Dr. Death Steve Williams discusses his Book, Breaking into the Business, Terry and Ray Gordy, Wrestling in Japan, Chris Benoit and More!

Credit: www.liveaudiowrestling.com

One of my favorite stories in your new book which I quite enjoyed was when you first go to meet Bill Watts and your friend Mike Gerie has comments. He almost makes it sound like you were somewhat frightened or a little overwhelmed I guess maybe with making the move into pro wrestling.

Steve: Well let me tell you, I thought I was going to boot camp after I went to the fort of Bill Watts’ house, with all his big dogs and the fence and Gerie dropped me off and all of a sudden the gate closed behind me. I was walking into a boot camp here but I had a lot of respect for the business. Bill Watts was a great boss for me you know for being his protégé. He didn’t give me anything; I earned everything I got. I respected the business right off the bat.

How hard was it for someone like you coming into the business at that time? When it was kept more secretive. You said they didn’t really give you much; you just kind of had to earn it. For me, that must have been really tough I would think.

Steve: I’m just going to tell you one story. I’m up in Louisville, Kentucky, right now and OVW trains the WWE kids. To give them a story today, I remember driving five hours with “Iron” Mike Sharpe and earning $40, and that was my gas money, and I remember Mike Sharpe spending the night in a hotel room. I slept in the back of his car, so I paid him my $40 for the gas in his car. It was a tough deal. I really respected the business.

The kids of today don’t know about the territory system, where you could polish your craft working all over the country. All they know is the WWE. Is it hard to get them to respect the business?
Steve: Well, last month, I was here and I gave them thirty of my books and told them to read it. I came back and gave them a test, and only four guys passed the test. That shows you how many guys respected it and that’s when I took five hours to bust them for their puking outside the ring after I’d worked them. I said “Hey, that shows me you didn’t have respect to pick my book up and read it, and find out where I’ve been and what I’ve done.” They paid the price, and that’s what I’m here for. I tell you what Dan, I am blessed for Vince McMahon to give me a job and Johnny Laurenitis, my ex-partner, to let me come in here and give my heart, my craft, back to the business.

I can’t think of anyone better. Certainly, to give them that degree of toughness they need, then to have Steve Williams. I’ve been a fan for years, especially of your stuff in Japan. I was just watching one of your matches with Kobashi again, and you guys just beat the s**t out of each other.

Steve: That was 1993. I think it was September 4. It was called the best match of the year Dan. It was great and I got to tell you, I just did an interview. Kenta Kobashi and he’s making a comeback. They said he’s supposed to come back this September. I’m trying to get over there to be in his corner to welcome him back. I’m hoping it’ll follow through because I have all the respect for that guy. We battled some tough matches. He was a great athlete.

I want to talk about that little stint when you were in the WWE and they did the brawl-for-all, which I assume was to put you over and the whole thing kind of backfired. I just wanted to get some of your thoughts on that whole brawl-for-all angle.

Steve: I was working for Japan for the longest time and I wasn’t coming to the United States. My good friend Jim Ross told me ‘Hey man, we got a great opportunity for you. Why don’t you come back for a couple years?’ So I had a talk with Giant Baba, my great boss. I loved him and God bless his soul. He took real good care of me. So then, I go for a couple years and they (Japan) said you’re always welcome back. They (WWE) told me that they were going to put this thing together and it was a shoot. If you don’t know what a shoot is, it’s called “real” in the business. There was no fake stuff, it was real. I go to the brawl-for-all and I’m not a boxer; I’m a street fighter and I’m a wrestler. If I get somebody down, I’ll gauge their eyeball out and eat it in front of you. They put boxing gloves on us. I was guaranteed that if I won the thing, I’d have a six-month run with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. I got caught and Bart Gunn took me down and I fell out of the ring and tore my hamstring and my butt muscle. I got up and had my hands down, as you can all see the video; I look at it many times. I walked right into Bart Gunn’s right hand and it knocked me right out. That was the end of that run there. Everybody thought I was going to give up. Well I came back and then I got screwed on a contract deal and I won’t go into that, but there were some conflicts. So I went back to Japan and I rocked Japan again. The partners I had were Terry Gordy, and you know what kind of brawler he was. We clashed so well and protected each other that we just ran over. We were the only Americans to hold the tag team titles for five years in a row.

I would assume that it probably is somewhat painful, sorrowful for you to this day to know that Terry Gordy is no longer with us. He definitely died too young. I just wanted to talk a little bit about that and how that must have affected you.

Steve: I still got his picture in my room and I look at him a lot. I wish he was still around and you know, here I train his son Ray Gordy and it’s kind of tough. I even jumped on Ray Gordy last month. I said “You’re slacking off kid. If your daddy was here, he’d have kicked you all over this ring man. He’d say ‘kick it in gear.'” It’s hard for me because Terry was like a family member to me. We spent so many years in Japan and became brothers. It’s hard. Then I lost Sam, and then I lost another partner, Gary Albright. It’s pretty tough. To think about the “Missing Link” who just died the other day. 53 of the wrestlers have died in the last ten years. What happened? What happened to the greats and all these guys that just dropped like that; it’s just sad.

One of the other interesting things in your book was when you talked about promoters, you said Giant Baba was your favorite and Inoki was the second. Both of the Japanese promoters. I’m just wondering, what does that say about the North American promoters? Were they really that unscrupulous? Most of them.

Steve: Well I got to tell you Dan, why I had respected them two promoters that I never had a contract. Every contract I’ve had in the United States has been broken. Over there, I had a handshake and I’m a man’s man. When I got over there, my money was shipped into my bank account. I never had to worry about me getting ripped off. I never had to worry about if I’m going to miss a tour or if I’m going to miss my time off or see my family. I was one month on, one month off and what a life that was. Not like when I worked for, I mean Bill Watts was a tough territory; it made me respect the business. Then all of a sudden, I worked for Jim Crockett and I was working 30 days on, four days off. It’s hard; that’s tough man, and I understand what Chris Benoit went through. When you work so dog gone hard and you don’t see your family, I tell you what, hotel walls will get to you; they start talking to you. When you only get four days off, you spend one day flying back home and then you spend one day to fly out, so really you only get about two and a half days at home, so that’s tough brother, it really is.

Just while we’re on that subject. If anything positive can come out of the Benoit situation, I’d like to see some changes made in wrestling and I’d like to see that kind of stuff. Have the guys have some time off, you know, three weeks on, three weeks off. Have better healthcare or insurance and that kind of stuff. Do you think those things can be implemented in North America or is it just too big of a money making thing that that can never happen?

Steve: I think somebody’s got to take care of that or you’re going to lose more and more athletes. More and more pro wrestlers will have major problems with drugs, sleeping pills, pain pills, and alcohol. Something out there is going to grab them if they don’t get time to see their family; their kids. Some health insurance or something to take care of them or some kind of counselor that will talk to them if they need help. I think Vince has stepped it up. I think he’s having people come in and help the wrestlers. I think he’s taken a lot of steps now. I know Chris Benoit real well. We started in Japan for Inoki. Great guy, but I’m going to tell everybody, I have no respect and no remorse for a guy that can kill his own family; even a seven-year-old kid. I’ve got a 15-year-old son and when I was dying through cancer, my biggest prayer was to please spare my life; that I wanted to be a father to my son. For a man to stick a bible next to who he killed. That just doesn’t get it man; I’m sorry, it just doesn’t get it.

(Transcribed by Blaine van der Griend)