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Hot Air: Bill Mercer shares how wrestling television was done before WWE comes to town

Posted: Jan 24th 2015 By: Barry Horn - DallasNews.com

News that WWE is bringing its super-sized WrestleMania 32 to AT&T Stadium in April 2016 with hopes of attracting 100,000-plus paying customers, reminds that Dallas-Fort Worth was once home to World Class Championship Wrestling.

World Class was a more modest made-for-TV undertaking that broadcast taped bouts from the ?world-famous? Sportatorium just south of downtown Dallas.

For those who never had the pleasure of visiting the Sportatorium think of it as an oversized barn.

World Class on TV peaked in the early 1980s with Bill Mercer providing the weekly blow-by-blow for the endeavor, which was run by Fritz Von Erich. At one time the show was syndicated on 85 stations across the country as well as in 25 foreign countries.

Before wrestling, Mercer who also taught broadcasting at the University of North Texas, was the voice of the Cowboys and Rangers. At age 88 and on the precipice of his next birthday in February, Mercer, whose voice and delivery sounds as strong and precise as ever, lives in North Carolina. He is in Dallas this week visiting a daughter.

HA: How many cameras were used in your wrestling broadcast?

BM: ?We were the first to use hand-held cameras to cover wrestling. We had two guys with cameras running around the ring and one stationary camera.?

HA: Did you know the results of matches before they started?

BM: ?I didn?t want to know. I didn?t go to the meetings. They would ask why and I?d say I wanted to react to what I saw. I?d say that 99 percent of the time I didn?t know.?

HA: Did you ever suggest a storyline?

BM: ?I was once talking to Kevin Von Erich and suggested it would be good for the promotion if he lost a bout. The set up for next time would be awesome. He just stared at me. He didn?t answer. His face said it all ? ?What me lose? Never.??

HA: Who were your favorite wrestlers to interview?

BM: ?Kevin and David Von Erich. The other Von Erich kids were good but not as good. Bruiser Brody was a great one to work with. One of my best friends was Killer Karl Kox, who had an amazing ability to turn the crowd. Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin was a good bad guy.?

HA: What?s your favorite story?

BM: ?Once I was filming an interview with Moondog Mayne at a water park. I went to the top of a slide wearing a coat and tie to talk to him. Unscripted, he pushed me down the slide. They liked it so much, I had to go down the slide two more times so they could set up the camera to get me from different angles.?

HA: And another?

BM: ?Well, the Fabulous Freebirds always invited me to lunch and I would always go. And then they always made me pay. I never learned.?

HA: And one more?

BM: ?They billed Kamala as the ?Ugandan Giant.? We filmed a piece that was supposed to be from Africa. We were really in the weeds along the Trinity River. He accidentally pushed me down during the interview. Don?t you know he apologized to me every time I saw him after that.?

HA: Did you ever see real blood in the ring?

BM: One time Chris Adams accidentally hit Kevin Von Erich too hard with a chair and cracked his head open. That may have been the only time. It was an awesome amount of blood.?

HA: Have you had any recent wrestling experiences?

BM: ?I went to a wrestling signing last year in Charlotte. A dark-haired lady, who said she used to watch me all the time when she was growing up in Israel, asked me to sign a photo. That was nice.?

HA: How much money did you make for every show?

BM: ?It wasn?t much. I think it was between $100 and $150 a program. It seems like we were on 50 or 52 times a year. If you knew Fritz, you know I never got a raise.?

Click here for the rest of Barry Horn's Hot Air column.