Douglas Clayton Durdle (born 1 September 1972), known by his ring name Doug Williams, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he was a one–time TNA Television Champion, two–time TNA X Division Champion and a two-time tag team champion, having held the TNA World Tag Team Championship and the IWGP Tag Team Championship once each as part of The British Invasion. He also worked as a trainer for TNA's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he was a one-time OVW Heavyweight Champion. Throughout his career, Williams has also worked in various promotions in the United Kingdom and abroad, including the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA), One Pro Wrestling (1PW) and Pro Wrestling Noah.
Professional wrestling career
Early career Williams studied judo from the age of 11. Using this as his background, he began training to become a professional wrestler at the age of 16. At 19 Williams started working with NWA UK Hammerlock and became an active member of the roster during the mid-1990s, before moving on to FWA in 2001.
While competing in FWA's King of England tournament, Williams wrestled and won a match against Eddie Guerrero. Williams would also go on to become the promotion's top champion on two occasions. Williams wrestled against Martin Stone in the main event of the promotion's comeback show "New Frontiers" in August 2009, and has since become embroiled in the ongoing feud between Stone's faction "The Agenda" and the FWA Resistance.
By 2004, Williams would begin touring with Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan where he would become a Global Honored Crown Tag Team Champion with Scorpio.
Williams continued to win many foreign and local championships, even defeating "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson in the final of a tournament in Rethel, France on 6 May 2005 to become the first International Catch Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Champion.
While World Wrestling Entertainment was touring England in November 2006, Williams made a dark match appearance where he lost to Carlito.
Williams would also appear occasionally on television throughout 2007 and 2008 with British wrestling promotions whilst working with TNA Wrestling, due to the ruling their contracted wrestlers can appear in independent promotions that aren't televised in the USA.
Ring of Honor (2002–2007, 2015) Williams went on a tour around the United States on several occasions making notable appearances in Ring of Honor over the course of several years. He debuted for the promotion on 22 June 2002, defeating American Dragon. This victory earned Doug a shot at the ROH World Championship on 27 July 2002, which was fought under ironman rules in a four-way contest, which also featured Christopher Daniels, Low Ki and Spanky.
His return to Ring of Honor saw Williams regain the FWA British Heavyweight Championship from Christopher Daniels, on 22 March 2003, before unsuccessfully challenging Samoa Joe for the ROH World Championship on 26 April 2003. On 19 July 2003, Reckless Youth defeated Doug Williams in a pure wrestling challenge.
After another stint away, Williams returned on 14 February 2004 to defeat Chris Sabin in the pure wrestling tournament, but was later knocked out by CM Punk. On 17 July, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Williams defeated Jay Lethal, Nigel McGuinness and R. J. Brewer, to qualify for the Pure Wrestling final. The final was contested later that evening, and saw Williams defeat Alex Shelley to capture the Pure Wrestling Championship. Williams had two successful defences of the Pure Wrestling Championship, defeating Shelley in a rematch on 23 July, and Austin Aries the following day. He would go on to lose the title to John Walters on 28 August.
On 11 September, Williams had another unsuccessful shot at the World Championship, which was also against Samoa Joe. On 13 May 2005, Williams once again wrestled in ROH when he teamed with Colt Cabana to defeat the team of Nigel McGuiness and Chad Collyer, before losing to Homicide the next day.
During ROH's tour of the United Kingdom in August 2006, Williams teamed with Jody Fleisch as "Team UK", defeating "Team Noah" (SUWA and Go Shiozaki). The second show of the tour took place in Broxbourne and saw Williams defeat Jimmy Rave.
Williams' last appearances in ROH were in 2007. On 13 April, Williams teamed with regular partner Nigel McGuinness to face then-World Champion Takeshi Morishima and Chris Hero in a tag team match. McGuinness pinned Hero to win the match for his team. The next night at Fighting Spirit on 14 April, Doug made it two for two by defeating Colt Cabana with his Chaos Theory finisher.
In November 2015, Williams was booked as part of a series of "Supershow" cross-promotion events between Preston City Wrestling and ROH in Preston, England. Williams was victorious against Silas Young on the first night but unsuccessful the second night in a match against Jay Lethal for the ROH World Championship.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Sporadic appearances (2003, 2008)
Williams wrestled James Storm on 26 March 2003 during TNA Xplosion. It was not until Williams was confirmed to have signed a contract with TNA Wrestling from 12 June 2008 that he became part of their roster to take part in TNA Wrestling's World X Cup.
Williams was part of TNA's UK tour, wrestling in all four shows. On 12 June 2008, in Liverpool, Williams teamed with Gail Kim, though they fell short in defeat to the team of Awesome Kong and "Cowboy" James Storm. On 13, 14 and 15 June, TNA held a second show in Liverpool, along with others in Coventry and Brentwood. Doug also wrestled on these shows, with multiple 3 Way Dances against Jay Lethal and A.J. Styles. Styles was victorious on all three occasions.
Williams represented Team International during the 2008 World X Cup tournament, where he defeated Team Japan's Masato Yoshino in his Impact! debut on 10 July 2008. He then wrestled in a 12-Man World X Cup elimination contest, at Victory Road. Williams returned to TNA at Turning Point where he competed in a X Division seeding match. He eliminated Jimmy Rave from the ten-man match, but in the end the eventual winner Eric Young eliminated him placing him third in the X Division rankings. Williams competed on TNA's 2009 Maximum Impact Tour in X Division matches.
British Invasion and World Elite (2009–2010)
Williams re-appeared on TNA television on 30 April 2009, episode of Impact!, as a member of The British Invasion faction, along with Brutus Magnus and Rob Terry. The British Invasion got to the final of the Team 3D Invitational Tag Team Tournament but lost to Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode) at Sacrifice. In the dark match of Slammiversary, the British Invasion defeated Rhino and Eric Young. Later that evening, they interfered in the TNA World Tag Title match. At Victory Road, Team 3D retained their IWGP World Tag Team Titles against the British Invasion. On 25 July episode of Impact!, the British Invasion, Sheik Abdul Bashir and Kiyoshi defeated the TNA Originals after Eric Young turned on his team. After the match, Young, the British Invasion, Bashir and Kiyoshi formed World Elite. On 30 July episode of Impact!, Williams and Magnus won the IWGP Tag Team Championship by defeating Team 3D in a Tables Match. However, New Japan Pro-Wrestling would state that they still recognised Team 3D as the official champions since TNA did not have proper sanction to make the title change. On 10 August 2009, NJPW formally recognised the title switch. At Bound for Glory the British Invasion lost the IWGP Tag Team Titles back to Team 3D, but managed to win the TNA World Tag Team Titles in a four way Full Metal Mayhem Tag Team match against Booker T and Scott Steiner, Team 3D and Beer Money. The following month at Turning Point Williams and Magnus successfully defended the titles in a three-way match against Beer Money and The Motor City Machineguns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin). At Final Resolution they were once again able to retain their titles in a match against Shelley and Sabin. At Genesis the British Invasion lost the TNA World Tag Team Titles to Matt Morgan and Hernandez.
X Division and Television Champion (2010–2011)
On 28 January episode of Impact! Williams cashed in Rob Terry's "Feast or Fired" briefcase and used it to defeat Amazing Red for the TNA X Division Championship. Two days later Williams competed in his first Ultimate X match at a house show in London, successfully defending his new title against Daniels, Suicide, Amazing Red and Chris Sabin. On 18 February episode of Impact! Rob Terry grew tired of his stable mates' abuse and attacked Magnus, thus completing his face turn. At Destination X Williams successfully defended the TNA X Division Championship against Shannon Moore after hitting him with a brick and afterwards cut a promo, where he claimed to hate the current X Division, full of acrobats calling themselves wrestlers, before announcing that he was going to re-establish the division as a place for pure catch-as-catch-can wrestlers like himself. The British Invasion quietly disbanded after Magnus was taken off television following the event. On 5 April episode of Impact! Williams began using the ring name Douglas Williams. At Lockdown Williams was scheduled to defend his title in a three-way Steel Cage match against both Kazarian and Moore, but was forced to miss the event due to being unable to fly out of England after the country's airspace was closed following a volcano eruption in Iceland. At the event TNA announced that as a result of missing the show, Williams was stripped of the TNA X Division Championship. After missing two more weeks of Impact!, Williams returned on 3 May episode of Impact! and refused to hand the Championship belt over to the new champion, Kazarian, and claimed that he had to beat him for it at Sacrifice, to get it. Two weeks later at Sacrifice Williams defeated Kazarian to regain the TNA X Division Championship. The following month at Slammiversary VIII Williams successfully defended his TNA X Division Championship against Brian Kendrick, using a high flying manoeuvre, a tornado DDT, despite his previous anti–high flying statements.
On 3 July 2010, Dixie Carter announced that Durdle had signed a new long–term contract with TNA which also led to him relocating from the United Kingdom to the United States. On 11 July at Victory Road Williams successfully defended his TNA X Division Championship against Brian Kendrick, this time in an Ultimate X submission match. On 5 August episode of Impact! Williams interfered in a Street Fight between Jay Lethal and Ric Flair, helping Flair win the match. The following week Williams joined Flair's Fortune (originally spelled ) stable, as he, A.J. Styles, Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm and Matt Morgan attacked EV 2.0, a stable consisting of former Extreme Championship Wrestling performers. At No Surrender Williams defeated EV 2.0 member Sabu to retain the X Division Championship. On 6 September, at the tapings of 16 September episode of Impact!, Williams lost the X Division Championship to Jay Lethal. Williams received his rematch for the title at Bound for Glory. After failing to finish Lethal with his pure wrestling, Williams resorted to going for a high flying manoeuvre, a Frankensteiner, which ended up backfiring as Lethal countered it into a sunset flip for the victory. On the following episode of Impact! Fortune formed an alliance with Hulk Hogan's and Eric Bischoff's new stable, Immortal.