Steve Williams: How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life

by Steve Williams

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams was given a second chance. In the prime of his life, Steve was diagnosed with T-4 throat cancer. With God by his side, Steve overcame all odds and survived this deadly disease. Now, Steve is committed to giving his testimony to the people from the wrestling ring. As an athlete, Steve has "done it all." In 1978, he graduated from Lakewood High in Colorado. Recruited heavily by many major colleges, the star athlete eventually accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Oklahoma. Steve is one of very few legitimate wrestlers to make the transition from the amateur ranks to the professional wrestling ring. While at the University of Oklahoma, he was a two-time Big Eight free-style wrestling champion. As a collegiate football player, he was also a two-time Big Eight champion. Under legendary coach Barry Switzer, Steve went to three major Orange Bowls, the Sun Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl. He also played professional football as a defensive nose guard for the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League (USFL). Because of his amateur wrestling background, Steve was generally regarded as one of the most dangerous "shooters" in the business. This tough reputation earned him the nickname "Dr. Death." For the past 20-plus years, he has worked for all major wrestling promotions throughout the world, including World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Steve has held numerous titles and received a plethora of accolades during his career. In 1985, he was named Most Improved Wrestler and First Runner-Up, Tag Team of the Year (with Ted DiBiase). One year later, he defeated the One Man Gang at the 21:43 mark in Houston, Texas, to become the winner of the $50,000 Pro Wrestling Illustrated/UWF Challenge Cup Tournament. In 1991, Steve and his partner, Terry Gordy, became the first American tag team to win All Japan's annual tag-team tournament in consecutive years. Most recently, in 2003, Steve won the NWA Heavyweight title from Terry Taylor in China. Steve is also an Asian wrestling icon, for he is the only American who has ever worked for two major companies at the same time in Japan--New Japan and All Japan.

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Steven "Steve" Williams better known by his ring name "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, was an American professional wrestler, author and former star of collegiate football and wrestling at the University of Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

another book in which the early-life material is interesting, because the early life of the writer was interesting, but drags toward the end as williams describes his conversion, etc.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started this book, I wanted to learn about Williams' experiences with throat cancer. I was a little disappointed there was only four or five chapter about it and he didn't go into a lot of detail - like how long it took him to talk or eat, etc. However, it was a good read and I learned a lot about his wrestling career.

[Guy Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the deepest of biographies but does give some insight in to his conversion and also the rough life as a professional wrestler.Finished reading this and found out he had died just a day earlier.