Jeremy Allen White (left) and Harris Dickinson in a scene from the film “Iron Claw” Photo: Brian Rodel
February 18, 1993 Fritz Von Erich, legendary wrestling star and promoter, found the body of his own son, Kerry Von Erich, on his ranch in Denton County, Texas. Kerry, 33, sat upright, leaning against a tree. He shot himself in the heart with his father's .44-caliber pistol, a grisly suicide that still haunts pro wrestling legends three decades later. Kerry was the fifth of Fritz's sons to die and the third to commit suicide. “Dad found him and said he had never seen such a peaceful expression on Kerry’s face,” recalled Von Erich’s only surviving brother Kevin. “It probably hit him just right.”
In the early 1980s, Kerry Von Erich was one of the biggest wrestling stars in the United States, often performing alongside brothers David and Kevin in his father's Dallas-based promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). The promotion revolutionized wrestling television and made boys into heroes akin to rock stars. But Kerry lost his brothers one by one and had his right leg secretly amputated – a secret later revealed in a creepy moment in the ring. And by the time he committed suicide, Kerry Von Erich, aka the Texas Tornado, was facing prison on drug charges.
The story of the Von Erich family, the subject of the new wrestling biopic Iron Claw,” starring Zac Efron, is both terribly tragic and bizarre. In fact, the fate that befell Fritz, the Nazi fighter turned all-American born-again Christian, and his heartthrob descendants is too sad for one film.
Von Erich's “Curse,” as it is often called, feels like a warning from a time when the wrestling business was booming but also awash with steroids, cocaine and painkillers – an epidemic born of the punishing and cutthroat demands of the mock sport. , in which control over reality is deliberately and sometimes dangerously weakened. Wrestlers too easily get lost in the characters and storylines they peddle to sell not just tickets but their own mystique. Dave Meltzer, an American wrestling journalist, previously described how the Von Erichs lived in “fantasies”.Fritz von Erich was not actually a Nazi – or even a German – although he is often portrayed as the cruel and self-serving villain in Von Erich's story. Real name Jack Adkisson, he was a 6-foot-3, 275-pound Texan who convinced players of a series of lies: that he was the greatest wrestler who ever lived; that his signature move, the Iron Claw—a vice-like grip on opponents' faces—was both torturous and unbreakable; and that his American sportsman sons were pure-hearted, did-no-wrong, clean-cut heroes.
He imposed a strict training schedule on his teenage offspring, punished them with a leather belt and openly picked favorites. He promoted them as something that – in some cases – they could not live up to, and stooped to profit from their deaths. Fritz may have sold himself on the biggest lie of all: denial of his sons' drug problems.
For the von Erichs, the struggle—and the pain that came with it—was almost destiny. As Kevin's surviving brother said in a 2006 documentary, “We got into wrestling because we wanted to be like our dad.”
Fritz – or Jack as he was then – was a football player before learning to wrestle under Stu Hart, patriarch of the troubled Hart family wrestling dynasty (its members include Owen Hart, who died in the middle of a WWF ring after falling 80 ft). from the rafters in a stunt gone wrong, and “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, who died aged 40 after years of drug and steroid abuse). Adkisson created the character of Fritz von Erich, a Nazi “nickel” (wrestling slang for a villain). German, Japanese and Russian characters on heels were common in the post-war period. Fans – called “signs” in the secret inner workings of wrestling – would pay to see the good guys, or “baby faces”, defeat the dastardly foreigners.
In the 1960s, Fritz was an international star wrestling is one of the biggest heels in both the US and Japan. But tragedy had already struck Fritz and his wife Doris. In 1959, their six-year-old son Jackie was electrocuted by an exposed wire and drowned in a puddle.
Fritz von Erich in 1976
Since the mid-1960s, Fritz ran his own wrestling promotion in Texas, Big Time Wrestling, which was later renamed World Class Championship Wrestling. Fritz made himself a major star, becoming a babyface hero (unusual for a Nazi) with an American family image. He later found God, although cynics would say it was just another clever publicity stunt.
At the time, the American wrestling business was divided into “territories”—regional promotions bound by a governing body, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA will select a world champion who will travel between territories to defend the title against the hottest local stars. Fritz was never an NWA World Champion, although he became NWA President and boasted that all of his sons – Kevin, David and Kerry – would become future champions.
Kevin, David and Kerry were star athletes in high school. Kerry – real name Kerry Gene Adkisson, the youngest of the three – was the most successful. He was a high school football player and a champion discus thrower. As Dave Meltzer reported at the time of his death, there were rumors that Kerry had become heavily steroid-heavy by the time he was 15-16 years old in the 10th grade. Attempts to forge one's own path were futile; even the teachers called the Adkisson boys “von Erichs.”
They were undeniable talents in the ring. Kevin (played by Zac Efron in the film) wrestled barefoot and wowed fans with his aerial attacks. David (Harris Dickinson) was an instinctively skilled and highly charismatic fighter. And Kerry (Jeremy Allen White from “Bear”) was a raw athlete with the physique of an Adonis known as the “Modern Day Warrior.” > Kerry and Mike Von Erich in 1984
Marketed to Texas wrestling fans as healthy studs, the Von Erich brothers became bona fide superstars. They had great success in a “feud”—a storyline rivalry and series of matches—with a three-man team known as the Fabulous Freebirds, led by a Confederate flag showboat named Michael P.S. Hayes. The Von Erichs v. Fabulous Freebirds case was, to put it in more wrestling parlance, hot. Week after week, the Dallas Sportsatorium sold out while thousands were turned away from packed arena shows. The Von Erich boys also wrestled NWA World Champion Ric Flair, a flamboyant, platinum-colored playboy often cited as the greatest wrestler of all time.
Locally, the Von Erichs were folk heroes. Their rock star status drove the girls crazy. Carrie in particular, Meltzer wrote, was “the object of desire of every woman in the state of Texas, as well as many women in other states.” The Von Erichs, always selling themselves at a bargain price (due to their upbringing in carnival wrestling), pretended to be single to keep the ladies happy.
WCCW's weekly shows also changed the way wrestling was portrayed on television. Multi-camera setups allowed spectators to watch the action first-hand while the wrestlers entered the arena to the sound of rock music – all now standard in wrestling. In the 2006 documentary World Class Fighting Heroes, the producer admitted that the programs were inspired by the Rocky films.
Holt McCallany and Harrison Dickinson as Fritz and David Von Erich in White Claw. Photo: Brian Rodel
WCCW shows were syndicated and made the Von Erichs national stars. Kerry wrestled to sold-out crowds against Flair across the country, while their television shows reached Japan, Europe and the Middle East. From 1982 to 1984, WCCW was the most popular wrestling promotion in the world.
The Von Erichs appeared on magazine covers. They starred in their own comic book and appeared in a pizza commercial. Kerry even had a hotline number that fans, especially female fans, could call and ask him anything. “I mean anything,” Carrey repeated in the commercial.
In Texas, the Von Erichs' reputation was so godlike that when Kerry was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth Airport in 1983 with an assortment of depressants, powders and marijuana, it hardly affected their reputation. This was long before wrestling admitted to fans that it was, in fact, fiction. As Meltzer noted, hardcore fans became so caught up in the wrestling storylines that they dismissed the scandal and believed that the Von Erichs' nemesis, Michael P.S. Hayes must have somehow planted drugs on Kerry. Evidence mysteriously disappeared from the police station.
Behind the scenes, stories circulated about the Von Erichs' drug use. Fritz advised them never to drink in public, although the boys caused problems for local merchants and sponsors by appearing at public appearances in different states—if they appeared at all. Fritz refused to believe it.
Initially, the biggest star of the three and future NWA World Champion was considered to be David Von Erich. So in February 1984, David, whose baby daughter had died of SIDS at 13 weeks, went on a wrestling tour of Japan. Before even one fight could be fought, he was found dead in his hotel room. A common story in wrestling is that David died from an overdose of Placidyl, a sedative, and that fellow wrestler Bruiser Brody flushed the pills down the toilet when he found the body (Bruiser Brody himself met an untimely end – he was killed in Puerto Rico's Locker Room in 1988 year). However, David's official cause of death – and the version shown in the film – was acute enteritis, an inflammation of the intestines. It is true that he was clearly ill before his death.
David Manning, a referee and behind-the-scenes man for WCCW, received a call from Japan and drove to Fritz's ranch early that morning to deliver the bad news. When Fritz saw him arrive, he got out and asked: “Which one?”
David's funeral was reported to have been attended by 3,000 fans. Fritz—not one to miss a beat—had a box-office hit, “Heaven Needed a Champion,” quickly recorded in honor of his son. Fritz staged a tribute show for David at Texas Stadium, near Dallas, which drew over 32,000 fans and earned over $400,000 at the gate—the second-largest gate in US wrestling history at that time.
Fans expressed their grief by snapping up copies of the record performed live at the event and revaluing David Von Erich memorabilia. In the main match, Kerry finally defeated Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship, winning the title in honor of his brother. Kerry's championship was short-lived: less than three weeks later he returned the title to Flair.
Scene from Iron Claw
The fourth brother, Mike Von Erich (Stanley Simons in the film), had debuted shortly before and was tasked with replacing David. But Mike, who was really like David, struggled under pressure and was not a naturally gifted wrestler like his brothers. “The only thing he liked was that his name was Mike Von Erich,” Dave Meltzer said in the Viceland documentary “Dark Side of the Ring.” After dislocating his shoulder, Mike required surgery and contracted a bacterial staph infection. Mike's temperature rose to 107 degrees (at which point his organs began to shut down) and he nearly died from toxic shock syndrome.
Fritz, believing he needed another Von Erich, came up with a pseudo-cousin, “Lance Von Erich” – actually a not-so-good wrestler named William Kevin Vaughan. “Lance”, promoted as a member of the family, soon fell out with Fritz over money and was promoted to a competitor. The deception, which some fans suspected from the start, was a blow to the Von Erichs' image and integrity.
In the mid-1980s, the New York-based World Wrestling Federation (WWF) – now WWE – began an aggressive national expansion. With Hulk Hogan as their biggest name, the WWF stormed into other territories to take over their television spots, get into their business, and poach their top wrestlers. There was initial loyalty to the Von Erichs in Texas, but WCCW's popularity eventually waned.
In June 1986, Kerry crashed his motorcycle. At speed, without a helmet or even shoes, he crashed into a parked police car, suffering a dislocated hip, internal injuries and a crippled right leg. Doctors performed microsurgery to save his leg, which one witness said looked like “an alligator had chewed on it.”
With things going south, Fritz announced Kerry's return to the ring just eight months later. Kerry survived the match after being pumped full of novocaine, but re-injured his ankle. Only 2,326 fans paid, a far cry from the 32,000-plus who once paid to see him beat Ric Flair. At one point, his leg was amputated, although he continued to struggle with a prosthetic – a closely guarded secret that later became a wrestling legend. “He wanted me to promise to hide it… he was ashamed of it,” brother Kevin said in “Dark Side of the Ring.”
To hide his missing leg, Kerry showered in his boots after matches; other wrestlers were written off as eccentricities. But the secret was revealed during the match when Kerry's opponent – a character known as Colonel DeBeers – grabbed Kerry's foot and accidentally yanked his boot off. Viewers were stunned by the sight of Kerry's missing leg stump.
The Von Erich Brothers as seen in “Iron Claw”
Mike, meanwhile, never fully recovered from the toxic shock – neither physically nor mentally. After a car accident and a series of arrests, he went to Lewisville Lake in April 1987 and overdosed on Placidyl. He was only 23 years old. Drug problems weren't just limited to the Von Erich family of WCCW. A year earlier, Gino Hernandez, one of the company's executives, died of a cocaine overdose.
On Christmas Day 1987, Fritz tried his most insidious tactic yet. In the wrestling “angle”—a storyline incident designed to create hype for the show—Fribers was allegedly attacked by the Freebirds and faked a heart attack, playing on fans' sympathy and very real grief over his dead sons. As Dave Meltzer recalled, television broadcasts updated viewers every week on Fritz's condition. If the arena had done well at the box office this week, it would have shown improvement; if there were still empty seats, his condition would worsen.
In 1988, D Magazine published a profile of the von Erichs, chronicling their tragedies. Kevin, speaking about the appeal of wrestling itself, gave a quote that now seems scary. “I think this is our destiny,” Kevin said, “and there’s nothing more to say about it. You must go where fate takes you, no matter what path it may be. And that’s all for us.”
A few years later, Chris Von Erich's younger brother, who was left out of the film entirely, also committed suicide. Chris suffered from severe asthma and took medications that left his bones brittle. He idolized his brothers, but did not have the physical ability for professional wrestling. He broke his arm, another setback as he failed to live up to Von Erich's name. In September 1991, at the age of 21, he shot himself in the head.
By then, Kerry had joined the WWF, which had all but destroyed the old wrestling territory. Entering the WWF with some fanfare, he was renamed “The Texas Tornado” and quickly won the WWF Intercontinental Championship. But Carrey – no longer the artist he once was and addicted to painkillers – has dropped in the rankings. The WWF was on the verge of its own drug scandal – particularly involving steroid use among its wrestlers – and the company soon purged its locker room of steroids and the most obvious steroid users.
After his stay at the Betty Ford Clinic, Carrey became the first wrestler to openly talk about treatment for his addiction (Hulk Hogan, on the contrary, participated in a TV show and shamelessly lied about using steroids). But Kerry, who is remembered by those who knew him as kind-hearted and generous, also talked about suicide. Fellow WWF wrestler Bret Hart – the biggest star of the Hart wrestling dynasty – recalled how Carrey decided to “join his brothers in heaven.”
In the summer of 1992, Kerry was fired from the WWF. Already serving a 10-year probation sentence for forging drug prescriptions, he was arrested in January 1993 for cocaine possession and indicted on February 17. Kerry will most likely go to jail. The next day, Kerry Adkisson – the Modern Warrior – went to Fritz's ranch, told his father he loved him, and went outside to commit suicide.
Wrestler Gary Hart, who played a key role in the peak of WCCW's popularity, wrote in his autobiography about how the von Erichs' mother, Doris, visited his office. As she left, she touched the photograph of her sons and cried.
The Von Erichs' “Curse” is as much a fabrication as any story Fritz used to sell tickets. More realistically, it was a cycle of copycat suicides—a sad and inevitable pattern—perhaps driven by Fritz's memorialization of his dead sons as American heroes. Bret Hart wondered if the Von Erichs were so competitive that suicide was “the ultimate act of bravado.”
Later, when Fritz was suffering from brain cancer, he handed Kevin a gun and said, “You'd kill too.” yourself, if you had the courage. Kevin, who told the story in The Dark Side of the Ring, responded: “Dad, it takes courage to live, not to die.” Fritz himself died in 1997.
Kevin Von Erich has since summed up the story with an oft-repeated phrase. “I used to have five brothers,” he said. “Now I'm not even a brother.”
Iron Claw is currently playing in US cinemas and will be released in the UK on February 24.
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