Dr Death Steve Williams Dies R.I.P.

“Dr Death” Steve Williams, 49, died of cancer Dec 29, 2009. Steve Williams was an icon in Japan, and I’m not using that word lightly. However, Steve Williams was also huge in Mid South Wrestling and UWF. He also had a memorable run with NWA/WCW with the Varsity Club. Dr. Death was known for the Oklahoma Stampede running powerslam, and was a true powerhouse. He was raw power, able to press heavyweights over his head multiple times.

He was an All-American Oklahoma college football star, and he fit right in with promoter Bill Watts in Mid South Wrestling in the 1980’s. He was clearly being groomed as a World Champion one day. He hardly ever lost cleanly- he had a low center of gravity, power off the charts, and got down and dirty. He was the 1982 Pro Wrestling Rookie of the Year, and not just by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, but by the Wrestler Observer.

In the United States, having high charisma and interview skills are very important, which may account why Dr. Death only won the UWF Heavyweight championship, and World Tag Team Championships as opposed to the NWA World Title or WWF World Title. Williams’ wrestling style also wasn’t valued by the WWF (he had an amateur wrestling style at times).

As I said, Steve Williams achieved most of his greatness overseas with All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he won the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, and was a multiple time Unified World Tag Team Championship with Terry Gordy. In many ways it could be argued that these Japanese titles were more prestigious than their United States counterparts in the 1990’s.

Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross was Steve Williams’ biggest fan, always putting him over when he called his matches. Jim Ross also brought in Steve Williams in his ill-fated WWF run in the late 1990’s. However, it was Dawn Marie who was the one who raised money for Steve Williams when he had throat cancer. It appeared that Steve Williams did not have the money to get a throat box, so Dawn Marie was pleading on wrestling websites and word of mouth for fans to donate and buy Steve Williams merchandise so he can get the voice box. I don’t know why the WWE couldn’t help him with this, or why some of the richer wrestlers couldn’t help him ASAP with such a relatively small amount of requested money.

I liked Steve Williams- I am old enough to have watched him on U68 in New York, and of course, Williams was in every wrestling magazine being promoted. Although he wasn’t the most technical wrestler and his interviews weren’t jaw dropping, he was “over” with the fans because of his presence and aura. Once he went to Japan, fans over there (who value in-ring ability and aura) he became a bona-fide superstar. I was happy to finally see why Steve Williams was so big over there by watching a collection of his matches on YouTube three years ago. Steve Williams’ matches against Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa were very intense, hard hitting, and looked “real”. They were classic dream matches for the Japanese.

R.I.P. Steve Williams.

Steve Williams: How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life

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