This Should be Required Viewing for All Professional Wrestlers

This should be required viewing for ALL professional wrestlers.

It's an interview with longtime wrestling manager Jim Cornette on the downfall of the Von Erich wrestling family and the Texas-based World Class Championship Wresting (WCCW) organization, which the Von Erich family owned.




You may have to turn up the volume to hear the questions.

For those who do not know the story of the Von Erichs, they were a dynasty in the wrestling world through the late 1950s (when Fritz Von Erich got into wrestling) until 1993. Fritz had five wrestling sons: David, Kevin, Kerry, Mike and Chris Von Erich. Their popularity in the Dallas/Fort Worth area was even higher than that of Hulk Hogan in those days.

Things started happening in 1984, when David died at age 25 under highly suspicious circumstances while wrestling in Japan. Wrestler Ric Flair said that it was an accidental drug overdose. Then Mike committed suicide via drug overdose at age 33 in 1987. Chris killed himself at age 21 in 1991. Then Kerry, age 33, the most well known of the Von Erichs, killed himself in 1993 after being busted for drug possession. Four of the five sons were dead; Fritz's wife blamed him for not doing more to save his family (many fans agreed with her) and left him; he died in 1997. Kevin retired from wrestling and never returned to it.

WCCW collapsed in 1990, which was the main point of this interview with Jim Cornette.

The deaths of the Von Erich brothers is considered a turning point in "wrestling world" history and the starting point of all the premature wrestler deaths due to drugs, though there were other deaths prior to the downfall of the Von Erichs. But due to their popularity and the impact this had on the wrestling world, it is widely considered to be the start of the drug problem of wrestling.

You'll notice that many in the media start their wrestler death counts in 1984, when David Von Erich died.

According to Cornette, WCCW died because the Von Erichs were considered superheroes; when their personal issues and drug abuse problems made headlines, people began deserting the organization. When Kerry Von Erich beat Ric Flair in Texas Stadium in 1985 for the NWA world title, some 40,000 fans packed the stadium. Shortly before it went under in 1990, it was drawing under 500 people to some venues.

Cornette gives some great advice to wrestlers of today.