Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
At one point in time in the early 1980’s, World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) was the hottest wrestling promotion in the entire country. It was reportedly generating over 11 million dollars a year and was shown in syndication in over 63 countries worldwide. In the United States, WCCW’s weekly program was ranked number 2 in syndication only behind Soul Train. The WCCW roster were treated like rock stars led by promoter Fritz Von Erich’s own children such as David, Kerry and Kevin. the Freebirds, Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams. World Class was certainly the place to be in and around the early 80’s.
Crowds were selling out places like the Dallas Sportatorium on a weekly basis. There was absolutely no question that World Class was just that…a world class wrestling organization. So much so, it was heavily rumored that Vince McMahon modeled his WWF after WCCW when heading into its national expansion. Fritz had that kind of power back in the day.The issue was Fritz was an old school promoter, who didn’t believe that Vince McMahon would be successful in his quest for nationwide exposure. After all, when the WWF initially tried to invade Fritz’s territory with shows, they were thoroughly beaten by World Class.
As successful and as lucrative as World Class was, by 1986, things were slowly turning in a different direction for Fritz Von Erich. His son David, who was a top attraction for WCCW, died unexpectedly while on a tour of Japan in 1984. Fritz began putting more emphasis on his other boys Kevin and Kerry with initial success, but their rock star lifestyles began hurting more than helping business. One of WCCW’s top heels Gino Hernandez died of an apparent cocaine overdose and crowds that once filled 17,000 seat arenas were now hurting to get over 500 fans to the same venues.
The biggest incident occurred when Fritz had a falling out with the National Wrestling Alliance, due to the lack of world title opportunities given to his sons. Fritz abruptly pulled World Class from the auspices of the NWA and decided to make his promotion, a stand alone company. He reorganized and renamed World Class Championship Wrestling into World Class Wrestling Association and made Rick Rude the promotion’s first world champion. This, despite publications like Pro Wrestling Illustrated not recognizing Rude or the WCWA title as a legitimate world champion and championship.
By the Fall of 1987, Fritz made his boldest move yet, when he decided to take World Class on a national tour much like the WWF and NWA had been doing. His boys would of course be the big selling point of the tour, which he named “The Von Erichs Over America Tour.” He gathered various sponsors to help pay costs for the tour and went on a media blitz having his kids do radio and commercial spots. The first leg of this nationwide tour would be in the own backyard of Texas in places like Dallas and Houston with moderate success. The Von Erichs would also do Shreveport, Louisiana and Miami, Florida.
In between shows, Kevin and Kerry visited children’s hospitals and spoke about the dangers of drugs. In fact, Kerry and Kevin received the keys to the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida for their ‘hard work combating drug use.’ Kerry was quoted as saying…“Kevin and I are like spokesmen against drugs. We are very involved in the fight against them. Drugs are so out of control, they’re everywhere we turn. We’re taking a stand that will hopefully make a difference.”
All this, while Kerry allegedly bought drugs while in Miami. ‘Killer’ Tim Brooks…who was on the tour…alleged that Kerry was completely high on cocaine the majority of the time in Florida. Brooks contended that Kerry was at a zoo and teased a monkey with a banana. The monkey then bit Kerry on his hand and took the banana. Tim Brooks then claimed the monkey was later found dead from ingesting cocaine…perhaps from biting Von Erich. Tall tale or not, Kerry and Kevin were Fritz’s selling points for this national tour and they were both allegedly using drugs the entire time.
The Von Erichs Over America tour was highlighted by a main event feud which saw Kerry and Kevin both wrestling childhood friend Brian Adias in a series of ‘Texas Death Matches.’ The reigning WCWA world champion Al Perez defending against Matt Borne and Ted Arcidi versus Tony Atlas among other matches. Despite the all out media blitz by the Von Erichs, the shows outside of Texas were apparently an abysmal failure financially. Fritz ended up pulling out of the tour and scrapping it altogether. That was the end to Fritz’s attempt to make his promotion a national organization. Sadly, it was a few years too little, too late.
David Fullam
Too little too, late, Should have done it when they were on fire.