Douglas Williams

Douglas Clayton Durdle (born 1 September 1972) is a professional wrestler from the United Kingdom.

He is best known for his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he was a one–time 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.

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.

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.

Williams wrestled James Storm on 26 March 2003 during TNA Xplosion.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While World Wrestling Entertainment was touring England in November 2006, Williams made a dark match appearance where he lost to Carlito.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.