”DOCTOR DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS!

Name doesn’t ring a bell? I can’t really blame you… and after a few paragraphs you’ll see why. Another addition to the “brains & brawn” package, STEVEN WILLIAMS graduated from the University of Oklahoma bringing with him the title of “All-American” for his stellar performance in American football. At the same time, he competed in amateur wrestling where he almost won a National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. Who denied him of this achievement? Future Olympic wrestler Bruce Baumgartner… it took an Olympic caliber wrestler to beat Williams… that alone should be enough for anybody to gauge his abilities!

Early on, Williams had entertained the thought of doing professional wrestling… so much so that he already thought of his in-ring gimmick, inspired by college life: either he lost a bet or something but once he was made to wrestle wearing a hockey mask, a matter which made one of his coaches call him “Doctor Death” (Jason?)… Thus one of pro wrestling’s most clear-cut gimmicks was born! He was scouted and trained by Bill Watts, a wrestling veteran who feuded with Bruno Sammartino in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and the man who established his own promotion called “Mid-South Wrestling” (which would later evolve into World Championship Wrestling) in which Williams made his pro wrestling debut. In Mid-South, he teamed up with eventual WWF superstars Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase respectively, even winning the Mid-South Tag Team titles with the latter! Soon the promotion was renamed into the “Universal Wrestling Federation” (UWF) and Williams eventually reached the pinnacle of the company by defeating Big Bubba Rogers for the UWF Heavyweight title!

Throughout the years Williams would be able to wrestle in nearly every major wrestling promotion to live and die… I think… In National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), he encountered even more future WWF stars such as Barry Windham, Ron Simmons (……DAMN!!!), Dustin Rhodes (aka Goldust), The Road Warriors and even the Steiner Brothers. He also participated in one crazy match: a “Triple Cage Tower of Doom” match in the “Great American Bash” event of 1988! That same year, in grand fashion at the “Starrcade 1988″ event, he won the opening match of the show and earned the NWA United States Tag Team championship with Kevin Sullivan (one of, if not, the biggest rivals of Chris Benoit) against “The Fantastics” team of Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers! It should be noted however that in his early times in WCW, Williams used to fight AGAINST Sullivan who, together with Simmons and Mike Rotunda (aka “Irwin R. Schyster”) formed “The Varsity Club” stable. He would later join the stable which lead to the NWA title win. After they were stripped of the title and disbanded, he left the NWA and made the fateful trip to Japan… where he signed up with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)! In an unbelievable match on March 6, 1990 he and his partner Terry Gordy defeated Stan Hansen AND Genichiro Tenryu to WIN THE “ALL JAPAN TAG TITLES”! Their alliance was named “The Miracle Violence Connection” (MVC… NOT to be confused with a crossover arcade fighting game!) and it would become one of the most successful international tag teams of all time! Their achievements include 5-time “All Japan Unified World Tag Team Champions”, 2-time “World’s Strongest Tag Team League winners” (1990 and 1991), WCW World Tag Team champions after beating the Steiner Brothers in 1992 as well as NWA World Tag champions beating Dustin Rhodes (GOOOLLLD…USSST!) and Barry Windham the same year! Many dispute whether or not the NWA recognizes this particular reign but let’s not dive into that any further. I would however like to point out another claim that apparently, there was a time in his career that Williams was completely UNDEFEATED ON U.S. SOIL FOR A DECADE…!!! The records don’t exactly point it out but majority of the early 90′s, all he had were either pin fall victories or draws; no losses… across various wresting promotions… wow… even I didn’t know that until I did my research. Real or not, that’s an even better record compared to multiple title reigns in my opinion!

After 1992, he went back to Japan and exploded… NO, NOT LITERALLY FOOL (you know who you are)! To put it simply, Williams was on a roll: on January 30, 1993 the MVC beat the team of Mitsuharu Misawa (TAAAIGAAAH DURAIBAAA!!!) and Toshiaki Kawada (GAAAMENGIRIII!!!) to win the “All Japan Tag Team” titles. They just beat an awesome All Japan tag team, how else can you top that? By beating Misawa one-on-one to win the prestigious “ALL JAPAN TRIPLE CROWN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE” THAT’S HOW! Williams won his first and only Triple Crown against the “Master of The Stiff Elbow” on July 28, 1994, obliterating Misawa’s mind-numbing-near-TWO-year reign as Triple Crown champion! What separated this match from other Misawa matches is how Williams prepared for this bout. Other challengers would just take that elbow shot from Misawa and throw some lame counterattack… usually resulting in a beating. What Williams did was different: every time Misawa attempted those elbow shots, Williams gave him a push; not just a regular standing “that all you got?” push… a REALLY STRONG PUSH! It knocked Misawa off-balance and completely messed up his main offense! That, and some vicious back drop drivers, dangerous German suplexes and of course, some badass “DOCTOR BOMB”s earned Williams the victory! No, you didn’t read that wrong: in Japan, your finishing maneuver needs to be applied more than the average 2 times for it to be effective… yeah~ Anyway, after what can easily be considered a brutal match, who else would challenge him for his shiny new belt? Why, none other than a young, then-orange-trunks-wearing guy named KOBASHI KENTA who fights to a brilliant but losing effort. Finally, after a reign of 86 days, Williams lost the Triple Crown to Toshiaki Kawada in October 1994. Taking into account the talent he’s faced during his reign, Williams has pretty much tasted every bit of All Japan had to offer: a nice mix of chops from Kobashi, some crisp elbows from Misawa and a sprinkle of brutal kicks from Kawada… and lived to tell the tale! Other AJPW “gaijin” (foreigners) wrestlers who have had the pleasure of teaming up with this monster player include Johnny Ace, Gary Albright and Bam Bam Bigelow.

In 1998 Williams was encouraged by fellow Oklahoma native Jim Ross to sign up for the WWF which he did. For the sole purpose of selling his brute strength and dangerous technicality, the creative minds of the federation created the “Brawl for All” Tournament! The plan was to have Williams go through the other entries, win the event and gain a sort of “powerhouse” gimmick. First round went fine and dandy when he beat Carl Quellet but in the next one… something went utterly wrong… Williams was “knocked out” (notice the quotation marks) and legitimately injured by Bart Gunn. The aftermath was a blow to his pride and all plans for his big push shelved indefinitely… the only consolation he got from the mess is a few more months with the WWF until he was released from his contract… what a screw up!

Thankfully, not all ties were severed between Williams and the WWE. Five (5) years after the nasty ’98 embarrassment, he appeared in a WWE house show TWICE (May 23 and 24, 2003) winning and losing against Lance Storm resulting into a tie between the two! A month went by and a proposal to become a trainer was made to Williams but it didn’t reach a favorable end. On September 19, 2003 he participated in the “Major League Wrestling (MLW) WAR GAMES” as a member of “The Funkin Army” (led by Terry Funk, members include Sabu, Sandman & Steve Williams) versus “The Extreme Horsemen” (led by Steve Corino, members include Justin Credible, Arn Anderson and Barry Windham) which the Funkin Army won. Williams also had the prestige of being a part of one of the first ever professional wrestling events to be held in China! On December 30, 2003, NWA Mid-Atlantic toured there where he beat Terry Taylor for the “NWA Mid-Atlanctic Heavyweight” title! This guy is LOADED with titles! It’s all so good you’d think life was perfect for him… and you’d be dead wrong… In April of 2004 he announced that he was battling throat cancer following a shoot match for K-1 (the kickboxing federation) Japan… the treatment involved surgery to remove a growth in his throat as well as possible removal of his voice box to get to it… scary stuff! I’ll just summarize the battle for you: HE BEAT THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF CANCER!

Steve “Doctor Death” Williams has had an amazing career in professional wrestling, one full of titles, memorable matches, unforgettable OMG moments and lots of that manly drama only professional wrestling can provide. Only recently in September 2008 did he announce his retirement from the business. He still sometimes makes appearances for the “Sooner World Class Wrestling” (SWCW) federation in his hometown of Oklahoma, wrote his biography entitled “How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life” and is a regular employee at the local Southwest Airlines airport there. Despite lacking the charisma and appeal sought after in today’s superstars, Williams has created a class of his own: he worked hard… he watched his health… not entirely a face… not entirely a heel… not even entirely neutral! ALL CHAMPION! The WWE may never include him into their hall of fame but it doesn’t matter… Steven Williams has done it all and doesn’t need to prove anything anymore! Even if the only people who remember him are his closest friends, colleagues and biggest fans… even that number can beat the fan boys of other less hardworking wrestlers out there today!

Thank you for your time! Tune in next… errr… TIME for another trip down memory lane with me as we tackle more ex-WWE performers!

This is the original US release version with its atrocious dubbed dialogue and over six minutes of film cut out and/or rearranged. This film is no masterpiece (and probably not so in its original version either) but is nevertheless entertaining and at the time was ground breaking. Very few films of its kind were imported here to the states and as such were atrociously dubbed by way of most of the Godzilla films of the same period.

One of the saving graces in the Kenji Misumi directed film is Tomisaburo Wakayama’s performance as Ogami Itto, one of the most infamous samurai in the land who dispatches his enemies without blinking an eye. He brings a lot of weight to a role that requires him to be stoic all the time.

One of the detractions of the film is the story by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima which goes off on more tangents then any story ever should but just when you think the film is going no where its saved by Wakayama’s intense and extremely fluid battle sequences where he is sometimes pitted against an army of opponents.

I’ve yet to see the film in its original unbutchered version and at times I’m afraid to because it might ruin the memory I had of see it long ago when I was but a small child and this film was an epic violent masterpiece of mayhem.

Four full-length studio albums and one live album has been released by Death by Stereo. Currently they are working upon their fifth release, due to be released in 2008. Currently, they also have two more new releases which includes a split album and a DVD.

Death by Stereo was started by Ian Fowles, Efrem Schulz, Jarrod Alexander, Jim Miner and Paul Miner. Ian and Jarrod had earlier played together in a band called the D-Cons, Efrem was earlier in Clint and Jim and Paul who are brothers, were formerly in a band called CleanX. These five players knew each other even prior to the inception of Death by Stereo. This is since as part of their former bands, they had recorded together previously during their tours. The record label of Paul called Dental Records had earlier released music by Clint and D-cons. It went ahead later on and brought out the first release of Death by Stereo.

Jarrod’s garage was the practice ground for the five before their recording of a demo, a few months later. Five songs were recorded by them at the studio where Paul worked, For The Record Studios. Four out of the five songs went ahead for the rerecording and were part of their first album. They played the first show on March 5, 1998 and succeeding that they started playing a lot more shows around the Southern California region. Their first official album Fooled By Your Smile 7inch was released by end of 1998. Ian left the band after the release of this album. Soon after this, Keith Barney joined Death by Stereo and replaced him.

Death By Stereo’s music transcends the division between traditional, hardcore, punk rock, and metal. Their music is a mixture of metal riffs, melodies, solos and hooks. The music of this band has come a long way over time, mainly because of the lineup that was unstable, including 5 guitarists, 4 drummers, 2 bassists, and a vocalist. The first album, If Looks Could Kill, I’d Watch You Die, was hardcore punk rock. The albums released later, especially Death for Life, was more of the type of heavy metal, and not much of hardcore elements and punk rock.

Death By Stereo has been influenced by a number of brands. These are: At the Gates, Bad Religion, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Descendents, Dead Kennedys, In Flames, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Madball, Pennywise, Minor Threat, Slayer, Sick of It All and Suicidal Tendencies.

Death by Stereo draws its inspiration from these bands and is one of the all time favourites when it comes to hardcore punk music.

Death by Stereo – go figure!

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The autopsy results for the cause of death of Michael Jackson will take a week or two before it will be out in public.

Ticketmaster said in an official statement that “more information about refunds will follow later today.”

So, if you bought one would you demand a refund?

(image courtesy of Meet The Chumbeques on Flickr)