World Class Championship
Wrestling (WCCW) was a popular regional professional wrestling
promotion headquartered in Dallas
and Fort Worth,
Texas
. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore,
by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president, Jack
Adkisson, was better known as wrestler
Fritz Von Erich. Beginning as a territory of
the
National Wrestling
Alliance, it went independent in 1986 in a bid to become a
major national promotion, but was unsuccessful in its attempts and
eventually went out of business in 1990. Rights to the pre-1988
WCCW tape library currently belong
to
World Wrestling
Entertainment (the post-1988 rights are owned by
International
World Class Championship Wrestling).
Overview
World Class Championship Wrestling was a member of the
National Wrestling
Alliance and was originally known as
Big Time
Wrestling until 1982, when Adkisson decided that the name of
his federation needed to be changed. Mickey Grant, who headed the
production of its telecasts, suggested the name
World
Class, and from there, the rest was history.
WCCW operated its
enterprise in Dallas,
Texas and held wrestling events at the famed Sportatorium
, located just south of Downtown Dallas, which was
also a well-known boxing and wrestling arena as well as the
one-time home to the famous Big D
Jamboree.
Golden years
During WCCW's golden years (1981-1985), the company was booked for
the most part by
Ken Mantell, with
David Von Erich,
Gary Hart,
Bruiser Brody and (after David's death)
Kevin Von Erich being the go-to
people to keep the success of World Class going. During World
Class' heyday, the Adkissons owned the majority of the promotion,
with partial ownership held by
Bill
Mercer,
Mickey Grant, Gary Hart and
Bronko Lubich.
WCCW's television programming
Weekly wrestling shows were staged there on Tuesday nights until
August 1978, then were moved to Sunday nights
until the early '80s, and finally were held on Friday nights until
the promotion's demise.
WCCW's syndicated show was usually taped at the Sportatorium
beginning in 1981, with two hour-long shows being recorded every
other Friday.
These telecasts were, in the beginning, seen
in only a few markets and were hosted at various times by Gene Goodson, Steve
Harms, and Marc Lowrance; when the
show was taken over in 1982 by
Continental Productions (a
subsidiary of local station KXTX
) and went to
international syndication, well-known north Texas
journalist/sportscaster Bill Mercer (a
former play-by-play announcer for the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox along with other
Texas-based teams) became the ringside announcer at the
Sportatorium. After Mercer left in 1987 to join
Ken Mantell's
Wild West Wrestling promotion, Lowrance
returned to the broadcast position, where he would remain until
resigning to become a minister in July 1990. Lowrance would later
be paired by former wrestler-turned-matchmaker
Frank Dusek for one year, then later by
"The Beauty" Terrance Garvin, a pro wrestler who
resembles
Jimmy Garvin.
Lowrance left World Class/USWA in May 1990 to become a full-time
Methodist minister, after nearly 10 years with the
organization.
Craig Johnson (real name: Jon Horton)
replaced Lowrance for the final two months of telecasts, as
attempts to bring
Bill Mercer back were
unsuccessful.
Percy Pringle III would
replace Garvin, who returned to the wrestling ring. Horton
eventually went on to host the USWA and GWF telecasts in later
years, and Pringle went on to greater fame in the
WWF/WWE as Paul Bearer, the
manager of
The Undertaker. Lowrance
did return to the Sportatorium as ring announcer in September 1990
(as did Mercer, who filled in for Lowrance on a few cards), when
World Class seceded from the USWA, and appeared occasionally during
the 1990s in other Dallas-based promotions such as the
Global Wrestling Federation.
Lowrance is no longer in the business, but does appear at vintage
pro wrestling conventions on occasion.
Monday and Saturday night matches
The
promotion also held matches on Monday nights in Fort
Worth
at the North Side Coliseum (an indoor rodeo arena,
known today as the Cowtown
Coliseum), until the mid-1970s, then relocated to the Will Rogers
Memorial Center
, where it remained until WCCW discontinued its Fort
Worth shows in 1988. These matches aired Saturday nights on local
station KTVT
, as a
90-minute broadcast entitled Saturday Night Wrestling,
which was expanded to two hours in November 1983 and retitled
Championship Sports. From late 1988 until the
station cancelled wrestling in 1990, KTVT's tapings were held at
the Sportatorium on Saturday mornings.
Dan Coates, who had served as ring
announcer in Fort Worth for many years prior to the Von Erich era,
called the action on KTVT from 1966 until 1976, when Bill Mercer
was brought in to replace him. When Mercer moved to the syndicated
telecasts, Marc Lowrance took over the KTVT show. As he would with
the syndicated series, Jon Horton became host of
Championship
Sports for its last few episodes.
Ring announcers
Ring Announcer Gene Summers at the
Sportatorium in 1981
was also the ring announcer at the Sportatorium for several years
before moving to TV full-time; he was originally hired in 1980 to
replace
Boyd Pierce, who had been with
the group since the 1960s and left to join
Bill Watts'
Mid-South
Wrestling promotion. Other ring announcers in WCCW included
George Preston (1960s),
Joe Rinelli
(from the 1960s until 1988) and
Ralph
Pulley (mid-1980s), who also served as a referee for a time.
Lowrance, who was 21 at the time, was originally hired for a
three-week stint until a permanent replacement was found for
Pierce. Soon after, when no one was found, Lowrance's stay with
World Class became permanent.
Doyle King,
and for one week
Jim Ross, worked as
fill-in announcers for Lowrance for the Fort Worth telecasts. In
1981, Dallas
rock 'n roll singer
Gene Summers took over the ring
announcing duties for both the Dallas and Fort Worth matches.
However, his tenure was cut short due to conflicting European music
tours. It was during this time period that he released the now
famous recording "Ballad of Moon Dog Mayne" under the pseudonym of
Ricky Ringside. Summers' brief announcing career in 1981 lasted
from March 8 to May 31. Marc Lowrance returned to the ring
announcing duties in Dallas, and either Ralph Pulley or Joe Rinelli
handled the Fort Worth matches.
NWA era
Big Time Wrestling: 1966-1981
WCCW was originally known as
Big Time Wrestling
and, until the late 1970s, was dominated by its owner, Fritz Von
Erich. In 1966, Von Erich and Ed McLemore-owner of the Dallas
Sportatorium- bought out the Dallas/Fort Worth Wrestling Office,
breaking away from Houston Wrestling Office, which was ran by
Paul Boesch.
In 1969, Von Erich
took sole control over the Office after McLemore died from a heart
attack, and also gained ownership of the Dallas
Sportatorium. Initially playing his longtime role of a
snarling, goose-stepping Nazi monster heel and sometimes teaming
with "brother"
Waldo, Fritz turned
babyface in late 1966 and began feuding with
Gary Hart and his stable of wrestlers
(which at this time included
Karl Von
Brauner,
Al Costello and the masked
Spoilers); the feud between Hart and Fritz (and his sons) would
continue off and on for more than two decades. Fritz's other
classic rivalries during this early period were with such stars as
Johnny Valentine,
Stan Stasiak,
Professor Toru Tanaka,
Lord Alfred Hayes,
The Sheik,
Bruiser
Brody and
The Great Kabuki.
Babyface wrestlers playing secondary roles in the promotion at
various times included
Wahoo
McDaniel,
Pepper Gomez,
Red Bastien,
Jose
Lothario and
Lonnie "Moondog"
Mayne. Many of these wrestlers were regular mainstays of the
Grand Olympic Auditorium
wrestling promotion in Los Angeles, who would compete in Dallas
regularly, as did Fritz and several Texas-based wrestlers doing the
same to Gene and Mike LeBell's promotion in L.A.
As his
sons began to launch wrestling careers of their own in the
mid-to-late 1970s, Fritz gradually cut back on his in-ring
appearances and concentrated on promoting, finally retiring from
the ring altogether after a 1982 NWA American Title win over
King Kong Bundy at Texas Stadium
in Irving
. By
then, the promotion had switched to the World Class name and was
centered around Fritz's sons,
Kevin,
David and
Kerry (and, later,
Mike) Von Erich.
Peak years: 1982-1985
Around this same time, WCCW began its hour-long weekly syndicated
television show which introduced numerous innovative production
techniques, many of which are still commonly used today. The
promotion was also the first to use familiar rock songs as entrance
music for its wrestlers. Talent deals and exchanges helped WCCW
bring in future stars such as
Chris Adams, The
Fabulous Freebirds,
Jake
Roberts,
Mick Foley, a young
Shawn Michaels,
Gino Hernandez and
Iceman King Parsons, Jimmy Phillips, and
others. The show was syndicated across the United States, and at
one point arguably scored higher ratings than
Saturday Night Live.
The opening sequence of World Class' syndicated broadcasts began
with a NASA photo of Earth, taken during the
Apollo 16 mission back in 1972. An animated
satellite would beam down over Dallas, and as it moves east, the
World Class logo would appear and move across to the upper left
hand corner of the picture. Two more satellite beams aired two
highlights from World Class: one involving a match between Kerry
Von Erich and Michael Hayes, and another between David Von Erich
and Jimmy Garvin. In late 1984, a different World Class logo was
used and two different match sequences: one involving Skandor Akbar
urging The Missing Link to head-butt Kerry Von Erich; while the
other scene was with Kamala executing a suplex on another wrestler,
with his handler Friday outside the ring moving his fist down as
Kamala finished his suplex, with announcers Marc Lowrance and Ralph
Pulley watching. This opening sequence would be used again in 1991
with Boston-based
International
World Class Championship Wrestling.
By 1987, the opening sequence changed; beginning with a dusk photo
of Dallas, and other shots of the city, including the Dallas North
Tollway, before the World Class logo would appear; then scenes of
past wrestling events (mostly from the 1987 Texas Stadium event)
would follow before the logo reappeared again.
Freebirds-Von Erichs feud
Developed
and booked by manager and behind-the-scenes booker Gary Hart, World Class' most storied
feud was the legendary and long-running battle between the Von
Erichs and the Freebirds, which began on December 25, 1982 during
an NWA World Title match between Kerry Von Erich and champion
Ric Flair at Reunion Arena
in Dallas
.
After several of Flair's title defenses against Kerry ended in
controversy with the champion retaining the belt by various illegal
means (including an earlier match which involved a corrupt referee,
Alfred Neely), the promotion had finally booked a rematch between
the two in a steel cage to prevent any interference, and announced
a write-in poll in which fans could vote for the wrestler they
wanted to serve as special referee for the match. Freebird
Michael Hayes, whose popularity in
WCCW at that point was second only to the Von Erichs themselves,
was selected to officiate, and his tag team partner
Terry Gordy was at ringside to guard the cage
door. However, when Kerry refused to pin Flair following unwanted
interference on his behalf by Hayes, the Freebirds turned on Von
Erich, with Gordy slamming the door on Kerry's head. Backup referee
David Manning banished Hayes and Gordy to the dressing room, and
the match ended shortly thereafter, with Flair retaining the title
yet again as Manning stopped the match due to Kerry's inability to
continue the match. Shortly after,
Gary Hart left WCCW, due to money
issues with Von Erich; the Freebirds wanted to follow suit, but
Hart persuaded them to stay in WCCW.
A year later, Gordy would have his head slammed by the cage door
from Fritz Von Erich, in retaliation.
The Freebird-Von Erich rivalry was one of the most violent feuds in
modern-day wrestling history, and continued off-and-on for much of
the decade; Parsons, Adams,
"Gorgeous"
Jimmy Garvin and members of
Skandor
Akbar's Devastation Inc. stable were also involved in the
Freebird-Von Erich feud directly or indirectly during the course of
the angle. The official last match between the Freebirds and the
Von Erichs took place in April 1993 in Dallas.
Buddy Roberts vs. King Parsons
Buddy Roberts was also involved in several conflicts in 1983 with
"Iceman" King Parsons, including a match in which Roberts lost his
hair in a
hair vs hair match despite
winning the match. Parsons, who lost the match,
managed to grab the infamous
Freebird Hair Cream (used as
a plot device in earlier matches as a fictional hair remover) and
rub the contents onto Roberts' head.
This prompted Roberts to wear a wig and headgear to cover his bald
head, whose hair grew back in a time span of six months.
Jimmy Garvin vs. Chris Adams
A secondary feud was born between Jimmy Garvin, who had spent much
of 1983 feuding with
David Von
Erich, against England's Chris Adams. Adams faced Garvin for
the first time on August 26, 1983 at the Dallas Sportatorium, both
wrestling to a time-limit draw. Afterwards, both Garvin and Adams
exchanged insults, calling each other a
coward, with Adams
challenging Garvin to a title match on October 7, as Garvin was
about to face
David Von Erich (which
proved to be the last-ever match between Garvin and Von
Erich).
Prior to this, Adams was involved in a long angle against
The Mongol, which was ranked the third top angle
in the promotion behind Garvin vs. David and Freebirds vs Von
Erichs.
The angle reached new heights on October 21 when Adams disguised
himself as
The Masked Avenger and faced Garvin. Playing
possum, Adams surprised Garvin with some wrestling moves, and then
as he threw Garvin to the ropes, Chris superkicked him, which
stunned the Sportatorium crowd and announcer
Bill Mercer whose famously uttered
"a thrust
kick...HEY that looks like...here it is; 1, 2, 3; a
superkick". Afterwards, he unmasked to reveal himself as Chris
Adams, which proved to be a turning point in Adams' tenure in World
Class; elevating him from mid-card to main-event status.
Sunshine, who previously was
Garvin's valet, joined Adams' side two weeks later, and with
Sunshine in his corner, Adams defeated Garvin for the American
title on November 24 at Reunion Arena; the first of five NWA
American/World Class heavyweight title reigns for the British
star.
Adams and Garvin traded the American title on numerous occasions,
and engaged in mixed tag team matches involving Sunshine and
Precious.
It was said to be among the first mixed tag-team matches in modern
wrestling history, and would pave the way for future mixed tag team
matches, including one Adams promoted himself six years later
involving two of his ex-wives (Jeanie Clark and Toni Adams) and his
protege
Steve Austin.
The death of David Von Erich
On
February 10, 1984, at the height of the Von Erich-Freebird wars,
David Von Erich died from an
intestinal rupture caused by a stomach ailment just after arriving
in Japan
for a series
of appearances. Although Ric Flair asserted in
his autobiography that most people in
wrestling believe David died of a drug overdose, with
Bruiser Brody flushing pills down a hotel
toilet before the police arrived, David's autopsy report indicated
no drugs in his system and that his death was definitely caused by
acute enteritis. His death was front page news in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex, triggering an area-wide outpouring of shock and
grief among fans, and was the beginning of the Von Erichs' decline
and fall (and WCCW's as well, although attendance levels would
remain high for a time).
His death prompted a few changes in upcoming events. The February
10 non-televised card at the Dallas Sportatorium was to have
Kamala, The Missing Link and Jimmy Garvin face Chris Adams and
Kevin and Kerry Von Erich in the main event. Instead, Brian Adias
and King Parsons took Kevin and Kerry's places, and the trio of
Adams, Parsons and Adias defeated Kamala, Link and Garvin in an
emotional match for all involved. The February 13 card, featured
Marc Lowrance and David Manning in the ring alongside Sunshine,
Adams, Parsons, Adias, Junkyard Dog, Chief Jules Strongbow, Jimmy
Phillips, Bronko Lubich and Johnny Mantell as a ten-bell salute to
honor David Von Erich was carried out.
David's funeral took place two days later, and an estimated 5,000
people paid tribute to the fallen star; one of the largest funeral
gatherings to take place in the Metroplex at the time.
A February 18, 1984 telecast of
World Class Championship
Wrestling was dedicated exclusively to the life of David Von
Erich, with wrestlers
Michael
Hayes,
Jimmy Garvin,
Harley Race,
Chris Adams and
Ric Flair paying tribute to the fallen hero. Bill
Mercer and Mickey Grant also provided footage of David's earlier
times as a high school basketball standout and had an interview
with Fritz, Kevin and Kerry during the broadcast. The Von Erichs,
who took David's death extremely hard, did not compete again until
February 27, when they teamed with Adams to defeat Butch Reed,
Jimmy Garvin, Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy.
David had been seen by many in the NWA as potential World
Championship material. According to Ric Flair, David had indeed
been chosen by the NWA to become the World Heavyweight Champion and
Flair also stated in his autobiography
To Be The Man that
had David lived, he would have had the potential to be a long-term
NWA Champion.
On May 6,
1984, as a tribute to his late brother, Kerry Von Erich finally
defeated Ric Flair after a hard-fought 14-minute battle to win the
title at the first annual David Von Erich Memorial Parade of
Champions supercard held at Texas Stadium in Irving.
However, because Kerry already had a reputation within the industry
for being unreliable due to substance abuse, the NWA only allowed
him a brief title reign; he lost the belt back to Flair in
Yokosuka, Japan on May 24 (May 23 in the U.S.) in
another hard-fought match.
The match, which did not air on television initially, allowed World
Class to use an angle in which Flair cheated in the match, and
claimed the referee was a sumo official who did not understand the
rules of pro wrestling. The match, which Flair won with a clean
pinfall over Kerry, in fact was officiated by veteran
All Japan Pro Wrestling referee
Joe Higuchi, who found David Von Erich's
body the previous February, and was also the one who alerted
David Manning of his death.
Afterwards, the Freebirds left World Class in the summer of 1984,
and, except for a few appearances, did not return until December
1985. Jimmy Garvin and
Precious also
departed WCCW during this time to join the AWA.
Killer Khan vs. The Freebirds and The Von Erichs
An unusual three-way feud ensued during the summer of 1984
involving
Killer Khan, originally
brought in by the Freebirds in their quest to destroy the Von
Erichs, fighting the Freebirds and Von Erichs after Khan was bought
by the nasty General Skandor Akbar. During one match at the
Sportatorium, Michael Hayes and Kevin Von Erich took turns
attacking Khan, shoving each other away in the process.
Gino Hernandez & Nickla Roberts vs. Mike Von Erich &
Sunshine/Stella Mae French
One of the top angles of the summer of 1984 was a mixed feud
between Gino Hernandez & Nickla Roberts (aka Baby Doll, billed
as
Andrea The Lady Giant) against Mike Von Erich &
Stella Mae French. The angle reached new heights in the fall of
1984 when Sunshine, arriving on a helicopter at the Cotton Bowl,
interfered in a match, allowing French to pin Roberts. This angle,
which also involved Chris Adams, ended in 1985.
Chris Adams & Gino Hernandez vs. The Von Erichs
With The Freebirds out of the picture, and attempting other angles
that proved to be not as highly successful as the Freebirds-Von
Erichs wars, World Class decided to turn Chris Adams heel and start
a long and legendary war which lasted for over a year, and at the
same time, drawing revenues that exceeded the Freebirds-Von Erichs
angle. The new angle was developed by Adams, Gary Hart and Kevin
and Fritz Von Erich.
Gary Hart, who left World Class in early-1983 due to a dispute with
Fritz Von Erich over the booking of the Freebirds-Von Erich feud,
returned to World Class in August to scout the babyface talent,
including Adams, Iceman King Parsons, Brian Adias and others.
Towards the end of the month, Adams, who had returned from his
tenure in Los Angeles during the
1984 Summer Olympics, announced his
alliance with Hart, which resulted in some friction between Adams
and the babyfaces.
On September 28, 1984, Adams was paired with Kevin Von Erich
against Jake Roberts and Gino Hernandez, with Gary Hart and Stella
Mae French in Adams and Von Erich's corner. As the match wound
down, Hernandez had Adams in a high vertical suplex, with French
tripping Hernandez, causing Adams to land on Gino; however he
rolled over on top of Chris and pinned him. After the match, an
enraged Adams began arguing with French, with Hart and Kevin coming
in as peacemakers. Hart later abused Stella Mae, prompting Kevin to
shove him to the corner of the heels' side of the ring. Out of
nowhere, Adams blasted Kevin with a superkick, then walked away as
Roberts and Hernandez engaged in a two-on-one gangup, with French
being thrown out of the ring by Hart.
Oddly, two days after that incident, Chris teamed with brother
Kerry and defeated Killer Khan and the Missing Link in San Antonio.
Neither Kerry or Adams showed animosity towards each other to stay
on kayfabe terms since Adams' heel turn would not be seen on
television for at least another week.
On
October 27, Adams and Von Erich squared off at the Cotton
Bowl
, with Kevin winning the match, amid controversy
when Adams lifted his shoulder at the count of one, but referee
David Manning counted to three with Adams lifting his shoulder,
believing he was at the count of two. Afterwards, Kevin made
a deal with Chris: leave Gary Hart and go on his own and all would
be forgiven. Adams responded by attacking Kevin with a chair.
Unintentionally, Adams hit Kevin in the head hard enough for the
chair to break in half, causing Kevin some bleeding from the head
and resulting in his hospitalization for a few days. The Adams-Von
Erich feud had been set up in this way because Fritz Von Erich felt
that too many fans were siding with Adams, and after the Cotton
Bowl incident, Adams still heard cheers from some of the fans. A
month later, Kevin returned the favor by smashing a chair into
Adams' head after losing to him, and that resulted in Chris being
helped out of the arena with a minor concussion and nearly losing
his left eye when a piece of the wooden chair lodged onto his nose
after the chair shot, very dangerously close to his eye. The wooden
chair angle was quickly scrapped at Kevin and Chris' requests due
to the legitimate injuries both wrestlers sustained.
Adams eventually became World Class' biggest heel; yet at the same
time, as the feud with the Von Erichs progressed, he began facing
other heels, such as Ric Flair and members of Skandor Akbar's
army.
By 1985, Adams began tagging with Hernandez, forming the second and
most successful version of
The
Dynamic Duo (
Tully Blanchard and
Hernandez formed the original version). Towards the end of the
year, Adams and Hernandez used scissors (a gimmick that
Brutus Beefcake would use later on in the WWF) to
cut hair off opponents after each of their matches, and this
resulted in a Cotton Bowl showdown in October 1985, in which Kevin
and Kerry Von Erich defeated Adams and Hernandez in a
losers-lose-hair match. Adams and Hernandez eventually broke up and
began feuding, and faced each other in a
January 1986 match where the loser would have
his hair removed with Freebird Hair Cream (a gimmick previously
used in a
June 1983 match between
Iceman Parsons and Freebird
Buddy Roberts). Adams had the match won, but picked
Hernandez up twice to dish out more punishment, and while he was
arguing with referee Rick Hazzard, Hernandez grabbed the hair cream
and threw the contents in Adams' face, thus "blinding" him. Adams
won the match by DQ as a result. However, by the time this angle
aired on television a few days later, Hernandez was dead; his
death, which was revealed by an autopsy to be the result of a
cocaine overdose, ended any prospects of a
hot feud between the former partners. The Scotland Yard questioned
Adams regarding Hernandez's death, but no charges were ever filed
against him.
The original plan for the Adams-Hernandez feud was for Chris to
return to face Hernandez at the Texas Stadium card, and stretch the
feud out through much of 1986 with possibly Missy Hyatt and
Sunshine getting involved later on.
The Fantastics vs. The Midnight Express
This feud began in early-1985, and was centered around managers
Sunshine and
Jim Cornette over a
green jacket. Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton traded the tag
team titles a few times with Cornette's team of Bobby Eaton and
Dennis Condrey. The Midnight Express soon departed for Jim Crockett
Promotions and Rogers and Fulton soon wrestled Chris Adams and Gino
Hernandez several times.
Battle of the Superkicks
A brief yet high-profile angle between Chris Adams and
Great Kabuki was played out during the summer
of 1985 over which wrestler had the most lethal kick: Chris Adams
and his superkick or Kabuki and his thrust kick. Both wrestlers
displayed their martial arts talent in their matches, and during
one singles match at the Dallas Sportatorium, half of the crowd was
chanting for Adams, while the other half was chanting for Kabuki.
Both Adams and Kabuki would have sporadic matches, both singles and
tag team, through 1986.
Israel tour
In 1985,
World Class went on a major tour to the Middle East (including
Israel
). The
tour, which ran from August 3 through August 7, was held mostly in
Tel Aviv, and proved to be extremely successful, but was also the
start of another episode for the Adkisson family, as it was during
this tour that Mike Von Erich suffered a separated shoulder (in a
tag team match with Kevin against Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams)
that led to his near-fatal bout with
toxic shock syndrome following surgery.
In an ill-advised desperation move that would later infamously
backfire, Fritz brought in Pacific Northwest Wrestling Champion,
Kevin Vaughn as "cousin"
Lance Von
Erich to fill the gap while Mike was recovering. Fritz billed
Lance as the "son" of
Waldo Von
Erich, with whom Fritz tagged years earlier, but was not
related to Fritz in any way. Vaughn made his WCCW debut at the 1985
Cotton Bowl event. To this day, it was considered to be the worst
idea that Fritz came up with.
Among the main participants on the Israel tour included Kevin and
Mike Von Erich, Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, Iceman King Parsons,
Freebird Buddy Roberts, Scott Casey, Brian Adias, Rip Oliver, Kelly
Kiniski and Johnny Mantell.
Other notable angles
A then-unknown
Shawn Michaels
wrestled in a few matches in World Class, including one against
Billy Jack Haynes. Iceman King
Parsons was involved in several matches against Adams, as well as
members of Gary Hart's and Skandor Akbar's stables. During this
time, Michaels and
Scott Hall appeared in
opening matches, while backstage the two built their wrestling
skills courtesy of Chris Adams, who began working behind the scenes
as a trainer at that time.
The One Man Gang, Mark Lewin, Steve "Dr. Death" Williams, Rip
Oliver, John Tatum, Steve Casey, Tommy Montana, and DJ Peterson
also competed in World Class during 1985.
Independence
WCWA: 1986-1988
1986
On February 4, 1986, local authorities and friends of
Gino Hernandez- now one the company's major
stars- discovered him dead in his apartment. In addition, the NWA
President at the time,
Jim Crockett,
Jr., had also decided that he would no longer book the NWA
World Champion at the time, Ric Flair, to wrestle in the state of
Texas. World Class, still reeling over the death of
Gino Hernandez, withdrew its membership from
the NWA on February 20, 1986, became known as the
World
Class Wrestling Association, yet they retained the
World Class Championship Wrestling name for its
broadcasts. The NWA American Heavyweight Championship, which had
been the promotion's top championship for nearly 20 years, was
immediately renamed and declared it to be their "World" title and
Rick Rude, the holder of the American
Heavyweight Championship, was recognized as the promotion's first
World champion. While there is no official means of granting a
championship "World" title status in professional wrestling,
Pro Wrestling
Illustrated didn't recognize the championship's status as
a "World" title as it had with the
AWA,
NWA, and
WWF titles. It was rumored
that the NWA didn't want to give Kerry the title back, and the NWA
didn't recognize the faster pace of the sport. The new corporation
also gained a deal with ESPN to air a weekly show on the network as
well.
As a result of the NWA withdrawal, the WCWA also introduced a
title-change rule in which a champion could lose the belt on a
disqualification or a countout, much to the dismay of heel
wrestlers, who opt to DQ themselves to keep the championship (most
notably
Ric Flair). That rule had
previously been in place during the 1984
NWA World Heavyweight
Championship match between Flair and Kerry Von Erich, and had
been used sporadically before World Class seceded from the
NWA.
The Freebirds-Von Erich war reignited in late-1985, with Hayes,
Gordy and Roberts against Kevin, Kerry and Lance Von Erich; reborn
following a surprise gang-up on Kevin and Kerry during a match in
Fort Worth, with announcer Marc Lowrance exclaiming that
The
Devil has emerged when returning from the commercial break.
John Tatum and Missy Hyatt entered the promotion, and started a
feud with The Fantastics and Sunshine. Chris Adams returned in
April to do two house shows, and in May received a huge ovation
from the crowd at Texas Stadium in his first televised match since
the "blinding" angle. Chris did begin an angle with Rick Rude; but
not before becoming a full-fledged face. However, when the WCWA was
formed Fritz von Erich refused to book his shows outside of Dallas.
This move led to a disputes with Fritz von Erich and the company's
head booker Ken Mantell, who soon left the WCWA to become the head
booker for the newly formed
Universal Wrestling
Federation(UWF); Referee David Manning took Mantell's place.
After Mantell's depature in May of 1986, attendance for WCWA shows
began to drop greatly;along with Mantell, the new UWF was able to
lure away more WCWA talent as well.
During a May 26, 1986 six-man tag match in Fort Worth, Adams was
paired with Lance and Kevin Von Erich against Rick Rude, Kabuki and
the One Man Gang. It was the first time since September 30, 1984
that Adams was partnered with a Von Erich in any tag team match,
and there was still some tension between Kevin and Chris in the
early-going, but that eventually changed as the match progressed.
As the match wound down, the One Man Gang was about to launch a
major assault on Kevin with a chain. As Kabuki and Rude was
distracting referee Bronco Lubich, Adams entered the ring and
superkicked OMG, then rolled Kevin on top of him and alerted Lubich
that a pin was occurring in the ring. Lubich made the three-count
and Chris, Kevin and Lance won the match. After several minutes
with Chris and Kevin standing in the center of the ring, Kevin
extended his hand, and Chris shook it and the two embraced in the
center of the ring, signaling the end of World Class Championship
Wrestling's most storied feud. Adams also feuded with Tatum and
Hyatt, with Sunshine once again managing Chris.
Chris evidently continued wrestling against Rude on several
occasions, and in one match after a
Rude Awakening
neckbreaker, Chris "regained his eyesight." With the patch gone,
Chris became the number one contender to Rude's World Class
heavyweight title, and on July 4, 1986, he won it after a
hard-fought and bloody battle at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Adams won
with a small package when interference from Rude's manager
Percy Pringle backfired.
Over the course of the next three months, Chris defended the title
almost every week, against challengers like Rude, Kabuki, One Man
Gang, Blackjack Mulligan and others. In a non-title match at the
Dallas Sportatorium, he lost to the
Ultimate Warrior, who was then known as the
Dingo Warrior. In that match, Adams used a piledriver on the
Warrior, and somehow the force of the piledriver hit Adams' throat;
which had been hit earlier due to interference by manager Percy
Pringle during a pre-match altercation. Unable to continue, Adams
allowed the Warrior to pin him following a flying elbow. Chris gave
the Warrior a title shot, and narrowly defeated him. Adams also
faced Abdullah the Butcher in some matches, all of which ended
either in a countout or a DQ against Abdullah. Abdullah, Mulligan
and Bruiser Brody were involved in a three-way feud during that
time; while South African Steve Simpson joined World Class as an
ally of Adams and the Von Erichs.
Between
July and
September 1986, many of the top stars of
World Class, including Adams, Parsons, Hyatt, John Tatum, and the
Freebirds, defected to the
Universal
Wrestling Federation, following longtime WCCW booker
Ken Mantell, who had resigned and joined the UWF
after a falling-out with Fritz.
World
Class heavyweight champion Chris
Adams was forced to relinquish his championship on September
17, 1986; one day after being convicted of misdemeanor assault from
an incident on June 30, 1986 inflight between San Juan,
Puerto Rico
and Dallas.
According to testimony and accounts from the
Dallas Morning News, Adams, who was
under the influence, verbally assaulted a stewardess when he became
belligerent when it was announced that liquor sales would no longer
be available in flight. He later then head-butted an
American Airlines co-pilot before
Kevin Von Erich, who was also on the flight,
restrained Adams. He left World Class shortly thereafter and joined
Ken Mantell in the UWF, when it was told that Adams would lose the
belt to Black Bart on September 19 at the Dallas Sportatorium, a
decision that enraged Adams, then-booker Gary Hart and several
other wrestlers. Adams was sentenced on October 25 to 90 days in
jail and fined $500. He began his sentence on November 1.
Kevin Von Erich later defeated
Black Bart
for the World Class heavyweight title at the Cotton Bowl, and hold
that belt for nearly a year.
It was also at this point that Kerry Von Erich was involved in a
motorcycle
accident (June 4, 1986) and suffered injuries that later
worsened when he attempted to return to the ring too soon (an
attempt said by some observers to have taken place under heavy
pressure from Fritz) and would finally necessitate the amputation
of his right foot. As a result of this accident, the organization's
attendance dropped greatly. WCCW's fortunes declined further in
1986-87 with the Texas oil businesses entering a recession and
Mike Von Erich's health and substance
abuse problems and eventual suicide. As a result of these multiple
catastrophes, attendance in both Dallas and Fort Worth plummeted;
according to some former WCCW wrestlers, many fans became
disillusioned with the Von Erichs as the supposedly "clean-living"
brothers' drug use became harder to cover up, and they frequently
no-showed cards the promotion booked in smaller towns. Sportatorium
cards, which at the beginning of the year before drew well over
4,000 had dropped to less than 1,000 within a time span of six
months.
In an attempt to keep World Class hot, by means of running
long-term angles,
Brian Adias, who was
billed as the childhood friend of the Von Erichs (which is
legitimate, since Brian grew up with the Adkissons in Denton and
also went to high school with Kerry), began a storyline with them
by turning heel against
Mike Von
Erich during a match, then eventually began feuding with
Kevin Von Erich later on. This
angle, similar to the one used with Chris Adams in 1984, proved to
be unsuccessful, and pairing Adias with
Alberto Madril to form a newer version of
The Dynamic Duo (and even going so far as using Adams and
Hernandez's "Bad to the Bone" as their ring entrance music) made
matters worse. Adias lacked the charisma and talent that Adams had
during his feud with the Von Erichs, and Kevin and Mike dominated
this feud from start to finish. There was one high mark in that
feud, when Kevin passed out from concussion complications during an
eight-man tag team match. That incident was worked into an angle in
which Adias tried to end Von Erich's career by applying the
Oriental Spike, a finisher made famous by Terry Gordy. Madril often
drew the ire of the crowd by shouting in Spanish, sometimes using
obscene language. The Los Angeles native eventually turned babyface
and began feuding with Adias by 1987.
Late in the year, the promotion briefly added another show to its
lineup called Texas Championship Wrestling, which aired nationally
on the now defunct cable network
Tempo
Television, filling a void left by the folding of
USA All-Star Wrestling.
The new show retained
USA All-Star Wrestling's Steve Stack as
its host and was taped at Gilley's
Club in Pasadena,
Texas
, the site of its predecessor. The matches
and interviews on Texas Championship Wrestling did not acknowledge
the ongoing storylines taking place on the territory's other
current television shows.
1987
Between late-1986 and the latter part of 1987, World Class was
behind the UWF as the top promotion in Texas, but things were about
to change soon, which would include the return of many major World
Class stars by year's end.
In April, World Class suffered another death when
Mike Von Erich-who now was diagnosed with
toxic shock syndrome- was found
dead near Lake Lewisville, having committed suicide by overdosing
on
Placidyl. The upcoming Parade of
Champions card held in May was renamed in honor of both David and
Mike Von Erich. This event, which drew over 10,000 fans the
previous three years, drew less that amount for the 1987 event,
which featured Kevin Von Erich defending the World Class title
against
Nord The Barbarian, who in
actuality was a protege of Bruiser Brody's. To make matters worse,
the WWF had also reached the pinnacle of its success at
WrestleMania III, and began to gain more
national exposure. The Dallas Sportatorium received a facelift with
a new ring and red, yellow and blue ring ropes with a World Class
banner placed at Section D of the arena, with the American flag
moved to Section C. By now, attendance for WCCW shows was nearly
dead.
Gary Hart (who along with Brody were now World Class' main go-to
people) formed a new stable alongside wrestler/manager
Phil Apollo (who was then known as
Vince
Apollo) which included Brian Adias, Al Madril, and
Al Perez, who would eventually win the World Class
heavyweight title by August. Eric Embry, Frankie Lancaster, The
Rock & Roll RPMs (Mike Davis and Tommy Lane), and Jason
Sterling (the son of The Missing Link) also competed for a time in
World Class.
In
mid-1987, after the buyout of the UWF by Jim Crockett Promotions, Ken Mantell
launched his own Wild West
Wrestling promotion with the popular Fort Worth nightspot
Billy Bob's
Texas
as its homebase. Headlining for Mantell's
group were such former World Class stars as
Fabulous Lance (formerly Lance Von Erich, who
by then had walked out on Fritz in a dispute over money),
Wild Bill Irwin,
The
Missing Link,
Buddy Roberts,
Brian Adias,
Jack
Victory, Tatum and Parsons.
Bill
Mercer left World Class to become the ring announcer for
Wild West Wrestling. After only
a few months, Mantell agreed to return to WCCW as co-promoter with
Kevin and Kerry Von Erich, following Fritz's decision to sell out
his interest in the promotion; Wild West was absorbed into WCCW,
and most of its talent — with the notable exception of Fabulous
Lance, who was now considered
persona non grata by the Adkissons
after his abrupt departure earlier in the year — returned along
with Mantell. Wild West Wrestling continued programming by
presenting highlights of
Championship Sports through
1989.
Chris Adams, who stayed with the NWA following their buyout with
the UWF, abruptly left the NWA over a money dispute, and returned
to World Class soon thereafter. Upon returning, Adams worked an
angle with
Al Perez and manager Gary Hart,
engaging in several matches — including one in which he supposedly
won the World Class title following a victory over Perez. The
decision was reversed by referee John Keaton who was pushed into
Adams's superkick by Perez (backup ref Bronco Lubich made the
three-count when Adams surprised Perez with a sunset flip), thus
Keaton DQed Adams and Perez retained the championship, a match
which fans felt was a
Dusty Finish.
Adams also engaged in a brief feud with Brian Adias, mostly out of
the rights to use the ring entrance music
Bad to the Bone,
which Adias used, much to the objection of Adams, who was best
known for this ring entrance music with Gino Hernandez.
Kerry Von Erich also returned to World Class, wrestling with a
prosthetic foot, and during a November card at the Sportatorium, he
interfered in a match between his brother Kevin and Brian Adias.
Adias, who taunted Kerry to enter the ring, was discus-punched out
of the ring by Kerry, and then later Kerry and Kevin Von Erich
drop-kicked manager Percy Pringle out of the ring, which brought
the Sportatorium patrons to their feet. Kerry even bodyslammed
Ted Arcidi during the post-match
brawl.
Upon Ken Mantell's return, WCCW held its final
Christmas Day
Star Wars show, during which one of the most infamous
incidents in Texas wrestling history — known to wrestling purists
as the "Christmas Day Massacre" — occurred. WCWA champion
Al Perez and Kerry Von Erich were scheduled to face
each other in a steel cage main event for the title, with Gary Hart
handcuffed to Fritz to prevent interference. However, before the
match began,
Terry Gordy ran in and made
disparaging remarks about Kerry and his motorcycle accident, which
started a fight. Buddy Roberts, Iceman King Parsons and the late
Angel of Death stormed the ring and
handcuffed Fritz to the cage, delivering a furious beating while
Kerry was being ganged up by Gordy. Eventually Kevin stormed the
ring to save both Kerry and Fritz. After the attack, Fritz — who
was normally seen walking away from vicious attacks under his own
power — was assisted out of the ring by Kerry and Kevin. Upon
leaving the ring, Fritz staged a seizure by self-collapsing onto
the floor of Reunion Arena, and was supposedly rushed to a
hospital; local news media reported this as a top story, not
realizing until later that the entire incident had been a work.
Kerry, after an hour or so, returned to the ring to face Perez but
lost the match due to outside interference from Hart. The next day
on Championship Sports, announcer Marc Lowrance recapped the
incident throughout the course of the two-hour program.
Afterwards, World Class promoted the renewed Freebird-Von Erich
rivalry pitting Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts, King Parsons and The
Angel of Death against Kevin and Kerry Von Erich and Chris Adams,
with Steve or Shaun Simpson also helping to even the odds. The
unusual twist of this feud was the absence of
Michael Hayes, who was still in the
NWA, but would eventually return to World Class, as a face,
wrestling alongside the Von Erichs, starting a civil war between
Hayes, Roberts and Gordy. Gordy would eventually join Hayes and the
Von Erichs later on, but this occurred only weeks before the angle
ran its course.
One high mark in this renewed rivalry was a February 1988
country-whipping match between Kevin and Kerry against Gordy and
Roberts. Iceman King Parsons and Chris Adams got involved in the
match, and eventually turned into a six-man brawl. David Sheldon,
aka The Angel of Death, also got involved, and orchestrated a
four-on-two gangup on both Kerry and Adams with Kevin handcuffed to
the ring rope. Kevin managed to escape and chase Sheldon, Roberts,
Gordy and Parsons away.
Another was a planned match between Adams against Parsons, with
Kevin and Gordy seconding their respective partners. This event,
which occurred three weeks after the Christmas Day Massacre of
1987, turned into a four-on-two brawl, and eventually erupted into
a battle royale. Announcer Marc Lowrance exclaimed during the brawl
that 20 men were coming into the ring, which proved to be true as
wrestlers from the back tried to end the carnage.
1988
Another hot feud taking place during this period was Chris Adams
against both
Terry Taylor and Iceman
King Parsons, both of whom were brought into WCCW by Mantell.
Parsons and Adams resumed their feud that began in the UWF, while
Taylor came in during late-January 1988, duping everyone into
believing that he was a changed wrestler and wanted to tag-team
with Adams again, after a violent feud of their own.
This led to a
February 1988 angle at
the Sportatorium in which Taylor was to have faced Al Perez for the
WCWA World title. Adams came in wondering what Taylor was doing in
World Class, and then later went on a tirade against Perez,
demanding a title shot. Terry Gordy later came in and began
fighting with Adams, with Kerry Von Erich running in to help Adams.
With Gordy and Von Erich outside the ring, Taylor sucker-punched
Adams, then piledrived Adams twice in the ring with the second one
legitimately breaking Adams left hand. Chris was attempting to
block the second piledriver, and injured his hand in the process.
The Taylor-Perez match never took place, and was ruled a
no-contest. Adams missed at least six weeks of action as a result
of his injury.
The card itself, which featured the infamous country-whipping
match, had at least a half-dozen piledrivers performed in the ring;
including two by Taylor on Adams, another by Gordy on Kerry Von
Erich, and two from Kerry - one on Gordy and another on
Roberts.
In another strange angle, Adams wrestled Taylor while wearing a
catcher's mask, in order to protect Chris from legit injuries he
sustained during an earlier match in Missouri. Adams lost that
match by DQ when he hit Taylor with the mask.
Meanwhile, Kerry Von Erich won the World Class title from Perez;
and lost it to Iceman Parsons following an infamous incident during
a March 1988 card in which the lights at the Sportatorium went out
during the match, and when the lights returned, Kerry was down on
the mat, with Parsons pinning him. Michael Hayes, who was fighting
outside the ring with Buddy Roberts, was also down outside the
ring. Many wrestlers believed at one time that Kevin Vaughn,
formerly
Lance Von Erich, was
responsible for the lights being turned off which resulted in the
unknown attack on both Hayes and Kerry. Kerry regained the
championship the following May at the final Texas Stadium Parade of
Champions card.
In the summer of 1988, the major storyline pitted Michael Hayes and
Steve Cox against the Samoan
Swat Team, managed by Buddy Roberts. Chris Adams, Terry Gordy and
Terry Taylor all left World Class at that time (Adams would
eventually return towards the end of the year, as a wrestler,
promoter and trainer). Gary Hart also left World Class during this
time, and would not return to Dallas again until 1991 under the
Global Wrestling Federation banner. Hart's decision to stay away
from World Class (other than being under contract with the NWA) was
mostly due to his concern about the federation that he, Mercer and
Grant help build in a time span of eight years, go out of business
two years after leaving the federation, as he mentioned in the
Heroes of World Class DVD documentary, as well as not
liking the idea of Ken Mantell buying a portion of the company,
which he also revealed on the Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW
DVD.
Pro Wrestling USA (WCCW, CWA, AWA) 1987-1988
Several unsuccessful attempts had been made in 1987-88 to take
World Class national; among them was a sparsely-attended
Von
Erichs over America tour, and a merger between World Class,
the
AWA and
CWA the following year. A
major pay-per-view card,
AWA
SuperClash III, was held in Chicago in December 1988, featuring
a world title unification match in which
Jerry Lawler defeated Kerry Von Erich. However,
SuperClash III was not a hit, and Pro Wrestling USA was
dissolved.
The last years: 1989-1990
After SuperClash III, Ken Mantell and Fritz Von Erich sold WCCW to
CWA owner
Jerry Jarrett. According to
Skandor Akbar, Jarrett got sued by Kevin, although his brother
Kerry welcomed Jarrett to the promotion. The combined federation
became known as the
USWA. Jarrett would run
the new USWA out of two headquarters: one in Dallas (the weekly
shows in Fort Worth being discontinued at this point), the other in
Memphis. In addition, the Sportatorium began to run free wrestling
tapings for its
Championship Sports broadcast on KTVT and
for several months on its
Wild West Wrestling program,
which in some markets accompanied its
World Class Championship
Wrestling broadcasts, featuring its top stars wrestling
preliminary wrestlers and up-and-coming stars, very similar to the
Memphis Wrestling programs seen there. These broadcasts lasted
until
August 1990. A few markets,
including Las Vegas, included a three-hour block of wrestling from
the USWA promotion (two hours from Dallas and one hour from the
Memphis' CWA promotion).
For a time, the USWA Dallas promotion continued under the World
Class banner to build up a storyline in which
Eric Embry, who was now the group's booker and
lead babyface, was feuding with
Skandor
Akbar and his Devastation Inc. stable (which at this time
included a young
Mick Foley, billed as
Cactus Jack Manson) for control of the organization. Besides Foley,
Mark Calaway began his career as
The Punisher before his
Undertaker days (and
before that was known as
The Master of Pain), and a young
Steve Austin also began his
career during the Jarrett era.
Notable incidents
Among the famous incidents that occurred include Embry being hit
with a baseball bat by Akbar, Cactus Jack and Gary Young (in a mask
as
The Zodiac) during an April 1989 battle against Akbar;
both of whom were hiding under the Sportatorium ring for some three
hours.
Frank Dusek, who served as the
special referee, was also lit up with the baseball bat and
piledriven by Young during the melee. Afterwards, Embry induced
vomiting in the ring (which was censored on television). Prior to
that, another infamous angle occurred when Embry was fighting with
the Botswana Beast and Kamala; whose battle carried out into the
Sportatorium parking lot. Chris Adams and Jimmy Jack Funk then
carried a bloodied Embry out of the parking lot back into the arena
following that vicious attack.
Another angle involved the late referee Harold Harris. Harris, who
was using a British accent to make people believe he was from
England (prompting Frank Dusek to say that if Harris was from
England, then Chris Adams was
Paul
McCartney), drew controversy for favoring the heels, and on a
few occasions, like the WWE's
Danny Davis
and the NWA's
Teddy Long, Harris would
execute fast three-counts on the heels and slow three-counts on the
babyfaces. Harris was
fired by matchmaker
Frank Dusek following a controversial Texas
heavyweight title match in which Gary Young, dressed as
The
Super Zodiac, defeated Eric Embry for the title, due to
interference by Skandor Akbar.
Shortly afterwards, during an interview segment, Harris, Iceman
King Parsons, Brickhouse Brown and Skandor Akbar orchestrated a
four-on-one gangup on Dusek, with Harris smashing a wooden chair
over Dusek's head.
Marc Lowrance
exclaimed the incident as being
absolutely sickening, then
later said that he was told not to use those words. Lowrance,
outraged by the incident, later told Akbar to
kiss my ass
as the tag team match between Kerry Von Erich and Jeff Jarrett vs.
Mick Foley and Gary Young was about to begin; and even walked away
from the broadcast table while Akbar was conducting a tirade of his
own. Foley and Young won the match, again due to interference by
Akbar.
Tojo Yamamoto was then introduced as
the
President of World Class, who drew the ire of the fans
due to his lack of action for the Dusek incident, then later
getting involved in several altercations with various wrestlers,
including a vicious attack against Dusek in an empty
Sportatorium.
Lowrance was also physically restrained by P.Y. Chu-Hi (
Phil Hickerson) as manager
Tojo Yamamoto berated Lowrance. Embry came out
to save Lowrance from any further harm. Prior to that, Lowrance was
involved in heated confrontations against Yamamoto, including one
instance in which he called Yamamoto "a disgrace to wrestling and
to himself." At the end of that interview, an unusually angry
Lowrance said "go to black", signaling for a commercial
message.
With all of these aforementioned occurrences, everything came down
to a battle for control of World Class on August 4, 1989 at the
Dallas Sportatorium. Embry wrestled Hickerson in a
steel cage match,
with the winner gaining control of World Class (Embry representing
the USWA, and Hickerson representing WCCW). During the match,
Yamamoto shouted instructions at Hickerson, with Lowrance grabbing
the mike out of his hands on several occasions. Finally, after a
16-minute battle, Embry managed to small-package Hickerson and pin
him to win, thus officially changing World Class into the USWA.
This was necessary in reality due to the fact that the Adkissons
owned the World Class name, and would no longer allow Jerry Jarrett
to continue using the name any further after this event.
After the match, Embry and manager Percy Pringle walked to the D
section of the Sportatorium and tore the World Class Championship
Wrestling banner off of the wall (in the same spot where the
American flag once was displayed). Various wrestlers such as Matt
Borne then stomped and spit on it. Lowrance and Chris Adams, who
celebrated Embry's victory, did not partake in the post-match
festivities, showing respect to the Adkissons and the World Class
name, and neither Kevin or Kerry were on hand during the
celebration.
Other World Class banners, all owned by the Adkisson family, above
the Sportatorium were later removed, replaced with various World
flags. The red World Class ring aprons were removed months before
the August 4th card, all owned by the Adkissons.
USWA Dallas
The Dallas Sportatorium was refurbished with a new ring, and ring
aprons with the
Renegades Rampage logo. Section D also had
a large yellow banner promoting Renegades, which did not sit well
with some longtime patrons who were more used to the American flag
or the World Class banner displayed there. The main camera position
was also relocated to the Section D area, and the broadcast table
returned to its original position on the southern end of the arena.
For a time, a USWA wrestling banner was placed above the Section D
sign, but was later moved adjacent to the E and F sections of the
Sportatorium, or the east corner of the arena.
Its syndicated programs,
World Class Championship
Wrestling and
Wild West Wrestling were later renamed
USWA Challenge and
USWA Main Event respectively.
The latter program featured a main event of its Saturday
Championship Sports program, with the remainder of the
program featuring past World Class cards dating as far back as
late-1987. These two programs aired in this format until
1991.
Some of the hot feuds of the era included Chris Adams & Toni
Adams vs. Phil Hickerson & Tojo Yamamoto; Kerry Von Erich vs.
Tarras Bulba (with Kerry doing a stretcher job against Bulba,
pinned by Bulba's iron claw); and Eric Embry vs. Billy Travis.
Travis later feuded with Chris Adams, Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Von
Erich. Kerry later wrestled against
Mark
Calaway, who was known as
The Punisher at that time,
while Embry was involved in a
blinding angle (similar to
the angle used with Chris Adams nearly four years before) involving
a white bottle (which may have been Freebird Hair Cream) which
Travis used against Embry to blind him.
In fact, Billy Travis became the Sportatorium's biggest heel
wrestler who would often sing a line of various songs during
ringside interviews, heckle the crowd (a la
Gino Hernandez), and on several occasions
smash a wooden guitar over the head of several wrestlers. One
notable such incident occurred in October 1989 when he cold-cocked
Percy Pringle with a guitar during an interview, then claimed that
the guitar was given to him by
Mick
Jagger.
During one incident, Travis spanked
Toni
Adams in the center of the ring at the Sportatorium (a la
Sunshine six years before at the Dallas Fair Park Auditorium), with
Chris handcuffed on the ring rope; and in another infamous
incident, Travis cold-cocked Adams with a coke bottle over his
head, prompting announcer Marc Lowrance to announce that Adams
may be dead. Chris only received a minor cut on his scalp
and returned to wrestle the following day, even disguising himself
as another wrestler to gain revenge against Travis.
In
December 1989, Adams and Embry
began feuding. This was brought about during a tag team match in
which Embry began arguing with Toni Adams, who then shoved Toni to
the floor of the arena, prompting Adams to attack him. The angle,
developed by Embry and Adams, had two of the most popular wrestlers
in the promotion paired as a tag team, and arguments would ensue
following two significant losses; including a tag team tournament
match against Gary Young and Billy Travis. The angle brought mixed
reaction to the fans, and a grudge match was signed between the two
babyfaces. Most of the Sportatorium crowd sided with Adams during
the match, which ended in a double-disqualification. Afterwards,
Embry, left the promotion for a few months. He returned to wrestle
several matches in 1990, but disappeared again when the Adkissons
began to take more control towards the promotion. When Embry
returned in 1991 (after the demise of World Class), he reverted to
his heel status.
1990
Two major feuds erupted in 1990: one between Chris Adams and
"Stunning" Steve Austin (later "Stone Cold" Steve Austin), and the
other between Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne (later the first Doink
the Clown). The Adams-Austin feud started slow, but eventually
picked up huge heat thanks in part to good promoting by Adams, whom
decided to bring in former wife Jeanie Clarke (also known as Jeanie
Adams for a time, and later married to Austin) and then-current
wife Toni Adams into the feud; resulting in a mixed tag-team war
very similar to the Adams-Sunshine vs. Garvin-Precious battles of
the early 1980s.
The Kerry Von Erich-Matt Borne feud began in May 1990 when Borne
turned heel by attacking Chris Von Erich during an interview
segment at the Sportatorium. A week or so later, Borne and Von
Erich battled in a
pinfall counts anywhere in the building
match, which eventually continued outside the Sportatorium. During
the outside confrontation (in a thunderstorm, among other things),
Von Erich slammed Borne onto the hood of a parked vehicle and also
attempted to attack him with a piece of two-by-four. Minor damage
occurred with the vehicles, and the ensuing fight continued until
Chris Adams, Jeff Jarrett, and others broke up the brawl.
Promoter Max Andrews
suspended Kerry for his actions, but
no time frame was given as to how long he was suspended. This drew
the ire of Borne, who demanded the USWA forfeit Kerry's Texas
heavyweight belt. Instead, Kerry was reinstated days later as the
two battled for the belt, which Borne won thanks to interference by
Percy Pringle.
Pringle joined Borne in his feud with Kerry, until June 1990, when
Von Erich left for the WWF. Percy later joined Austin and Clarke in
their feud with Chris and Toni Adams, with
Chris Von Erich and at times
Kevin Von Erich getting involved.
Another feud that drew headlines was between "Hollywood" John Tatum
and Bill Dundee, with valet Tessa in the middle of the feud.
Originally brought in by Tatum, Tessa, like Sunshine years before,
turned face and joined Dundee's side. During a match against Tatum,
Kevin Von Erich, who beat Tatum,
swept Tessa off her feet and carried her into the dressing room
much to the dismay of Tatum.
During a
July 1990 match, Tatum knocked
Tessa unconscious following a superkick to the head, resulting in
Tessa being carried out on a stretcher. In that same event, Toni
Adams was carried out on a stretcher following a flying splash from
the top rope onto Toni on the concrete floor by Steve Austin, while
Toni was on top of her husband Chris, who was piledrived on the
concrete floor by Austin earlier, to protect him. These two
incidents resulted in a few stations canceling its
USWA
broadcasts due to its violent nature.
Under Jarrett, World Class/USWA Dallas was finally able to turn
itself around financially, and became modestly profitable during
the 1989-1990 period. However, because of a revenue dispute with
the Adkissons (who still owned 40 percent of the Dallas promotion),
Jarrett ultimately pulled the promotion out of Dallas in September
1990. Shortly before Jarrett's departure, KTVT dropped its
long-running Saturday night wrestling telecasts; according to some
reports, the cancellation was the result of frequent on-air
profanity (mostly used by Eric Embry), despite multiple warnings
from station management, as well as the controversial superkick
incident between Tatum and Tessa.
Kevin Von Erich, without the benefit
of television (as the result of KTVT's cancellation of Saturday
Night's
Championship Sports), the absence of his brother
Kerry (who was in the WWF as
The Texas Tornado), and
longtime World Class guru Gary Hart (who was under contract with
WCW at the time), began promoting Sportatorium wrestling himself,
bringing back the World Class Championship Wrestling name. Longtime
World Class mainstays Chris Adams, King Parsons, Kevin's brother
Chris Von Erich, Percy Pringle, John Tatum, David Sheldon, Stone
Cold Steve Austin, Jeanie Clarke and Toni Adams remained, while
wrestlers associated with the Memphis end of the USWA left. Steve
Simpson and Brian Adias also returned to the promotion, with a few
appearances by former WCCW referee David Manning. Initially, the
return of World Class proved to be a modest success (which included
the return of ring announcer
Marc
Lowrance and a few appearances by
Bill
Mercer), but financial sources ran out quickly and attendance
at the Sportatorium dropped considerably to as many as less than
500. As a result, on November 23, 1990, Von Erich held its last
World Class Championship Wrestling card at the Sportatorium, which
featured Kevin winning the Texas heavyweight championship from
David Sheldon (The Angel of Death) in
the card's final match. After that match, referee
Bronko Lubich announced his retirement from
the sport. Lubich would return a few times as a special referee
afterwards in the
Global
Wrestling Federation, with his last appearance in 1994. Lubich
died in 2007.
A month later, the USWA returned to the Sportatorium, but only for
a limited basis, as promoters
Max
Andrews,
Joe Pedicino,
Grey Pierson and
Bonnie Blackstone were getting their
Global Wrestling
Federation promotion ready to go for the summer of 1991. WCCW
veterans went on to compete in other promotions, including Gary
Hart's Texas All-Pro Wrestling group in North Dallas.
After the fall
Several attempts to revive WCCW since then have been modest at
best: in 1991, Kevin Von Erich began a working agreement with
Boston-based
International
Championship Wrestling, which renamed itself
International
World Class Championship Wrestling. During that brief time in
IWCCW, Kevin had a legendary interview in which
Tony Rumble, aka The Boston Bad Boy, made
derogatory remarks about Kevin and his brothers, after which Kevin
ran Rumble out of the interview studio. The following year, Kevin
began promoting a few scattered cards under the WCCW banner
(featuring Kerry, who had been released from the WWF, and Chris
Adams). Finally, in 1997,
Gary
Hart -- with no participation by either Kevin or Fritz --
launched a World Class-in-name-only independent promotion at the
Sportatorium. This organization, known as
World Class II: The
Next Generation, featured only a few of the surviving
wrestlers from the original WCCW group (most notably Chris Adams,
Iceman Parsons and Maniac Mike Davis), as well as Gary's son,
Chad Hart; it folded in less than a year.
That promotion was also co-owned by
Bill
Mercer and
Mickey Grant, and some
believe that Adams was also a silent partner in World Class II.
Adams, Mike Davis and Terry Gordy died in 2001, and the
Sportatorium, which stood since 1934, was demolished in 2003, but
not before Kevin Von Erich toured the damaged arena for the last
time, along with filmmaker Brian Harrison. Gary Hart died in
2008.
Kevin Von Erich released a
compilation DVD of classic Von Erichs matches in 2004. Rumors of an
impending
WWE buyout
of the WCCW video library began to spread on internet message
boards the following year, and on June 5, 2006, the company issued
a press release announcing that the purchase had been finalized.
WWE released a DVD entitled
The Triumph and Tragedy of World
Class Championship Wrestling on December 11, 2007.
A
documentary by Chicago
filmmaker Brian Harrison on WCCW and the Von
Erichs, Heroes of World Class, was released on DVD on
June 15, 2006, to rave
reviews from fans and critics alike. An updated "Director's
Cut" DVD of
Heroes of World Class, 30 minutes longer than
the original, was released in December 2006. The documentary
featured interviews from several of the key figures in World Class,
including Kevin, Mercer, Grant, Hart, Adams, Skandor Akbar, Marc
Lowrance, David Manning and Johnny Mantell.
On February 14, 2007, WWE 24/7 had the debut of WCCW on WWE 24/7
hosted by
Kevin Von Erich and
Michael "P.S." Hayes.
Performers
Alumni
Announcers
Referees
WCCW events
World Class titles
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