The last surviving Von Erich shoots on WCCW, The Freebirds, and other stuff.
KEVIN VON ERICH SHOOT INTERVIEW
I’ve been wanting to review something a little different, so I figured a shoot interview would be a good idea. Its also the last, as reviewing these things is a very big chore, and I give infinite respect to guys like Brandon Truitt of The Smart Marks for doing so many of these. This review comes courtesy of RF Video I chose this particular one, as I’m a longtime fan of the old school regional days, and of the Von Erich family, and WCCW in general. As a note of warning though, Kevin’s memory is pretty hazy and the interview is kind of all over the place in terms of time line, and various subjects.
The interview begins with asking Kevin why it took so long to do this interview. Kevin just wanted to fade away from the business. It quit being fun for him, and he wanted out before it started to show. As a child, Kevin always saw his father as being in the right, although he was the heel. When other heels would come out of the dressing room, the fans would all boo and curse. When Fritz came out, it was polite applause because the feared him. Fritz had lost his oldest son Jackie, in 1959, and wanted to die inside. Who better than other wrestlers to kill him?
Memories of the old NWA conventions: The conventions were held in Las Vegas, which was a pretty far cry from Texas, and it wasn’t as family friendly as it is nowadays. Kevin lost his virginity as age twelve, when Gene Kiniski got him a hooker. He can’t picture his own fourteen year old son doing something like that.
Did he want to be a wrestler? No, Kevin was a football player, but after injuring his knee catching a pass, he had knee surgery and had to wear a big brace. Then he was trying to protect the knee and wound up messing his other knee up, and was forced to wear these two big braces, and it took the fun out of Football for him. None of the boys wanted to wrestle. Kerry was a discuss thrower and was all set for the 1980 Olympics, until Carter boycotted them, and Kevin thinks Kerry would have at least won a Silver medal. David was a football and basket ball player. Kevin’s knee injuries had killed his NFL hopes, and there was interest from the Green Bay Packers because of his times in the shuttle run. Kevin got into wrestling from there, because he could make up for his bad knees, but still had nine operations after he got into wrestling.
Fritz’ reaction? Fritz liked having the boys in the business. The girls all loved them, and Kerry used to shake his ass to get reactions out of them, Kevin would try it too, but it wasn’t as effective as Kerry. Kevin was trained by Jose Lothario (also trained Shawn Michaels), and had help from midget wrestlers like Lord Littlebrook, as well as Mexican wrestlers like Mil Mascaras. Kevin was a big fan of Jimmy Snuka, and Snuka thought that he was the reason Kevin wrestled barefoot. It was actually because Kevin just forgot his boots one night and never put them back on. Kevin thinks he’s the only white guy in wrestling to wrestle barefoot.
Kevin wrestled in Hawaii for a little while under Lord James Blears, and then Lars Anderson. The crowds were horrible though, and the shows were pretty bad. Kevin’s first match was in Fort Worth, TX against Buddy Rose, and he won that match with a “Mexican Finish”. Kevin realized that wrestling in front of big crowds could make you exceed even your own limits as to what you could do. Kevin and his brothers didn’t like the “old man’s” style of working holds, they liked to really go fast paced, and Fritz had just brought in a lot of guys who also worked that style. Kevin used to numb up his knees before the shows to put on the best matches possible, and he feels drugs (painkillers in general) are a necessity, in order to put on the best product possible.
Kabuki once asked Kevin about wrestling him, and Kevin didn’t think he was in shape, but then during the match Kabuki turned his back, and caught Kevin with a back kick in the face and broke his nose and cheekbone, and Kevin earned a new respect for him. The morale in the company was good, because nobody had ever seen crowds that big before, every week they were setting new attendance records. Also the demographics were changing and it became more kid friendly, as the beers were replaced with soft drinks and the sponsors went from auto parts to candy.
Kevin went to wrestle in Georgia for a while and that’s where he met Jimmy Snuka and Terry Gordy. Kevin thought Gordy was a hell of a guy, and couldn’t believe that Gordy, at 315 lbs, was only a year younger than he was (age 16). That’s where Kevin learned about politics and backstabbing. Ole Anderson wasn’t booking though, it was George Scott.
Kevin’s memory of the 12/25/82 show isn’t that good though. He knows that’s the show where Gordy slammed the cage door on Kerry’s head to start the Freebirds vs Von Erich feud, but not much else. Kevin thinks he was eighteen at that time (Reviewer’s note: David died in 1984 at age 27, and Kevin is older than David, so he’s a bit mixed up here). The Freebirds feud was setting new attendance records every few weeks. The key to keeping it fresh was to not be seen around each other outside the ring, because the fans like to believe it’s a shoot and it keeps the feud fresh.
How did Mike get into the business? Mike didn’t want to be a wrestler, and he was fine just playing the guitar and getting laid, but after David passed away, the fans wanted Mike to wrestle, and they ultimately wanted him to become David. Kevin thinks Chris is the real tragedy though. Chris wanted to be a wrestler, but he had asthma and his medication made his bones brittle, so he never got to have more than a handful of matches.
The first Parade of Champions show, Kevin was worried about Fritz, because of the heat, and at one point Terry Gordy threw a chair into the ring, that was headed right at Fritz. Kevin jumped to knock it out of the way, and Fritz had no idea how close he came to getting his hair parted. The schedule at that time was part of what made wrestling stop being fun to Kevin, because after David passed away and Kerry hurt his foot, he had to work three shows a day and then pay bills and such, and it just sucked the life out of him. They tried to bring in outside help but “it just wasn’t meant to be”.
Kevin thinks that the best matches in WCCW weren’t on TV, but at the house shows, this veers into Bruiser Brody and how he was very tight with Fritz and came in to boost the houses if needed. Harley Race was another tough guy who didn’t like to lose. Kevin’s thinks Brody’s death was a result of him being a tough guy. He supposedly kicked Invader’s ass in the ring. Invader was talking shit, so Brody did it again in the locker room, and then Brody was going in the shower to do it yet again, when he was stabbed.
Was David supposed to win the NWA Title? They never knew where they stood with the NWA because they were the only NWA member out in Texas, but David really wanted guys like Dusty and Flair to like him.
Memories of the first Cotton Bowl: Kevin remembers thinking that him and Kerry were having too much fun shaving Chris Adams’ and Gino Hernandez’ heads (that was actually the second Cotton Bowl, the first had Kevin vs Chris Adams in a singles match).
Kevin’s not sure why the Freebirds left, but they were all tight with Fritz behind the scenes. Kevin was really close with Terry Gordy. Kevin likes to think he’s tight with everyone, but WWF kicked him out of Reunion Arena in 1999, for not wanting to address the crowd. Kevin went to Costa Rica after he got out of the business, to lay in a hammock and forget about wrestling and the memories were just too painful to talk about.
Kerry winning the NWA Title from Ric Flair: Kevin knew they’d only have it for a little while, but holds no animosity for Kerry getting it and not him, because to him wrestling was always about the money.
Someone asks about Kevin vs Chris Adams matches being cut short, and Kevin recalls one where he hit Adams with a chair and a splinter almost went into his eye, and then he veers off into a story about getting a phone call saying Mike was in the hospital and he probably was going to die, so Kevin was to just go have his match and go there later. Kevin goes to the ring wins his match in about two seconds, and races to the hospital. He sees three doors, in the first in a ton of blood and little dead baby, the second in empty, and the third is Mike with a bump on his head. The Doctor, thought Mike was the dead baby. Kevin was so out of it after that he drove almost 200 miles in the wrong direction trying to go home. The next day he had a stress related seizure.
The most passionate brother about the business was David. On a tour of Japan, David stayed out late with some of the wrestlers drinking sake and beer, and then went to his room and started puking out the window, which made Kevin grab the camera and take a picture.
Gino Hernandez, a bit of a whiner, the only guy in the business who Gino could beat up was Ox Baker, so Gino always found an excuse to kick his ass. Gino once tried to beat up a fan but missed his kick and only made the guy more pissed off. At the hotel, Tim Brooks knocked the guy out and Gino jumped on top of him and started to kick him. Kevin found out about Gino’s death while in Japan. There was cocaine found in Gino’s stomach which is not what most coke users do with their cocaine, but Kevin doesn’t have enough facts to make a theory. Kevin feels that with all the death surrounding the promotion, that they stopped drawing money, because fans didn’t want to pay money to be sad.
David’s death, Kevin found out in the middle of the night. David had a problem with diarrhea for a couple of months, and his doctor wanted to preform some “evasive procedures” but David wouldn’t let him, and it turned out that a spot in his intestinal lining had ruptured and flooded his system wit poisons and that’s what actually killed him. From WCCW, Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, Buzz Sawyer, Bruiser Brody, David, Kerry, Mike, and Chris Von Erich have all passed away.
Ribs in the company, on a show in Maine, they convinced a female fan to give Ralph Pulley a big french kiss. There were rumors that Ralph didn’t like girls, and Ralph was “visibly shaken” afterwards and threw up. Also Bill Slatten once decided to mess with the wrestling bear. The bear’s mentality is that he wrestles, drinks two cokes, and doesn’t wrestle anymore. Slatten slapped the bear after his second coke and the bear slapped him right out of the ring and tried to go after him.
Rick Rude, very fitting name because he said some rude things. One fan told Kevin to break his arm and Rude replied that, “I’ve got veins in my (bleep) bigger than you”. On an airplane, the captain insisted that Rude ride in front because he was so light and Rude yelled that he weighed 228 and that the captain’s head probably weighed more.
Lance Von Erich, horrible idea and nobody other than Fritz thought it would work, and everyone tried to talk him out of it. Lance just didn’t have the Von Erich mentality. On his first night of a Japan tour, his hand was broken and he took off to Hawaii, so Kevin had to finish Lance’s tour and then do his own tour. Kevin liked Japan, and always got along great with Inoki, but the promoters always wanted him to be heel, even though the fans loved him.
Mike never wanted to quit the business, but he just wanted to be better. Some guys complained about not being able to get over because of the Von Erich’s but “how do you argue with sellouts?” There was a Penthouse article about the family that was complete bullshit, and it turned out that the magazine wanted them to sue, so they’d sell more copies. It hurt Kevin’s feelings because the author was related to Sam Mushnik, who Kevin looked up to a lot.
Mike’s injury, Mike had separated his shoulder, and caught a form of staff from the scars on it, and was lucky to survive, but he could barely walk and his behavior became very erratic. He kicked in a parked car, smashed a streetlight and was caught with half a joint. The shame from the joint is what caused him to commit suicide. Kevin didn’t think that Mike would ever do it.
Kerry told Kevin that he was thinking about suicide and Kevin thought he’d talked him out of it, but then heard about six hours later that Kerry had shot himself. Kerry had been arrested on drug charges and was getting dragged through the mud by the local media. Kevin didn’t think Kerry would have gone to jail, because of his lawyer, but thinks he’d have loved it. Kerry would have been able to sleep, lift weights, have three meals a day. Kerry also loved the WWF lifestyle of the limos and leer jets. Kerry’s foot was amputated because there was twelve hours of surgery to fix his foot and Kerry undid all of it by walking down the hall for a cheeseburger. Kevin thinks Chris was so out of control, because he wasn’t disciplined as harshly as Kevin, Kerry, and David.
Freedom in the promotion, they were given a time, and a finish and the rest was up to them. That’s how Kerry came up with the discuss punch, and shaking his ass. A lot of folks think Fritz was a bad man, but he did a lot of good things that didn’t come out until after he passed away.
The show in 1987 where Kevin passed out, Kevin doesn’t remember it, because it was during the time when he was totally overworked and stressed out. Working with Brian Adidas, Brian was a good friend of Kerry’s and a very nice guy. Fritz’ heart attack angle. It was created by the fans, because they just saw Fritz go down and assumed he had a heart attack.
Any pressure to being a Von Erich, Kevin used to get beat up in school because his father was a bad guy.
He thinks Vince McMahon treated Kerry very well while Kerry was in the WWF. Nobody wanted Kerry to go up there though. He thinks Kerry did a great job of hiding the fake foot, and that it’d never come out. On a trip to the Carribean, Kevin and Kerry were swimming and Kerry took the foot off and couldn’t find it to put it back on. They finally found it and couldn’t get it on. A guard was coming and they had it on backwards, so Kerry just stares at the guard and bites his knuckle, like he’s in lots of pain, too funny.
Jerry Jarrett, Kerry liked him, but Kevin didn’t. Kevin thinks Jeff Jarrett probably hates him because he hates Jerry. Kevin also respects Jeff for hating him for that reason.
Kerry’s return match, Kerry didn’t take anything to numb up his foot. You can’t numb a bone, just a joint. Kevin had a bad bruise on his heel and had to play golf and wrestle the next day. So he goes to get it numbed and the doctor had to stick a long needle into his heel and it felt like stepping on a nail, very slowly.
Did Kevin ever think of going to the WWF? Nope, the NWA offered him a contract, but he wasn’t interested. He learned Spanish and went to Costa Rica.
Terry Funk, great guy, and thinks that someone should write a book about him. Terry was once pulled over and stole the cop car, turned on the siren and was shooing the gun out the window.
The Simpsons, two good guys. Shaun married the sister of Kerry’s ex wife.
Matt Bourne, hell of a good athlete. Once won a track meet against Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, and a pro track team.
Iceman Parsons, a good friend of his. Kevin wishes that he stayed babyface though.
Kamala, a very good athlete, could jump up and touch his toes like a cheerleader. Kevin and Kamala were in Beirut and held at gunpoint for eighteen hours.
Missing Link, a very weird guy
Killer Kahn, a big tough guy who never complained, much like Chris Adams and Rick Rude.
Skandor Akbar, very intelligent man. Could talk about anything with anybody.
Ring rats in the territory, girls were everywhere and Kevin was lucky to not know any better at the time.
Ribs, the thing he misses the most about the business. Kevin, Kerry, and Brian Blair once did a drive by mooning outside a restaurant.
His daughter’s boxing match. She didn’t even know what boxing was, so Kevin told her that if she got into trouble to just take her down. It turned out that her opponent had been a boxer in the Marines.
His son, a football player and can bench 225 even at age fourteen. Neither of Kevin’s children follow the business though.
Favorite opponents, Gino, Chris Adams, and Terry Gordy. Kevin loved Gordy to death. Kevin once had to wrestle Kerry in Japan when the Freebirds didn’t show up. Outside the ring the Freebirds were wild. One night Kevin heard Terry Gordy screaming about killing Michael Hayes and tearing apart the locker room. It turned out Terry was out of whiskey. In the ring they were laying into each other and Terry says “goddamn Kevin, I like you”.
Favorite memory: “That’s probably it right there”.
Buddy Roberts, not a very clean person, and used to wear the same clothes for a week. Kevin once kicked him in the face and had a U shaped cut on hit foot that got all infected because Roberts didn’t like to brush his teeth.
Any regrets? He blew out his knee by jumping off a cage, so he’d like to take that back, and he regrets not being a good role model for Kerry.
Anything to say to his fans? Just that he loves them all and their support has touched his heart.
Conclusion: Well I’m a big Von Erich fan so I’m a little biased. I found this to be quite entertaining though. High recommendation for this one.
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