"Wrestling is about dragons and dragonslayers and the
Von Erichs were the Dragonslayers." Gen. Scandar Akbar
I hated the Von Erichs. Hated them. From the first
time I ever saw World Class Championship Wrestling at
my grandparents house I hated them. I have no idea
why. At the time I was a little Hulkamaniac. I loved
all the babyfaces. I remember being FURIOUS with Ron
Garvin when he turned on Dusty Rhodes. I was a the
ultimate mark little kid. Except when it came to the
Von Erichs. For some reason I hated them. My
grandmother on the other hand loved them. All of them.
To her these good looking, young, Christian boys
defending themselves and their beliefs against Scandar
Akbar's monsters and "those dirty Rednecks" the
Freebirds were the ultimate good guys. She loved them.
She was only one of literally tens of millions of fans
around the entire world who did.
I knew that World Class was big. It was on ESPN
everyday when I was a kid. Other than WWE and WCW,
I've probably seen more World Class shows than any
other company. All of us kind of know the story of the
company and how it exploded, but the reality of it is
even more incredible than the legends.
I'm not going to go through the documentary piece
by piece and write a traditional review. Instead, I
wanted to focus on what struck me in how World Class
was booked and how that relates to the current scene
in the WWE and on the indies. First, I'll just say
this about the documentary. It's a great story. It has
some weaknesses when it comes to production, but the
range of interviews that are featured and the insight
some great figures in wrestling history provide is
more than worth the price. I have the original version
that was released by Right Here Pictures. Now a
Director's Cut is being released by Big Vision
Entertainment with additional footage and I'm sure
I'll buy that too. I can't recommend it enough.
Apparently the WWE will be releasing their own version
of the History of World Class at some point in the
future, but I guarantee it won't hold a candle to this
version.
The day I got Heroes of World Class in the mail WWE
24/7 also came online with my cable company. I must've
watched 9 hours of wrestling that day. The thing that
struck me most about watching all that truly classic
footage was how simple everything was. The World Class
formula was the same as the Memphis formula that was
the same as the WWE's Bruno, Pedro, and Backlund
formula. A charismatic babyface champion taking on the
monster of the week or month who was brought in by a
charismatic manager who could talk people into the
seats. Memphis had Lawler and Hart. WWE has Albano,
Grand Wizard, and Blassie. World Class had Gary Hart
and Scandar Akbar. This was the base of their
business. The thing that WCCW did that some of the
other territories didn't is they recognized when they
had something different that was going to pop and they
went with it.
WCCW's two biggest drawing programs went against
that mold. Instead of the Von Erichs against the
monster of the week, it was the Von Erichs vs. The
Freebirds and later the Dynamic Duo [Gino Hernandez/Chris Adams].
The precise reason these feuds popped the territory is BECAUSE
THEY WERE DIFFERENT. You have your base business. This
is your core and you always maintain this. You should
never ever do anything to insult or risk this core
audience, but when you have something GO WITH IT. That
doesn't mean hotshot six-billion things. You have to
build to these big deals because if you have six
hundred big deals then none of them are big deals. One
of my biggest pet peeves about wrestling on every
level right now is the near constant "devastating
injury." You see it on impact, wwe, indies,
everywhere. And everyone wonders why none of them get
over. Why should they we see them in every segment and
what's more the guy who's supposedly badly injured is
coming back next week so why should anyone care. It's
the same thing with big events. At some point you have
to bring it down and build.
Both the Freebird and Dynamic Duo built for months
and MADE SENSE on both sides. Both sides could
consievably be seen as being right. They had a point.
When the birds turned on Kerry they thought that Kerry
had hit Hayes. In fact, Flair had caused Kerry to run
into Hayes, but the birds didn't know that. THEIR
ACTIONS MADE SENSE. What's more that one slam of a
cage door led to years of HUGE business. Why? Cause
that shit never happened. The WWE does it every week
so it doesn't mean shit.
With the Dynamic Duo, Chris Adams felt like he was
passed over and pushed to the background because he
wasn't a Von Erich. He got sick of it so he went with
Gary Hart. That shit makes sense. People can
understand that. They might not like it, but they can
understand it. That's HUGE. And again it led to
ridiculous business.
How often can you say a WWE angle makes sense? How
many angles do you see on indie shows that make sense?
Managers, commissioners, owners, whatever wrestling in
main events for titles. Why? It doesn't make any
sense. Random turns just because you don't have enough
heels or babies or whatever? Why? It should make
sense. If you can't explain the reason in one sentence
it's too fucking complicated. Keep it simple.
Another thing I noticed about WCCW was how well
they protected their talent. I never saw David Von
Erich wrestle. It's always been said that he was the
best worker of the brothers, but really I wouldn't
call Kerry or Kevin and definitely not Mike good
workers in terms of having great matches or giving
good interviews, but they were never exposed. And they
drew. They drew huge because of how they were used.
They were never put in a position to look bad. They
were never made to look weak. And most importantly
they were never made to look dumb. PEOPLE WILL NOT
CHEER A DUMBASS BABYFACE. The only time I remember
Kevin being fooled was when he offered to forgive
Chris Adams if he dropped Gary Hart, but even then he
came off as heroic.
Granted sometimes Fritz may have taken protecting
his boys too far and keeping them too strong. I had
forgotten that even after Gordy slammed the cage on
Kerry's head that Kerry didn't do the job for Flair
and it really hurts the match obviously it didn't hurt
the drawing power of the feud. One of the other major
angles of the period, Michael Hayes running in on a
Freebirds/Von Erichs match dressed as Santa Claus is
remembered as this awesome angle and it was good, but
even that didn't lead to a Von Erich jobbing. But
obviously it worked for them. They knew where their
money was coming from and they kept them strong.
There are a million lessons to be learned from the
rise and fall of WCCW. Like I said I won't go into the
drugs and the family problems and all that stuff.
Watch the documentary and you'll see all that, but to
me the underlying lessons of how to book a territory
to keep it up at a certain level and most importantly
pop the territory really stick out.
