Going Broadway 04.10.12 Shooting Star: The Career of David Von Erich

It all began with a gentleman named Jack Adkisson, an ex football star who had brief stints in both the NFL and the CFL. When he came into meeting Stu Hart after his days of Canadian football were over, he was offered an opportunity to use his physical prowess to become a professional wrestler for Hart’s Klondike Wrestling promotion. Hart saw opportunity with Adkisson in a way that would come to define not only the burly Texan but also the entire wrestling business over the next forty years.

As wrestling often finds it’s heels cast from the mold of real life villains, Hart renamed Adkisson “Fritz Von Erich” and paired him with another wrestler he named “Waldo Von Erich.” Not even ten years removed from World War II, having these two Von Erichs cast as pseudo Nazi characters drew instant heat from the Edmonton crowds.

Von Erich became instantly popular in the territories as a worker, stretching down into Missouri and other areas of the south, but had bigger aspirations in the form of running a promotion himself. While in Missouri he became close with Sam Muchnick who was the then president of the NWA, which allowed him to gain the support he needed to bring his aspirations to reality in his home state of Texas. Through his work booking cards for Muchnick, Von Erich began a partnership with Ed McLemore, which would lead to Von Erich acquiring the majority share of a promotion called Big Time Wrestling.

It would be with Big Time Wrestling (later renamed World Class Championship Wrestling) that Von Erich would not only further carve out his own legacy but a legendary family legacy. Where Stu Hart had staked Calgary as the home for himself and his wrestling family, Von Erich had done the same with Dallas, as he would father five sons who each would pursue careers in the wild, exciting, and tragic world of professional wrestling.

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Based purely on name recognition alone, Kerry Von Erich, the third oldest of Fritz’s children, was the most popular of the Von Erics based upon the national attention he received as the Texas Tornado in the WWF circa 1990. He blazed into the McMahon promotion and bested Mr. Perfect at Summerslam that year to win the Intercontinental Championship. But despite Kerry’s skill set and success, it was one of his older brothers who was the complete package of wrestling talent, charisma and self-drive which would make him an instantly emerging talent in the NWA. This is David Von Eric’s story.

Born July 22, 1958, David was the second oldest of the Von Eric wrestling brothers. With a distinct size advantage (he maxed out at 6’7″), he was an instant athlete in multiple sports and made it to North Texas State University based on those merits.

From an early age, David had a knack for success and made his own fortune outside of the family name while raising and selling show horses. But the lure of the wrestling ring finally pulled David into the fold, and he began his training in 1977.

You know you’re destined for big things in the wrestling business when within your first year you’re working a match against the NWA World Champion, Harley Race, and you go Broadway after 30 minutes. Like his father, David made the rounds in the Missouri territory, garnering loads of attention from promoters and fans through the popular “Iron Claw” finisher his father and brothers would use.

Billed “The Yellow Rose of Texas” because he would bring a yellow rose to the ring and throw it to the crowd before his match would begin, David was an instant fan favorite. But again, David was more concerned about making his own way in wrestling despite the legacy of the family name. He moved out to Florida and began working the wrestling territory under the guidance and tutelage of Dory Funk Jr.

During this time, David would switch direction and work as a heel as he would team with the Funk brothers on occasion against workers such as Barry Windham and Butch Reed. But David’s stint would not be long lived, and he would be back in his home state by the summer of 1982.

One of the fruits, though, of his journey to Florida was meeting Jimmy Garvin, whom David quickly befriended and convinced to come to Texas with him once he rejoined WCCW. They would have a series of hard fought matches for the WCCW Texas Title throughout the next year.

The highlight of their feud came when the two battled with the stipulation that if David won, Garvin and his manager Sunshine would have to act as valets for David.

In the bigger scope of WCCW, this was right at the time when the popularity was soaring for Fritz Von Eric’s promotion, and venues such as the Dallas Sportitorium were selling out on a weekly basis. During an era where the WWF was beginning to spread to a strong national presence, WCCW was a burgeoning regional powerhouse in Texas, and things were only about to heat up.

Like his father, David was an incredibly savvy booker behind the scenes and saw the prospect of something special when he invited The Fabulous Freebirds to wrestle in WCCW. The buildup to the December 25, 1982 event that took place in Dallas had Kerry Von Erich falling just short of the grasp of Ric Flair’s NWA World Title, which was due to various nefarious means. In a precursor to the WWE’s Taboo Tuesday gimmick pay per view where the fans would vote on various aspects of the event, WCCW had a fan voting to determine who would be the special guest referee of the Flair-Von Erich steel cage match for the NWA World Championship.

Enter Michael P.S. Hayes and Terry Gordy. With Hayes operating as the voted ref in the ring, Gordy kept a watch outside the ring for any shenanigans that might ensue. The deck was stacked against Flair with The Freebirds being decided fan favorites. Kerry was poised to finally win the belt. But when Hayes deliberately attacked Flair, giving Kerry a clear chance to win the bout, Kerry refused to pin Flair, showing the Von Erich honor before victory. The Freebirds, insulted by this refusal, attacked Kerry which eventually led to the match being stopped.

The Dallas crowd went into a frenzy, and for next ten years, wrestling’s version of the Hatfields and the McCoys were at war. David found himself regularly tagging with his brothers Kerry and Kevin to face The Freebirds in six man tag team action, while also competing in singles action against Gordy from time to time.

But if the battles with Garvin and The Freebirds weren’t enough, David soon found himself the next challenger for Flair’s NWA Title. In fact, he took Flair’s NWA Missouri Championship off of The Nature Boy in September of 1983. David’s immense popularity put him in the forefront of the NWA, and the momentum was building immediately.

On December of 1983, David gallantly challenged Flair for the NWA Title, but because of a Flair disqualification, the title did not change hands. Less than a week later, Flair cut a promo demeaning The Yellow Rose of Texas and even put younger brother Mike Von Erich in the spotlight when he boasted he could pin the younger Von Erich in one minute with one arm tied behind his back.

David answered the promo, sticking up for his brother and putting forth a challenge that if Flair could pin Mike in less than ten minutes, David could never again challenge for the NWA Title. But if Mike outlasted the ten minute time limit, Flair would have to grant David a rematch for the title. Sure enough, Mike kept his shoulders off the mat for ten minutes, and an eventual rematch was on. But because of a previous commitment to a tour in Japan, David would have to wait for his opportunity to challenge Flair until sometime around April of 1984.

On February 10, 1984, David Von Erich was found dead in his Tokyo hotel room. He was 25 years old.

Autopsy results found the cause of death to be a stroke (other sources say heart attack) that stemmed from a condition known as Acute Enteritis, which is an inflammation of the intestines causing the protective lining that allows water to enter the body to dissolve. Without that lining, the body cannot store water and begins to dehydrate, which invariably leads to heart issues.

(To see an amazing timeline of articles that chronicle this tragedy click here)

Kevin Von Erich was quoted in the Dallas Times Herald on February 11, 1984 as saying that “(David) had just finished a match and went immediately to his hotel. He didn’t feel well in the limousine and just went upstairs to his room. The heat under those lights in the Japanese arenas is unbearable. David is the kind that gives 100 percent. And if that’s not enough, he gives more. Knowing David, he probably overexerted himself. He’s that way. He just keeps giving.”

Contradictory reports exist on the cause of death, however. While members of the Von Erich family claimed that David had been suffering from abdominal pains for weeks leading up to the Japanese tour (therefore corroborating the Enteritis theory), Flair in his book To Be The Man… pointed to a drug overdose as the cause of death, claiming Bruiser Brody flushed the supply of drugs in the hotel room down the toilet before the police could arrive. Nevertheless, the wrestling world was stunned at David’s passing.

The funeral that took place on February 15 in Denton, Texas garnered the attention of well over 2,000 mourners, including Flair and other fellow wrestlers. Many more lined the streets of the procession as the burial then took place afterward in Dallas. “Rasslin’ ain’t never gonna be the same again,” one of the mourners prophetically stated as the ceremony concluded.

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Wrestling has lived and died, for better or worse, by the credo of “the show must go on” over the years when dealing with tragedy. The immediate live events following the announcement of David Von Erich’s death were changed to allow other wrestlers to fill in for Kerry and Kevin. There was a ten-bell salute that ooh place at the February 13 show. A televised tribute show for David was broadcast on February 18.

Besides losing a beloved son of the profession, the NWA lost its potential face of the organization with David’s death. A rumor, which Flair supports in his book but the NWA has never acknowledged officially, is that David was primed and even voted on by the committee to take the belt from Flair and become the new NWA World Champion with a lengthy title run in his future.

In another stunning tribute to David, brother Kerry was put into his challenger slot to face Flair for the NWA Title at a show that took place at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. A crowd of over 45,000 watched Kerry walk to the ring in a blue entrance robe that was inscribed on the back “In Memory of David.” In a hard fought, emotional match, Kerry triumphed over Flair with a simple backside countered out of a hip toss.

The crowd went wild.

As wrestlers descended on the ring and celebrated with the new champion, Kerry held three items above his head: the “ten pounds of gold,” the Texas state flag, and most fittingly, a yellow rose in memory of his brother.

As beautiful a moment as it was forever cemented in the history of professional wrestling, the world title reign of Kerry Von Erich was short lived as he would drop the belt back to Flair three weeks later in Japan. The NWA committee of officials were not as sold on Kerry as they were on David due to Kerry’s well known substance abuse problems and frequent unreliability, which would sadly follow Kerry for the rest of his career.

In the time following David’s death, WCCW began a slow decline as first it would split with the NWA in 1986 and rename itself World Class Wrestling Association. The Von Erich-Freebirds feud would continue, of course, but with many unsuccessful and convoluted twists. With the pressure of trying to become a national promotion and compete with the WWF, Fritz Von Erich and fellow owner Ken Mantell sold the promotion to Tennessee’s Jerry Jarrett, who was already the owner of CWA based out of Memphis, in 1989. The combined promotions would later be renamed USWA, but ultimately would be out of Dallas by 1990. Despite numerous attempts in the following years, WCCW would not promote shows consistently in Texas again.

The passing of David would sadly not be the only death the family and father Fritz would have to contend with other the years. (In actuality, he had already lost his first son, Jack Jr., in a tragic electrocution accident in 1958.) Three of his sons would commit suicide over the next ten years after David’s death (Mike in 1987, Chris in 1991, and Kerry in 1993). Fritz, himself, would pass away in 1997 from advanced lung cancer.

The legacy of the family is carried on by remaining brother and son, Kevin, who was featured prominently in the DVD release Heroes of World Class Championship Wrestling where he famously takes one last walk through the condemned Dallas Sportatorium before it’s demolishing in 2003. He proudly accepted the family’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009 with Michael Hayes serving as their inductor. (His sons Ross and Marshall along with Kerry’s daughter Lacey have both made appearances in professional wrestling as well.)

How well known and lauded David Von Erich is in the national wrestling scene depends a lot on where you’re from and what era of wrestling you grew up watching. In the state of Texas, he was a regional icon and poised to explode on the national scene during the 1980’s. How far he would have gone, how high his stock would have grown we will never know. We don’t need to make conjectures like he would have saved the NWA and been a rival of Hogan as WWF champion. What we can say is what we’ve grown to say (albeit cliched) about the deaths of many wrestlers (including his brothers) over the years: he died way too young.

What we do have is an incredible, explosive two years of wrestling that made World Class Championship Wrestling as viable a promotion as any in the wrestling business.