Shining a Spotlight 1.25.07: Heroes of World Class

For the last several years, there’s been a nice rise in wrestling documentaries. The majority of them have come from WWE as the company has really taken advantage of the vast library at their feet. Sure, there are ones that will turn out biased like the “Monday Night War” and the McMahon disc. But lately, WWE has turned out some great sets that actually manage to give a balanced take on the subject, like Brian Pillman and the excellent AWA disc. I’d love to see them do something on the Mid-South/UWF area but since Bill Watts still owns that footage and is even more set in his ways than Vince, it’s unlikely which is too bad.

So their announced list of DVDs for this year look pretty good. There’s looks at wrestling families, the Four Horsemen disc I’ve been dying to see and updated ones on Mysterio, Cena and Austin. The one I’m looking forward to the most is the one on World Class Championship Wrestling. However, the latter is going to have some big shoes to fill as someone has already created an amazing disc on the Texas hotbed. And damn if it’s not awesome.

There have been several excellent non-WWE documentaries out there. Beyond the Mat and Wrestling With Shadows are top ones. Forever Hardcore can be seen as an equal companion to The Rise and Fall of ECW. There are also various “shoot interviews” and such that make the rounds. But Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and the Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling has to rank as one of the single greatest wrestling documentaries ever created.

Director Brian Harrison was a longtime fan of World Class living in Chicago and this disc ranks as a true labor of love. For four years, Harrison traveled back and forth from Chicago to Texas, burning through a half-dozen credit cards and money borrowed from family and friends. It was all worth it as the movie is truly stunning and deserves to be a hit. It was released in some areas earlier this year but Best Buy has a “director’s cut” with some added footage. Either way, you’re in for an amazing treat.

I can understand Harrison’s love for World Class. Back when I was getting into the sport in the mid-80’s, the Chicago area had lots of wrestling shows around and World Class was one of them. It was an interesting mix around my area as they’d show new stuff along with classic programming, giving a great look at the company. I also kept up with the Apter mags and their coverage of the promotion.

Harrison has managed to recapture that amazing part of the early to mid-‘80’s where World Class was arguably the hottest promotion around. He managed to catch a break in that he was wrapping up the movie when Kevin Adkisson (aka Von Erich) sold the WCCW tape library to WWE. Thus, Harrison is able to back up the documentary with classic footage.

Harrison also manages to get some great interviews with many of the participants of WCCW. Kevin is the most obvious but there’s also Gary Hart, Skandor Akbar (who actually looks better now than he did back then), referee David Manning, John Mantell (long-time wrestler and brother of booker Ken Mantell), ring announcer Mark Lowrance, commentator Bill Mercer and producer Mickey Grant. Also, there’s several clips from a 1999 video interview with Chris Adams talking about his time there. All of them share their own stories and thoughts on the company and those involved and mixed with the footage, you get a stunning take on the promotion.

We start off with a look at the Von Erichs and those who wonder how Fritz became such a hard ass may get an explanation with the statement on how Fritz’s dad was a sheriff into beating and hangings. He even dragged his young son into town to fight other 12 and 13-year olds in fights with adults betting on who’d win. Kevin is up front on how everyone in the family knew Fritz played favorites with Kevin second behind Kerry. He also says that Fritz was hardest on David as David reminded him a lot of himself.

Before 1981, the Texas promotion was known as known as Big Time Wrestling. There’s a nice bit early on talking about how the territory system used to work. Scott Keith may make a big deal in his new book over comparing WWE to the Mafia but Hart openly refers to the NWA as “the costa nostra.” There’s a lot of talk on the politics of the area, how the booker’s main task was making sure guys wanting to come in from other promotions had the okay to do it and they mention how whenever the NWA champion defended in a town, the champ would get 10% of the gate with an additional 3% going to the NWA.

There’s a great background on how the show came to be. Mickey Grant pitched a wrestling show to his local TV station. The bosses were skeptical but Grant won them over and got Fritz, owner and star of the promotion, to create a pilot. We actually get to see footage of that original show, something I didn’t think existed anymore. Grant and Mercer are interviewed sitting together throughout the disc and share a lot of stories on putting the show together, a true delight.

Everyone puts over how much Grant did for wrestling programming. Indeed, you can see that Grant truly innovated with things we take for granted today: on-apron and in-ring cameras, mikes to pick up more sound of the ring and the wrestlers, slo-mo instant replays and more. It was a huge break from wrestling programming at the time, a much more exciting show that soon attracted viewers. It was all the more remarkable given how their budget was around $5,000. In fact, they didn’t even have ring barriers, just a thin piece of rope to keep the crowds back. But as Mercer says, despite how wild the crowds could be, there weren’t any problems with crowd control. It strikes me how similar WCCW and ECW were, both with hot fanbases who helped revolutionize wrestling.

That comparison also pertains to the workers with Hart pointing out “if you want a fresh start, you can’t do it with guys who have been there a long time.” The obvious ones were of course David, Kevin and Kerry. There’s talk on how tough the Texas scene was and it attracted men who worked that way like Bruiser Brody (with Mercer talking about how Brody would be so into saving money, he’d carry a half-dozen cans of tuna with him anywhere he went for food). The issue of drugs is skimmed over a bit, Kevin saying that painkillers and the like were used often but he saw it less as addictions and more as guys who took so much pride in their work, they’d rather wrestle injured.

We get highlights of guys like Skandor Akbar and Devastation Inc and Iceman Parsons. There’s also a lot of attention to Chris Adams, who really took off with the fans, second in popularity only to the Von Erichs. Adams appears via video clips and he’s put over well by people as a good guy, which is pretty much the opposite of what I’ve heard of his reputation. They also show how each program would begin with Mercer (who was doing solo commentary for all shows long before Joey Styles) promoting the show’s main event, which was always a good one (such as Kerry, Adams and Parsons vs the Missing Link and the Super Destroyers).

Of course, the Fabulous Freebirds are a major highlight. We actually see the footage of the Kerry-Ric Flair cage match where Michael Hayes was voted by the fans as special referee. Hayes ended up punching out Flair and putting Kerry on him but Kerry refused to take the cheap pin. The two fought and Terry Gordy ended up slamming the cage door on Kerry’s head, igniting one of the greatest feuds in wrestling history. We get all sorts of great battles between them with promos and Mercer puts the Freebirds over as “there’s a thin line between fan love and hate and they walked it very well.”

So World Class was taking off big time, becoming not only the highest rated wrestling show in the state but actually beating most of the network fare of the time as well. Their syndicated deal was big too as they were on 85 stations in a total of 25 countries, numbers even WWF and NWA couldn’t quite reach. While most people think of World Class and Texas being synomonous, Hart reveals that other Texas promoters (like the Funks) didn’t like WCCW and wouldn’t deal with them. The fame of the workers grew big time as they couldn’t go anywhere without getting mobbed. There’s a priceless video clip where Hart is outside doing a promo, a guy in a truck stops near him to say hi and Hart yells back “I can’t talk now, I’m doing business!” and going back to the camera.

One guy I was happy to see highlighted was “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin, who I always thought was highly underrated as a heel. He’d come out in sequin jackets and furs, look at himself in the mirror, be tended to by his valet, Precious, and would always cheat to win and keep his American title. This slides nicely into another of Grant’s innovations, the vignettes and skits that he’d add to programming. Some would be fluff like Mercer accompanying the Von Erichs on a duck hunt. But one in particular was awesome, when David beat Garvin for the American title in 1983. Thanks to a pre-match stipulation, Garvin and Precious had to be David’s valets for a day. Thus we get one of the greatest vignettes ever as the prissy Garvin gets his comeuppance big-time by showing up at David’s ranch and being made to dig holes, carry around bales of hay, clean up a dingy barn and even wash David’s dog. David adds to it with stuff like firing a skeet shooting rifle over Garvin’s head to get him to do his work.

Garvin also figures into another classic angle where Adams challenges him for a title match. After going to a time-limit draw, Garvin says he’ll never put the title up against Adams again and began a series of non-title matches against handpicked challengers. We get to see Garvin fighting the Masked Avenger, who surprises him by showing some good wrestling skills. The Avenger nailed Garvin with a thrust kick, pinned him, then unmasked to reveal himself to be Adams, who demanded another shot since he’d beaten Garvin again.

This leads to a discussion on how WCCW would do “Star Wars” mega-shows on holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Mercer and Grant say their families weren’t happy working on the holidays but pointed out Fritz had a good idea, that fans would want to see some wrestling on Christmas night. He was proven right as the shows would bring in about 20,000 fans to the Reunion Arena. The DVD smartly uses the 1983 Thanksgiving “Star Wars” as an example of how amazing WCCW was with storylines. We get video recaps of what led to the major matches like David facing Kamala (or “Kimala” as he was known then); Adams challenging Garvin for the American title; Iceman Parsons getting hit with a fireball by Skandor Akbar and teaming with Brian Adidas to challenge the Super D’s for the tag titles (Parsons really reminds me of Booker T in an interview: “I’m not just out for the titles! Look at this face, sucka!”); and Kerry facing Hayes in a steel cage match.

Another highlight of that card was Mike von Erich making his wrestling debut, beating Akbar. There’s talk from the various participants who, while treading carefully, all pretty much admit Mike was never right for the business. He would have been happy with a behind the scenes role but Fritz insisted he take part in the family legacy, setting Mike on a path that would lead to destruction.

For newer fans, the footage of David reminds you of how he truly was the biggest star of the bunch. He was charismatic, a terrific worker and many thought it was only a matter of time before he won the NWA title. Obviously, his death in 1984 is a major part of the documentary as everyone talks over how they got the news and the shock it sent out. Manning offers a chilling story of how he went to Fritz’s house to tell him the news and when Fritz opened the door and saw Manning, he asked “Which one?” They skim over the drug stories, Manning saying it was a stomach ailment that could have been corrected except David didn’t take antibodies. It is nice that they don’t just show one opinion but mix some others together, even if they do seem to contradict each other.

In a dark irony, David’s last WCCW taping before his Japan trip was aired after his death with Mercer doing a last minute piece at the end to talk of his death. Mercer and Grant, still in a state of shock, worked for 40 hours to put together a tribute show to David. We get clips from it and it’s more affecting after the Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero shows with everyone, even foes, putting David over and saying how sad this was. For 1984 fans, it must have been quite jarring to see Garvin, Race, Flair and even Michael Hayes emotionally talking over how horrible they felt without David.

His death was the turning point for the whole promotion. They tried to bounce back with the “David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions,” highlighted by Kerry pinning Flair for the NWA title in a great match. But everyone admits that David was the bigger star, the one the fans loved the most and that his death was a blow World Class never really recovered from. Intriguing is a video Harrison puts in that shows David and Kevin together a lot, giving the idea that David thought Kevin, not Kerry, would be his likely successor. However, Fritz thought Kerry was a better fit, shifting the feelings among the family. During the video, Mantell says that as good as Kerry was, if David had lived to become champion, World Class would have taken off to WWF-equal heights.

WCCW did try to keep up. We get highlights of a program I had forgotten where Terry Gordy brought Killer Khan in from the Orient. However, Skandor Akbar signed up Khan and berated Gordy for being dumb to let it go. Hayes took exception and suddenly the Freebirds and Devastation Inc were at war. There’s great bits here like Gordy going apeshit in a promo, flopping shirtless on the ground. There’s also several bits where the Freebirds would hit the ring, toss out the Von Erichs and then attack Devastation Inc. The best is Hayes attacking Kevin during a match with Khan, tossing Kevin aside to get at Khan. Kevin runs in to throw Hayes back and attack Khan himself but Hayes does the same thing, leading to a fun little feud

We then move to Chris Adams’ heel turn, first hiring Gary Hart as his manager then superkicking Kevin when he attacked Hart. Adams was great as a heel but it was in 1985 that he really took off when he hooked up with Gino Hernandez. One of the greatest heels ever, “the Handsome Half-Breed” was doing the “arrogant womanizer” bit long before Rick Rude. While we don’t get to see their actual forming, Hernandez suggested to Adams they team up, Adams agreeing, not sure it’d work. In no time flat, the Dynamic Duo had done the impossible: Supplant both the Freebirds and Devastation Inc as the most hated heels in Texas. Holding the tag titles, attacking anyone, they exuded arrogance with a bit of class. Harrison does a great four-screen montage of them training, in the ring, doing promos and all ending with their catchphrase “We’re bad to the bone!”

The program focuses on Mike’s toxic shock syndrome battle as they made up the story he’d been attacked by Devastation Inc and had to take time off. The WCCW alumn talk a lot of Mike’s almost death and how it was clear he was not the same when he got out of the hospital. We see a press conference with him afterward and it’s shocking how close to death he truly seems. Even when he accepts Pro Wrestling Illustrated‘s Inspirational Wrestler of the Year award, you can see the vacantness in Mike’s eyes, that he doesn’t want to be part of this anymore but is still pushed back into it. To fill in for Mike, Fritz got mid-carder Lance Cricky and introduced him as his “nephew.” Lance never fit in and the rest of the family was completely against it but as Kevin says “Majority rules and Dad was the majority.”

From there, we go to how Adams and Hernandez would go around clipping opponent’s hair after matches. This leads to a hair vs hair match against the Von Erichs, which the Duo lost. Surprisingly, Harrison skips over the break-up between them where Hernandez “blinded” Adams. Instead, he jumps right to Gino’s death in early 1986, a big shock personally but also robbing WCCW of a prime performer and a certain money-making feud. While they admit how Gino loved the high life (even having a dish of cocaine in his apartment living room), Manning speculates that Gino’s death was foul play.

This soon leads to the big moment: World Class’ decision to break away from the NWA. Mantell actually says that NWA was scared of WCCW’s popularity and power. Ken Mantell basically wanted to take WCCW worldwide, feeling they had the international fanbase to really take off. They managed to get a deal with ESPN for classic World Class programs to give themselves more attention and despite the loss of David and Gino, they were still hot with ratings high in cities all over. But despite the heat they had all over the country and the encouragement of others, Fritz felt that “Dallas was big enough for my boys” and refused to tour. It’s ironic that while so many promoters made the mistakes of going to places where they weren’t over, Fritz had dozens of cities they could have sold out but felt it wasn’t necessary, that he didn’t want to “follow the TV.” This had an effect on the World Class talent base as guys like Rick Rude and Dingo Warrior went to WWF and others soon jumped ship too. While it’s not hugely covered on the disc, Bill Watts actually did the most talent raiding as Ken Mantell left to be a booker for the UWF. Adams (who had won the WCCW title but been stripped of it after being arrested for hitting an airline pilot) and Iceman Parsons were two of the biggest names, Parsons going heel in UWF and feuding with Adams.

Naturally, Kerry’s motorcycle accident couldn’t come at a worst time. They show how a doctor lies through his teeth on an interview that they managed to save Kerry’s leg when it was actually amputated. It would take over a year for Kerry (bearing a prosthetic foot) to come back and thus Kevin had to carry the load as champion. Then the big blow came with Mike committing suicide in 1987. A shocking reveal on the DVD was that they found a suicide note Mike had left behind but kept it in the dark from the media while they tried to find his body. His death is seen as a symbol of the decline of the fanbase as the third Parade of Champions drew only 4900 people against the first’s 43,000. We also see how the Sportatorium crowd’s thinned out too as more talent leaves.

The death toll continues with Brody being stabbed to death in Puerto Rico, a loss everyone puts over as big as David’s. Despite the fact it didn’t take place until years after the company folded, Adams’ death is also discussed, people still talking about what a great guy he was and he didn’t deserve that. A chilling segment has Akbar talking about how he was watching an old match at an airport and realized he was the only man involved still alive. We get a big list of all the WCCW alumn who died before their time and as Manning says, it’s enough to make you believe in curses.

Now I have to say that here’s where I have a quibble with the DVD. While Harrison does an amazing job with the “glory years” of WCCW, he skips out on some stuff. For example, he shows how the Midnight Express and the Fantastics got their starts in World Class, showing interviews with both setting up a big match but then just jumps to a new subject, with no talk on how the feud ended up. But the bigger beef I have is how Harrison pretty much skips over the entire period from late 1987 to 1989, simply saying Jerry Jarrett and other promoters couldn’t bring it back to the status it once was (Hart: “What took us eight years to build took two years to take down.”). That is a huge period of material to skip over as I would have enjoyed seeing more of stuff like:

*Rick Rude’s feud with Adams for the WCCW title.
*Brian Adidas turning into a major heel star.
*Iceman Parsons returning to WCCW as a heel (stunning given how hugely popular he’d been) and winning most every title in 1988.
*The cooperation with the AWA with Kerry and Jerry Lawler feuding. I really would have enjoyed the take on the World Class guys on their dealings with the AWA and CWA and how it all ended up.
*Kerry’s brief return before jumping ship to WWF.
*Al Perez taking up as a headliner, walking a line between heel and face while holding the main title.
*Eric Embry becoming booker and major face, warring with Akbar and paving the way for the company to become part of the USWA. Again, that is a major development and I would have liked hearing the old-time WCCW guys discussing how they felt of the last year.

I can understand how Harrison wants to focus on the period when World Class was hot but skipping the actual “fall” of the company seems a big omission. However, Harrison does throw in some great stuff about Fritz’s own decline from his brain tumor and how the suicides of Chris (who never had the makings of a wrestler and felt guilty over not being able to follow in the family tradition) in 1991 and Kerry’s in 1993 pretty much pushed him over the edge. Kerry in particular was bad as Kevin had called his dad to warn him Kerry was in a bad state. Fritz said he was on the other line and he’d call back soon. By the time he did, Kerry had shown up at the ranch, taken his dad’s gun and gone into the woods to shoot himself. A shocking tale is Kevin relating how, during an argument, Fritz actually pulled out the gun Kerry used to kill himself and aimed it at Kevin, saying he didn’t have the guts to end it. Kevin managed to reply “No, Dad, it takes guts to stay here.” They talk so much of Fritz being such a hard-ass and the control he had over his sons…control exemplified by the fact that Kevin still insists his dad wasn’t that bad a guy.

The film’s ending is…simply beautiful. After the USWA went under, the Sportatorium became a hangout for homeless people before a fire gutted it in 2000. Despite attempts to have it made a landmark, the owners decided to demolish it. In 2003, Kevin and Harrison go to the condemned building and look around, Kevin pointing out everything from locker rooms to entranceways to where he sold cotton candy as a kid to the old offices Fritz used to have. A moment that probably wasn’t meant to be ironic but is has Kevin finding a Bible left behind by one of the bums that used to live there and remarking “Never can judge by looking, can you?” At the time, there was still the benches facing the central ring area, the locker rooms, walls where Kevin talks about the pictures that used to hang there. It’s like those documentaries of Robert Ballard looking at the undersea wrecks of old ships and talking about how they were once pristine marvels. The look on Kevin’s face during the tour is something as well. There’s obviously sadness, melancholy as he remembers that time when his brothers were all alive and were the most popular men in the state and how it all ended. But there’s also a spark of something, joy at the memories and that, despite all the pain, he wouldn’t trade that time for anything.

The final scene is a montage of classic Von Erich moments mixed with Kevin today at fan conventions and hanging out with his sons. At the same time, we see the Sportatorium razed and as sad as it was to see it in a ruined state, it’s even sadder to see a vacant lot where this amazing arena once stood. The director’s cut has an extra scene of Mercer and Grant at the arena themselves, talking about how it would be on a wrestling night.

I have no doubt WWE will do World Class justice in their own DVD. Like the AWA, its fall was more due to internal forces than WWF’s raiding and expansion so Vince wouldn’t feel the need to bury it. Let’s face it, it’ll be worth the price alone just to hear Hayes talking about the Freebirds/Von Erich war and Flair will be good too talking about his matches with Kerry and David. Also, I suspect WWE will focus on what Harrison skips over, the last years of the company, which actually made a decent comeback in ’88 before being taken over. Plus, you can sure we’ll get classic WCCW matches and moments.

But that documentary, quite likely, will not have the emotional impact this does. As I mentioned above, this was a labor of love and it shows. Harrison pours so much of his own love of the company into this that you can’t help but be enthralled. All the figures talk about it with clear memories and emotions, showing how much they loved the whole promotion and are proud to be part of it. Yes, it may skip some stuff but it shows how WCCW really made an impact for wrestling. Its shows revolutionized how it could be presented on television and the workers helped spread fame beyond its borders. For all its popularity, ECW never quite had the massive mainstream and international audience WCCW did and this disc shows why. Its end came due to forces beyond the control of any promoter and perhaps it was cursed in a way. But it was also blessed and gave that to its audiences, creating memories that will never die.

I heartily recommend Heroes of World Class to any DVD library. As I said, it should be available at Best Buy and other retail centers now and is cheap at any price. If you’re a World Class fan of old, get ready for a terrific look back. If you’re a younger fan who never saw it, prepare to be stunned at how groundbreaking it was. Overall, you’ll agree with Kevin von Erich’s own statement:

“It was a good time. It may have had a bad ending but it was a good time.”

Also around 411 this week:

It’s a busy week for Larry C as he talks about the WWE’s releases, Bam Bam Bigelow’s death and the best TNA matches of 2006.

Ripple Effect focuses on Randy Orton.

Quick Talkdown and Piledriver Report speculate on Wrestlemania.

Evolution Schematic finishes its excellent look at the Royal Rumble.

Sturat tries to be positive in Friendly Competition.

Andy Clark comes back from vacation and talks about a new Dungeon of Doom. Why not? Most fans would prefer it over a new NWO.

The Fink tries to predict No Way Out.

The Goodness gives some props to Shawn Michaels.

Julian counts down the 10 best Royal Rumble matches.

Meehan offers a Tivo and answers one of my letters. I’ll let you decide which part of that interests more.

Don’t forget Hidden Highlights, 3 R’s, Triple Threat, Column of Honor, Ask 411 and the rest.

Eventually, I will figure out what to write for my next column by the time I wrap up the current one. For now, the spotlight is off.