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Commentary: The Von Erich brothers belong as Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Famers

Posted: Oct 30th 2023 By: Paul Wedding - WFAA.com

The brothers have struggled to meet the voter threshold in recent years — but, with their family's upcoming biopic, now might be their best shot at induction.

DALLAS — Dave Meltzer, the most prominent journalist in professional wrestling and editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, sent out the ballots for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame this year earlier this month.

For the unaware: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is considered by many in the industry to be the most legitimate hall of fame that wrestling has.

It's not like the WWE Hall of Fame, where each year's inductees list essentially boils down to the whims of the guy in charge. This hall is voted on by a large, international base of professional wrestlers, wrestling industry types, wrestling journalists and wrestling historians -- very similar, in fact, to the way the Baseball Hall of Fame's inductions are organized.

And this year, once again, the Von Erich brothers -- specifically, Kevin, Kerry and David Von Erich -- are on the ballot as a trio in the historical category, where wrestlers active prior to 30 years ago are placed.

Their father, Fritz Von Erich, was already inducted in the inaugural class of the hall in 1996, and deservedly so. But Fritz's three sons have struggled for years now to meet that minimum 60% of voter approval required to enter the hall.

But candidates almost always see an increase in votes whenever they are brought back into a spotlight during a voting year -- whether that be through a death, a book released about them or a movie about them is released. And the Von Erichs, as we've covered plenty in this space, have a huge movie coming out this December about the lives of their family that is already garnering Oscar buzz.

This year, and next year after the movie is released, will absolutely be the best shots the brothers have at ever being voted into the WON Hall of Fame.

It's now or never for them.

And they absolutely have a case that it should be now.

The criteria to be entered into the WON Hall of Fame as listed by Meltzer are “…a combination of drawing power, being a great in-ring performer or excelling in one’s field in pro wrestling, as well as having historical significance in a positive manner. A candidate should either have something to offer in all three categories, or be someone so outstanding in one or two of those categories that they deserve inclusion.”

One argument seen before is that the three Von Erich brothers as a trio do not have a long list of matches to their name. But just last year, the Villanos, a famous group of five brothers from Mexico, were inducted into the Hall of Fame, and the Villanos never wrestled a single match where all five of them teamed with each other. So the case for the brothers, it could be argued, extends far past just their matches as a trio.

Let's take a look, next, at the highest-drawing wrestling shows of the 1980s. If one were to believe the historical revisionism parroted by WWE executives, wrestling prior to the WWF in the 1980s was merely a carnival sideshow act -- something found in smoke-filled bar rooms, and not something that thousands upon thousands of people were invested in and would attend.

However, before the first WrestleMania was ever held, World Class Championship Wrestling -- the promotion promoted by and starring the Von Erichs -- drew more than 32,000 people to the Cotton Bowl at the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions on May 6, 1984. That was the fourth-highest attended wrestling event of the 1980s, drawing 31,132 people to be exact. It was the second-largest wrestling gate in U.S. history when it happened. And it was a show headlined by Kerry Von Erich defeating Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, a match in which his Kerry's brother David Von Erich was originally slated to compete in prior to his tragic death in February of that year. That show also featured Kevin Von Erich, along with his brother Mike Von Erich and his father, competing in a Six-Man Tag Team Title Match against the brothers' historic arch rivals, the Fabulous Freebirds. It was a show and a match built around celebrating the memory of David Von Erich, and fulfilling his dream of bringing that title to the Von Erich family. And it drew one of the largest crowds of the decade in doing so.

The fifth-highest attended wrestling event of the 1980s is also a WCCW show: The Cotton Bowl Extravaganza was held in the football stadium of the same name on Oct. 6, 1985, and headlined by two of the three candidates, Kevin and Kerry Von Erich, against Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez in a hair match. This drew another impressive attendance number, as well, with 30,214 people packing the Cotton Bowl to see the Von Erich brothers get their revenge and shave the heads of Adams and Hernandez.

Five months earlier, on May 5, 1985, WCCW drew 25,153 people to Texas Stadium for a show headlined by two matches -- the semi-main event featuring Kerry Von Erich against the One Man Gang, and the main event of Kevin Von Erich vs Ric Flair. This show, along with the two previously listed, make up three of the 20 highest-attended wrestling events of the 1980s. Aside from WWF, that's more than any other wrestling promotion of the 1980s can claim, and each of the houses were drawn by the Von Erich brothers as headliners.

Now let's look back on when the brothers were together as a trio, prior to February 1984. Because they were big draws before then as well. As many know, the territory was set ablaze when Freebird Terry Gordy slammed a steel cage door into Kerry Von Erich's head during a world title match against Ric Flair on Christmas Day in 1982 -- a show that drew about 18,000 people to Reunion Arena. (People used to go to wrestling shows on holidays! Those were the days...)

WCCW ran five major shows in 1983, all under their Star Wars branding, and four of them featured at least one Von Erich against the Fabulous Freebirds, two of them featuring the full compliment of Kevin, Kerry and David Von Erich against the Freebirds for the World Class Six-Man Tag Team Title. Both of those title matches main-evented the shows they headlined, filling the Tarrant County Convention Center with 12,000 people. The three other Star Wars shows took place in Reunion Arena in Dallas, with two drawing more than 19,000 people and another drawing 21,000 people -- a show featuring Kevin Von Erich challenging Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Kerry Von Erich teaming with Bruiser Brody against Freebirds Michael Hayes and Gordy in the main event.

David Von Erich's final Star Wars took place on Jan. 30, 1984, at the Tarrant County Convention Center, where he teamed with Kerry Von Erich against Hayes and Gordy on a show which drew 13,000 people.

Ric Flair himself says in his book that he and Kerry Von Erich's Christmas 1982 match drew the first $100,000 wrestling gate in Texas history. They worked together around the world as well, selling out in locations like Hawaii and Japan.

In D Magazine's historically-lauded Von Erich profile, they state that 200,000 households were tuning into WCCW's TV every single week in 1984. The Von Erichs would also wrestle in main events on shows in countries like Israel and Lebanon -- where they had large fanbases due to WCCW's weekly television show airing there, and even a Von Erich Fan Club in Israel. Their show aired in 60 markets across the world. In Chicago's Comiskey Park, 37,000 people were chanting Kerry Von Erich's name before his match even started the first time he ever worked in the city.

Aside from just drawing large attendance, the Von Erichs' six-man tag matches against the Freebirds were critically praised, even earning the WON's Match of the Year award in 1984 for the match between Kevin, Kerry and Mike Von Erich against the Freebirds at WCCW's July 4 Star Wars event in Fort Worth, which drew 12,721 people.

And as for significance, the Von Erichs, along with the Freebirds, showed that six-man tag matches could be a viable top-of-the card draw in wrestling in the '80s. WCCW's Six-Man Tag Team Championship matches would main event countless shows across the region in packed crowds, typically traded back and forth between the Von Erich Brothers and the Freebirds, and later on other villainous trios who would feud against the brothers. The only six-man tag team championship recorded as existing prior to the WCCW belt was the National Wrestling Alliance's, which had been deactivated since 1980 when WCCW's belt was created. It wasn't until July 1984, after WCCW had been selling out houses with the belts for a year and a half, that the NWA reintroduced the championship. And that trend would continue into the '90s as countless other wrestling promotions in the U.S. and Mexico would introduce their own version of the championship.

D Magazine's profile also brings up one signing at a mall in Mesquite, where nearly 15,000 people packed Town East Mall for a chance to meet the brothers. Think about that: 15,000 people, simply for a meet-and-greet!

There's very few wrestlers in history who could claim to draw near-fire hazard levels of people to them like that.

The wrestlers that could are already in the Hall of Fame.
The Von Erich brothers should join them.