 tamalie |
December 30th, 2009 18:52 GMT |
 
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Topics: 311
Replies: 6764
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Post: #602873
PT: #1/25
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The Observer is reporting that Steve Williams has died of cancer.
RIP
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Topics: 4
Replies: 568
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Post: #602877
PT: #2/25
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Very sad.
If you check out Canoe Sports Wrestling site, there is a pic of Doc with some other wrestlers from a legends event in early December.
Frankly, Doc was unrecognizable. I wondered then how bad off he must be.
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The Dark Prince
Topics: 25
Replies: 821
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Post: #602879
PT: #3/25
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This message was edited by Mr.Slash on December 30th, 2009 18:59 GMT
That is a sad one. When I moved to the Mid South region, Doc was just getting started. I rank he and Ted Dibiase as an all time great team. 49 is entirely too young to pass away.
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Post: #602883
PT: #4/25
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May the Good Doctor rest in peace. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Williams. From the Mid South to the UWF and on, he was truly one of the greats. Boomer Sooner, indeed.
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Topics: 39
Replies: 245
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Post: #602897
PT: #6/25
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The good doctor was a true class act in a profession that sometimes seemed as classless as can be. He'll truly be missed, and my condolences go out to his many friends and family.
MaskedSuperstarFan
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Post: #602905
PT: #7/25
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My mom was diagnosed with throat cancer almost two years ago, and was faced with the surgery and learning to talk again.I let her listen to an interview of Doc's that was on some website.Then I told her he had the same surgery and she couldn't believe it. She had her's in March of 08, and even in her late 70's, learned to talk again. One of her surgeons was a Doctor Death mark, go figure! 
I'm saddened and I know she will be as well. 49 is WAY too young. But Doc,even in his struggles, was still an inspiration. RIP.
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Topics: 52
Replies: 1960
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Post: #602916
PT: #8/25
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Steve worked really hard in his fight with this monster. A lesser man would have succumbed a long time ago. So sad to see it, but he won't have to go through all this anymore.
Rest in peace Bro.
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| geosch |
December 30th, 2009 22:24 GMT |
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Topics: 167
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Post: #602920
PT: #9/25
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Sad news indeed! I was having lunch with Sir Oliver Humperdink this afternoon, when we got the call from Mick Karch that Williams had passed.
He was a real fine gentleman, who was very kind to me the last few years at CAC reunions. My sincere prayers and sympathy to his family and friends for their loss. And the wrestling business lost a true legend!
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Topics: 885
Replies: 3496
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Post: #602923
PT: #10/25
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Man, this is tough and sad news. I grew up watching Mr. Williams every weekend as a kid. Very sorry to hear about this. It is really hard to see your childhood heroes leave this Earth. My prayers and thoughts go out to the Williams family and friends. Take care and God Bless during this most difficult of times. Frank
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| UWF |
December 30th, 2009 22:41 GMT |
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Topics: 85
Replies: 484
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Post: #602927
PT: #11/25
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Thoughts & prayers are with his family.
RIP, Doc.
Boomer Sooner!!!
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Topics: 82
Replies: 829
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Post: #602968
PT: #13/25
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Another legend gone.WoW seems everytime u turn around someones passing away.May he RIP
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Fanof Mr W II
Topics: 68
Replies: 1082
Member
Post: #603001
PT: #14/25
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Bill Watts on the passing of Dr. Death...
Steve ‘Dr. Death’ Williams…the bell tolls… December 30, 2009…
Another ‘stud’ has transitioned to be with God in Christ… and one thing ‘I know for sure’…
Jesus Christ is Steve’s Hero… so he no longer is having to fight the cancer… Steve right now is in Heaven’s rest…forever… and he was met there by His Savior…Jesus Christ…
He fought that fight against cancer…like Doc fought everything that challenged him… with the heart of a champion… and he thought he had overcome it…when he went back to MD Anderson at the 5 year anniversary for what he felt would be ‘his last check-up’ that would pronounce him cancer-free…but instead was told…’it was back’…
And he set out to ‘beat it again’… he so wanted to live for his son…
Scandar Akbar called to tell me he was just with Doc two weeks ago back east… and Ann from WWE also called…and she saw him there too…
There is to be a ‘reunion’ of the wrestlers from the Golden Years at OU…on Jan. 22nd… and Doc would have loved that… he will be missed…
At my age… it seems like we are losing so many of our peers… but to hear of one ‘younger transitioning’ is really sad…
Yes…knowing Doc is with the Lord… is to know in Christ we have victory over death…but still we mourn his passing…
I remember when he was a freshman at OU…and my good friend…Stan Abel… his wrestling coach there…called me and said…you must get down here and meet Steve…he will be a fabulous ‘professional wrestler’ once he has finished his eligibility here at OU…
And …he ‘ALREADY’ has ‘the name’… of ‘Dr. Death’…
He was named by his teammates and classmates in high school in Colorado…when he was wrestling…and had broken his nose…so wore a ‘hockey mask’…and they started calling him Dr. Death…
He also played football for Barry Switzer’s OU Sooners…and made the All-Big Eight team as a guard… and later played in the World Football League professionally in NJ.
But as an amateur wrestler at OU…he was a 4 time All-American!
I saw him compete at the NCAA Championships in Iowa his senior year… (He had injured his sternum in the Nebraska game in football…so was limited in his workouts that wrestling season)… but he beat the reigning and returning Heavyweight Champion…Banack in the semi-finals…and was ‘out-pointed’ by Baumgardner in the finals… (Baumgardner went on to become an Olympic Champion too…and had a long and illustrious amateur wrestling career)…while Doc went ‘pro’ in both football….and then in wrestling…breaking-in as my protégé in Mid-South Wrestling…
Another amateur wrestling memory…Doc had played with the Sooner football team at a ‘Bowl Game’…and flown right into Baton Rouge for a wrestling match against LSU…
Now ‘wrestling shape’ and ‘football shape’ are two completely different things… and being in great wrestling shape is much more demanding…especially in just the constant ‘gripping’ of your opponent…those muscles wear out so fast… plus the aerobics …as there ‘is no time between plays…
I was there that night…and figured ‘Doc’ would just do ‘as good as he could’…for the team…since he was NOT in wrestling shape…
But Doc toughed it out against a good Heavyweight…and beat him! And that impressed me…
His career in ‘the pro-wrestling business’ is legendary…
But…his heart too was as big as he is… and he even saved his friend…Bam-Bam Terry Gordy…once in Japan…when Bam-Bam was overdosing on some substance…and he even got Bam-Bam into the gym…and working out…and helped motivate him to fight his substance abuse problems for a time… Doc would ‘give of himself’…
My last time with him at OU was when we presented him with a plaque on the 50 yard line of an OU-Missouri football game…and Barry Switzer loved it…he was a true friend to his players too…(I’ll try to attach one of the pictures we took that day)…
Now…life is a ‘series of snap-shots’…as ‘we make this journey’… and Doc was ‘brought to the Lord’…and confessed Jesus Christ as His Savior! And he loves Christ… and his faith was strong…and so encouraged so many…
And when he first ‘got sick’…he trusted God in that challenge too…
That measures Doc in what is truly the most important way…his faith… He is now in the Hall-of-Faith in Heaven…and already reunited with his dad…and those he loved who preceded him…
***Just got a call from Doc’s brother Jeff…and here are the details…
Doc’s ‘opening in his throat’ had increased to where it was about an inch and a half… so Jeff said you could ‘see inside his throat’… and the doctors had told him…that it was so close to major arteries and organs…that ‘it could happen at anytime’… and that if a major artery ruptured…the bleeding could be difficult to control…or get under control in time…
Apparently about 1 AM…he was bleeding…and trying to ‘clear his throat’ so he ‘could breathe’… he was suffocating…
He came into his mother’s room…she is now 87 years old… and she called 911 on her neck monitor… and Doc fainted…
The emergency medical team resuscitated him three times… but the third time ‘his heart gave out’… (He was such a fighter!)
His son…Wyndom Carlton Williams…was spared seeing this…because he was spending the night with a friend…and there was nothing this 17-year-old boy could have done… He so loves his dad…they were so close…
Jeff… is naturally really shook-up…as he and Steve were so close too… and said he would let me know as soon as the arrangements are made for the funeral…
He too rejoices that Steve is with the Lord right now…
He said Steve wanted to be cremated…and his ashes scattered in the Rocky Mountains where his father’s ashes were scattered…
And now my friends… I too will close this letter… and spend some time with my Lord praising Him for ‘making provision’ for all of us who will but accept Him… that we do NOT die as in some void…but it is a ‘transition’ to be with Jesus…
I do NOT fully understand or grasp God’s perfect timing…but this ‘I trust’…that ‘His timing is perfect’… and Heaven is such a ‘better place’… and my dear friend Steve is there now…
Rom 8:1
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
NASB
John 3:16-18
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
NASB
As the apostle Paul wrote:
Phil 1:21-23 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;
NASB
Phil 3:20-21
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
NASB
As our ‘being baptized symbolizes’ our dying to this life and resurrecting with Christ to Heaven’s rest…
Rom 6:8-10
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
NASB
Matt 6:19-21
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
NASB
Ps 118:24
24 This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
NASB
Let each of us now take this time to tell those we love of our heart for them… because we never know when they too will be called…
In Him… saved by His merciful grace…
Bill Watts
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Topics: 32
Replies: 1471
Member
Post: #603021
PT: #15/25
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I last saw Steve "Dr. Death" Williams a couple years ago at a WWE house show in Baton Rouge. He made a special appearance to greet the fans. On a card filled with outstanding talent from top to bottom, no superstar on the lineup seemed happier to appear that night than Dr. Death.
Certainly, he worked many shows in Baton Rouge, but you could just see it in his face that he was so thankful to still be able to show up and display his appreciation to both the fans and the sport that he loved so much.
In wrestling, we see storylines that often inspire us. Many of those angles involve competitors who seemed very believable in that role, and were quite possibly the same outside the ring. But many other times, we hear stories about some wrestlers who were anything but the inspiration that was suggested in a storyline.
No storyline, however, can do justice to Steve Williams. Even in a time in his career when he was a "heel" and kayfabe was alive and well, he performed an act so courageous that even the often-smug-to-wrestling news media had no choice but to acknowledge. That was, of course, when he ripped the door of a flaming automobile to save the occupants of the car from an otherwise imminent death.
It's the same wrestler who sustained a cut to the eye that required 108 stitches. Again, it would've been a hell of a storyline, but it was legit. Between tapings at the Irish McNeil on a hot summer in 1985, a physician sewed him up and (what really seems insane) he comes back and wrestles later in the evening. He loved his profession and he gave his all in the ring like only very few others could.
I could never offer the great personal stories offered by Bill Watts, Jim Ross or even the other great ambassadors such as George Schire, but as a longtime fan, I can say that in a sport that critics have so often scorned as "fake" , Steve "Dr. Death" Williams was genuine inside and out.
It's just hard to believe that both he and Terry Gordy -- seemingly invincible in the ring -- had such short lives. But I know there's one heck of a reunion going on in Heaven.
Rest in peace, Dr. Death, and thanks for the memories. Boomer, Sooner! (And that's coming from an LSU fan).
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