Steve Williams (wrestler)

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.

Williams was selected by the New Jersey Generals 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.

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.

Williams, trained for professional wrestling by Bill Watts and Buddy Landel, started wrestling in 1982 in Watts' Mid-South Wrestling. In 1985, he formed a team with Ted DiBiase and feuded with Eddie Gilbert and The Nightmare. In 1986, Mid-South was renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation and Williams went on to win the UWF Heavyweight Championship from Big Bubba Rogers. When Jim Crockett Promotions bought the UWF in late 1987, he was one of the few UWF wrestlers to receive an initial push in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). During this time he also worked for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Williams became involved with Jimmy Garvin's war with Kevin Sullivan's Varsity Club in 1988, often teaming with Jimmy and Ron Garvin or Ron Simmons in various matches, including a Triple Cage "Tower of Doom" match at The Great American Bash in 1988. Williams, however, turned heel and joined the Varsity Club in late 1988. He and Sullivan won the NWA United States Tag Team Championship at Starrcade. They feuded 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 Lex Luger for the NWA United States Championship. Williams was scheduled to face Luger for the title at WrestleWar '90 on February 25, 1990. When Sting, who was scheduled to face Ric Flair for the 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. Williams went to All Japan Pro Wrestling where he formed a tag team with Terry Gordy called The Miracle Violence Connection. They went on to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship from The Steiner Brothers. One week after winning the WCW World Tag Team Title, Williams and Gordy won the vacant NWA World Tag Team Title, defeating Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham in the tournament final. Their NWA title win, however, went unrecognized by the NWA. They held onto both titles until September 1992, when they lost them to Rhodes and Windham. At Starrcade, Williams substituted for the injured Rick Rude to challenge Ron Simmons for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but lost by disqualification. He left WCW shortly thereafter.

During the 1990s, Williams continued to work for All Japan Pro Wrestling and became a main eventer for the company, making him one of the most successful foreign athletes in Japanese wrestling history. On July 28, 1994, he defeated Mitsuharu Misawa for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship, holding it for three months before dropping it to Toshiaki Kawada. 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, thus ending his unpinned streak in North America, which lasted since March 26, 1987.

In May 1998, Williams was signed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) prior to the "Brawl for All" competition, which was set up in legitimate fights. WWF management 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). In his autobiography, "How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life", Williams stated that this was his tryout. Photos of this match were used on WWF trading cards and on the WWF's website. According to house show cards and recaps, Vince McMahon introduced him to the ring for this dark match.[6]

On the July 20, 1998 edition of Raw is War, Williams entered the Brawl for All tournament, making his first WWF television appearance. He was expected to win it due to his reputation as one of the toughest men in the wrestling business. Williams was the contestant that the WWF management wanted to win, as he was being groomed by Vince McMahon as a possible contender for the WWF Championship that was in the possession of Stone Cold Steve Austin during the Brawl for All tournament. However, after beating Pierre Carl Ouellet in the first round, he faced Bart Gunn in the second round and suffered a torn hamstring. Gunn then knocked out Williams, who missed several months following the injury. Upon healing in January 1999, Williams would work dark matches on Heat/Shotgun/Raw is War tapings, mainly against Bob Holly to open up the tapings.

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 as the masked man who threw Bart Gunn off a stage during a match of his. 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 midcard storylines, one where he was pursuing the WWF Hardcore Championship from Hardcore Holly, and another where he sought revenge on Tiger Ali Singh for making fun of Ross on live television. According to Williams' autobiography, as well as in his RF Video shoot interview in 2001, these midcard storylines were meant as a way to build his character up on television before entering a main-event feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Williams was released in mid-April for needing further time to rehab his injury and for refusing to work for FMW, a Japanese promotion with which the WWF had talent exchanges. He was scheduled to compete against Snow and Holly at Backlash: In Your House for the WWF Hardcore Championship, but he did not appear due to his release.

According to an radio interview from November 1999,[7] Williams was originally planned to be in Triple H's spot before his release, as much of what was previously booked for Williams was eventually given to Triple H. Most notably, the segment on the October 4, 1999 episode of Raw is War when Triple H attacked Jim Ross was the moment when Williams was going to start his feud with Austin. Because this segment was planned for Williams, this was supposed to be the moment he would become a heel, as Ross was going to manage him as a face until that point. It is unknown which month in 1999 that Williams was going to have this angle, but Williams stated in his book that his main-event push was going to start after the debut of WWF Smackdown! on UPN. Considering that Williams was released in April (also the same time Triple H began being booked as an upper mid-carder), this occurrence of events could be a possible reason as to why D-Generation X abruptly ended that month, as the WWF needed to build-up another main-eventer to feud with the likes of Austin and The Rock.

In November 1999, Williams 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, 1999, edition of WCW Monday Nitro in a steel cage match. He went back to All Japan Pro Wrestling and had a second stint from 2000 to 2003 and wrestled a couple of matches for WWE in 2003 against Lance Storm. In late 2003, he was involved with the independent promotion Major League Wrestling (MLW) and also wrestled for the new NWA Mid-Atlantic, where he won their title in one of the first professional wrestling events in China.

On March 14, 2004, Williams faced Belarusian kickboxer Alexey Ignashov in a mixed martial arts bout in the K-1 promotion and was knocked out 22 seconds into the fight. This was his first and only professional fight.[8]

In 2004, Williams underwent surgery for throat cancer and was declared cancer-free the next year. His return match was against King Kaluha, who he defeated on August 27, 2005 at WrestleReunion 2.[9] According to promoter Sal Corrente, Williams was initially hesitant to work with King Kaluha but was ultimately appreciative about the choice of opponent.[10]

Williams made an appearance at a SmackDown! brand house show on March 11, 2006, in Alexandria, Louisiana, after which he was signed to help train up-and-coming WWE wrestlers in its Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) developmental territory. 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. 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).[11] He also worked for Southwest Airlines in Colorado.[12]

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.[13]