"Dr. Death" Steve Williams achieved success in wrestling around the globe -- he dominated the UWF in the 80s, then went on to WCW, where he captured the World Tag Team Titles twice and challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship. His greatest achievements, however, came in Japan -- as one of the most successful gaijin in Japanese wrestling history, Williams captured eight tag team championships in All Japan Pro Wrestling, as well as the company's world title, the Triple Crown Championship. Williams had a reputation as a great worker and a legitimate tough guy, so when he signed with WWE in 1998, the company figured they could get a little innovative when it came to building him up. WWE assembled the first (and only) Brawl for All tournament, a wrestling/boxing hybrid shootfighting competition featuring the baddest of WWE's bad asses. The tournament was set up to get Williams over, building him into a contender for Stone Cold Steve Austin's WWE Title in the process. Unfortunately, WWE soon learned that you can't control the outcomes of real fights. In the second round, Steve Williams was knocked out by eventual winner Bart Gunn, and injured severely in the process. When he finally returned, his aura was gone, as far as WWE was concerned. He was released from the company in 1999, had a brief spell in WCW, and drifted around for a bit before returning to Japan.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
