Douglas Clayton Durdle (born 1 September 1972) is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Doug Williams. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under the ring name Douglas Williams. In TNA Williams is a former one–time Television Champion, two–time 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. Throughout his career, Williams has also worked in various independent promotions in the United Kingdom and abroad, including Ring of Honor (ROH), the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA), One Pro Wrestling (1PW) and Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH).

Professional wrestling career

During the 1990s Williams trained with (and wrestled for) NWA UK Hammerlock.

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 May 6, 2005 to became 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 in a losing effort to Carlito.

Williams would also appear occasionally on television throughout 2007 and 2008 with British wrestling promotion, while with TNA due to the ruling their contracted wrestlers can appear in independent promotions that aren’t televised in the USA.

Ring of Honor (2002–2007)

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 June 22, 2002, defeating American Dragon. This victory earned Doug a shot at the ROH World Championship on July 27, 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 March 22, 2003, before unsuccessfully challenging Samoa Joe for the ROH World Championship on April 26, 2003. On July 19, 2003, Reckless Youth defeated Doug Williams in a pure wrestling challenge.

After another stint away, Williams returned on February 14, 2004 to defeat Chris Sabin in the pure wrestling tournament, but was later knocked out by CM Punk. On July 17, 2004, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Williams defeated Jay Lethal, Nigel McGuinness and John Walters, in order 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. Doug had two successful defenses of the Pure Wrestling Championship. He defeated Shelley on July 23, 2004 and defeated Austin Aries via submission one day later. He later then lost the title to John Walters, however, on August 28, 2004.

On September 11, 2004, Williams had another unsuccessful shot at the World Championship, which was also against Samoa Joe. On May 13, 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 April 13, 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 April 14, Doug made it two for two by defeating Colt Cabana with his Chaos Theory finisher.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2008–present)

House shows (2008)
Williams wrestled James Storm on March 26, 2003 during TNA Xplosion. It wasn’t until Williams was confirmed to have signed a contract with TNA Wrestling from June 12, 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 June 12, 2008, in Liverpool, Doug teamed with Gail Kim, though they fell short in defeat to the team of Awesome Kong and “Cowboy” James Storm. On June 13, 14 and 15, 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.

Team International (2008)
Williams represented Team International during the 2008 World X Cup tournament, where he defeated Team Japan’s Masato Yoshino in his Impact! debut on July 10, 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 / World Elite (2009–2010)
Williams re-appeared on TNA television on the April 30, 2009, edition 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 the July 25th edition 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 the July 30 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 recognized Team 3D as the official champions since TNA did not have proper sanction to make the title change. On August 10, 2009, NJPW formally recognized 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 Champion and Fortune (2010)
On the January 28 edition 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 the February 18 edition 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 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. On the April 5 edition 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 X Division Championship. After missing two more weeks of Impact!, Williams returned on the May 3 edition 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, in order to get it. Two weeks later at Sacrifice Williams defeated Kazarian to regain the X Division Championship. The following month at Slammiversary VIII Williams successfully defended his X Division Championship against Brian Kendrick, using a high flying maneuver, a tornado DDT, despite his previous anti–high flying statements.

On July 3, 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 July 11 at Victory Road Williams successfully defended his X Division Championship against Brian Kendrick, this time in an Ultimate X submission match. On the August 5 edition 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 Fourtune) 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 September 6, at the tapings of the September 16 edition 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 maneuver, a Frankensteiner, which ended up backfiring as Lethal countered it into a sunset flip for the victory. On the following edition of Impact! Fortune formed an alliance with Hulk Hogan’s and Eric Bischoff’s new stable, Immortal.

Face turn and Television Champion (2010–present)
On the October 28 edition of Impact! tensions rose between Williams and the rest of Fortune, in particular his former X Division rival Kazarian, who thought he had a bad attitude. Williams then replaced Kazarian in a tag team match, where he and A.J. Styles defeated EV 2.0 members Rob Van Dam and Raven, after Styles blind tagged Williams and stole his pinfall. Williams then began showing signs of a possible face turn by standing up for Matt Morgan, who was kicked out of Fortune for showing concern for Mr. Anderson, while also voicing his own concern for not being able to spotlight his talent, while a member of Fortune. The following week Flair ordered Williams and Kazarian to settle their differences in the ring. Kazarian won the match between the members of Fortune, after a miscommunication between Williams and James Storm. After the match Flair made Williams and Kazarian shake hands. At Turning Point the seemingly re–united Fortune defeated EV 2.0 in a ten man tag team match and, as a result, EV 2.0′s Sabu was released from TNA. On the November 11 edition of Impact! Williams, Roode and Storm faced former Fortune member Matt Morgan in a three–on–one handicap match. During the match Roode and Storm abandoned Williams and left him to be pinned by Morgan. The following week Fortune interfered in a match between Morgan and Ric Flair, however, Williams refused to take part in beating Morgan down. When confronted by Styles, Williams turned face for the first time in his TNA career by attacking the rest of Fortune, helping Morgan clear the ring and costing Flair the match. On December 5 at Final Resolution Williams defeated Styles to win the TNA Television Championship for the first time. On the December 23 edition of Impact! Williams defended the Television Championship against Styles in a 20 minute Iron Man match. The match ended in a 1–1 draw, setting up another match at Genesis on January 9, 2011, where Styles would put his spot in Fortune on the line against Williams’ title. However, Styles was forced to pull out of the match after suffering a legitimate hip injury and was replaced by his ally Abyss, who proceeded to defeat Williams for the Television Championship, after Styles ran in and hit Williams with the title belt.

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