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The Son Who Carried His Father's Mask Into The Von Erich War

Posted: Nov 3rd 2026 By: Furony Cartin

A borrowed name. That's what Stephan Simpson stepped into the ring with in 1984, because his father had already proven it worked. Alec Simpson had wrestled for years under the name Sammy Cohen, and when his son laced up his boots, the family legacy came with the territory, literally.

Steve Simpson's first real taste of success came in the Pacific Northwest, where he teamed with Joe Savoldi as the S&S Express and walked away with the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Titles. He then took his talents to Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council, learning the business in rings far from home, in a sport where South African wrestlers were still a rarity on American soil.

Then came Texas.

In 1986, Simpson arrived in World Class Championship Wrestling and found himself pulled into one of the most personal wars professional wrestling had ever staged, the Von Erich family against the Fabulous Freebirds. He aligned himself with the Von Erichs, a family already carrying more grief than any family should have to bear. A year later, his brother Shaun joined him, and the two formed a tag team that captured the WCWA World Tag Team Championship together.

That was not just a storyline alliance. It was two brothers, far from South Africa, standing beside a Texas family that was losing sons one tragedy at a time.

Their feud against John Tatum and Jack Victory became the backbone of their WCWA run, and for a stretch, the Simpson brothers were central figures in a promotion defined by raw emotion and real loss. A third brother, Stuart, even stepped into the ring with them briefly, making it a genuine family operation inside a company built on family bonds and family wounds. Steve also found his way into the WCWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship alongside Chris Adams and Kevin Von Erich himself, a title win that placed him directly inside the circle of a family whose story would later become legend for all the wrong reasons.

By late 1989, Steve and Shaun left WCCW for South Africa, stepping away from the spotlight that had made them. But Steve wasn't finished. In 1991, he returned to American wrestling with the newly formed Global Wrestling Federation in Texas, managed by Percy Pringle III, the man who would later become known worldwide as Paul Bearer. Teaming with Chris Walker, Simpson won a tournament to become the first-ever GWF Tag Team Champions, defeating Rip Rogers and Scott Anthony of The Cartel in the process.

From there, his path kept widening. In 1993, he wrestled in Japan for promotions like Wing and Network of Wrestling, carrying his craft across oceans the way his father once carried a stage name across generations. By 1994, he was back home in South Africa, closing out his in-ring career there before retiring in 1998.

What stays with you, looking back at Simpson's career, is how much of it was built on loyalty. Loyalty to a family tag team with his brothers. Loyalty to the Von Erichs during their darkest chapter. Loyalty to a business that took him from Oregon to Puerto Rico to Texas to Tokyo and back home again.

Few fans outside of hardcore collectors remember that Steve Simpson once stood in the same corner as Kevin Von Erich, holding championship gold during a period when the Von Erich name was synonymous with both greatness and heartbreak. Fewer still know that his own family, three brothers deep, built a wrestling dynasty that stretched from Johannesburg to Dallas.

Steve Simpson never needed the loudest gimmick or the biggest headline. He needed a ring, his brothers, and a willingness to travel farther than most wrestlers of his era dared.

That was enough to leave his name stitched permanently into the Von Erich story, and into the memory of everyone who watched two South African brothers hold their own in the heart of Texas wrestling's most emotional era.