World Class Championship Wrestling DVD

Vince135792003

I just got done watching it today. For those that don't know about it chronicles the history of WCCW, a Texas wrestling group owned and ran by Fritz Von Erich.

It would take too long to go into fully but his sons were the focal point of the whole promotion which for a period was a huge hit across many parts of America but especially Texas. The Von Erich sons were like rock stars with teenagers literally throwing themselves at them.

Tragically, only 1 of the the 6 brothers, Kevin is now alive today with the other 5 not making it passed 33. 3 of them Kerry (who wrestled as the Texas Tornado in the WWF), Mike and Chris committed suicide.

Steroid and other drug use was rampant too. Not only within the Von Erich family but with other wrestlers too. They didn't go into it much on the dvd but there's ream of people now deceased from that territory alone.

The horrible thing that comes across when watching the dvd is that it seems their father, Frtiz basically drove them to death. From the dvd, you could see he put tremendous pressure on them to live up to the Von Erich name that they couldn't bare it, when they in their mind, let the family down.

It seemed that Fritz cared more about his boys becoming "champions" at any cost over anything else. For example, there's a clip in the dvd where Mike is on the verge of death and they show a clip of Fritz at a press conference in the hospital talking about how his boy will be a "champion" again. It was sickening to watch.

Overall, even for people who never watched World Class (which I'm one of), I'd recommend this dvd. I think it does justice to probably the saddest story in wrestling.

Here's a clip from youtube with clips from the dvd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ic54j2sBZc

HorseRadish

Nice review Vince. Its on my wishlist along with the best of Raw set.

eggplantman

good clip

Fozzy

I haven't seen this, but from the reviews that I've read WWE really gloss over some of the things that happened in WCCW. Pretty much every review has said that the "Heroes of WCCW" DVD was better, which wasn't made by WWE

I've heard that they don't acknowledge that Fritz booked that heart attack angle, instead saying that the fans just assumed it. If it's true that that's on the DVD, then it's a load of bull****

I haven't seen either documentary though, but I'd be more inclined to pick up the non-WWE one from what I've read

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote: »

I've heard that they don't acknowledge that Fritz booked that heart attack angle, instead saying that the fans just assumed it. If it's true that that's on the DVD, then it's a load of bull****

I haven't seen either documentary though, but I'd be more inclined to pick up the non-WWE one from what I've read

I have watched both. I think both go hand in hand. I don't think its a case of buying one over the other.

People talk bull in both. For example in both, they never go into the fact that David basically died because of drugs (according to many sources). I think it was a case in both dvd's of people telling the same lie for so long that they now believe it because back then it would have had a major impact of the Japanese scene if word of a drug related death had gotten out.

Kevin doesn't acknowledge the heart attack angle but others more a less do saying how tasteless it was after everything has gone on.

Just on Kevin, he looked like a guy that needed to believe in what he perceived was the truth after all that he's gone through.

Overall though, I think it's a dvd that even if you just watch clips of the actual family growing up and the territory itself, you appreciate what a big deal it was when it was at it's peak and what a really horrible, horrible tragedy it was too.

The Sparrow

The problem for me with the Heroes of World Class DVD was that it was very poorly made. It is poorly edited and the interviews are framed very badly. I was really looking forward to it but I have seen student films that have been better made. For that reason I couldn't get into it because I spent the whole time shaking my head at the sloppy camera work. But I work in television production so that may be unique to me.

But the World Class story is really interesting so I think I will pick up the WWE DVD which will no doubt have the usual high WWE production standards.