The Triumph and Tragedy Of World Class Championship Wrestling DVD Review - March 3, 2008

I should point out that in my wrestling knowledge, World Class and AWA are probably my weaker points. AWA is definitely my most weak point with the U.S. wrestling scene as I never really followed it much as a kid. Plus, AWA was lousy by the time that I started watching wrestling. World Class is something that I watched randomly but never really focused on it as a kid. I remember watching it on ESPN though. I have learned more and more about it over the years but there is still a lot about WCCW that I am not as familiar with as I would like to be. I am familiar with the main points of the promotion from over the years. This was a very good documentary. I really enjoyed it and thought it was very well produced. If you remember, there were two different productions when it came to the ECW documentaries. There was the WWE produced Rise and Fall Of ECW DVD and then there was the other one produced that was called Forever Hardcore. You really need to watch both of those to get the full story as one will cover some things that the other doesn't. When it comes to the WWE produced World Class DVD, I am hearing that you really need to check out the non-WWE produced Heroes Of World Class documentary DVD that has been produced as well to get more of a full story of the history of World Class. I hear great things about Heroes Of World Class so I'd like to get that documentary as well. Lots of good interviews done for this WWE produced documentary including WCCW announcer Bill Mercer, Kevin Von Erich, The Freebirds (Hayes, Garvin, and Roberts all interviewed as a group), Gary Hart, Skandor Akbar, Bill Erwin, Triple H (who really is a wrestling historian with what he knows), and more. The DVD does a great job talking about how Fritz Von Erich helped build up the wrestling scene there in Texas. It really is incredible with how they would shoot those World Class shows with how many cameras that they had and where they set their mics up. They show a lot of behind the scenes footage of the crew working on the show. They also talk about how great of a job that they did of setting up the building to look like this amazing place while it was just this little average hot building. The Sportatorium is shown quite a bit and it's such a bummer that it is no longer there. I wish they could have gotten that saved as a landmark as there was a push to have it done. Akbar thought that they could have broke even on money in three years having it as a landmark. I was happy to see World Class get put over for being an innovator in the wrestling business and it seems that the only reason that it didn't get bigger was because Fritz didn't want it to. There was a lot of pressure on Fritz to travel nationally as the show was syndicated all over the place. However, Fritz was very tough on wanting to stay in Texas based on the NWA handshake of not invading other promotions areas. If he had decided to travel, there is no telling just how much bigger World Class could have been. The great Von Erich/Freebird feud is covered and lots of talk about how that really helped launch World Class into the next stratosphere. The rock n' roll effect was talked about with how Hayes would start coming to the ring with theme music. Kevin Von Erich said that it was a brilliant idea for him to do that and all of them started using music. Just a perfect marriage of music and wrestling. The DVD covers the deaths of David, Mike, Kerry, and Chris Von Erich. The pressure of being great really got to them after David passed away. Kevin is asked the question that I have been asking. How have you been able to deal with all this? He makes the comment about how he used to be a big brother and how he's not even a brother now. That was just sad to hear that. He said that he was able to make it based on his wife and kids as he had a great foundation around him. He did get out of wrestling though saying that it just wasn't fun anymore cause there was so many memories of his brothers everywhere that he went. Everyone involved with talking on the documentary agrees that they don't want World Class to be remembered for the tragedies but instead for the innovations that they started for the wrestling business. They show where Kerry won the NWA title at the David Von Erich Tribute show against Ric Flair. They really play it as a low key celebration cause of the situation and the feeling that Kerry only got it cause David wasn't there. David is said by many in the documentary as the best of the Von Erich family saying that the business would be very different if he had lived. Mike's serious health situation is covered along with his return to the ring. Talk turns to how things started getting bad for Kerry. They show his stuff against Lawler with the World Class/AWA Super Clash show and then focus on his WWF run in the early 90's as well. The documentary also focuses on how the fans started to thin out in the later years of World Class. The reason why seems to speculate on that fans just couldn't take the tragedy anymore and also that they felt they were being lied to. One story brought up is the Lance Von Erich deal where Fritz brought him in to be the new Von Erich saying that he was a cousin of the family. He wasn't a family member at all as the fans figured out and felt lied to about that. Also covered is the Fritz heart attack angle which just seemed like a terrible deal to me. Why would you want to tease that to your fans that have already dealt with so much tragedy already? Other things covered on the DVD include the talk about the triangle of Jimmy Garvin/Sunshine/Precious. That segment was really good stuff. I also didn't have a lot of knowledge on Gino Hernandez. I knew the name but didn't have a lot of knowledge on his career. They focus on his career and what led to his passing. Bruiser Brody is focused on in the documentary but they do not even mention his murder. The documentary doesn't do a major focus on what was going on storyline wise in the promotion in its last few years. A great extra on the DVD is the entire Badstreet USA music video. I loved that. I have not seen that music video in probably 20 years. Overall, this is a very good documentary but going in, you know it is going to be a sad one cause of the tragedy surrounding the Von Erichs. I recommend checking it out if you get the chance. I also say to pick up the other World Class documentary as well which I plan on doing. It was really nice to see World Class get a tribute of its great importance to the wrestling industry. I have been watching the weekly shows on WWE 24/7 of World Class and find this stuff to be tremendous. I am enjoying it probably more than the current wrestling product.