by Brandon Truitt

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I've got the chance to do a decent intro this week thanks to fortuitous scheduling... I LOVE doing off-site training for my job because I can log in and finish my weekly articles during the dead time and no one cares, unlike when I'm at my office.


Football-

The race to see who will meet up with Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl comes down to about three games this week: LSU-Georgia in the SEC title game, USC-Oregon State, and... Syracuse-Notre Dame?!? I guess it's just been a bad five years for both teams, formerly great programs, because that matchup having national title implications feels about as right as an SEC title game between Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, a Big 12 title game between Kansas and Baylor, or Duke winning an ACC title in football.

For those wondering why that game has such an impact on the Sugar Bowl, it's due to the strength of schedule between LSU and USC being very close due to LSU's impending game with Georgia, who's in the top 5 of the regular polls and the top 10 of the BCS. The BCS ratings of LSU and USC would be about dead even if they both win on Saturday, so every possible variable becomes more important, including Georgia's position in the BCS (LSU's quality win bonus should Georgia finish in the BCS top 10) and the quality of the teams that LSU and USC have faced. The biggest game left involving teams either have played is Notre Dame vs. Syracuse since several of the games that could have helped out LSU, such as Florida-Florida State, Rice-Louisiana Tech, and Hawaii-Alabama, didn't turn out well for them.

If you don't think this game could be a big factor, keep in mind that a turnover by Southern Miss in the Southern Miss-TCU game in 2000, which resulted in a game-winning touchdown by TCU, was enough to put Nebraska into the national title game to get trounced by Miami over an Oregon team that settled for whipping the shit out of Colorado in a consolation bowl and who whipped Michigan early this season, making me immediate fans of theirs because I haven't like Michigan since that abortion of a Rose Bowl game in the 1997-1998 season.

The background on that game was that ABC, who broadcasts Big Ten games throughout the season as well as the Rose Bowl, was blatantly pushing for Michigan to be the first Big Ten team to win a national champion in quite a few years, going as far as putting Bob Griese, father of Michigan QB Brian Griese, on commentary duty. Things didn't help when ABC had their announcers screaming "MICHIGAN HAS WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!" after the game considering that Nebraska, the other top team in the land, had yet to play and the Michigan-Washington State game ended on a weird note. Specifically, Washington State's superbrat QB, Ryan Leif, spiked the ball because he thought that he'd be able to stop the clock and run one more play. The problem was that the scoreboard clock showed one more second than the official's clock, meaning that the game was over on the spiked ball. Personally, I feel that was bullshit because that's the only time I've ever seen that particular problem occur. Every other time the scoreboard had the wrong time, the referees stopped the game until the clock was corrected instead of saying "Whoops, the scoreboard was wrong, so Michigan wins the national title". The coaches who voted in the final Top 25 that year probably felt the same way, as they awarded their votes to Nebraska and gave football what will probably be the last split national title for quite a few years.


Wrestling-

Larry Latham, formerly Moondog Spot as well as a member of the Blonde Bombers with the Honkytonk Man and OVW owner/trainer Danny Davis, died during a Memphis show Saturday night. Latham had an apparent heart attack during a Concession Stand Brawl match and was rushed to the hospital but died without regaining consciousness. I'd like to send my condolences to Latham's family for their loss.


I have no clue what next week's shoot will be. If the Vince Russo one shows up, that'll be it. Otherwise, it'll be whatever I dig out of the box o' shoots, which may be the Rock and Roll Express, Shawn Michaels, Dutch Mantel, Jerry Lawler, or almost anything.


As always, you can feel free to Drop me an e-mail, read the archives, buy me stuff, or buy yourself stuff at Highspots.com.

Kevin Von Erich Shoot Interview (8-22-2003)

Why this interview took so long to set up- He wanted to melt away after he left wrestling. He just wanted out period once it stopped being fun.

Memories of growing up and watching his father, Fritz Von Erich, wrestle- He always saw his father as right even though he was always the heel. Unlike the other heels back then, nobody in the crowd talked trash much when Fritz came out of the heel locker room because they were too scared of him.

The death of his brother Jackie Von Erich- Jackie got electrocuted and drowned while the family was living in New York in 1959. Fritz wanted to die at the time and figured who better to kill him than wrestlers, since it was seen as a shoot by the public at the time. When he got out in the ring, he’d be as ferocious as possible because he that someone would end up trying to kill him. The fans would see his intensity in the ring and believe everything that was going on, so it ended up making him a huge star.

Early memories of NWA conventions- He remembers his father taking him and his brothers to several conventions when he was about ten. They were held in Las Vegas, which wasn’t as family-friendly at the time. As a result, one of the first memories that pops into his head is losing his virginity there at age twelve. He can’t imagine his own fourteen year-old son doing something like that.

Did he always want to be a wrestle? No, he wanted to be a football player. He was always doing something to further that aim, such as training year-round. David Von Erich was into basketball and was a two-time All American at it. Kerry Von Erich was just interested in athletics in general, but his biggest success was in the discus throw where he held the world’s record in the AAU for a thrower under age 19. Supposedly, that throw was good enough to qualify Kerry for the Olympics but that was 1980 and Jimmy Carter’s boycott of the Moscow Olympiad killed that. It pissed off the whole family because they felt strongly that Kerry have won a silver medal if the US had competed in the games.

Why did he quit football? He’d been a fullback but, when he was recovering a kickoff, he took a nasty hit from a tackler that blew out the ACL in one of his knee. He was determined to come back as soon as possible but came back TOO soon and screwed up his other knee because he was putting all of his weight on it. After that, he quit football because he couldn’t play like he used to due to the two knee braces he had to wear. This was during his freshman year of college and it depressed him because he’d always wanted to play in the NFL but the Green Bay Packers, who’d shown interest in him due to his times on the shuttle run drill, didn’t want him after he blew out both knees. He went to wrestling because you can compensate for bad knees, unlike football where every play involves the knees, although he ended up with another five knee operations during his wrestling career.

His father’s reaction to his interest in the business- Fritz liked it because he got an instant reaction from the girls whenever he’d wrestle. He never really played into that, although Kerry would do things such as shake his butt at the girls during the matches in order to get reactions out of them.

His initial training- Jose Lothario trained him. Jose’s got a great mind for the business. Others that helped him out included midgets like Lord Littlebrook as well as Mil Mascaras. The Mexican wrestlers taught him a lot of aerial stuff, although he also gives a lot of credit to Jimmy Snuka for it.

Why he didn’t wear boots in the ring- Everyone, including Snuka, thought it was because he was a huge Snuka mark. Actually, it was because he’d forgotten his boots one night and just never wore them again.

His start in the business- He went from Dallas to Hawaii, where he worked for Lars Anderson’s promotion until it went under. Business was never particularly good there, as they’d draw about 50 people to a show. “It was just not good wrestling.”

His first wrestling match- He wrestled Playboy Buddy Rose in Fort Worth for his first match. He talks about how the roar of the crowd made him feel like he could do anything and believes in the Vince Lombardi saying “Lots of good things happen when opportunity meets preparation”, as the whole family was always prepared. They were lucky that they were prepared when the opportunity presented itself.

Fritz’s retirement show in 1982- He remembers how he and Great Kabuki both wanted to put on a hard-hitting, action-filled match instead of the “old man’s wrestling”, where you’d work a hold for a long time. It worked out for the territory because Fritz was beginning to bring in a bunch of young guys who liked that style. He’d shoot his knees up with pain-killers then go out and have a match because he always wanted to be at his best. He says that the best thing to do if you’re injured is to take some pain pills then work out the affected area before the match because, otherwise, you’ll be working hurt. (I can see his point, but I’m of the school of thought that says pain is there for a REASON… it tells you that something is fucked up and that you need to work around it instead of making it worse.)

Drugs in wrestling- They’re a necessity, especially painkillers.

Did he really believe that Fritz would retire after his retirement match? “I believed he’d retire a few times but he just retired the once.”

David and Kerry getting into the business- David was both a basketball player and a football player until one day when he took a REALLY hard hit during football practice that made him decided to concentrate on basketball instead.

Great Kabuki- Kabuki insisted on wrestling him and Kevin insisted on giving him a rough time because he didn’t think Kabuki was ready because of how his body looked. During the match, Kabuki turned his back on him, which is ALWAYS a no-no but, when Kevin attempted to blindside him, Kabuki kicked him with blinding speed and broke his cheek and nose. He had a new respect for him after that and made sure to get on the mic and challenge him to a match the next week. That was one of the first programs that started drawing big in the territory and it started bringing in a young crowd to watch the matches.

Memories of working in Georgia- That’s where he spent a lot of time with Jimmy Snuka and met Terry Gordy. That was right after he’d been in Hawaii, where he’d felt stranded because you could only go so far in any direction before you were up against the Pacific Ocean. When he came into Georgia, the playbook there usually involved a young cute babyface against a giant, ugly heel so they threw him into a match with Gordy. It amazed him that Gordy was tall and weight over 300 pounds but was only a year younger than him at the time (Kevin thinks he was 17 and Gordy was 16 at the time). Gordy was a great guy. He met Gordy’s son the other day and says he looks just like his father.

Politics- There was a LOT of that in Georgia at the time and was his first real experience with it. He doesn’t say who was in on the politics but says that George Scott was running the territory at the time and not Ole Anderson.

Bill Watts- Good guy on the inside, even though he always came off as a blowhard. Watts and Fritz used to work together although, by the end of Watts’ run as a promoter, he was competing directly against World Class and insisting that he was going to put Fritz out of business if it was the last thing he ever did. Kevin notes that Watts went out of business years before Fritz did.

The Freebirds-Von Erichs feud- He remembers Michael Hayes being the referee for the Kerry vs. Ric Flair cage match for the NWA title then, after Kerry refused to take the win, Terry Gordy running out in a Santa suit and slamming Kerry’s head in the cage door. The people LOVED that feud because everyone involved put a lot of effort into it. He didn’t see it becoming the big draw that it became, though.

Did fame get to him at a young age? Yes, it did a bit. The only jobs he’d ever had at that point were wrestling and cutting and cleaning catfish, so he didn’t really have much to compare it to.

The Thanksgiving night show in 1983 against Terry Gordy- The main things he remembers deal with Buddy Roberts losing a hair match that night, as many of the faces forcibly held Buddy down while Iceman Parsons covered Buddy’s scalp in Nair instead of using scissors or a razor.

How did Mike Von Erich get into the business? He never wanted to be in the business, as he was more into playing the guitar and getting laid. The problem was that the people really wanted to see him get into wrestling, especially since David had just died. He stepped up to the role and did fine for a while, although he still died at age 23. He feels that Chris Von Erich is the big tragedy story of his family.

Chris- Chris had asthma and had to take a kind of steroid that made his bones brittle. He just couldn’t make it in the business because his body wasn’t suited for it.

The first David Von Erich Parade of Champions show- He was really worried about Fritz that day since he was older and it was a daytime show under the hot Texas sun. During the match, Terry Gordy went to ringside and tossed a chair into the ring. When Kevin saw it was heading straight for Fritz, he made a flying leap to deflect it before it blindsided his dad. As soon as he deflected it, Fritz turned around and told him to get up, not realizing how close he’d come to getting his brains scrambled.

The schedule when things started getting big- That’s around the time wrestling stopped being fun for him. He, Kerry, and David had been wrestling for years then, headlining shows in separate towns each night. When David died, he and Kerry started trading off who would have to be in the main even of the third town each night. Once Kerry had his motorcycle accident “which took his foot off” and Mike wasn’t drawing, Kevin got stuck headlining all three towns until they could think of a better way to handle it.

Who was in charge at that time- They brought people in who they hoped could help, but none of them panned out. Jerry Jarrett, Eric Embry, Ken Mantell, and others booked for a while but something bad always happened.

Bruiser Brody in the territory- Brody was very tight with Fritz and like a brother to all of them. It was very sad when Brody got killed in Puerto Rico.

Wrestling Harley Race for the NWA title- Harley does NOT lose a fight and you can tell who’s lost one to him because they’ve got a huge thumbnail scratch near their eye. The problem is that some people want to wrestle like it’s a shoot and others don’t like to take an ass-whipping if they don’t need to. He’s heard that’s what happened in Puerto Rico, as Brody had whipped Invader’s ass in the ring several times before the fatal meeting in the shower where Invader stabbed Brody. He’s heard that Brody had actually gone into the shower to kick Invader’s ass again.

Was David really promised the NWA title from Harley Race before Jim Crockett had it changed to Ric Flair regaining the belt from Race at Starrcade 1983? The whole thing was political. David spent too much time trying to get all the guys like Dusty Rhodes, the Brisco brothers, etc. to like him, but they were out of the loop by being in Texas and, as a result, never really knew where they stood with those guys.

David and Flair’s NWA title match- They manipulated the crowd well that night because of Flair’s skill as a worker.

Him and Kerry beating Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams in a hair match at a Texas Stadium show- He always loved the outdoor shows like that and, while he and Kerry were shaving Chris and Gino’s heads, it occurred to him that they were having too much fun while they were out there in front of a crowd of 40,000 people.

Why did the Freebirds originally leave the territory? There was a loser-leaves-town match then the group broke up for a while.

The business today- He’s pissed that he’s been a part of the business for so many years but, since Vince McMahon owns it all now, he’s being excluded. He explains this further by saying that they had held a show at Reunion Arena in Dallas in 1999 and had invited him but later kicked him out of the locker room.

What he did after he quit wrestling- He moved down to Costa Rica for a while, living in a shotgun house and sleeping in a hammock while hoping that the business would just fade from his memory. He just wanted to disappear from the public eye and thinks that his refusal to walk out and speak to the crowd at that Reunion Arena show is what got him kicked out. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do it as much as it would be too painful to do it, as he has a lot of bad memories of the business.

Kerry beating Ric Flair for the NWA title- He couldn’t believe that they even won the title since they were not in tight with the people in Mid-Atlantic, so he knew when Kerry won it that it wasn’t going to be a long reign. He held no ill will towards Kerry for winning it instead of him because his one goal in the business was to make money and didn’t care about titles.

Chris Adams- He thinks that their match at the Thanksgiving show in 1984 ended so quickly because he’d broken a wooden chair over Chris’s head and a large splinter had become lodged in the side of Chris’s nose, dangerously close to his eye.

Mike’s car wreck- In 1985, he was about to wrestle King Kong Bundy when Fritz called Kerry and told him that Mike had been in a car wreck. Fritz gave word that Kevin was supposed to go out and have his match despite this because they didn’t think Mike survive the trip to the hospital. He ran out to the ring, hit Bundy with a few clotheslines and so forth, then rolled him up with a small package for the win because he wanted to get out of there ASAP and go see Mike. When he and Kerry got to the hospital, they bowled over several cops in order to make it to the three operating rooms. In the first one, there was blood all over the place and a dead black kid on the table. The second one was empty. In the third one, they saw Mike with a slight bump on his head. Once they talked to him, they found out that there had been some garbled communication and they thought that the dead black kid was Mike. Kevin was so out of it on the way home that he wasn’t paying attention and drove nearly 200 miles to Abilene before he realized that he was going in the wrong direction. The next day, he had a stress-related seizure. That was around the time when the pressure was really getting to him.

Out of his brothers, who was the most passionate about the business? David by far. He remembers one tour to Japan with David where David got drunk off his ass with the other guys then came back to their room and started puking out the window. He took a picture of it and subtitled it “David having a drink with the boys.”

Gino Hernandez- He bitched a lot but could only kick the ass of one person in the business… Ox Baker. Because of that, Gino would always find an excuse to kick Ox’s ass whenever he ran across him. He also remembers one show where Gino made an open challenge to the crowd and a huge cowboy answered it. Gino’s plan was to kick the guy in the head while he was coming through the ropes but didn’t land it in the right part of the head because all it did was piss the guy off. Gino then went to the all-purpose Plan B… running to the back and cowering in the locker room. He then stuck with Killer Brooks for the rest of the night and, when the cowboy ran into them at the hotel, Brooks knocked the guy out then Gino started kicking the shit out of him while he was down.

How did he find out that Gino had died of an OD? He was on the bus in Japan when he got the word. It was a blow to realize that he’d never see him again. He also brings up the interesting fact that the autopsy discovered cocaine in Gino’s STOMACH… which is not exactly one of the ways that MOST people take their coke. He doesn’t have enough facts to support previous accusations that Gino was murdered but says that the cocaine found in his stomach sure was suspicious. It’s mentioned that he may have been in serious debt at the time to the wrong kind people.

Black Bart- The time they wrestled in the Cotton Bowl, sleet started raining from the sky. Kevin thinks the attendance was seriously down for that show because all the Von Erich family tragedies were killing off the fanbase, as they were associating the business with sad things happening and they didn’t want to pay money to be sad.

Where was he when he heard David died in Japan? He was asleep until David’s wife called him up crying. When he heard that, the first thing he asked her was if David had died, and she said yes. Kevin goes on to say that David had diarrhea for several months and they convinced him to see a doctor about it. That didn’t turn out well because the doctor tried to get the young David down for some “invasive procedures”, as Kevin puts it. David figured out what was going on and threatened to destroy the entire office, at which point the doctor got him out of the office ASAP and didn’t bother to check for the cause of the diarrhea. They later discovered that the diarrhea was due to a weakened spot in his intestinal lining, which later burst and filled his system with poisons. While he’s heard people say that David died of an overdose, it is COMPLETELY wrong and you can ask anyone who was on that tour in Japan about it.

Who from the World Class territory is now dead? Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, David, Kerry, Mike, Chris, Jeep Swenson (Bane in Batman And Robin, one of the guys in the Uncensored 1996 8 on 2 cage match), Brusier Brody, Buzz Sawyer, etc.


Ribs-

Ralph Pulley was a prettyboy and people thought he may be gay, so they set him up with one of the girls who was really into him and had her french-kiss him hard. He was “visibly shaken” afterwards, so they kept fucking with him after that until he finally puked.

A local guy who ran a bail bonds business found out the hard way about why you didn’t screw around with a wrestling bear. The bear is trained so that it will play around, have its match, then drink two cokes and eat a peppermint and get back in its cage. It’s also a common rule that you don’t slap the bear because it’ll get REALLY pissed. The local guy waited until after the bear had wrestled someone else and was on its second coke to come out, challenge it, and slapped it. The bear then slapped him back so hard he flew from the ring into the crowd then it started chasing after him because it was still pissed off. The wrestlers and the bear’s trainer finally get the bear down and chain it to a toilet in the dressing room but the dressing room was by the exit and, when they guy tried to go to his car, the bear smelled him and proceeded to rip the toilet out and chase the guy again.


Ultimate Warrior- Very muscular, very good guy. He tended to be very quiet.

Bam Bam Bigelow- Powerful guy, good guy.

Rick Rude- It’s an appropriate name for the guy because he certainly said a lot of funny stuff that was rude. One example was a show where someone yelled out “Break his arm, Kevin” during a Kevin-Rude match and Rude yelled back at the guy “I’ve got veins in my *bleep* bigger than you!” (Kevin put in the bleep, although I figure there's a 90% shot that the the word used was probably “cock”.)

Nord the Barbarian- Great athlete.

What was done to save the promotion when the crowds started dwindling?

Lance Von Erich- It was a dumb idea and the only person who thought it would work was Fritz. He looked good but wasn’t too agile and didn’t have the Von Erich tenacity. One example of how he didn’t handle things in the Von Erich way was when he went on a tour to Japan and, after they broke his hand the first night, he disappeared to Hawaii instead of showing up the next night and beating the guy’s ass in the ring. It pissed Kevin off to no end because he got called out of a hospital bed (he had several concussions at that time) to go to Japan to finish up Lance’s Japan tour before starting his own a few weeks later. When he’d gotten the call, the doctor had told Fritz that Kevin could die if he went over there but Fritz was insistent that there wouldn’t be any problems. Kevin agreed to go only if they limited the kicks to the head and so forth that could give him another concussion. The problem was that all the wrestlers in Japan wanted to do was to kick him in the head so they did it anyway. Another thing Lance did to piss people off was that he started having an affair with an Israeli girl while they were on a tour in Israel. The problem was that the Israeli fans were rabid, so they knew he was married, and adultery is a HUGE no-no in Israel, so it was crap the company didn’t need at that time.

Japan- He liked the style but hated that that the bookers would always make him a heel, even though the fans were cheering for him. He thinks the bookers were stuck in the World War II mindset of the Japanese vs. the Gaijin and that the Gaijin would always be a heel to them.

Antonio Inoki- Got along with him great.

His reputation for being stiff- The interviewer brings up the story about Terry Taylor getting stiffed by Kevin in the ring and then waiting for him in the locker room in order to kick the shit out of him, only to be surprised when Kevin came in and shook his hand. The only problem is that they can’t remember that it was Taylor who said it and speculate that it was Chris Adams instead. Kevin says that he has no clue about the incident but wouldn't respect a person like that who would attempt to ambush him in the locker room.

Kerry being arrested on the way back from his honeymoon for possession of drugs- He never got the whole story out of Kerry and the newspaper version is completely twisted, so he’ll remember what he can. He says that Kerry had some aspirin in his pocket which had melted, which explained some of the pills he was carrying, and that the police never admitted publicly that it was aspirin after they found that out.

Did any of his brothers talk about quitting the business? Only Mike, who mentioned that he didn’t think he could take being in the business. He feels that if Mike was pushed too hard to be involved in the business, it came from the fans instead of the family.

Did any of the other faces complain that he and his brothers were ahead of them? He’s heard it before but can’t think of any specific names. The main people who he remembers saying it said it in 1988 or so, well after the family’s big run.

The Penthouse article on the family- “It was just a bunch of crap snatched out of the air” that the magazine published in hopes of getting sued and selling more magazines due to the publicity. The thing that pissed him of the most was that the guy who wrote the article was related to St. Louis wrestling godhead Sam Mushnik. (BTW, the author was Vince McMahon’s #1 fan next to the PTC, Phil Mushnik.)

What happened when Mike almost died from Toxic Shock Syndrome? Mike pulled his shoulder out of the socked during a tour of Israel and was flown back to Texas for surgery. His surgical scars became infected with a form of staph that’s usually contracted by women using tampons. (“Mrs. McCormick, your son died of Toxic Shock Syndrome caused by a tampon up his ass. He must have been imitating the Backstreet Boys or something.”[/South Park]) It’s a very intense form of staph which caused Mike’s temperature to reach 107 degrees and had to be put on life support because his organs started shutting down. Considering that most people die once they reach a 104 degree fever, they started testing him out in various ways once he recovered. Unfortunately, he had lost most of the coordination he’d had before and had trouble even standing up. His behavior also came very erratic and he started doing stuff like trying to smash in cars and street lights. When the cops arrested him for trying to smash a street light, they found half a joint on him and it was the beginning of the end because Mike couldn’t live with the fact that he’d publicly shamed the family by getting caught with drugs and took a handful of sleeping pills to commit suicide. He never thought that Mike would do something like that because he always seemed to be the most together of the family, although he thought Chris might do that. He never thought Kerry would do that either but drugs and a great deal of shame were involved. Kerry had actually called him up six hours before that and talked about how he was going to commit suicide, but Kevin thought he’d talked him out of it.

The charges Kerry was facing at the time of his death- Because of the attorney Kerry had, there was no way he was going to go to jail. However, Kerry couldn’t live with his name being dragged through the mud daily due to the charges. He thinks Kerry would have actually loved jail if he’d gone because he’d have been able to sleep, lift weights all day, and eat three meals.

Did he know how big Kerry’s drug problem was? No, he was never good at spotting it although his dad supposedly was. The only times he ever noticed anything wrong was when Kerry would do coke, as he’d get a certain wolf-like look in his eyes. Kerry wasn’t addicted to anything, though… he just loved doing all kinds of drugs. He feels that the reason he never spotted anything was that Kerry was doing so many different drugs that there would be different symptoms for each one.

Kerry’s foot- The doctors did somewhere between fifteen and twenty five hours of surgery to save his foot then Kerry just walked down the hall to get a cheeseburger and undid all that work, meaning they had to amputate it. That’s what got him seriously into painkillers.

Chris’s suicide- Chris had brittle bones due to his asthma and had always wanted to be a big, muscular guy like Kerry but it just wasn’t going to happen. He thinks that if Chris had gotten the strong-handed fathering from Fritz that he, David, and Kerry had gotten, his problems might not have gotten as far as they did.

How much were he and his brothers allowed to do on their own in the promotion? They were given a length of time that their match was supposed to last, such as twenty minutes, but the rest was all up to them. If Kevin decided he wanted to do a backflip off the turnbuckle, he could do it. Kerry came up with his discus punch because of that freedom.

His response to people who call Fritz a bully who pushed the family around? They had no clue what actually went on. A Sports Illustrated writer came down to talk to him a few years back and he thought that the guy really knew him until the article was published. He doesn’t know what his mom may or may not have said to the guy, though, as she had just divorced Fritz at that time. The claims that World Class was a money machine that Fritz used to exploit his children were wrong. Everyone always wants to paint Fritz as a bad guy but he did a lot of good things that no one ever discussed until well after his death, such as buying people wheelchairs and so forth. There was never any pressure on him to do anything in the ring.

Did his mom have any input into the business? No, she was completely insulated from it and her job was to just be a mom.

If he and his brothers had wanted to do anything besides wrestle, what would they have done it? Up until the early 80s, none of them were going to be wrestlers because Kevin wanted to be in the NFL, Kerry wanted to throw the discus in the Olympics, etc. He takes that back because David was 6’8” and huge once he started weight training and would mainly do wrestling when he wasn’t playing basketball.

The night he passed out in the ring and had to get CPR from Tommy Rogers- He doesn’t remember any of it, as it was shortly after Mike’s death. He was checked out afterwards but the doctors couldn’t find anything, so they said it was stress-related.

Pain pills- Don’t even try them or, if you do, be VERY careful about using them. You can get addicted VERY easily because the pills build up in your system and you start gaining a tolerance to them. He says that the only way you can take them is if you take one, work out, then don’t take anymore until you’re in extreme pain. (I’m staying out of this one because I only took two pain pills the whole time during my recovery from a knee injury… one the day I got scoped and one months later when I was in a lot of pain.)

Drugs- If you see someone doing drugs, you won’t see them for twenty or thirty more years because junkies don’t last. He backtracks to explain his earlier painkiller use on his knees, as he would get novocaine in his knees so he could put on the best match possible but he would limit the use of pain pills after that.

Brian Adidas- Good guy, one of Kerry’s friends.

Bill Watts signing a bunch of the World Class guys- He hasn’t seen Bill Watts in forever, although he remembers Bill’s wife as a sweet woman and says that Bill’s announcer son, Joel, is now working in LA.

Memories of Fritz’s fake heart attack- Iceman was supposed to hit Fritz in the ribs and he’d go down, but the fans started saying “Fritz had a heart attack! Fritz had a heart attack!” and it just went from there. None of them wanted Fritz to have a “heart attack” because that meant the people would perceive him as weak at a time when the family was just coming off of Mike’s death. He’s very critical of Dave Meltzer for some of his comments about the angle and says that he doesn’t know why he has it in for the Von Erichs and anyone who’s ever wrestled them. (I’d say it’s a combination of stories he’s heard from a LOT of people, including Jim Cornette and Ric Flair, about the Von Erichs and several other factors. The blatant commercialism after David’s death probably struck a nerve in him.)

Was there any pressure at all as a kid to live up to the Von Erich name? Yes, because he was a target for ass-whuppings because people saw him on TV as the son of the hated heel Fritz. It did teach him how to take an ass-whupping and that the pain from taking a punch in the face isn’t that bad after a few seconds.

Kerry and the WWF- The only thing he ever disagreed with Kerry about was Kerry leaving for the WWF at a time when World Class needed the two of them as a tag team to build new talent. He does give Vince McMahon credit for treating Kerry right, though.

Kerry’s foot- Kerry hid his prosthesis VERY well, as very few people knew about it.

Jerry Jarrett and World Class- Kerry liked Jerry Jarrett, although Kevin didn’t.

Jeff Jarrett- He feels that Jeff probably hates his guts because Kevin hates his dad so much.

Kerry’s motorcycle accident- Kerry was trying to pass a police car really fast as a bit of a game but the cop car made a turn in front of him. He had enough time to try and jump out of the way and almost made it, except he caught one of his feet on the rack of the car. He didn’t think Kerry would ever come back to the ring.

How did his foot affect him? Kerry would spend four hours in the gym each day, which is extreme determination combined with vanity. Just imagine how losing a body part affects someone like that. He figured that Kerry’s prosthetic foot would never become public knowledge.

Kerry’s return match against Brian Adidas- If he was on painkillers, then it was to numb up a joint such as an ankle, a knee, etc.

The family’s reaction to outsiders running shows in the territory- Fritz felt betrayed because people like Bill Watts were his friends.

Did the WWF or NWA ever try to recruit him after he retired from World Class? He never got much interest from the WWF, although the NWA offered him a contract. He thought long and hard about how much money he could make if he accepted it before turning it down because he knew the fans would see that his heart wasn’t into wrestling anymore. “We’re not even as good as migrant workers” when it comes to retirement and benefits, so you have to make a lot of money in the business not to end up wrestling well past your prime just to make ends meet.

Jimmy Garvin and Precious- Jimmy’s one of the best guys in the business. He’s a pilot for United now and a union delegate. B. Brian Blair is another great guy in the business.

The Funks- They loved wrestling Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. but it didn’t draw well because the older crowd had quit coming to the matches and the younger crowd who had started coming wanted to see him and his brothers wrestle someone else young instead of the Funks. Kevin feels that someone should write a book about the whole Funk family or Terry in particular because he’s so colorful.

Steve and Shaun Simpson- Two good guys. Shaun married Kerry’s ex-wife.

Matt Borne- Tough SOB who loves to fight. Good friend of his. He remembers running a relay at a celebrity track meet against the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Cowboys, and so forth and Borne surprised him by being the fastest guy on the track.

Iceman Parsons- He’s business. He wishes he’d stayed babyface because the fans never wanted to see him turn. One of Kevin’s true friends.

Buzz Sawyer- They respected each other.

Missy Hyatt and John Tatum- Tatum was hilarious. Missy was funny too but he didn’t run into her as much.

Sunshine- He misses her and hasn’t seen her in years. He thinks she may be back living in Tampa.

Kamala- SUPER athlete and a great guy. Despite being about 350 pounds, he could “jump up in the air and touch his toes like a cheerleader.” They went on a wrestling tour in Beirut together before they were given an executive order from President Reagan to clear out and were held at gunpoint by Syrian and Lebanese soldiers for 18 hours.

Missing Link- He was crazy. You could tell that whenever you locked up with him in the ring.

Killer Khan- He’d never complain about anything in the ring, he’d just fight you back. Chris Adams, Rick Rude, and Matt Borne were also like that.

General Skandor Akbar- VERY intelligent guy who knows something about everything.

Girls in the territory- The best thing about it was that he didn’t know how wrong it was. “It was wrong to just eat all you can and take all you can get.” Getting married changed that though. One story from his bachelor days is when Tim Brooks and a ringrat were at one of the stadium shows at night and found a dark spot in the grass out of the light to do it in. They started going and, after a while, the girl started really moving hard and Brooks thought she was really into it… but it was because they were doing it near a bed of fire ants.

Locker room ribbing- “Best territory ever for ribs”, which is part of what he misses about the business. B. Brian Blair was a great ribber. One of the ribs they pulled was when Kerry was in the trunk to do a drive-by mooning and they decided to park the car in front of an Iron Skillet restaurant instead of where they were supposed to be. They honked the horn so that everyone would look out the window then Kerry popped open the trunk and mooned the whole crowd.

His daughter getting involved in boxing- It was a bad idea because his daughter had never even seen boxing on TV. It was part of a show for MD, which the family had always done fundraisers for. Before the match, he told her that, if she got in trouble, she was supposed to either get up or, if she couldn’t give up, to get behind the other woman and take her down but NOT to try and outbox a trained boxer. When the match happened, she ended up pulling out every cheap trick in the world to make it through the match because her opponent was a boxer for the Marines.

Does his son ever want to get into the business? He plays for Denton-Ryan, which is a 4A school that has won state titles in football the last few years. He’s a multi-talented kid, as he plays tailback, defensive back, punter, kickoff returner, etc. He only weighs 160 pounds but can bench 225, which is pretty damn good for a fifteen-year old.

Does he talk to World Class guys anymore? He talked to them the other day at the Wrestlefest convention.

If he could have one last match, who would it be against? Out of anyone in his career, his top picks would be Michael PS Hayes, Buddy Roberts, Kerry, Gino Hernandez, or Chris Adams.

Did he prefer working with the Freebirds or Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams? He liked working with them about the same, although he LOVED wrestling Terry Gordy one on one.

Wrestling Kerry- They actually did that once at a show in Abeline because the Freebirds had no-showed. They called up Fritz to ask what to do and he told them to wrestle each other or do whatever else it took not to give refunds to a sellout crowd.

The Freebirds- One night, he was heading past the heel locker room when he heard Terry Gordy yelling that he was going to kill Michael Hayes, then a sink, a toilet, and the rest of the heels came out the door in short order. It turns out that Gordy was drunk off his ass and was pissed that one of the territory’s flunkies hadn’t brought him more whiskey yet. He had to wrestle Gordy that night so, when they went out to the ring, they started chopping each other stiff and he backdropped Gordy to the floor. Gordy then started saying something like “Goddammit, Kevin, I like you…”

Favorite memories of the business- “That was probably it right there.”

Buddy Roberts- Kevin’s got all of the World Class matches on DVD, including one where he kicked Buddy in the mouth. He had marks left where the foot had impacted on Buddy’s teeth. After the match, one of the territory’s flunkies came up and said that Buddy had told him that he should probably get that looked at because he doesn’t like to brush his teeth. Kevin got the wound cleaned out by a doctor but it still swelled up the next day. The doctor said it almost looked like a snakebite.

Does he have anything to say to his fans? He appreciates how much they love them and he wishes that he could show his appreciation in some way, such as coming over for dinner, but that he can’t. He appreciates all the nice letters and e-mails that he’s received.


Thoughts- For the most part, this is a great look at both the Von Erich family and the World Class territory, which was red hot for several years before spiraling into mediocrity. However, there is a lingering feel that Kevin is hiding some of the irregular behavior of the family throughout the years or trying to justify it. Despite that, this is still a must-see if you’re into the wildest and hottest territory of the 80s. Very highly recommended.

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