th at a house show, Williams & Gordy again defeated The Steiners, but this time it was for the Steiner's WCW World Tag Team titles

Then on July 12th at the Great American Bash ppv, they defeated Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham to win the NWA World Tag Team titles in the tournament finals

So, Williams & Gordy were now the NWA & WCW World Tag Team Champions

They'd go on in following weeks to successfully defend the Unified Tag Team titles against the Steiners on several house shows

Then in August, they headed back to Japan to work for AJPW for about a month before returning to WCW in September 13th when they beat Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton on a house show, they'd go on to beat them on several house shows over the next few weeks

On the September 21st 1992 episode of WCW Saturday Night, Williams and Gordy shockingly lost the Unified tag team titles to Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes. After this, they'd leave WCW and head back to Japan

This title change came out of no where. Why was this done?

However, Steve would return to WCW at the Halloween Havoc 1992 pay per view. It was supposed to be him and Terry getting a return match against Rhodes & Windham for the tag titles, however Terry couldn't make it, so he was replaced by Steve Austin. 

So techincally it was Steve Williams & Steve Williams vs Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes. It ended up going to a 30 minute time limit draw

Austin has said he was at home on a 4 wheeler when he got the call to come in for this match that night

What's your memories of all of that?

From there, Steve went back to AJPW to reform his team with Terry Gordy

However, he returned to WCW at Starrcade 1992 where he got a shot at the World Title against his long time rival from college, Ron Simmons. Ron ended up winning by DQ in 15:12

From there, he went back to Japan

Why was his stay so short this time? Did they consider doing future matches between him and Simmons for the title?

On January 30th, 1993 Williams & Gordy beat Misawa and Kawada for the AJPW Tag Team titles

They'd hold them until May 20th, when they lost them to Taue & Kawada

Not long after this, Steve & Terry's team would break up because Terry had a stroke and would put him out of wrestling for awhile. Steve started teaming with Big Bubba Rogers

What did you hear about that?

On July 7th, 1994 Steve defeated Mitsuharu Misawa to win the AJPW Triple Crown championship. The Triple Crown consisted of the PWF World Title, the NWA United National title and the NWA International Heavyweight title

Steve was also the UWF Heavyweight Champion in the States at the same time. On September 23rd in Vegas, he beat Sid Vicious by DQ to retain the title

On October 22nd, 1994 Steve lost the Triple Crown championship to Toshiaki Kawada

Around this time, Steve started teaming with Johnny Ace and very successfully, they got a lot of wins together as a team including a few over the team of Rob Van Dam & Stan Hansen and many others

On August 3rd, 1996 Steve returned to the States to make a shot in ECW at the Doctor is In Event, where he & Tommy Dreamer lost to Taz & Brian Lee

Steve would then return to Japan and on September 5th Steve and Johnny Ace defeated Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama to win the AJPW Tag Team titles in Tokyo

And the very next night, in Dallas Texas, for CWA, Steve teamed with college football teammate, Marcus Dupree & Steve Cox to beat Scott Putski,  Black Bart & Bobby Duncum Jr

Later that night, Steve again teamed with Marcus to beat Action Jackson & Al Jackson

Did you hear at the time that Marcus Dupree decided to give wrestling a try?

Did Steve ever talk to you about them teaming together a few times?

A week later on the 13th, Steve returned to ECW and beat Devon Storm

From there, Steve went back to Japan for the rest of 1996 and early 1997.

On January 17th he and Johnny Ace lost the AJPW Tag titles to Taue & Kawada

Steve returned to ECW on January 31st where he defeated Balls Mahoney

The next day at ECW Crossing the Line, he beat Axl Rotten & he then challenged Raven for the ECW World Title, and Raven pinned him

That was the first time that Steve had been pinned in the United States since March 26th, 1987. Do you know why Steve agreed to do that?

From there, Steve headed back to Japan. He challenged Misawa for the Triple Crown title but Misawa won the match. He also reformed his team with Johnny Ace

A few weeks after the Misawa match, Steve worked a match in ECW at a house show, where he beat Balls Mahoney

On July 25th, 1997 Steve and Gary Alright, the Triangle of Power defeated Johnny Ace and Kenta Kobashi for the AJPW Tag Team titles

They'd hold the titles until October 4th before losing them back to Ace & Kobashi

Let's talk about 1998, when Steve came to the WWF for the first time

Talk about how that came to be, how involved in that were you?

On April 28th, Steve wrestled his first match, where he defeated 2 Cold Scorpio

Is it true that Vince introduced Steve to the ring that night?

After that, he went back to Japan for a few weeks where he teamed with Gary Albright in several matches and then he returned to the WWF to compete in the Brawl for All

The Dark Side of the Ring recently did a show on the Brawl for All, and it's been talked about ever since it happened.

Put the rumors to rest, did the company expect and/or want Steve to win the Brawl for All to set up an angle between him and Steve Austin?

On the July 14th Raw, he defeated Pierre, now PCO in the Brawl for All

Did you talk to Steve after that match? How did he feel about it?

That takes us to the next week, where Steve faced Bart Gunn in the Brawl for All.

Did you talk to Steve at all during the day about his feelings on this fight?

Steve tore his hamstring during the match and ended up getting knocked out

You were doing commentary for this match. What were you thinking as you were watching his happen right in front of you?

What did Steve say to you after the fight?

How did that loss and the injury affect Steve in the following weeks after?

Had Steve won the Brawl for All, what was going to happen? 

Steve would return to the ring on October 24th, 1998 at the NWA 50th Anniversary show, where he'd win a Battle Royal. Also in that match was Kurt Angle, Andrew Martin, later known as Test, Shawn Stasiak, Steve Corino, Teddy Hart, Tom Prichard, Giant Silva, Glen Kulka, Tiger Ali Sigh and others

On January 12th 1999, Steve returned to the WWF where he beat Bob Holly in a dark match before Sunday Night Heat

What was the company planning to do with Steve when he came back here, were they going to try and rebuild him?

You started to manage Steve at this time. Talk about how that came to be

Here's an interesting match that Steve was in before he came back to WWF

February 2nd at a PPW show, Steve teamed with Bruce Prichard, Tom Prichard & Giant Silva to beat Shawn Stasiak, Vic Grimes, Baldo & Randy Hales

Steve appeared on the February 22nd, 1999 Raw as a masked man & threw Bart Gunn off a stage. 

What was the plan for this going to be? Was Steve going to get a pay per view win over Bart at some point?

On March 15th 1999 on Heat, Steve beat The Hardy Boyz in a handicap match

Steve was released at the end of April 1999, ironically with Bart Gunn and several others. Meltzer wrote of it -

The biggest shock on the list was Williams, who was never really given a chance. Williams, 38, was the top foreign star for All Japan when he was lured away last year with the idea of being an opponent on top for his namesake, Steve Austin. Since Williams was going to be marketed without a gimmick other than his toughness, the Brawl-for-All concept was put into place as a shoot largely as a way to get him over as a legitimate tough guy and threat for Austin. In hindsight, the idea was a huge miscalculation, since Williams was a very good amateur wrestler being the only pro wrestler in history ever to be a four-time NCAA tournament place-winner, but he was never a boxer and Brawl-for-All entailed a lot of boxing.

How it turned out was something entirely different, as he destroyed his hamstring in the second round against Gunn, and trying to fight with one leg, was knocked out in the third. He was out of action for months due to the injury, and still at this point is nowhere close to 100% He was given that lame gimmick of being a masked Japanese wrestler, which lasted all of one week it was so bad, and then became the protege of Jim Ross when the idea was for Ross to be something akin to a heel manager, but with Ross having maneuvered his way back into the broadcast booth, it left Williams with no spot. 

Word has it that Vince McMahon was fairly insistent on Williams having no future with the company, since the WWF is so heavily based on looks and acting ability, and while Williams is probably still one of the strongest men in the company, he doesn't have a pretty physique, and is a notoriously poor talker, plus his ring style is quite a bit tougher from the Japan background than the company is used to, which isn't flashy by American standards. 

What's your memories of Steve leaving the WWF?

Steve had said he was originally planned to be in Triple H's spot before his release, as much of what was previously booked for Steve was eventually given to Triple H. Most notably, the segment on the October 4, 1999 episode of Raw when Triple H attacked you was when Steve was going to start his feud with Austin. Because this segment was planned for Steve, this was supposed to be the moment he would become a heel, as you were going to manage him as a face until that point.

In November 1999, Steve returned to WCW where he was managed by Ed Ferrera who was Oklahoma, where he was playing a parody of you

How did that make you feel when he started doing that?

How did Steve feel about it?

Steve would only stay in WCW a little over a month. Did he ever talk to about why he decided to leave?

From there, he went back to AJPW

On January 7th, 2000, Steve defeated Mike Barton, who was Bart Gunn

Did Steve have any animosity towards him? Did you ever talk to you about this match? Steve would end up teaming with Mike a few times in Japan not too long after their singles match

Steve would again beat Mike on January 28th, 2001

On February 2nd 2000, Steve & Vader beat Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama for the AJPW Tag Team titles.  Steve Williams & Vader, what a team that was

Steve would also reform his NWA World Tag team title team with Mike Rotunda many times in Japan during this time

Steve returned to the WWF. On May 23rd 2003, he beat Lance Storm on a house show and the next night, Lance beat him

How did that come to be and why was it only those two matches?

Steve said in September 2003, his daughter called him and told him that he had cancer. He said that they cried together for an hour. 

Steve had a stage 4 tumor growing in his throat. 

Steve has said that he was dying, and he was dying quick and all he could think to do was to pray. 

What's your memories of hearing that Steve had cancer?

On December 30th, 2003 Steve beat Terry Taylor to win the vacant NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight title

In 2004, Steve underwent surgery for throat cancer, and was later declared cancer-free

Steve said they cut his vocal cords out, took out his thyroid, cut a nerve to his deltoid. Steve said for 3 months after the surgery, he didn't have a voice. 

Steve said during this time, he reached more for God and was reading the Bible; he said the Bible became his everyday life. Steve said he was up every morning at 5am, reading the Bible to start his day.

Steve said one morning he woke up at 4 am and was bleeding from his neck, he said he was literally dying in his sleep, but God woke him up. Steve got in his truck and drove 4 hours, 100 miles per hour the whole way to MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, Texas

When Steve got there, the Doctors asked him how he did this, and Steve pointed up to God and he wrote down God (because he couldn't talk)

Then a Pastor walked by and he came in and they all said the Lord's prayer together, then they put Steve to sleep for 10 hours to work on him

Steve's return match came on August 27th, 2005 when he beat King Kaluha at the WrestleReunion 2 event 

Williams made an appearance at a Smackdown brand house show on March 11th, 2006, in Alexandria, Louisiana  after which he was signed to help train up-and-coming wrestlers in Ohio Valley Wrestling

While acting in that capacity, he made a few appearances on OVW television, where he helped fellow Oklahoma wrestler Jake Hager and briefly working as his tag team partner. 

They teamed together twice, the first time was on June 1st 2007 where they beat Kassidy James and KC James at the OVW Six Flags Summer Sizzler event

Then they teamed together again on June 29th where they beat Los Locos at another OVW Six Flags Summer Sizzler event

Have you ever talked to Jake about what it meant to him to get to team with Steve? How did they get along?

Steve also made an appearance at an August 30th Raw house show, during which he addressed the crowd and announced he was to be cancer free for four years. 

Williams's final match took place August 15th, 2009 in Colorado Springs, Colorado for Asylum Championship Wrestling. He defeated Franco D'Angelo for the ACW Heavyweight Championship, which he vacated after the match 

Unfortunately, the throat cancer eventually returned. His last public appearance was at the K&S Wrestlefest Wrestling Convention on December 12th, 2009 in Carteret, New Jersey

Sadly, Steve passed away on December 29th  2009, at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver from throat cancer. He was 49 years old. 

What's your memories of hearing that Steve passed away

Do you think Steve should already be in the WWE Hall of Fame?

What do you think is Steve Williams' legacy in professional wrestling?