| Date: 12/21 | 9:35 PM |
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With four days left to go in the holiday shopping season perhaps you are still looking for something special to buy the wrestling fan on your list. With that in mind here's a critical analysis of WWE's "The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling," a two-disc set with an incredible story to tell. First established in Texas in 1966, WCCW had nearly a quarter century run and even made a bid to become a national promotion in the 1980's. Even today many wrestling historians argue they had as good a chance to compete against the growing WWF juggernaut of the times as they did "rock 'n wrestling" just as well if not better in some cases, but as you'll learn from this review a combination of hard living and bad decision making was the promotion's undoing.
Before getting started it's only fair to note that many of WWE's historical releases have had a tendency to skew, bend, manipulate or outright omit facts that would make their competitors look better or them worse. The "McMahon" DVD is to date some of the most egregious baldfaced lying I've ever seen in an allegedly historical document. However I've gotten a sense from the reviews of other wrestling historians such as the esteemed Karl Stern that WWE for the most part did a pretty good job with the history of WCCW, only muddling up a few issues surrounding how and why some of the promotion's wrestlers died. I'm not as intimately familiar with WCCW as these men are, but I'll make note of a few of the contested facts as we procede with this review. One last note - when is WWE going to start releasing these things in Blu Ray? I'm not saying I'd rather have no release at all but most new movies these days come in both regular and HD formats and with the kind of money WWE has I think they can afford to do the same.
The main feature of the first disc opens with a montage of videos and photos that at first notes how successful WCCW was but then notes the "Von Erich Curse" and how all of their problems eroded that success away before getting to the title screen. Next up is vintage video footage of "Ed McLemore Presents TEXAS RASSLIN' with Ves Box." Like most major things to happen in the promotion's history, whether under their original name or the WCCW moniker they adopted in the 80's, the action we're seeing takes places at the now demolished Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas. Skandor Akbar is the first man to be identified on screen, wearing a keffiyeh with an agal around it on his head. Kayfabe clearly is not dead to this man, although wrestlers with Arab heel gimmicks like Ed 'The Sheik' Farhat often kept up the pretense to everyone but their own family and the businessmen they worked with. To be honest though it's unintentionally comical to hear a man dressed like Yasser Arafat speaking with a Texan drawl. Akbar tells us the Sportatorium dates back to 1934 and tells us the names of many historically important wrestlers to have worked there, "names some of you won't recognize." Guilty as charged Akbar. Nonetheless he says in Dallas these names would be well known. The first name I know well to grace the screen is Dory Funk Jr. who goes on to tell us about the rich history of Texas athletics from rodeo to football to wrestling, something Dusty Rhodes elaborates on when he appears. Dory says for many small towns wrestling was the only entertainment you could find on any given week. Commentator Bill Mercer says back in the 1950's every match was 2 out of 3 falls and had long headlocks, and everyone says that when Jack Adkisson b/k/a Fritz Von Erich came along all that started to change and the pace started to pick up a bit.
The only surviving Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich, goes on to talk about his father's accomplishments as an athlete at Southern Methodist University. It was when Adkisson went to the CFL to play football that he met up with the legendary Stu Hart and his life took a different turn towards the wrestling business. It's here that we learn of the very first Von Erich tragedy, as Jack's oldest son (also named Jack) died of an eletrocution in 1959. Kevin suggests this was the cause for his father becoming a heel wrestler and taking the German name "Von Erich" but even the often unreliable Wikipedia says he was already working as a top heel around the country under this name before young Jack's death. What both sources agree on is that the death caused him to return to Dallas permanently and continue his wrestling career where he grew up instead of travelling extensively. Gary Hart describes Fritz as big, strong and dominating in the ring. Gerald Brisco refers to him "rugged." Dory Funk says he loved to beat the hell out of people. Ric Flair describes his claw as one of the most over finishers in wrestling history, at which point we get footage of Fritz from 1987 saying he learned it from a sumo friend of his in Japan. Kevin says his ring psychology was incredible.
From here we learn that at one time the majority of Texas wrestling was controlled out of an office in Houston. Two of the four major cities involved, Fort Worth and Dallas, decided to break off from Houston and operate as their own territory run by Ed McLemore. Ed had a series of heart attacks, the last of which was fatal, leaving his then partner Adkisson in sole control of the territory. Akbar says Fritz was "the big cog" but Gary Hart notes he was thought of as a wrestler first and a promoter second, and Jim Ross says that he knew as the top star he'd never walk out on his own promotion. Jerry Lawler notes that it's hard to trust the top spot to anybody who's not going to be as passionate about the welfare of your company as you are. Three former Freebirds show up on screen, and among them Jimmy Garvin is the most outspoken that Fritz Von Erich really put the screws to his wrestlers and kept most of the money made to himself. Brisco notes he ran his promotion the same way he wrestled - aggressively. Bill Irwin notes when he came in a room, people got out of the way as fast as they could, but if you got to know him he wasn't such a bad guy. Kevin notes that despite the image he's been given of a forceful father who made his sons wrestle none of his boys ever did anything they didn't want to do. That's somewhat debateable but he remembers his dad the way he wants to and you can't fault him for that.
The story continues from there with all parties noting the boys grew up to be natural athletes and that as Mick Foley puts it "wrestling was in their blood." (Goodness I hope that doesn't mean Dewey will grow up to get bashed over the head with steel chairs.) Kevin says he'd play football during the season and wrestle during the off-season. Kevin describes David Von Erich as being gifted like his father and Akbar describes him as a ring general. He credits David as being more experienced because he split his time with football, whereas David was a full-time wrestler, so even though Kevin started first David was the better of the two. Kerry was noted to have Kevin's charisma and looks but David's in-ring athletic ability, and the three of them became a dominant trio working together all over the place. Eventually Fritz stopped wrestling altogether and let his sons take over in his place. Fritz had his retirement match in June 1982 at Texas Stadium. After winning his last match he cuts a promo with all his boys standing around him and proclaims they will EACH become world heavyweight champions. Somewhere in my head I can already hear ominous music playing.
Michael Hayes and Mick Foley both note that the Von Erichs were marketed as stars by their father and they were all believable - young, handsome, incredibly athletic, and their best gimmick was that they didn't HAVE a gimmick - they were beloved everywhere in Texas. Their popularity quickly spread beyond those borders as Fritz slowly started to distribute WCCW programming to neighboring states. Kevin notes the show was being pirated in places as far away as Taiwan so it was inevitable that they would just sell it to them directly, and before long WCCW was syndicated by Continental Productions to every market everywhere that wanted their programming. Sadly I was not in one of those markets growing up - where I lived there was only AWA and the WWF, and it wasn't long until there was only WWF. I remember the name Verne Gagne from my childhood but if you asked me about the stars and matches I could only tell you from what I've seen on WWE 24/7 or other DVD's because I was just too young. When I was old enough to get all the way wrestling was all Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ted DiBiase and the Macho Man; for better or worse that's shaped wrestling my entire life because I've always been a WWF/WWE follower first. What I wouldn't give now to go back to those days and start a letter campaign to convince a local station to carry WCCW programming. All parties involved state that if WCCW had taken the wrestling show on the road more the way WWF did instead of only wrestling in Texas, it could be a whole different wrestling world than it is now. Nevertheless the production values they had were unseen at the time - mics everywhere, handheld cameras, production crews of up to 40 people, personality profiles on the wrestlers and so on. Gary Hart notes that no matter how good it looked on TV, the Sporatorium was "a tin s**thole" that was dreadful hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Nevertheless to the wrestlers who worked there it was a temple of wrestling, a Roman coliseum, a sellout every Friday night.
Kevin notes how the Freebirds and in particular Michael Hayes made for a great rock'n'roll style due to the entrance music and personality. At first the Freebirds were well liked as friends with the Von Erichs, but the heel turn came during a match where Hayes was the special guest referee for a match between Kerry and Ric Flair. To make a long storyline short it was presented to the crowd that even though Flair attacked Kerry and Kerry bumped Hayes accidentally, Hayes didn't know it was an accident so he and Terry Gordy attacked him in return. Unfortunately at this time Gary Hart quit in a dispute over money, where he got WCCW a quarter million dollar deal and only got $3,500 in return for making the deal happen. The Freebirds were going to quit out of loyalty to Hart but he talked them out of it and Ken Mantell took over as the booker, bringing up young stars like Bill Irwin, Iceman Parsons, 'Gorgeous' Jimmy Garvin and his valet Sunshine in the process. Garvin even brought his own wife in and nicknamed her Precious, and she took over as his valet and had a feud with Sunshine. WCCW even brought in talent from overseas like 'Gentleman' Chris Adams to further enhance their roster. And yes, if you only knew him from WWF, Kamala the Ugandan Giant made his name FIRST in WCCW. It's fun to see the footage of The Great Kabuki, Kamala, The Missing Link and in particular Bruiser Brody as they made an impact on WCCW television. Triple H puts over the feud between Brody and Abdullah the Butcher, noting that even though he doesn't like hardcore wrestling nobody did it better than they did. The money feud of WCCW was the Freebirds versus the Von Erichs though, and it lasted for years and years. A whole chapter of the DVD is devoted to their three on three war and the personalities of the Freebirds, and how the unwritten rule between the two teams was do anything other than "break teeth and break bones."
For all this triumph, you knew the tragedy was going to come sooner or later. Kevin notes that even before David went to Japan for a big match, he had a bad feeling about the trip. Here's one of the issues about WWE's DVD that has caused confusion - on the disc they claim that David had a heart attack caused by intestinal distress and overeating. The more widely held theory before this time was that David had a drug overdose, as the Von Erich boys were making lots of money and living high on the hog, and the party lifestyle of WCCW has been widely reported by many wrestling scholars and historians over the years. All the DVD does is create confusion about the cause of his death, but nevertheless, David was the first of the Von Erich generation of the 1980's to experience "the curse" as he died on February 10th, 1984. Regardless of the cause of David's death (and Kevin does note he was drinking and taking pills) it all continues to spiral downhill for the Von Erichs from there. Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair both note he was going to be the next world champion had he not died. They had a tribute card in May 1984, and in fact on that day Kerry beat Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. He would only hold the title for 18 days but as HBK notes it was a "feel good" moment and every fan from the top to bottom of Texas Stadium was emotionally overwhelmed. Lawler and J.R. both feel that Kerry may have lost his shot to be a long term champion because he was not "reliable" without specifically stating why he wasn't - you can make a safe bet it was the kind of "reliability" issues Jake 'The Snake' Roberts had though. Gary Hart came back to WCCW and helped Chris Adams turn heel, and a new Von Erich feud was born.
The next Von Erich tragedy was to be Mike Von Erich, not in the sense that he died, but that he popped his shoulder out during a match in Israel and after otherwise routine surgery to repair the damage got a bacterial infection which resulted in toxic shock syndrome. He survived even though his fever shot up to 107 degrees, but he suffered serious brain damage as a result. One of the DVD's most chilling moments is Fritz Von Erich standing at a press conference saying he was a champion and he would come back, after Mike had just struggled for his life and barely even survived. Everybody notes that Mike was never the same inside or outside the ring after that. Fritz made the decision that they needed another Von Erich because only two boys could wrestle with Mike out of commission, so they renamed a local wrestler named Ricky Vaughn as Lance Von Erich, explained as the son of Waldo Von Erich, neither of whom were ever an Adkisson. The angle was such a huge flop that Fritz publically disowned him on TV.
The next big feud for the Von Erichs was the "Dynamic Duo" of Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams versus the Von Erichs. Gino drew great heat with a cocky heel persona, complete with the perfectly coiffed hair and shades and fast cars. For the first time Akbar mentions drugs poisoning WCCW as the next tragedy of the promotion is that Gino died of a cocaine overdose. Kevin seems to be somewhat in denial about the whole thing, while Gary Hart is moved to tears as he says that no matter what he tried he couldn't chase Gino's demons away. To be honest this part of the DVD is really hard to watch. A new Freebird feud emerges from this dark cloud, led by Michael Hayes, but Hayes himself says the bloom was off the rose. From here World Class decided to break from NWA completely and strike out on their own, which Hart notes he felt was a huge mistake. The promotion took a downturn crowning their own world champions, and while both Rick Rude and Chris Adams were somewhat believable, it really went downhill when a midcard wrestler named Black Bart WHO RODE A MULE TO THE RING became the WCCW Champion. Next Kerry Von Erich, the biggest star in the company, was put out of action for a while with a motorcycle accident where he lost his right foot in '86. Drugs are played up even more at this point. It's noted Mike should never have gotten back in the ring, and listening to his speaking ability in interviews you could certainly tell. Mike wrote a suicide note where he felt he was an embarassment to the family and committed suicide on April 12, 1987.
This was not the end of tragedy for WCCW, as things would only continue to get worse. They ran an angle where Fritz Von Erich had a fake heart attack and the public was already burnt out on the tragedy of WCCW, and the kayfabe era was slowly starting to erode by this point so many of the people didn't even believe it. Gary Hart accurately describes it as "100% bad." Kevin claims it was never meant to be perceived as a fake heart attack, just a rib injury, but he passes out on the floor in the video clip shown. They tried to reform the Freebirds with Iceman Parsons and it was also a failure. Gary Hart ended up leaving again when Ken Mantell was sold a third of the business. 1988 was the pivotal year as the AWA, CWA and WCCW decided to join forces in an attempt to stave off the every growing WWF empire. Kerry Von Erich and Jerry Lawler had a title unification match at Superclash III. Lawler notes his judgment seemed a little impaired outside the ring before the match but in the ring he worked the match fine, which Jerry won when the referee stopped it "for Kerry's safety" ruling he was unable to continue. Unfortunately it didn't create the sympathy for Kerry they wanted or improve business, and WCCW ended up selling to the Jarretts and becoming the USWA. Kerry wanted no part of it and ended up coming to WWF to be 'The Texas Tornado.' Kerry ended up beating Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental Title but J.R. notes that he had "issues" and others expand upon his use of drugs and steroids. Kevin decided the business wasn't fun any more and quit, and to this day that's probably the reason he survived.
Chris Von Erich was the next to die in 1991 as he committed suicide due to his inability to achieve the success in wrestling his brothers had and his own mental impairment due to drug abuse. Kevin blames himself as he was there that night and couldn't stop Chris from doing what he did. Not long after Kerry took his own life as well, by gunshot like Chris, as he was ashamed of being caught falsifying prescriptions and the possibility of going to jail. Akbar notes that two days before he died he tried to reconcile with his family and that it didn't work out, and that he was very depressed about how his life had spiraled out of control. Kevin is absolutely broken talking about how suicide is never an option anyone should take no matter how guilty or despondent you are. Kevin notes the deaths made the crowds uncomfortable and too painful and the crowds kept getting smaller week after week. Triple H dismisses the idea of a curse and says it's more that success went to their heads, and even Kevin notes "we did everything to the max" during the heyday of the 80's party lifestyle.
The first disc comes to an end on this sad and somber note, but everybody involved remembers that the Von Erichs will always be remembered for their great wrestling and not just for the tragedy that befell the entire family. Kevin says he considers himself a lucky guy to have spent 25 great years with his brothers, and despite everything that happened he treasures that time and feels he's had a good life. Triple H at one point near the end described the DVD as a "public service announcement" and in a way he's right - it should be a lesson for anybody young who gets popular and rich quickly in the wrestling business of what NOT to do. The first disc is loaded with extras including vignettes with Iceman Persons, Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez and the Freebirds along with a slew of extra interviews not edited into the main story. The second disc is an absolute treasure trove ofclassic matches, including all of the feuds mentioned during the story on disc one such as a six-man tag title match in May 1984 between the Freebirds and the Von Erichs, a one-on-one battle between 'Gentleman' Chris Adams and Kevin Von Erich, and a few oddball matches like The Great Kabuki v. Kamala thrown in. The two discs combined are a tremendous value to a hardcore wrestling fan as even amongst the tragedy of WCCW you get to relive their glory days even if you never got to be part of them in the first place. It's a bit telling that none of the matches on disc two dates later than 1986 though, and a bit disappointing that world title match between Kerry and Ric Flair wasn't included (even though I say that knowing it's probably in Flair's DVD set if I go look). I highly recommend "The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling" - it's a bit painful at times but given the tragedies of wrestling in the last 5 years it's not something we're not all too familiar with as fans of the sport, and when you take the good with the bad in this set it's a fascinating, compelling set of stories and matches you'll want to watch again and again.