Heroes of World Class

Reviews, Wrestling DVDs

The SmarK DVD Rant for Heroes of World Class: The Director’s Cut

– So a couple of days ago I did the WWE-ized version of the Von Erich story, and now here’s a more objective look at it…

Disc One

– We start with an introduction to Fritz and his sons, via Kevin (who looks like HELL without the magic of WWE makeup).

– Gary Hart explains how "booking offices" worked and Bill Mercer talks about the primitive camera work on the original Big Time Wrestling shows, as everything was "wide shot, medium shot" and the wide camera was unmanned. The claims here of 14.0 ratings against Saturday Night Live are a little dubious.

– So with the Christian Broadcasting Network looking for a new show that could draw a 5.0 rating, Mickey Grant pitches a second World Class show, using the new handheld cameras and young stars, and that becomes the Sportatorium show. Mickey took ideas from his days working with Don King, which resulted in microphones EVERYWHERE.

– Gary Hart talks about infusing new talent into the promotion, because you can’t make a fresh start with guys that have been there forever. So simple, and yet so many don’t get it. He provides an introduction to the Von Erich boys. Kevin revitalized Dallas wrestling, David went around the world and made a name for himself that way, and Kerry was like some sort of Greek god come to life.

– So we meet Chris Adams and Jimmy Garvin via their feud, as Garvin is ducking Adams so Chris dresses as a jobber called "The Masked Avenger" and beats him clean. That’s another classic angle.

– This leads to a discussion of how they needed strong villains to oppose the strong babyfaces, which leads to the Fabulous Freebirds. And then Gordy slammed the cage door on Kerry’s head and things went crazy. Better still for Fritz, he was producing shows for $5000 and making millions off syndication fees. There are claims made that World Class was drawing higher ratings in New York than WWF shows, which I’d be dubious about.

– Gary talks about how the NWA World champion would come in and get 13% of the gross, but in Flair’s case he was worth every penny.

– Back to Von Erichs v. Freebirds, which brings Bruiser Brody into the territory as a Von Erich ally.

– We get some classic footage of the early Star Wars shows, with Fritz’s logic for holding them on Christmas day: Once you open the presents in the morning, what else is there to do? And damned if he wasn’t right. Great footage of Gordy v. Kevin, Kerry v. Hayes, David v. Kamala. In particular the cage match with Kerry v. Hayes, featuring Fritz slamming the door on Gordy’s head, is a great callback for the fans.

– A discussion of vignettes leads to the Garvin-on-the-farm video.

– But then things get depressing, as February 84 brings the death of David Von Erich. David Manning’s story about reporting the news to Fritz, and Fritz’s blunt "Which one?" reaction, is powerful stuff. Again, they detail the enteritis story, although pretty much everyone else in the business calls it a drug overdose.

– The week following his death gave us the first Dead Wrestler Tribute Show, with wrestlers breaking kayfabe to pay respects to David. David Manning again relates an amazing story about motorcycle police stopping traffic on the highway to allow the funeral procession through. Great use of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s "Life By the Drop" here, a tragic song about life cut short in itself.

– But life goes on, and Fritz promotes a show at the stadium and Kerry wins the World title as a proxy for his brother.

– With David dead, they bring Killer Khan in and turn the Freebirds face, setting off a strange and yet still hot three-way feud with Freebirds v. Von Erichs v. Devastation Inc.

– Things continue to change, as Chris Adams turns heel, and Gino Hernandez comes in to form the Dynamic Duo, as the perfect foils for the family-oriented Von Erichs.

– The next tragedy strikes as Mike gets toxic shock syndrome after a shoulder injury, and the doctors tell the Von Erich family to say goodbye, but he lives…with brain damage. On the bright side, he won the PWI "Inspirational Wrestler of the Year" award for it. However, even worse, Ricky Vaughn gets cast as Von Erich nephew Lance Von Erich to fill the void.

– Death strikes again as Gino Hernandez is found dead, and this time there’s no doubt that the cause is drug overdose. Whether it was suicide or murder, however, remains a topic of debate. Gary Hart’s description of Gino’s sugar bowl full of coke sounds like something out of Scarface. Gino’s description of himself to Gary, as he said he was like a dog who had all he can take, but not all he wanted, can fit a lot of guys in the business. And many of them are dead, too.

– 1986: The NWA goes national, so World Class pulls out with the goal of competing with the Big Two. After a couple of lame duck champions, they put their World title on Kevin Von Erich. Things look huge, but Fritz doesn’t have the global vision and they’d run big arenas and sell out, but then wouldn’t come back, as Fritz still had tunnel vision and chose to stay in Dallas. Because the wrestlers moved onto the big time and Fritz wouldn’t move with them, viewers watched TBS or the WWF instead, because they were getting the stars they saw in WCCW and didn’t care which show they were on.

– The downfall begins as Kerry Von Erich nearly dies in a motorcycle accident, kicking off one of the biggest secrets of wrestling as Kerry wrestles with a prosthetic foot for the rest of his career.

– With ratings falling fast, Mike can’t take the pressure any longer and kills himself. By this time, the memorial show only draws 5000 people to the Texas stadium. Fritz leaves the business in 1988 and a series of money marks try to step in and follow him, ending with the disastrous merge with the AWA and Kevin selling the promotion to Jerry Jarrett.

– More ugliness as they tell the story of Bruiser Brody’s death and Chris’s suicide. Kerry’s suicide floors everyone, because he was supposed to be the strong one. Fritz, diagnosed with brain cancer, tells Kevin that he would have killed himself too if he’d had the guts, although Kevin writes that off as the disease talking. That’s a pretty awful thing to say whether you’re sick or not.

– The death toll continues as Chris Adams’ life falls apart and he’s murdered by his roommate after a night of drinking. They follow with a listing of the 18 wrestlers to die since joining the promotion, and it’s almost too much to take in one shot.

– 2003: The Sportatorium, falling apart and scheduled for demolition, gets toured by Kevin Von Erich and the film crew one last time. I think the saddest part is where Kevin describes how he won the World title for the first time and wrote a celebratory note on the wall, but then finds that it’s been painted over. Kevin notes that you shouldn’t feel sorry for him, because yeah it had a bad ending, but he had a great time along the way. You have to respect someone with that kind of head on his shoulders. But man, that shot of the hole in the ground where the ring used to be is almost harder to take than the dead wrestlers.

– Man, that last hour was just gut-wrenching stuff. If you’re any kind of a fan from that era, this is a really tough documentary to sit through by the end, which I think makes it all the greater.

Extras

The first disc features another 24 minutes of deleted scenes, including an alternate opening just called "Heroes", The Von Erichs taking Bill Mercer on a hunting trip on their ranch, more on the Freebirds v. Von Erichs feud, and other stuff that would have dragged the documentary on too long.

Disc Two

More bonus content here, featuring…

– Twenty minutes of a Jim Cornette ROH shoot interview, as he talks about his experiences in World Class.

– A two hour (!) audio interview with Wade Keller and Bruce Mitchell about World Class.

– A ninety minute audio interview with director Brian Harrison and Bill Mercer.

– And finally, about ten minutes of trailers for various Big Vision DVDs, like this one and an unintentionally hilarious one for Vince Russo’s Ring of Glory promotion.

I seriously don’t think many people are going to sit down and listen to the crazy amount of audio content on the second disc, but it’s great to have that option.

If only they could combine the heart-breaking documentary presented here with the WWE’s production values and match library, it would be a perfect look at the promotion. As it stands, both are imperfect for different reasons, but since the match selection on the WWE one is so disappointing and we’re basically comparing documentaries, this one wins hands-down. It’s raw and ugly at times, but Heroes of World Class really gives you the perspective of the people who were part of the good and bad times and what they feel about it, while the WWE one just feels too polished-over and buffed-up for easy consumption at times.

I don’t think it’s the best wrestling documentary ever (that honor still goes to Wrestling With Shadows for my money) but it’s damn close and it’s well worth picking up. Strongly recommended.