World Class Championship Wrestling

Vince135792003

Theres a 3 hours documentary film on WCCW which a trailor can be viewed at: http://www.rightherepictures.com/ You can also purchase the dvd on the site.


The Von Erich/World Class story to me is one of the most unbeleivable and tragic stories in wrestling and if anyone has a spare minute watching the trailor is n't the worst way to spend it.

Heres a really really brief summary for anyone thats never heard of it taken from Wikipedia:

The promotion was known for its high production values, use of entrance music and the use of television syndication. The promotion was one of the most successful territories in the United States, with major draws like his sons, the Fabulous Freebirds, Christopher Adams (, Gino Hernandez and Rick Rude. By the end of the eighties, the promotion's talent pool was thin and it was eventually merged with Jerry Jarrett's Memphis promotion to create the United States Wrestling Association.

Within a 10-year span, four of the remaining five Adkisson sons died premature deaths:

* David died in 1984 under circumstances that are still debated today. His cause of death was officially listed as acute gastroenteritis, but many believe, despite considerable evidence supporting the official cause, that he actually died of a drug overdose. Ric Flair implies this in his autobiography To Be The Man, stating that Bruiser Brody destroyed evidence to this effect.
* Mike died of a self-inflicted drug overdose in 1987. He had apparently never completely recovered from a near-fatal bout with toxic shock syndrome, a condition very rarely seen in men, in 1985.
* Chris committed suicide in 1991.
* Kerry, the most successful in the ring, also committed suicide in 1993 after well-documented substance abuse problems.

Kevin is the only survivor of the Adkisson sons.

Fritz's wife Doris divorced him in 1992, and he died of brain and lung cancer on September 10, 1997 aged 68.


Theres plenty more on World Class all over the net, particuliarly on Wikipedia.

Fozzy

I'd definitely be interested in seeing this. Is it just a documentary about the story of WCCW, or does it have matches aswell? The Von Erichs were class. The booking seemed to be brilliant aswell

Kevin's sold WCCW's tape library to WWE now, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them do their own documentary on it

Vince135792003

I have n't got the dvd yet so I don't know exactly whats on it. The main feature is 3 hours long basically covering the rise of WCCW aswell as the Von Erich family so there probably is n't too much else on it.

I think its just good to look back and remeber. So much of that time is completely erased from history. It seems sometimes that WWE tries to portray that wrestling began when Hogan pinned the Iron Sheik in 1985. If things had worked out differently Kerry could have been the first mainstream wrestling star.

I think Kerry Von Erich v Ric Flair at the David Von Erich memorial show is on youtube. Its really worth a look at if only to see how insanely into it the crowd was.

Fozzy

Is that the match where both their titles are on the line? I saw that match before, and really enjoyed it. Kerry would've fitted in perfectly in today's scene

Vince135792003

The NWA title was on the line. Heres a link to it for youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I349g__m7w0&search=kerry%20von%20erich

If nothing else it gives you an idea of how big it was and how popular the Von Erichs were. The ending is really somthing to see aswell. The noise is off the scale.

Even as a kid I really liked Kerry Von Erich when he was with the WWF. He had everything that you needed in the 1980s. Phenomenal look, great charisma and when his head was into it he could go in the ring too.