STW - Dr. Death Steve Williams [Show Notes] (Patreon)

“Dr. Death” Steve Williams

The original Steve Williams...not to be confused with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin…”Dr. Death” is born on May 14th, 1960...meaning today would’ve been his 61st birthday. He’s born in Lakewood, Colorado and graduated Lakewood High School in 1978 before attending Oklahoma University.

Before Steve graduates junior high he already has his “Dr. Death” nickname given to him when he shatters his nose and has to wrestle in a one of the old school hockey goalie masks and is called “Dr. Death” by one of the school’s coaches and his sister. How cool is that he was legitimately “Dr. Death” from junior high until the end of his career?

He was the most heavily recruited offensive lineman in the country who ended up at Oklahoma because his brother Jeff was a starting tight end at the school already.

At Oklahoma University he played football and wrestled, where he became a four-time All American wrestler, finishing 6th as a freshman, 5th as a sophomore, 3rd as a junior and 2nd as a senior after a defeat to future Olympic medalist Bruce Baumgartner. Did you originally hear about Steve from his amateur wrestling days or was it his college football accolades?

He played both guard positions at Oklahoma and played in the 1980 Orange Bowl & 1981 Sun Bowl before being drafted by the New Jersey Generals in the 1983 USFL Draft. Surprisingly enough though Steve has already started training to be a professional wrestler with “Cowboy” Bill Watts and Buddy Landel and would debut in 1982. I know times are different now but how surreal is it that a guy who’s drafted to be a professional athlete is already a professional wrestler?

It’s said that Bill Watts made Steve Williams his personal protege. How would you compare the two?

Do you remember seeing any of the early Steve Williams matches in Mid-South?

What was the relationship like at the time between Houston Wrestling and Paul Boesch and Mid-South (also known as the UWF) and Bill Watts?

When did you first meet Steve and what were your first impressions of him?

There’s a classic match from the UWF on YouTube from the Sam Houston Coliseum between Terry Gordy & Steve Williams, future tag team partners, from December 26th, 1986. You should go out of your way to check it out but it’s an amazing match with two of the best workers and such a hot crowd. Do you remember this?

What led to the falling out between Paul Boesch & Bill Watts?

Jim Crockett Promotions purchases the UWF in late 1987 and Williams makes the move to JCP. You’re already in the World Wrestling Federation at this point...did you ever think Steve would be a fit with the company at that time?

Williams is splitting his time between JCP/NWA whatever you want to call it and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Does someone with the credentials of Steve Williams come across Vince’s desk to make him interested?

Do you think Steve’s lack of microphone skills hurt him early on in his career in America?

Did you ever get a chance to see Steve Williams vs. Davey Meltzer from Herb Abrams’ UWF show? 5 stars in Tokyo!

We know that most of Steve’s success came from Japan and working in All Japan. Was there ever...before Jim Ross comes aboard...an attempt by the WWF or Steve to come together to do business?

Jim Ross is hired by the WWF in 1993 as an announcer...how soon after JR’s hired that he starts pushing to bring in Steve Williams?

Steve is beating up his body pretty badly in the 90s with All Japan and his career comes to a full stop in 1995 when he’s caught at customs with marijuana at the Narita Airport in Japan. Marijuana is a huge deal to Japan and most people...including Paul McCartney...are banned from entering the country because of it. Somehow Giant Baba uses his political power for Steve to only be “suspended” for one year. Do you remember hearing about this story and Giant Baba’s political power in Japan?

Was there talk at that time while Steve is “suspended” about bringing him in? Does a marijiuana arrest like this land on anyone’s radar at Titan Towers?

How regularly is Jim Ross bringing up “Dr. Death” and what he can bring to the table for the WWF?

Steve works for ECW for a short stint before finally being able to return to All Japan. Did anybody take notice of his work there?

From the Observer on February 16, 1998…”Johnny Ace worked the WWF TV tapings in Indianapolis doing a try-out match but didn't come in with any kind of counter-proposal. From a WWF standpoint, they've put a lot of heat on Fumi Saito, the bi-lingual writer for Weekly Pro Wrestling who was there both to serve as Giant Baba's interpreter and also for his knowledge of the American wrestling scene. At this point they claim they don't want to do any negotiations if Saito is involved because they felt he was confrontational. The basic gist appears that Saito pointed out that the mainstream pro wrestling fans in Japan isn't all that familiar with the WWF wrestlers except for Vader and Ken Shamrock (actually the Road Warriors would fit into that category although it doesn't appear either side was that interested in them being a major part of the deal), who made their names originally in Japan. The only WWF television in Japan is on a satellite station that is only available in 500,000 homes in the entire country so you've got to figure at most 20,000 homes are reached each week. However, when WWF officials Gerald Brisco and Bruce Prichard went to Japan and saw Steve Austin on the cover of several newspapers from the Tyson angle and saw wrestling magazines in which there were color photos of WWF major events and saw things a different way. Some in WWF felt that Baba himself went into the meeting with little or no knowledge of the WWF product and its stars (which no doubt is true), while from a Japanese standpoint there was the same thought in regard to Brisco and Prichard coming in with no understanding of All Japan, the Japanese wrestling business and felt insulted by their lack of knowledge going in as to even Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi. Baba apparently also felt that if he was at the negotiating table as company President, then Vince McMahon should have been there as well since he's the one, not Prichard and Brisco, who can finalize any deals. As mentioned before, the two sides were far apart on money. WWF appears right now to be under the impression that Baba wanted their top guys at the same price he paid his top foreigners like Stan Hansen, Steve Williams and Gary Albright, and the top WWF talent is worth more in value in the United States to them for a weekend in the U.S. than what that figure would be. Of course WWF originally came in asking for $1 million for a package deal for maybe 8-12 wrestlers which was an offer Baba apparently felt was so out of line that he wouldn't even respond to it with a counter. There are also others trying to work as kind of intermediaries or go-betweens to salvage at least getting Undertaker, Vader and Shamrock to work the Dome show”

Is that how you remember the negotiations going between yourself and All Japan?

Out of nowhere...Steve Williams shows up in the WWF. There didn’t seem to be a lot of notice between him finishing up with All Japan and starting with the WWF. Do you know anything about the negotiations to bring in Steve and what his deal was?

In Jim Ross’ “Under the Black Hat” book he mentioned that not only himself but you too were “keen on him” and with both of your recommendations it led to him coming in. Is that how you remember it?

Vince McMahon introduces him to the crowd on April 28th, 1998 in Richmond, VA...but this isn’t on TV. He defeats Scorpio with a backdrop driver. What was the original plan for Steve here and why have Vince introduce him?

Williams heads back to Japan to finish up. Was there a fear he would get hurt while over there with their wrestling style?

Williams supposedly is asked to drop some weight before being put on TV. Was there a concern over his conditioning?

Jim Ross obviously was his biggest proponent to come into the WWF. Was the thought that he would be a top level heel and work with Steve Austin?

From the Observer…”There is serious consideration being given to using Vince McMahon as sort of a manager, although not using that term, for Steven Regal and Steve Williams as if he's bringing two shooters in to beat Austin for the title to give both guys instant steam”

Was this ever in the plans?

We’ve covered this before...in the archives...Brawl for All is where Steve Williams makes his World Wrestling Federation television debut. The rumor and innuendo as always was that this was a vehicle to get Steve Williams over as this big bad heel for a run with Steve Austin. What say you?

Did Austin have any objections to working with Williams or was he excited to do so? Over on My World...Jeff Jarrett has talked about Steve Austin’s hesitations to work with “lower card” talent unless it was just to stun him so the narrative of Steve Williams coming in...not being on American TV for a long time...to just kind of walk in...win this tournament and be positioned to work on top with Austin doesn’t quite fit.

On July 14th Steve Williams debuts in his first round Brawl for All match and destroys Pierre...who has just one working eye. How does Pierre even end up in this and was it a surprise Williams destroyed him?

Steve Williams vs. Pierre beats Sting & Nash vs. Giant & Hall in the head to head ratings battle. Do you give credit to Williams, the Brawl for All concept, or just the fact that the WWF was just running so hot at this point it didn’t really matter who was in that spot?

Bart Gunn is scheduled to face Dan Severn and it’s expected that Severn would win and we would get a rematch of the 1981 NCAA tournament where Williams beat Severn…but the brackets are re-done and Severn pulls out after beating the Godfather noting he had nothing to prove. Is this just not the biggest clusterfuck?

Speaking of clusterfucks...Bart Gunn knocks out Steve Williams in the 3rd round. Williams ended up dislocating his knee during a take down which left him a sitting duck and tearing his hamstring. What’s going on in your mind as you watch this happen?

Do you remember Williams’ or JR’s reaction to this afterwards?

How big an issue is it now that Williams is on the shelf? What were the plans that his injury caused to change?

Williams is obviously off TV at this point recovering. Were there any thoughts that this was already the end of Steve Williams?

Williams isn’t brought back until early 1999. From the Observer…”Steve Williams is ready to go. They are going to re-introduce him as a character who has turned his back on America for Japan and do vignettes before starting him on TV”

Who came up with this idea and is that why he was wearing a Kabuki mask when he returned?

Steve Williams defeats Bob Holly in a dark match and then is sent to the WWF Training Camp to get back into ring shape. What was it about the dark match that caused Williams to be sent down?

While at the training camp he beats Pierre Oulette in Reading, PA and then Mideon in Wilmington, DE. Would you had been attending these camps or was your brother Tom attending them and giving reports?

Power Pro Wrestling from Memphis announces this match...Randy Hales, Baldo, Shawn Stasiak & Vic Grimes against Steve Williams, Giant Silva, Tom Prichard...AND BRUCE PRICHARD. Bruce...what in the hell is going on here?

Steve Williams returns to the WWF by knocking Bart Gunn off the stage through a table wearing the Kabuki mask. What did you think of this as his presentation?

It only lasts about a week as the next week Jim Ross returns and called out Bart Gunn and blamed him for his Bells Palsy and slapped him before Williams came out and German suplexed him and hit a backdrop driver. Meltzer called this one of the most distasteful segments since the Melanie Pillman interview. What did you think of it?

Was it Ross’ idea to be put with Williams give him some heel steam or somebody else’s?

Did you ever talk to Steve at this point about his career and his future? Was he vocally unhappy or just was coming to work every day and doing what he was asked?

The next week on Raw Ross calls out Michael Cole and pulls out the red gi and mask Williams wore and said this is what the “WWF creative team” had planned for one of the greatest athletes in the world. He kicked Cole low and tried to take over commentary before Vince sent Terry Taylor down and Steve Williams convinced Ross to leave. Ross’ delivery is great but this is all just so bad don’t you think?

This ends up with Ross & Williams on Raw having a new commentary table built and JR does his own commentary.

Williams ends up defeating both Hardy Boyz on a Sunday Night Heat taping. Shows where the Hardyz are at in 1999 at this point before breaking out at No Mercy later that year right Bruce?

Then comes the debut of Ed Ferrera as a parody of Jim Ross when Tiger Ali Singh offered him $500 to do a JR impression...before getting dumped on his head by Williams. Tiger Ali Singh also gets beat up as well by Williams. What did you think of the Ferrera parody?

Did JR or Williams at any point in time voice any concerns about this?

At WrestleMania Jim Ross returns as the announcer for the main event because of Steve Austin. What do you remember about this and how it all went down?

The next night on Raw Ross isn’t announcing and Steve Williams is taking on Bob Holly for the Hardcore title. Jim Ross is back and trying to do English commentary while at the Spanish announce table. Al Snow hits Williams with a frying pan after Williams hits Holly with the Oklahoma Stampede and Holly retains. Where was this going and what was the plan?

The next night Raw is taped for the next week and Steve Williams attacks Al Snow & Bob Holly after their match. Williams also works Tiger Ali Singh in a dark match and defeats him.

Then...out of nowhere...Steve Williams is released. From the Observer: “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 is the reason now that everyone figured out Williams wasn’t going to be part of the WWF right then and there?

What do you remember about Jim Ross’ reaction to Williams being let go?

Was Williams’ body just too beat up to handle the WWF workload? He never officially worked a house show...it was always a dark match or the matches at the training camp. In his time in the WWF...he worked 3 dark matches, 2 matches at the training camp, 2 brawl for all matches, and 2 TV matches. Is this one of the biggest signings by the WWF to literally amount to nothing?

Williams has said in his autobiography and interviews after part of his release was his refusal to go to FMW as requested by the WWF due to his long standing relationship with All Japan. Is that true?

After his release and despite his still healing hamstring issue he works the Giant Baba Memorial Show in Japan. He was still technically under contract...did he have to request permission for that?

Williams on a radio show in November 99 claimed that the Triple H - Steve Austin angle with Jim Ross in October was originally scheduled to be the same angle as to how he was to start his feud with Steve Austin. Is this just wrestler talk or do you know if that was the actual plan?

He said in another radio interview that the goal was to begin his push when SmackDown launched on UPN. How accurate is that?

Steve ends up making a very controversial appearance on Monday Nitro managed by Ed Ferrera...mocking Jim Ross as Oklahoma...and feuds with Vampiro...kind of. He ends up wrestling JERRY ONLY from the Misfits in a Steel Cage Match. What did the office and JR think of this gimmick?

Do you think this was a revenge plot by Vince Russo & Ed Ferrera to embarrass Jim Ross?

He was in WCW for 2 months before heading back to All Japan Pro Wrestling. It’s obvious at this point Steve Williams is not built for the American wrestling audience don’t you agree?

Steve does a loop in 2003 in Louisiana with the WWE working two matches with Lance Storm. Do you know how this came to be and what the reason was for it?

From the Observer…”There had been talk of signing Steve Williams but it’s not decided one way or the other. One theory is because he comes from the All Japan system that he’ll be able to work with the younger wrestlers on doing slower-paced and more mat oriented matches, but doing matches where the holds mean something and the mat wrestling is worked as a struggle as opposed to simply resting in between high spots. Overall reports on Williams from the house shows over the weekend were not that strong”

Was this a thought process back then that you needed more veterans to help slow down the younger talent?

Williams & Storm trade wins. Any issues with a guy coming in unsigned being put over a contracted wrestler or was Storm professional?

Jim Ross goes on a radio show not long after and said that Williams wasn’t going to be brought in because he wouldn’t have enough work to make a living. Is that how you remember it?

Steve goes onto do a MMA show in Japan and gets knocked out in 20 seconds. It’s announced just a few days later that he was in Houston about to get surgery to remove cancerous polyps in his throat. Did you reach out to Steve during this time knowing he was in Houston?

From the Observer…”Steve Williams, when it came time for his surgery for throat cancer on 4/6, was told they would have to remove his voice box to get it all. Williams sought a second opinion, and the second doctor recommended he undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment instead and see what happens.

Williams is under cancer care in Houston at the famous M.D. Anderson Hospital, which is considered the best in the world. It is the same hospital that Bruce Prichard’s wife has been using for years in her battle with cancer, which in her case, is in remission.”

With what you had going on with your wife and now Steve having to lose his voice box to help with his treatment...how close to home does that hit with you?

Did you talk to JR about this and how he was feeling about one of his best friends Doc?

He goes through various treatments and surgeries but he pulls through and wrestles on an indie show in August of 05 after being declared cancer free in December 04. It’s a miracle Steve was even able to get back into the ring don’t you think?

Steve does some guest referee spots in March of 06 on the Smackdown brand for live events. Were there talks of bringing Steve back around this time to help his financial state as we know that type of treatment isn’t inexpensive?

Steve is signed and reports to Ohio Valley Wrestling to become a trainer in the Developmental system. He is put on OVW TV to give a rub to Jake Hager (Jack Swagger) but eventually is let go from OVW. Do you remember what happened?

In September of 08 he announces his retirement from the ring and in the worst news on the 5 year anniversary checkup of his cancer, doctors found it had returned and was worse. When do you hear this news?

Sadly Steve Williams passes away on December 29th, 2009 in his home in Lakewood, CO. How hard was this one to take?

What are your favorite Steve Williams memories?

What do you think is “Dr. Death”’s legacy in this business?

Steve Williams is inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Legacy wing in 2020/2021. Do you know what went into that process and who pushed for it? Is it a big deal for you that his career is honored now forever by the WWE?