R.I.P. Steve Doll
In the world of professional wrestling the name Steve Doll was one I’d hear about or read about, but I never really saw much of his work. It wasn’t until later I realized that one half of the old WWF Tag Team Well Dunn was comprised of the wrestler known as Steve Doll.
So it was Steve Doll’s cup of coffee in the WWF that I know him from.
But prior to arriving on the east coast with Vince McMahon’s WWF, Doll was making waves on the west coast with Don Owen.
Steve Doll left his mark in professional wrestling back in Don Owen’s NWA-affiliated Pacific Northwest Wrestling. He was paired with Scott Peterson as Don Owen’s answer to the popularity of teams like the Midnight Rockers and The Rock N’ Roll Express. They were known as The Southern Rockers. Later on Doll’s partner was Rex King, with the team still known as The Southern Rockers. The Souther Rockers were over big time in that territory. While a member of The Southern Rockers, Steve Doll won the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championships eleven times (seven with Petersen and four with King).
In total, Steve Doll wound up winning this tag team title eighteen times with a variety of other partners, which would include a young Brian Adams and Jimmy Jack Funk.
Steve Doll is one of the great American tag wrestlers that nobody ever really knew, including myself. I didn’t realize it until consulting the archives only after hearing of his passing.
THE SENSATIONAL SOUTHERN ROCKERS VS THE GRAPPLER AND A YOUNG BRIAN ADAMS FOR THE NWA PACIFIC NORTHWEST TAG TEAM TITLES
Steve and Rex moved on to do their thing in Lawler’s USWA, winning the USWA World Tag Team Championship eight times.
Doll and King had a good look, and they were not stiffs in the ring. Had they arrived in the WWF before The Rockers, wrestling history as we know it may have been vastly different. The similarities between the two teams is striking.
Ironically, Steve Doll may be known to wrestling fans mostly as one of the two men in the ring on WCW’s Monday Nitro when Scott Hall made his debut, coming through the crowd and grabbing the mic right in the middle of his match against Mike Enos (Compliments to Wikipedia for bringing this fact to light).
R.I.P. Steve Doll.
