A man in a Puma tracksuit wears a kufi hat as he cuts a promo ringside about the two men in his stable. Both men are masked – one, the Magic Dragon, has a ponytail popping out of his headgear and does not speak. The other wears a tiger mask and when he speaks, has a British dialect. As the man in the tracksuit coaches his boys, the voices of little girls can be heard screaming with joy. Kerry Von Erich – sweaty and wearing a headband – emerges from a swarm of them as he’s led to the ring by a portly security guard and gives a few lucky ones a kiss on the cheek.
This right here is professional wrestling. And if the scene above catches your interest in any way, then World Class Championship Wrestling is a program for you. If it doesn’t, then I really have no idea how you found yourself at this blog, but I appreciate the visit.
As of this writing there are 29 World Class Championship Wrestling shows on the WWE Network. Most feature the legendary Von Erichs/Fabulous Freebirds feud, while a few are there due to having matches with the Dingo Warrior, who went on to become the Ultimate Warrior. With those two things in focus, the Network provides snapshots of Texas wrestling in late-1982 to April 1983 and the fall of 1986, as well as a few other random episodes. What follows are my random reflections after consuming all of this footage.
First of all, World Class is one of my favorite things in the WWE Network Vault. As with anything in the Vault, there’s the nostalgia factor, both for a portrait of a different time in the world, but also obviously a portrait of a different time in pro wrestling, a business which has to a point changed completely, and to another point stayed exactly the same. There are a lot of simple things in WCCW – good ol’ boy good guys and dickish bad guys, long wrestling holds, racist caricatures… in essence a lot of that is still here, though it has adapted as a reflection of our times – dickish good guys and good ol’ boy bad guys, longish wrestling holds, and only slightly racist caricatures.
But World Class has a few other things going for it besides being a sort of a historical document. First of all, there’s the history behind it. The story of the Von Erich family, as well as WCCW in general, is certainly one of the most tragic things in wrestling. It’s silly to lament about the potential of a wrestling company in relation to a family’s real-life tragedy, but you watch these shows before all the darkness hit and see a group that was ready to take on the world. WCCW was popular not just in the USA but due to some weird TV deals, even made it to Israel where these good ol’ boys became big time stars.
On the whole, and ignoring individual performances for a second, I had three big takeaways of what I liked: the sports-like feel, the crazy gimmicks, and the great crowd.
The sports-like feel is thanks to commentary from Bill Mercer, who originally really was a sports announcer. His voice brings an air of credibility to everything and makes you feel that the wackiness you’re seeing on screen is totally legit. He also does a few on-site pieces where he visits the man cave of the Freebirds and “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin in a hot tub (!), and goes duck hunting with the Von Erichs. It’s fun seeing this buttoned-up guy go hang out with all the wrasslers. He’s certainly in on the fun too, and it’s just cool to watch. Mark Lowrance as the ring announcer (and later commentator) is also super-serious and again brings credibility to the product. The theme song, the “major league of professional wrestling” tagline – it all feels legit.
Outside of the Von Erichs and the Freebirds, World Class provided some wacky shit. Great Kabuki and Kamala are the highlights of this. This is early Kamala and it’s a ton of fun – it’s all gimmick but they work some really fun angles and matches around him. Toru Yatsu, who had a more notable run in Japan as Yoshiaki Yatsu (a teammate of Jumbo Tsuruta), is on here a bit with an evil foreigner gimmick and they actually do a great job of making a Kamala vs. Yatsu a collision of unstoppable monsters. Great Kabuki is also a lot of fun – he was moving well at this point in his career and was pushed big as a scary freaky monster.
The crowd’s great too, un-ironically chanting for the Von Erich brothers and just totally fangirling over them. All the babyfaces are cheered and all the heels are booed and it’s just beautiful. Really makes the shows a fun watch. The crowds are hot for all the big stars, and since most shows take place in the Sportatorium, familiar with them. A lot of these matches are basic, but they don’t have to be anything more – the crowd is into this basic shit and it brings everything up a notch.
There aren’t a ton of blowaway great matches here but everything is just so simple and solid, and the stories and characters are tremendous. Most of the shows are headlined by a Von Erich vs. either a Freebird or a monster character, and that built-in story typically works.
David Von Erich is clearly the guy set up to be the star early on. The work is real solid and the promos are fire. I’m not sure if any of it works in this era, but he is a Texas boy through and through and works and talks just like it – big drawl, lots of holds, lots of winding back for punches. It also helps the crowd is just apeshit for him all the time.
Kerry Von Erich is way over as the teeny bopper star. You don’t get a ton of his best work on the WCCW footage on the WWE Network, though there is the classic cage match with Flair. The fundamentals are sound, the fire is big, and the looks are good, even though he seems a bit loopy about 50% of the time.
Of the footage here, I found Kevin Von Erich to be the soundest wrestler of the 3 main Von Erich brothers. He definitely didn’t have the star charisma David or Kerry did, but he’s super athletic and has a bunch of fun matches against big guys like Terry Gordy and King Kong Bundy.
The Fabulous Freebirds are why you watch this. The feud with the Von Erichs is legendary, and most of it is here – from Hayes and Gordy’s first appearances in WCCW and early face run, to the big heel turn, to a few Freebirds/Von Erich matches. Michael Hayes does legendary mic and crowd work, Buddy Roberts does tremendous heel shtick, and Terry Gordy brings the awesome big man wrestling – moving around well, bumping huge, and just being scary and fun to watch at the same time. The promos and on-site stuff they do here are tons of fun, even though half of it might be racist.
There’s a great example of the NWA territory system here, as NWA World Champ Ric Flair shows up once in a while with a bunch of great promos to feud with the top guys. At one point he has what’s billed as a “verbal confrontation” with Fritz von Erich and it’s amazing. There’s also the full cage match on WCCW 54, with Flair defending the NWA World Title against Kerry with Michael Hayes as referee, where Terry Gordy slams the cage door on Kerry’s head. Honestly, in real-time, the angle is a little wonky – it’s not super clear why Hayes is acting the way he’s acting, and doesn’t make enough sense to even be subtle. But the actual slamming of the door and everything that followed is epic stuff.
“Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin with Sunshine is all over these shows and I love the guy. His stuff in WCW a little later is better as you get more great promos, but the work here is really solid and he has a good match with David. They do a gimmick where he refuses to be filmed wrestling at the start of his run which is a bunch of fun.
All the random appearances on these shows is great. Early King Kong Bundy shows up and is heavily featured for a bit, Andre the Giant is on one of the shows, and Buzz Sawyer is on a few of the 1986 shows and is fucking awesome. There’s far too little of Gino Hernandez, who is my favorite wrestler I’ve only seen like 2 matches of.
The undercard has its’ charm, a rotating cast of characters. Arman Hussein is the guy in the kufi hat and is manager for all the lower card guys… Checkmate, Magic Dragon, Gran Markus II, Destroyer #1. All the legends! Brian Adias and Al Madril are solid if charismaless babyfaces who eventually turn heel later in the run. And Bugsy McGraw is a guy I’ve always liked for his timing and crowd work – at this stage he’s goofy babyface and it’s a hoot.
The later shows on the WWE Network are there for the Ultimate Warrior’s run as Dingo Warrior, where he’s managed by Percival Pringle III, who went on to become Paul Bearer. What a weird duo. Warrior always gets a bad rap for his skills and attitude, and it’s probably deserved, but man – this run is not bad at all. WCCW was able to work matches around him well in this environment, and he has a match with Rude that has to be up there with his best work ever (and is reviewed below).
WCCW definitely took a turn for the worse towards the later 80s, with a dark cloud just hanging over it, the crowd less hot, and the charming feel of the show going away. It also has a bunch of Lance Von Erich, the fake Von Erich brother, who got cheered for the name but really wasn’t any good. 1986 also has the Mighty Zulu who might be one of the worst wrestlers ever. There’s definitely a lot of weak squash matches on this run from guys they tried stuff with that didn’t work, like Jos LeDuc, Jeep Swenson and Spike Johnson, but they also remind you who the real stars are. And the stars are still OVER.
There’s also David Manning. As referee, he definitely puts the focus on himself more than many might be used to, but as the guy tasked with controlling all these crazy guys, I think the shtick worked
If you’re going to watch one show, I’d recommend WCCW 54 with the cage match for historical purposes. From a quality standpoint, WCCW 161 is great. It’s got One Man Gang squashing a young Shawn Michaels, an AMAZING Fantastics/Midnight Express match, and a very good Kerry Von Erich/Chris Adams brawl.
You can find detailed matchlists and recommendations on the WCCW page. Below are some quick reviews of a few highlighted matches.
Steel Cage Match – NWA World Heavyweight Title: Ric Flair [c] vs. Kerry Von Erich (Special Guest Referee: Michael Hayes) (WCCW 54 12/28/82) – This is one of the most legendary angles in pro wrestling as well as a very fun match. It’s not a classic or anything, but it’s a fun watch – it’s got your typically great Flair performance and a fired up babyface as a foil. Flair’s cage bumps are incredible, as is his bladejob. What’s special about this is everything surrounding the actual wrestling – it’s the only match on an hour-long and feels like such a huge deal, and the crowd is so amped for it and constantly buzzing. The angle is a little confusing with babyface referee Hayes acting like a weirdo, but once the cage door slams on Kerry’s head none of that really matters anyways. A must-watch angle for any wrestling fan that kicked off a real hot streak for WCCW, and a neat look at early 80s Flair doing his thing.
Lumberjack Match: David Von Erich, Kerry Von Erich & Kevin Von Erich vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts) (WCCW 61 2/26/83) – The clearest example of Von Erichs vs. Freebirds 6-man on the Network… just so much fun. The Von Erichs are all fired up and repping Texas, and the Freebirds are game to bump around for them like crazy. Lots of shine on the Von Erichs and the crowd is way into it.
American Heavyweight Title: Kevin Von Erich [c] vs. Terry Gordy w/ Michael Hayes (WCCW 69 4/12/83) – Gordy’s a big boy and Kevin’s the hometown hero but what stood out to me here as I was early in my World Class binge, is that they don’t really work this like Kevin’s some underdog – they just have themselves a back-and-forth fight with wrestling holds, and the crowd is going nuts the whole time. I love how Kevin milks every hold he puts on Gordy, like he has to work extra hard to keep this big fucker down. Gordy’s bump off a snake eyes Kevin hits is incredible… so expressive and impactful. This isn’t an amazing match or anything, but it’s a fun example of World Class and what each of these guys brought to the table.
WCCW American Tag Team Title: The Fantastics (Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton) [c] vs. The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton) w/ Jim Cornette (WCCW 161 1/11/85) – This match is so fucking great and the best pure in-ring match on the World Class section. Everything here is just such solid tag team wrestling… the Midnight Express is reliably good, but the Fantastics are god damn all-stars. The crowd adores Rogers and Fulton, who have so much fire and are great doing all kinds of subtle fired up babyface things, just milking every spot they do. At one point they get the Midnights out of the ring and high five each other and it just makes me so happy. Everything here is so damn smooth too, and there’s just heaps of awesome good guy outsmarting bad guy spots that are performed perfectly. Bobby Fulton gets the beatdown here and sells tremendously, and the hot tag pop is fucking WILD.
Kerry Von Erich vs. “Gentleman” Chris Adams w/ Gary Hart (WCCW 161 1/11/85) – This happens on the same show as the tag match and makes for a great pairing. Whereas that was a great straight tag match, this is a really fun brawl. Beyond a long chinlock spot, it’s basically a non-stop fight. Towards the end Adams does a tope and keeps punching on Kerry, and then goes back in the ring and does a handspring flip like the cock he is. Gary Hart, balding and wearing a checker-print sweater over a collared shirt, coaching Adams from the outside is a lot of fun too.
Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher w/ Gary Hart (WCCW 243 8/8/86) – A classic Brody/Abby spectacle brawl… it’s not pretty but it’s damn fun. Abby’s bleeding like 10 seconds in, Brody’s bleeding huge soon after that, and they just hit each other a whole lot and it’s kind of awesome. Brody sells HUGE for all of Abby’s offense, and they eventually go into the crowd where it becomes a damn war that ends with Brody choking Abby with a 2×4, then Abby beating Bruiser over the head with it.
“Ravishing” Rick Rood w/ Pericival Pringle III vs. The Dingo Warrior w/ Gary Hart (WCCW 244 8/22/86) – These two had more famous matches in the WWF, but this right here is kind of incredible. This thing goes 15 minutes, is 90% stalling and reaction, and it’s amazing. Warrior power spots, Rude stalling, and they even get down on the mat and arm wrestle at one point. Just a master class in shtick and getting a lot out of nothing.
